Trump, Pro Wrestling and Election 2020

When I was in grade school I used to believe that professional wrestling was real. All the feuds, good and bad people, the guy from Russia, all of that was real. I think my belief in professional wrestling outlasted my belief in Santa Claus by a year or two, probably because I never saw a professional wrestler in real life. But eventually I outgrew this belief.

Comes today an interesting twitter thread about how Trump's post-election gyrations are lifted out of professional wrestling. (At the thread, one is reminded that Trump was actively involved in the "sport" for years.)

Here's a key Tweet from the thread. Professional wrestling is an industry of grift. It's about open and closed systems of power and knowledge. It is divided between "smarts," people who understand the grift and "marks," people who are being manipulated. Also from the thread, I learn that a "work" is the term for the organized scam, while a "shoot" is something that is real.

I see that Maximal Leader of the Sad Puppies Larry Correia is arguing that the statistics prove fraud while Wily Coyote, International SuperGenius At Large has three posts up today on the same point (although to be fair one of them is just a retread of Correia's rantings). I'm sure there are more, but I just can't be arsed to go look for them.

So here's my question - are the leaders of the Sad Puppies Smarts or Marks? I report, you decide.