Draft:Neokayfabe draft

Neokayfabe is extended from "kayfabe" as previously used in regard to professional wrestling. Neokayfabe (sometimes spelled neo-kayfabe) is a structured system of lying to project the illusion that pro wrestling is "real", and is the cultivation of gullibility and unquestioning belief in the wrestling audience, even though it has been publicly revealed that pro wrestling is scripted and fake.

The techniques of neokayfabe have been extended into Republican politics by Donald Trump, who is a member of the pro wrestling W.W.E. Hall of Fame. ,

Trump's use of neokayfabe techniques reached a peak in his unsupported "Big Lie" of 2020, and after, that the Democrats mysteriously somehow cheated to steal the 2020 presidential election from him.

Among the audience of neokayfabe, ignorant rubes accept the projected neokayfabe at face value. Those in the know acquiesce to the neokayfabe and exercise a willing suspension of disbelief, and by so doing keep the rubes suckered into belief. The result is a sense of community and enthusiasm among the crowd, and of participating in something grand, something larger and more important than the individual, giving advantage to the liars and contributing to the pleasure of the crowd.

Skeptics who don't know about kayfabe and neokayfabe see the lies but don't understand the structured nature of the lying, nor the sense of community engendered among the crowd.

The word "neokayfabe" is used as a noun, an intransitive verb, and a transitive verb.

For a fuller discussion see the February 26, 2023 NY Times article by Abraham Josephine Riesman also archived at

Riesman's 2023 article concludes that neokayfabe "turns the world into a hall of mirrors from which it is nearly impossible to escape. It rots the mind and eats the soul. And yet, we cannot return to the world of old kayfabe, either — we know too much. Perhaps the only antidote to neokayfabe is radical honesty. It’s less fun, but it tends to do less material harm, in the long run."