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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 17, 2022

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Some of Zelensky’s appearances strongly suggest he uses a green screen. With technology it is trivial to place Zelensky anywhere you want in Ukraine. I do not believe for one moment that he spends a majority of his time in Ukraine. But that’s neither hero nor there, because it is a smart choice to base your operations in Poland.

What makes Zelensky not a hero is that nothing he does is heroic. It is not heroic to be the figurehead for NATO operations in Ukraine. It is not heroic to be the darling of an oligarch who already fled to Israel, who boosted him up to Presidency. It is not heroic to sign someone else’s children up to die or to command to shoot defectors when they leave. Zelensky has only moderate skin in the game, no matter what he will be safe in NATO territory.

Ask “if Zelensky were a coward, what would he do differently?” Here we have to rely on the claim that he spends most of his time in Ukraine. Everything else he would do is identical. Even a coward can be secretly bussed into Ukraine from time to time for a photo shoot like in Bucha, and the claim “Zelensky is in Kyiv!” is suspect given the nature of 21st century warfare and technology.

  • -11

With technology it is trivial to place Zelensky anywhere you want in Ukraine.

Not really. See say this and that - to fake that you would need massive CGI support and ridiculously sized conspiracy.

Also, given that not even Putin or Russian propaganda or their milbloggers are claiming this, you would need a really convincing evidence to get us to treat it seriously.

I do not believe for one moment that he spends a majority of his time in Ukraine.

Your claim is entirely based on "appearances strongly suggest he uses a green screen" claim without evidence and your non-existent authority.

April 4. The allegations were he was in Poland between the shit kicking off and Russian withdrawal from around Kiev.

As seen in https://www.themotte.org/post/133/culture-war-roundup-for-the-week/19694?context=8#context it is not limited to that :)

(I promise, coffee is not my false-flag account)

I'm not a big fan of coffee, either the poster or the drink.

It doesn't look like a green screen to me, and I don't doubt Zelensky has returned to Kiev since Russians withdrew.

Well of course. I look at it, and it looks like a green screen to me.

  • -11

There wouldn’t be evidence he is out of Ukraine, because it’s wartime where secrecy of the location of an assassination target is paramount. The question is (1) does it appear he uses a green screen (2) is it more likely that NATO places him in Poland or keeps him in Ukraine. Per 1, many of his videos look a lot like a green screen to me.

It’s not some elementary variation of “absence of evidence”, because we should expect that if he were in Poland, we would not have evidence of that, like how we didn’t have evidence that Bin Laden was in Pakistan (amplified by 100, because NATO is in charge of his location)

  • -13

All of that just sounds like nothing but "I am ideologically on the pro-Russian (or at least anti-anti-Russian) side, and thus am by definition bound to find Zelensky non-heroic."

Yes, we (or at least people who have followed Ukrainian affairs for some time) know about Zelensky's status as a comedian, or connections to Kolomoisky, or corruption, or whatever. The whole point of the post you were replying to was that he's an unlikely hero due to that stuff! It's not a debunking to post the same stuff that essentially forms the crux of the argument!

You believe heroes can have offshore banking accounts paid for by corrupt oligarchs now hiding in Israel which comprise a permanent “nest egg” to fall back on. That’s great! I disagree. So what we have is a disagreement, which this forum was made for. Claiming that my entire post boiled down to “sounds like nothing but I am ideologically on the pro-Russian” is asinine and unproductive.

You believe heroes can have offshore banking accounts paid for by corrupt oligarchs now hiding in Israel

btw, you betrayed your ignorance on the subject by not knowing that Kolomoisky is not in Israel right now, and he wasn't there for the last 2 years. As well by the fact there is a case opened against him in Ukraine, so he stays there. Before talking about things, you better educate yourself.

Kolomoisky has Israeli and Cypriot citizenship and is banned from the US. He is either in Israel of Cyprus but Israel is the most likely location.

Btw, just out of curiosity, how did you find themotte? I noticed that you’re not a native English speaker and only post about Ukraine when it comes up.

He is either in Israel of Cyprus but Israel is the most likely location.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=tNuRUY0Pxew

Here he is, visiting an Anti-Corruption Agency in Kyiv for questioning several days ago. So you just don't know basic facts.

Btw, just out of curiosity, how did you find themotte? I noticed that you’re not a native English speaker and only post about Ukraine when it comes up.

I read Scott back when he was posting on lesswrong, so I might ask you the same question. Did you come here from /r/conservative, /r/conspiracy or some other subreddit filled with low information people? Because it certainly looks like that.

post about Ukraine when it comes up.

I just posted here 3 times, I think. Yes, I am not really interested in discussing some outrage du jour about transsexuals or whatever constantly preoccupies your mind. Just called out ignorant comments several times (were those yours as well?)

Oh he visited kyiv! That must mean he is always in Kyiv, right?

More comments

You believe heroes can have offshore banking accounts paid for by corrupt oligarchs now hiding in Israel which comprise a permanent “nest egg” to fall back on[?]

Yes. Or perhaps some thin-slicing is necessary here to get away from laurel-wreath title of "Hero" that seems to choke some people: it is possible for such a person to behave heroically, under important circumstances, in a way that is important to the outcome of major events. Given that difficulty of predicting heroic behavior, that a guy who looks like a joke president could step up under pressure, is there a more useful pre-event gauge of who is going to do what when the chips are down, or is it cursed to seem random to human observers?

I find the questions "Is Zelensky a good guy" and "Did Putin make a good call" the least interesting parts of the discussion. I'm interested in how Motte-rs go about best-guessing how leaders will react under pressure.