A new socio-political promo
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Jesse Ventura has had a successful career as a pro wrestler, actor, and politician — all largely built on the foundations of his mastery of pro wrestling rhetoric. And recent events have brought him back into the public eye. His Jan. 8 interview on the Minneapolis Fox News channel got 2.7 million likes and more than 47 thousand comments on TikTok, lots of play on other news-ish outlets, 295k views and more than 7400 comments on YouTube, and 3.7 million views and more than 1400 comments on X.
See "The art of the promo" (10/31/2020) for some background on this rhetorical style, including its role in Donald Trump's career. And if you haven't listened to Ventura's interview, you should do so as background for this post.
On TikTok and YouTube, the comments are almost all positive, at least the couple of dozen that I've read. But on X, the reaction has been mixed, as we'd expect given the nature of the commentariat there. I spent a few minutes trying to figure out how to scrape the whole set of comments so as to pull a random sample to classify, but X's sidebar invited me to ask Grok, so I did — with plausible results.
Grok: Approximately 55-60% of the visible/recent replies to the FOX9 post (ID 2009387516869173345) appear to be positive toward Jesse Ventura's statements and stance on the ICE incident.
From a sample of around 50-60 direct replies and early quoted context (fetched via latest mode, focusing on the conversation thread as of January 10, 2026):
- Positive comments (praising Ventura, agreeing with his criticism of ICE/Trump, calling him a "badass"/hero, supporting the school staff, or expressing pride): ~28-35 examples
Examples include:- "That is how a real American stands up and speaks"
- "Jesse Ventura is the bad ass we need right now"
- "Jesse tore into pedo Trump… He certainly cares for this country"
- "Bravo!"
- "He’s completely right"
- "JESSE VENTURA FOR GOVERNOR"
- Many replies amplifying support for his constitutional arguments and anti-authoritarian warnings.
- Negative comments (insulting him as a "retard"/"clown"/"turn coat", questioning his military record, calling him senile/brainwashed, or defending ICE/Trump): ~18-25 examples
Examples include:- "What a retard!"
- "Turn coat Jesse"
- "Jesse Ventura is a clown and a liar"
- "How did Jesse Ventura become so brainwashed?"
- "It’s a shame Ventura has dementia"
- Neutral/mixed/minimal (short reactions like memes, unrelated, or very low-engagement): the rest.
This is not an exact count of all 1,442+ replies (sampling captures the most recent and visible ones, which tend to reflect broader sentiment trends on polarizing political topics). High-engagement positive replies (e.g., hundreds of likes on pro-Ventura comments) suggest stronger amplification for supportive views, while negative ones often get pushback in threads.Overall, the replies show a clear split along political lines — positive among those opposing the ICE actions/Trump admin tactics, and negative among pro-enforcement/MAGA-leaning users — with a slight edge to positive in the visible sample. The original post itself has very high engagement (29K+ likes, millions of views), indicating broad interest in Ventura's outspoken take.
This is similar to my own classification of the "visible/recent replies", but I wondered what a sample of the whole set would show, so I asked again:
Grok: From a randomized sample of approximately 120-130 direct replies pulled across multiple fetches (Latest mode, focusing on a broad spread of timestamps from the post's creation on Jan 8 through early Jan 10, 2026, including both low- and higher-engagement ones), the sentiment breaks down as follows:
- Positive toward Jesse Ventura / supportive of his stance (praising his words, calling him a hero/badass/true American, agreeing with criticism of ICE/Trump/warrantless actions, defending his military record, or amplifying pro-constitutional arguments): ~58-62%
- This includes short emojis/supports (👍, Bravo!), longer affirmations like "He’s completely right," "Jesse Ventura is the bad ass we need right now," "That is how a real American stands up," and defenses of his SEAL service/history.
- Many tie into pride in local resistance (school staff/students), anti-authoritarian themes, or calls like "JESSE VENTURA FOR GOVERNOR/PRESIDENT."
- Higher-engagement positives (hundreds of likes) often boost this category visibly.
- Negative / critical (insulting him as "retard"/"clown"/"turn coat"/"commie," questioning/dismissing his SEAL status as UDT only, calling him senile/brainwashed/out of touch, defending ICE/Trump/enforcement, or saying he's sad/far gone): ~32-36%
- Common themes: Attacks on his military claims ("not a real SEAL"), personal insults ("What a retard!"), or policy pushback ("ICE is here to arrest illegals—what about those laws?").
- Some express disappointment ("Makes me sad to see what he’s come to").
