European Union leaders gathered last week to discuss just how tough their sanctions against Russia would be after the country invaded Ukraine. Yes, the leaders agreed, harsh sanctions were necessary. Maybe there was even room to, say, bar Russia from SWIFT, a global financial messaging service.
Yet, according to a report from the Washington Post, these harshest measures stalled in the face of skepticism from some of the more powerful leaders in the EU, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was reluctant to make sanctions against Russia as harsh as possible.
But then Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy teleconferenced in to the call. He proceeded to make an impassioned plea to the gathered leaders to take up the Ukrainian cause as forcefully as possible. In the course of that one five-minute speech, the tide in the room shifted.
“It was extremely, extremely emotional,” said a European official briefed on the call. “He was essentially saying, ‘Look, we are here dying for European ideals.’” Before ending the video call, Zelensky told the gathering matter-of-factly that it might be the last time they saw him alive, according to a senior European official who was present.
Just that quickly, Zelensky’s personal appeal overwhelmed the resistance from European leaders to imposing measures that could drive the Russian economy into a state of near collapse.
The act of leadership is always bound up in performance, at least to some degree. Seeming like a leader is almost as important as actually being a good leader. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s shirtless photo ops, for instance, are aimed to make him seem both physically and psychically powerful, not just a leader but an icon of masculinity. But even just in the US, every president of the mass media era has had to reckon with the fact that they are not only the president but also play him on TV.
In the early days of the war in Ukraine, however, Zelenskyy, who was an actor and comedian before he turned to politics, has utilized his talents as a performer to make emotional appeals to the world. Sometimes, those appeals go directly to world leaders, but many of them are posted on social media for everybody to see.
To be clear, this is a country in the midst of an invasion fighting back in the realm of public opinion. It’s propaganda, in other words. But propaganda is one of the best routes available to a country in the midst of a devastating invasion by a larger, more powerful military.
Zelenskyy is playing the propaganda game masterfully well, certainly better than Putin is. That may be why he’s become such an instant sensation among many in North America and the rest of Europe. And in playing that game, he’s made himself the main character of a global conflict many in the US might have tuned out. And now we can’t look away.
Zelenskyy is a gifted performer who can use all forms of media to his advantage
In watching that video, it becomes clear that a) Zelenskyy is a pretty solid dancer and b) he should probably not quit his day job (as the president of Ukraine) to pursue a career in ballroom dancing, as he’s a bit stiff.
What puts his performance over the top, though, is how good he is at playing to the audience, at understanding where the camera is, at covering up his occasional fumbled steps with an over-the-top pizzazz that might make you miss those fumbles. In several moments, his facial expressions are simultaneously playing to his dance partner (who needs to feed off his energy to perform) and the camera. It’s an impressive bit of reality TV performance!
In the wake of Zelenskyy’s sudden skyrocketing into one of the most well-known people in the world, many who aren’t particularly familiar with Ukrainian pop culture have been surprised to learn just how ubiquitous he was as an actor and comedian prior to his career in politics. He starred in several popular rom-coms, and he hosted a number of reality shows and sketch-comedy series. He purported to play the piano with his penis in one sketch that has gone mildly viral. He was the voice of Paddington Bear in Ukraine, for goodness’ sake.
Most notably, Zelenskyy’s acting career included the three-season TV comedy Servant of the People, in which he played a high school teacher who becomes the president of Ukraine. (You can watch some of it here.)
The show, which ran from 2015 to 2019, was immensely popular, to the degree that a major political party in Ukraine named after the show was formed. That party’s most prominent member is current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. I’d say Zelenskyy’s path into politics is a little like if the US had elected Robin Williams president in the 2000 election, but there is a literal 2006 Robin Williams movie that has a plot that is basically Zelenskyy’s real life.
Being good at being on TV does not automatically equal being a good leader. Donald Trump, after all, was very, very good at being on TV, with an innate understanding of how to use the medium to his advantage, but that had next to no connection to whatever skills he had as a president.
