Have you been feeling like you’re inside a giant reality show with Donald Trump as the star?

You’re not alone.

Ever since Trump was elected the next president of the United States last month, people around the world have complained that it seems like we’re all living inside a nightmarish reality show.

It’s hardly surprising. Trump himself is a larger-than-life former reality TV host. The election itself at times seemed more of an Idol-like popularity contest than a real democratic election. Don’t be surprised if Ryan Seacrest shows up to host his inauguration.

Now Trump’s every move is being televised to an extraordinary degree, far greater than his weekly appearances on The Apprentice.

Surrounding him is a plethora of established reality TV stars, including Omarosa Manigault, Sarah Palin, Tila Tequila and Trump’s own family members. And just this week, we learned that the president-elect will continue to be an executive producer on his reality series Celebrity Apprentice, returning to TV on Jan. 2 and now hosted by another star-turned-politician: Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Paul Manafort, one of Trump’s senior advisers, came right out and said it.

“This is the ultimate reality show,” he told CNBC in May. “It’s the presidency of the United States.”

And Trump isn’t hiding it either. He’s used reality TV dialogue to describe some of the most powerful governmental appointments in the world.

“I am the only one who knows who the finalists are!” Trump tweeted triumphantly on Nov. 15. The Washington Post played along last week, offering a sort of viewer’s guide “to all the ways Trump’s transition is like a reality show.”

But we’re not just watching the show. We’re in it. We’re the extras. We’re the bit characters in Trump’s suspense-filled narrative. If President Trump, as some predict, starts a war, becomes a crazed dictator, accelerates disastrous climate change or drags the planet into chaos, you can’t just turn the TV off and go to bed.

This is what makes this show so amazing. It’s a must see. It’s an unprecedented ratings monster with a cast of billions.

But what kind of reality show is it? Is it a global, Survivor-like endurance test? Is it Conservative Celebrity Apprentice? Planetary Fear Factor? The Amazing Racists? The Hugest Loser? Extreme Makeover (Entire Country Edition)?

Or is it something entirely new?

“It’s X Factor!” said Michael Rosenblum, founder of Current TV, who predicted Trump’s election win back in August.

“It’s X Factor because it’s the most entertaining person wins,” he said in an interview. “The election was a reality show and now we’re in an even crazier reality show.”

Rosenblum, an accomplished producer, has produced reality TV. He now laments his participation in the rise of an exploitive, mendacious TV format, which he characterizes as a disaster for humanity.

“I do feel terrible that I was part of this,” he said. “It’s terrible. It’s evil. But this has been a long time coming. We are a TV-based culture. We spend 8.5 hours a day staring at screens: phones, tablets, computers. Television is a machine that needs to make everything entertaining and amusing. Everything is judged on entertainment value.

“Hillary (Clinton) was terrible TV. Trump was good TV. Hillary got cancelled and Donald Trump got renewed. It’s that simple.”

Now that Trump is president-elect, Rosenblum says to get ready for the ultimate reality show.

“It’s going to be a car crash,” he said. “People will tune in all the time.

“It will be incredible entertainment.”

Trump himself emphasized that he was an entertainer during the election. After a controversy exploded last year when he made fun of rival Republican candidate Carly Fiorina’s face, Trump explained himself.

“Many of those comments are made as an entertainer,” he said.

He is not the sort of man to choose his words carefully out of fear of offending anyone, and don’t expect him to be that sort of president either.

In fact, Trump is leading a cavalcade of entertainers to power.

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While much has been made of Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon’s white nationalist tendencies, little has been of his background as a screenwriter, documentarian and movie producer.

Bannon was a serious entertainment mogul. Aside from living in Hollywood and producing films, Bannon also directed a series of “blame the liberals” documentaries with dramatic names such as Generation Zero, Battle for America and The Undefeated, a film lionizing Sarah Palin that was widely panned. One of his first major interviews following his appointment was with the Hollywood Reporter.

Trump’s accomplishments as an actor are also overlooked. On top of his time on The Apprentice, Trump did walk-ons in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Suddenly Susan, Sex and the City, Spin City and The Nanny. Whatever you think of his politics, the guy can deliver a line.

“What are you, morons?” he yells at a bunch of people standing amid a New York traffic jam in a scene from The Drew Carey Show.

But some of Trump’s most impressive acting would take place in the wrestling ring. During WrestleMania in 2007, he walked in and immediately body-slammed WWE president Vince McMahon, then shaved his head while the crowd roared.

This clip made the rounds as an example of what a base, angry human Trump is supposed to be — and alternatively what a badass he is. Both takes miss the point. Like Bannon, Trump is a major entertainer, who now has entertained his way all the way to the White House.

So at this point you might be saying: Stop this madness! This can’t be real!

In fact, there is a recognized syndrome where people believe, falsely, that they are part of a giant reality show. It’s known as the Truman Show Delusion, taken from the 1998 Hollywood film. People with the syndrome believe they are inside a huge conspiratorial TV project built around them.

Could it be that a good part of the population of the planet has suddenly developed the Truman Show Delusion?

Well, no.

“It’s a severe condition often accompanied by psychosis,” said Joel Gold, a professor of psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine who, along with his brother, first coined the syndrome.

“People who really have Truman syndrome don’t come in and say, ‘I think I may be an extra in a reality TV show.’ They are the star.”

Gold says he first encountered the delusion while working at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City, itself incidentally featured in many TV shows.

All this to say, you can’t change the channel this time. This is really happening and it isn’t just a mental condition. It really is a peculiar time to be alive.

But that’s what makes this new reality show a guaranteed hit. It has a massive captive audience. And we have to keep watching as if our lives depend on it, because apparently they do.

Albert Nerenberg is filmmaker and journalist currently directing You Are What You Act, a documentary for The Documentary Channel.

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