In the Western world, we are commonly faced with utter displays of contradictions. We are so proud of ourselves and so sure of our ways, and yet we talk about how oppressive we are in the same breath. Our founding myths are drizzled in the sweet contemptible sauce of irony and patronizing tone. We love our ways so much, and yet find ourselves in the awkward apologetic position of embarrassment. This is especially present in two figures who are remarkable for their temporary entertainment value, and yet their actions show how little entertainment there actually is in the wake of their devastating actions. The two figures who seem to fit the bill, and who a remarkably typecast at this point, are Richard Spencer and Vladimir Zelensky, two figures of varying notoriety who reveal the remarkably humorous if devastating state of the Western World today.
Richard Spencer is known for being the one who popularized the term “Alt Right” as a banner under which American white men could rally to their own cause. He gave rousing if meandering speeches to awaken the spirits of white Americans to pick themselves up from the plight in which they found themselves. It was hard to look away since everything he said was so fascinating and seemed to have the quality of never having been heard before. Likewise, Vladimir Zelensky offers many meandering speeches and comedy routines that arouse great attention and seem to refresh the mind. There was once a quality of having never been heard before to his bits. He found ways to fascinate his audience.
Likewise, while Spencer often found himself in situations that demanded seriousness, he often found himself in positions of dying irony. Whether having posed with the Bush family for pictures, living the hipster highlife in Montana, or posing in front of an LGBTQ pride flag with his new girlfriend, there was never a point at which he could say that his life resonated with the downtrodden he was supposedly rousing to the consciousness of their plight. As war raged on in Ukraine, moreover, Zelensky also found himself posing for pictures with Western celebrities, turning the destruction around him into an aesthetic commodity for Vogue Magazine, and ingratiating himself with the Western elites. As a middle-class Jewish beneficiary of media patronage, it is hard to imagine him being able to sympathize with the roughnecks and hooligans who permeate the ultranationalist battalions that comprise Ukraine’s equivalent to the SS. The fact that Jewish media mogul Igor Solomoisky financed both Zelensky and the hooligans adds irony to the bitterness.
Thus we come to see that the hipster backgrounds and lifestyles of both of these figures heighten the absurdity of the devastation in the wake of their actions. After events in Charlottesville went haywire as a result of utter recklessness and corruption on the part of state and local authorities, Richard Spencer did not lead the people who had been following him out of danger, but snuck away to avoid the consequences of his actions, only to launch a PR campaign afterwards. Likewise, Zelensky demonstrates no concern at all for those over whom he rules, pushing inexperienced conscript onto the frontlines to get slaughtered while also giving assent to killing Russian civilians in the Donbass and trying to cause a nuclear meltdown at the Energodar nuclear power plant. In much the same way, Spencer expressed no remorse or regret for not having been able to mitigate damage in Charlottesville and pull anyone away from the danger there. In fact, he profited from it, and continued to use “white trash” cannon fodder to his advantage, leading some to jail and worse. Instead of acknowledging failures, both figures demand that their opponents are censored online, and Zelensky extends that to widespread arrests of such opponents.
So we see that both figures find no quarter for those who question their role in the devastation they helped to create. They will both hurl cannon fodder into the fray with no expectation of complaint. Zelensky purges managers of his government and security services to this day, failing to understand that it is his aggressive strategy against Russia that results in the most massive purge of all.
Thus we come to the crux of the issue. While Richard Spencer and Vladimir Zelensky want to crack down on “disinformation” and “conspiracy theories” they put themselves into the position of never responding to the impulses of those they lead at all, but trodding down these followers once more after having claimed to sympathize with their plight. Their hipster lack of resonance with the roughnecks and salt of the earth they seek to patronize proves not only comedic and absurd, but also utterly fatal. It is no wonder that they both claim President Biden as an ally and claim to “love Europe.” These are mere abstractions to them, not actual people. Everything is a pose, even to the end of the world.
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i'd say spencer is a bit of a "hipster" (not nearly as bad as mcinnes, though...but who is?). a better term for both would be "bourgeois" in the literal sense of "city slicker". they live basic yuppie lifestyles and have zero aesthetic sense while commanding the "hicks" and "white trash" who - if we're being honest - let themselves be played by these two twats.
"The fact that Jewish media mogul Igor Solomoisky financed both Zelensky and the hooligans adds irony to the bitterness."
N.b., the oligarch's name is Igor Valereivich Kolomoiskii, and he is a piece of work, even by the rarefied standards of Ukrainian oligarchs.