It is worth noting that the most consistent complaint from the Ukrainian media about Zelenskyy has been the same one most press corps have about most world leaders in the social media era: He doesn’t talk to them enough. But when viewed through the eyes of Zelenskyy, a major celebrity even before he became president, who has been making his own comedy since he was a teenager, it’s easy to see why he would utilize platforms like YouTube and Facebook instead of talking through mediators. Why wouldn’t he?
And his strength in creating and presenting his own message, as well as his ability to straddle the line in appealing to Ukrainians and lots of other people (including Russians), has been evident throughout the war.
His February 24 plea to the Russian people to rise up and stop their leaders who are waging war feels like it’s straight out of a movie because Zelenskyy has absolutely framed it so you feel like you’re watching something more compelling than a standard presidential address. Notice how he’s off-center, in front of an out-of-focus map of Ukraine. It’s a much more visually compelling image than, say, Joe Biden behind a podium.
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Or consider the hand-held videos he’s made from the streets of Kyiv, which necessarily have the lowest production values imaginable, but which are still framed with the eye of someone who knows intuitively how to use the camera built into a phone. In the below video, he manages to direct your focus toward the various other members of the government who are with him in Kyiv, all while issuing a message of resilience. It’s compelling, and in a way that speaks to the moment more powerfully than, say, Putin’s carefully staged photo ops.
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That’s before you even get to the fact that the simple optics of Zelenskyy’s being present in the streets of Kyiv carry tremendous weight when we’re used to world leaders being separated from the conflicts they are part of. If the Russian military is going to invade Ukraine, well, the leader of Ukraine being there, in the streets of Kyiv, carries an immense emotional appeal to both his fellow citizens and those of us who are thousands of miles away from the conflict.
This move is also a more subtle form of the masculine posturing Putin engages in regularly, one Zelenskyy is uniquely well-positioned to exploit, having been at least somewhat well-known in Russia when he was working as an actor. (The movies he was in were rarely sensations, but they were well-seen in Russia, which I guess kind of makes him analogous to a pre-Schitt’s Creek Eugene Levy — beloved in his country of origin, a “hey, it’s that guy!” in the much larger country next door.)
Working as a performer in Ukraine means navigating a tricky relationship between the Ukrainian entertainment industry and the Russian entertainment industry. And navigating that relationship has meant that Zelenskyy’s work has been banned or threatened with banning in both Ukraine and Russia at various points in his career.
Zelenskyy was criticized by Russians because Ukrainian media reported that his comedy troupe Kvartal 95 donated money to the Ukrainian army during a 2014 conflict with Russia. But his performances were almost entirely in Russian prior to his political career, and he continually spoke out against efforts by Ukraine’s cultural ministry to ban Russian performers from working in Ukraine. Thus, even when he was a comedian playing the piano with his penis, Zelenskyy had to constantly deal with regional geopolitics.
Still, many world leaders know how to use social media now, and almost all of them are at least somewhat good on TV. Why has Zelenskyy’s time in the spotlight been such a dramatic success, at least on the world public relations stage? His performance skills matter, yes, but what’s even more important is his skill at creating a narrative on the fly.
Zelenskyy is making himself the main character of a story we might not easily follow otherwise
One of the offshoots of Zelensky’s sudden prominence on the world stage is that there are a lot of tweets about how everybody who’s attracted to men is either horny for Zelenskyy or suspects everyone they know is horny for Zelenskyy. This reaction goes with the territory of a scary, enormous story with global import that our brains need to find any way to circumvent. When fear, despair, or rage become too much, we’ll turn to gallows humor or horniness as a species. Is it “cringe?” I guess. But also, who cares? Life’s too short, and the world is really fucking scary.
Now, Zelenskyy is far from a perfect leader. He has faced his own accusations of corruption, and idolizing him as the best leader in the world is probably setting yourself up for disappointment. But he is undeniably doing a really good job at stirring the emotions of both his fellow citizens and others around the world, hence the internet’s fascination with him. And this specific brand of horny Zelenskyy tweet also speaks to something he has done with almost peerless skill at this moment in time: He’s made himself the main character of reality for several days now, and nobody can even touch him. Other world leaders are still doing things, but are they trending on Twitter? Nope!