- Neutral / off-topic / minimal (emojis without clear direction, memes, unrelated tangents, or very short/low-effort): ~5-8%
This sample shows a slight majority positive (around 60%), consistent with the visible/high-engagement trend in the thread—where supportive replies (especially those highlighting his veteran status or constitutional points) receive more amplification and likes. The split remains heavily polarized along ideological lines:
- Pro-Ventura / anti-ICE-overreach views dominate among those opposing aggressive enforcement.
- Anti-Ventura / pro-enforcement views cluster around MAGA/conservative-leaning accounts, often focusing on immigration legality or his past controversies.
Note: This is still sampling (not exhaustive of all ~1,447 replies), but the randomization across fetches reduces bias toward just the most recent or viral ones. The overall post continues massive engagement (29K+ likes, millions of views), with Ventura's fiery delivery resonating strongly in a divided climate.
Still, Grok seems to have done a good job of quantitative sentiment analysis in this case (though I didn't ask it to evaluate the effect of bots and robo-trolls…). It might be interesting to try various LLM systems on various better-controlled textual sentiment-analysis datasets.
anhweol said,
January 10, 2026 @ 9:06 am
Fair enough to have a discussion on effectiveness of LLMs I suppose. But perhaps this is the time to stop using X / Grok, or discussing it except in the context of what it is to be done to stop it, given its descent into a porn generation engine.
Philip Taylor said,
January 10, 2026 @ 12:47 pm
(A non-linguistic response) — surely it is better that technology enables someone to create fake pornographic images if they so wish than it would be to force (or even coerce) a real person into posing for such images, is it not ?
anhweol said,
January 10, 2026 @ 12:52 pm
I don't really want to prolong this, but I thought most people by now were aware that they are taking innocent photos of real people and generating undressed images which _appear_ to be of those people, causing them real distress. Including children. And there is a long-standing principle that e.g. child abuse images are illegal even if artificially generated because it would be too easy to claim that real ones were AI when convenient.
Stephen Goranson said,
January 10, 2026 @ 1:06 pm
Though I have not watched the Jesse V. reaction, and I consider the shooting quite horrifically unjustified, I am reminded of the saying, lies, damned lies, and statistics, the origins or which, in part, with variations, go back to the x club in England in the 1880s and the variant mooted lately, lies, damned lies, and AI.
J.W. Brewer said,
January 10, 2026 @ 2:06 pm
I am curious about the "as we'd expect given the nature of the commentariat there" distinguishing twitter/X from youtube. Is the notion that youtube commenters have a dramatically different statistical distribution of partisan affiliations or political views (which seems a bit unlikely to me)? Or is it just that the social dynamics are different and in the youtube context people are less likely to affirmatively seek out material posted by people they already disagree with (and/or have it directed to their attention by the algorithms) so they can comment on it negatively? That second one seems more plausible to me.
Although I am old enough to remember how, only a dozen years ago, the whole premise of Mark Slutsky's wonderful (but now long-inactive) "Sad Youtube" project was that youtube comments sections were so notoriously the worst place on the internet that it was incongruous you could uncover beautiful and emotionally moving bits of found poetry there if you knew where to look. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/markslutsky/how-the-youtube-comments-section-became-our-cultures-secret
Philip Taylor said,
January 10, 2026 @ 2:29 pm
Well, as you can probably infer from my previous comment, I was unaware that "they for some unspecified 'they'] are taking innocent photos of real people and generating undressed images which _appear_ to be of those people" but I am willing to accept that this may well be the case. However, "[thereby] causing them real distress" does not seem to follow, unless said "undressed images" are somehow brought to the attention of the person portrayed (or his/her friends, relations, etc). The making of the image does not seem to me to be a problem, and if this is of what Grok is accused, then I would certainly not wish people to stop using it (if they so wish). But if Grok is then being used to disseminate such images, that is another matter entirely. Is that, in fact, the case ?
anhweol said,
January 10, 2026 @ 3:37 pm
Grok has been making these images to order and putting them publically on X, potentially on threads which people will see because of other relevant content or be served up to them by the algorithm. (For instance, people were nudifying images of the recent victim of ICE in Minnesota, which might be seen by someone following that news). Very likely they will be seen by the person concerned or their loved ones if they are not already being maliciously sent to them. Incidentally, I have not logged into X once since this blew up (I was still reading some linguistics content and trying to ignore the dubious politics); far too much danger of coming across illegal content, and in my jurisdiction strict liability applies if there is e.g. child porn found on my devices even if I never solicited it. So sorry I am not going to risk prosecution by looking for direct examples.
