The internet laughed when Donald Trump announced the "Patriot Games" for the Freedom 250 Semiquincentennial. "It's the Hunger Games!" everyone tweeted.

They were right, but for the wrong reasons.

In this episode, we look past the memes at the dark reality of summoning "one young man and one young woman" from every state to compete for the Sovereign in Washington D.C. This isn't a track meet; it's a ritual.

We break down the biopolitics of the event, using Giorgio Agamben to explain how the State is asserting ownership over the biological bodies of American youth. We look at how this spectacle replaces civics with athletics, and use René Girard’s theory of mimetic desire to explain why a divided nation needs a ritualized competition to avoid actual civil war.

The Games aren't a celebration of freedom. They are the gamification of submission.