It’s a savvy move on Zelenskyy’s part, and it’s one that’s very much bound up in an understanding of how narrative works. Once you’re the main character of a story, then everybody’s feelings get projected onto you. If you’re mad, they’ll be mad too. If you’re sad, they’ll be sad too. And if you’re, let’s face it, an attractive human being, well …
In the early hours of any global conflict, whether it’s one your country is involved in directly or one that is occurring far, far away from you, there’s a natural human impulse to boil the big story of armies sweeping across countries into smaller stories of human struggle. We need people to latch onto.
Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, arguably the greatest novel ever written and also a novel about (among many other things) a bunch of brave Russians repelling a seemingly unstoppable invading force, is structured to emphasize this tendency within our brains. Tolstoy tends to situate his stories from two points of view. We are either seeing the armies of the Russians and the French from high above, where they seem almost like abstract forces of nature, or we are right there in the muck with one of Tolstoy’s main characters (and occasionally Napoleon).
We prefer to boil away all the complexities inherent in big, abstract concepts until we arrive at something like “this nation good, and this nation bad,” but we are good at understanding all the complexities of human behavior when they are situated in a handful of characters we come to know well. What we are terrible at is when we try to find some sort of middle ground between the two. The second you say, “Well, this situation is really complex, and here’s why…” the brain longs for the simple clarity of, “This is the main character, okay?”
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I am aware that pointing out the ways in which Zelenskyy’s videos in the midst of war benefit from his filmmaking skills will strike some readers as though I’m saying he’s manipulating them into caring about the situation in Ukraine. There is often a sense when discussing the use of filmmaking techniques to advance political messages that seeing how the sausage is made somehow reveals the disingenuousness of everything.
But the stakes are really high. If you’re moved by the videos Zelenskyy has posted, that is exactly what he hopes you feel. It’s also likely what millions of Ukrainians under siege hope you feel. Does it matter if their charismatic president is putting his thumb on the scale?
Zelenskyy is using all of his skills as a performer and a filmmaker to cajole you into caring about the situation in Ukraine, because he knows you might not otherwise. The war is something many, many, many people who read this website would not be as compelled by without Zelenskyy figuring out ways to make that story immediately visceral and compelling. A filmmaker figures out how to get you invested in the story he wants to tell, and Zelenskyy has certainly done that.
One of the great messages of War and Peace is that everything is more complex than it might seem to be at first glance. Tolstoy looks at one of the most justifiable cases to wage war — to repel an invading force — and finds within that the thousands of smaller betrayals and heartbreaks and joys and lusts and pains that make up the larger story. Those smaller moments that happen between humans still happen, at every level of the battle, and we love that book because it is about the people and not the politics.
Whatever you might think of him when he’s not the face of a country that is attempting to repel an invading force, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has used every tool at his disposal to reduce a political story to a personal one. He’s made himself the main character to get you to care. Did it work?
Outside of sports and a “Cold front coming down from Canada,” American news media only report on Canadian events that they believe are, or will be, influential to the US. Therefore, when Justin Trudeau’s announcement, having finally read the room, that Canada will be reducing the number of permanent residents admitted by more than 20 percent and temporary residents like skilled workers and college students will be cut by more than half made news south of the border, I knew the American media felt Trudeau’s about-face on immigration was newsworthy because many Americans would relate to Trudeau realizing Canada was accepting more immigrants than it could manage and are hoping their next POTUS will follow Trudeau’s playbook.
Canada, with lots of space and lacking convenient geographical ways for illegal immigrants to enter the country, though still many do, has a global reputation for being incredibly accepting of immigrants. On the surface, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver appear to be multicultural havens. However, as the saying goes, “Too much of a good thing is never good,” resulting in a sharp rise in anti-immigrant sentiment, which you can almost taste in the air. A growing number of Canadians, regardless of their political affiliation, are blaming recent immigrants for causing the housing affordability crises, inflation, rise in crime and unemployment/stagnant wages.