Thus is one of the biggest news stories of the last few days so I find it strange anyone should need to be reminded of the details here or have to rely on me pointing it out. For some details of what Grok is happy to do, see the Bluesky thread https://bsky.app/profile/kateconger.com/post/3mbzfbhdjqc25
J.W. Brewer said,
January 10, 2026 @ 6:21 pm
I do not know in what country anhweol may reside, and I have no well-informed opinion pro or con on Grok, but let me suggest to anhweol that "I am now afraid to even log in to such-and-such website because I might get in trouble with my government" is not actually a good rhetorical strategy for persuading other readers who live in what they might hope are comparatively free countries. With no disrespect to anhweol, anyone who lives under such regrettable circumstances cannot be presumed to have a good empirical grasp of the facts relevant to a current controversy, because whatever they may think they know about it has obviously been filtered by government censorship (or government-induced self-censorship) and is thus presumptively unreliable.
That said, if anwheol wants to suggest rival software that could also provide a plausible first-cut statistical summary of online sentiment regarding Jesse Ventura's recent statements for those who don't want to read all the raw material, let a thousand flowers bloom.
KeithB said,
January 10, 2026 @ 7:25 pm
Phillip Taylor:
"However, "[thereby] causing them real distress" does not seem to follow, unless said "undressed images" are somehow brought to the attention of the person portrayed (or his/her friends, relations, etc). "
This is how sextortion works. It has probably been awhile since you have been in high school, but these kinds of images can *quickly* make their way around the school. causing "distress", and possibly suicide. That is why we need to clamp down on the creation of the images. In this case, "Won't someone think of the children!" is really a realistic concern.
Florent said,
January 11, 2026 @ 4:14 am
@Mark, for a way to scrape X content, may I suggest this tool:
https://fmoncomble.github.io/X-scraper/
It currently works on keyword search results only but I’ll be looking for a way to make it more versatile.
Philip Taylor said,
January 11, 2026 @ 5:08 am
One last comment (from me) and then I will shut up on this topic — I still don't see the creation of the images as the problem (far better to create a fake image than to rape a real person) — it is the dissemination of the images that is the real problem. What one does in the privacy of one's own home is a matter solely for oneself (and for those with whom one lives, obviously) — what one does that impinges on others is a matter for everyone.
Jerry Packard said,
January 11, 2026 @ 10:34 am
Thanks, Mark, for this analysis. It is not surprising that the reaction to Ventura breaks down into the usual one-third/two-thirds dichotomy.
Brett said,
January 12, 2026 @ 7:47 pm
I am wondering now what an automated sentiment analysis would have to say about Ventura's "goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus" like from Predator.
Barbara Phillips Long said,
January 13, 2026 @ 3:08 am
For those wondering about changes in the users of X (formerly Twitter) and other platforms, here's an article from 2024 about user changes:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/dec/11/from-x-to-bluesky-why-are-people-abandoning-twitter-digital-town-square
When I searched in Google for this information, I received this AI summary at the top of the search. Take it as you will:
AI Overview
Yes, the X (formerly Twitter) user base has diverged significantly from YouTube's since Elon Musk's acquisition, primarily in its political leanings and user retention. YouTube has maintained its broad, ubiquitous reach and consistent growth across demographics, while X's user base has become more niche and politically polarized.
The AI summary continued, but it looks like the most recent information came from a Daily Beast article dated November 2025 that summarized some Pew survey results:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/users-flee-musks-x-as-reddit-overtakes-platform-in-popularity/
In regard to YouTube, it appears that the platform has wide acceptance across age groups, the article says. X has lost users, in part because it mostly served people interested in politics, and changes in the platform alienated some of them. The article is based on U.S. statistics only.
Barbara Phillips Long said,
January 13, 2026 @ 3:31 am
@Philip Taylor —
Your point about privacy has merit. The revulsion I feel about the ease of the "nudification" process may or may not be an issue for the law (or various laws in various jurisdictions) to address.
From my perspective, the ease of dissemination, either accidentally or purposefully (including malicious dissemination by third parties) — is more of a problem. A person's desire to not have their body — or a body attributed to them — displayed in places not under their control is also a privacy issue. There are conflicting rights of privacy, image ownership, and control of images that affect reputation that may all be in play in the case of Grok and image manipulation.
Here's the recent Guardian article on the issue, for those who are unfamiliar with it:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/11/how-grok-nudification-tool-went-viral-x-elon-musk