If we’re lucky in the Opinion section, we work through our beliefs completely and support them with great arguments. But sometimes, we don’t need a deeper reason to hold our convictions. Rapid Fire is for those tweet-length takes that can be explained in just a sentence or two — no more justification needed.
In this Rapid Fire, writers gave their opinions on the question: How will the Trump campaign capitalize off of the Fulton County jail mugshot?
Nell Srinath, Opinion Editor: They’ve already succeeded. The line in the sand between memes and reality has been trampled by the pounding feet of social media culture. Ridicule is now to legitimacy what gasoline is to fire. We must consider the implications of normalizing the face of renewed American fascism before it’s too late. I also expect it to show up in a horribly distasteful homage to Notorious B.I.G. à la Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
Dan Stark, Associate Opinion Editor: Being the business genius that he is, Trump will make NFTs of his mugshot. This will result in a profit worth millions of dollars and the revival of the NFT industry.
Adam Barker, Contributor: One of the first things I said after I saw the mugshot was, “Wow. He’s really mean-mugging that camera.” Someone at the Trump campaign must’ve thought the same because they’re selling mugs with the photo captioned “NEVER SURRENDER!” Of course, the Trump wing of the party, ever obsessed with being the victim of a plot, has embraced the mugshot, and the campaign will advertise it as a symbol of his holiness’ martyrdom.