Throughout history, populations have engulfed themselves in a tribal frenzy, a psychological state where people identify strongly with their own group, often leading to a ‘us versus them’ mentality. This has led to quick shifts from complacency to panic and finger-pointing at groups outside their tribe, a phenomenon that is not unique to any particular culture or time period.
My take on why the American news media found Trudeau’s blatantly obvious attempt to save his political career, balancing appeasement between the pitchfork crowd, who want a halt to immigration until Canada gets its house in order, and immigrant voters, who traditionally vote Liberal, newsworthy; the American news media, as do I, believe immigration fatigue is why Kamala Harris is going to lose on November 5th.
Because they frequently get the outcome wrong, I don’t take polls seriously. According to polls in 2014, Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives and Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals were in a dead heat in Ontario, yet Wynne won with more than twice as many seats. In the 2018 Quebec election, most polls had the Coalition Avenir Québec with a 1-to-5-point lead over the governing Liberals. The result: The Coalition Avenir Québec enjoyed a landslide victory, winning 74 of 125 seats. Then there’s how the 2016 US election polls showing Donald Trump didn’t have a chance of winning against Hillary Clinton were ridiculously way off, highlighting the importance of the election day poll and, applicable in this election as it was in 2016, not to discount ‘shy Trump supporters;’ voters who support Trump but are hesitant to express their views publicly due to social or political pressure.
My distrust in polls aside, polls indicate Harris is leading by a few points. One would think that Trump’s many over-the-top shenanigans, which would be entertaining were he not the POTUS or again seeking the Oval Office, would have him far down in the polls. Trump is toe-to-toe with Harris in the polls because his approach to the economy—middle-class Americans are nostalgic for the relatively strong economic performance during Trump’s first three years in office—and immigration, which Americans are hyper-focused on right now, appeals to many Americans. In his quest to win votes, Trump is doing what anyone seeking political office needs to do: telling the people what they want to hear, strategically using populism—populism that serves your best interests is good populism—to evoke emotional responses. Harris isn’t doing herself any favours, nor moving voters, by going the “But, but… the orange man is bad!” route, while Trump cultivates support from “weird” marginal voting groups.
To Harris’s credit, things could have fallen apart when Biden abruptly stepped aside. Instead, Harris quickly clinched the nomination and had a strong first few weeks, erasing the deficit Biden had given her. The Democratic convention was a success, as was her acceptance speech. Her performance at the September 10th debate with Donald Trump was first-rate.
Harris’ Achilles heel is she’s now making promises she could have made and implemented while VP, making immigration and the economy Harris’ liabilities, especially since she’s been sitting next to Biden, watching the US turn into the circus it has become. These liabilities, basically her only liabilities, negate her stance on abortion, democracy, healthcare, a long-winning issue for Democrats, and Trump’s character. All Harris has offered voters is “feel-good vibes” over substance. In contrast, Trump offers the tangible political tornado (read: steamroll the problems Americans are facing) many Americans seek. With Trump, there’s no doubt that change, admittedly in a messy fashion, will happen. If enough Americans believe the changes he’ll implement will benefit them and their country…
The case against Harris on immigration, at a time when there’s a huge global backlash to immigration, even as the American news media are pointing out, in famously immigrant-friendly Canada, is relatively straightforward: During the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration, illegal Southern border crossings increased significantly.
The words illegal immigration, to put it mildly, irks most Americans. On the legal immigration front, according to Forbes, most billion-dollar startups were founded by immigrants. Google, Microsoft, and Oracle, to name three, have immigrants as CEOs. Immigrants, with tech skills and an entrepreneurial thirst, have kept America leading the world. I like to think that Americans and Canadians understand the best immigration policy is to strategically let enough of these immigrants in who’ll increase GDP and tax base and not rely on social programs. In other words, Americans and Canadians, and arguably citizens of European countries, expect their governments to be more strategic about immigration.
The days of the words on a bronze plaque mounted inside the Statue of Liberty pedestal’s lower level, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” are no longer tolerated. Americans only want immigrants who’ll benefit America.
Does Trump demagogue the immigration issue with xenophobic and racist tropes, many of which are outright lies, such as claiming Haitian immigrants in Ohio are abducting and eating pets? Absolutely. However, such unhinged talk signals to Americans who are worried about the steady influx of illegal immigrants into their country that Trump can handle immigration so that it’s beneficial to the country as opposed to being an issue of economic stress.
In many ways, if polls are to be believed, Harris is paying the price for Biden and her lax policies early in their term. Yes, stimulus spending quickly rebuilt the job market, but at the cost of higher inflation. Loosen border policies at a time when anti-immigrant sentiment was increasing was a gross miscalculation, much like Trudeau’s immigration quota increase, and Biden indulging himself in running for re-election should never have happened.
If Trump wins, Democrats will proclaim that everyone is sexist, racist and misogynous, not to mention a likely White Supremacist, and for good measure, they’ll beat the “voter suppression” button. If Harris wins, Trump supporters will repeat voter fraud—since July, Elon Musk has tweeted on Twitter at least 22 times about voters being “imported” from abroad—being widespread.
Regardless of who wins tomorrow, Americans need to cool down; and give the divisive rhetoric a long overdue break. The right to an opinion belongs to everyone. Someone whose opinion differs from yours is not by default sexist, racist, a fascist or anything else; they simply disagree with you. Americans adopting the respectful mindset to agree to disagree would be the best thing they could do for the United States of America.
PHOENIX (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent proponent of debunked public health claims whom Donald Trump has promised to put in charge of health initiatives, said Saturday that Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water on his first day in office if elected president.
Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.
Kennedy made the declaration Saturday on the social media platform X alongside a variety of claims about the heath effects of fluoride.
“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” Kennedy wrote. Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, “want to Make America Healthy Again,” he added, repeating a phrase Trump often uses and links to Kennedy.
Trump told NBC News on Sunday that he had not spoken to Kennedy about fluoride yet, “but it sounds OK to me. You know it’s possible.”
The former president declined to say whether he would seek a Cabinet role for Kennedy, a job that would require Senate confirmation, but added, “He’s going to have a big role in the administration.”
Asked whether banning certain vaccines would be on the table, Trump said he would talk to Kennedy and others about that. Trump described Kennedy as “a very talented guy and has strong views.”
The sudden and unexpected weekend social media post evoked the chaotic policymaking that defined Trump’s White House tenure, when he would issue policy declarations on Twitter at virtually all hours. It also underscored the concerns many experts have about Kennedy, who has long promoted debunked theories about vaccine safety, having influence over U.S. public health.
In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later. Though fluoride can come from a number of sources, drinking water is the main source for Americans, researchers say.
Officials lowered their recommendation for drinking water fluoride levels in 2015 to address a tooth condition called fluorosis, that can cause splotches on teeth and was becoming more common in U.S. kids.
In August, a federal agency determined “with moderate confidence” that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. The National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water.
A federal judge later cited that study in ordering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen cautioned that it’s not certain that the amount of fluoride typically added to water is causing lower IQ in kids, but he concluded that mounting research points to an unreasonable risk that it could be. He ordered the EPA to take steps to lower that risk, but didn’t say what those measures should be.
In his X post Saturday, Kennedy tagged Michael Connett, the lead attorney representing the plaintiff in that lawsuit, the environmental advocacy group Food & Water Watch.
Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization has a lawsuit pending against news organizations including The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy is on leave from the group but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.
What role Kennedy might hold if Trump wins on Tuesday remains unclear. Kennedy recently told NewsNation that Trump asked him to “reorganize” agencies including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and some agencies under the Department of Agriculture.
But for now, the former independent presidential candidate has become one of Trump’s top surrogates. Trump frequently mentions having the support of Kennedy, a scion of a Democratic dynasty and the son of former Attorney General Robert Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy traveled with Trump Friday and spoke at his rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Trump said Saturday that he told Kennedy: “You can work on food, you can work on anything you want” except oil policy.
“He wants health, he wants women’s health, he wants men’s health, he wants kids, he wants everything,” Trump added.
