Schwarzenegger's anti-war video trends on Russian social media

[BlueWavePsych]

A video address by Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Russian people was trending on Russian Twitter on Friday and has sparked reaction.

In it, Schwarzenegger warns Russians they are being fed misinformation about their country's assault on Ukraine.

Addressing Russian President Vladimir Putin directly, he says: "You started this war, and you can stop it".

In the nine-minute video, which also shows footage of the destruction in Ukraine, the actor-turned-politician calls on people to see through disinformation and propaganda.

Source ... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60794809



See also ... https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216493279

[Boomerproud]

1. That was his target audience. I hope it resonates.

[Auggie]

2. Great presentation by Arnold Schwarzenegger

[rlegro]

29. More eloquent than most American political figures.

And he uses without shame his celebrity status and life history to speak truth to power.

[NYC Liberal]

38. His governorship was disastrous but

I would take him over any other Republican today.

[Volaris]

41. Word. The post-trump republican party will need a whole new platform written.

Given that what ten years ago, was Radical Left, is potentially the New Center, WE HERE could get jobs writing that platform FOR THEM, and Arnold seems like the kind of Rwpublican that would be on board for its messaging.

[JT45242]

3. I watched it-- it was awesome

Talking about his father being a broken man after the WW2 was moving. Any mother or father who listened and didn't think about their sons who might have to fight in this war and come home either as a corpse or as a broken individual both physically and psychologically would have to be almost cult-like in their adherence to the state propaganda.

The part about the Soviet era weight lifter -- this was spot on.

Hopefully, it will really move the needle in Russia.

[Volaris]

43. It was awesome. There are few self-professed Republicans still worthy of the mantle of Lincoln

Arnold is one, imho.

[Botany]

4. Then it will get all over Russia ... done deal

Putin can not stop this from going viral in Russia.

[musclecar6]

5. Thankfully

The guy who mounted an insurrection against the United States was unsuccessful. Otherwise we would be well on our way, if not there already, to not being able to have a video like Schwarzenegger put out ever released attacking our Orange Menace or his BFF in Russia. It wouldn’t be long, just like Russia, that those who didn’t knuckle under to our dictator, would be shipped off to the United States gulag or much worse like happened in Germany or Russia back in the day. Shot in the street by the SS/Gestapo or more recently 10 people shot in a bread line in Ukraine.

It would be nice if our incredibly ignorant GOP would wake up to the dangerous path they are so intent on taking us on.

[rlegro]

31. If isn't as if U.S. Republicans aren't trying

They consistently seek to marginalize or criminalize any political opponent who dares take them on. Including voters. Right now the Onio GOP is planning to impeach the chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court just because the court in multiple rulings rejected the GOP argument that new redistricted legislative maps aren't gerrymandered enough to make Republicans feel secure. Bunch o' tin-plated cowboys who are all hat and no cattle.

[uponit7771]

6. Read on OSINT Russia is going to pull YouTube for a week, Arnold must be hitting home

[FakeNoose]

16. I thought he broadcast it on Twitter?

Maybe it's on both. The Russian people deserve to know, and Arnold did a good job explaining it in a sympathetic tone.

[mopinko]

25. i think he released it pretty wide.

and it's only spread.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

23. That's something Russians will notice too. . . .nt

[obamanut2012]

7. He has a gigantic fan base in Russia

[ancianita]

8. The families of 17,000 dead Russian soldiers will not let any of this go.

[James48]

12. I will wager this-

I’m sure the Russian Army has not yet notified the families of the majority of the casualties.

Some of the reporting has mentioned that Russian soldier records are in the columns of the destroyed units. It is possible that hundreds - or thousands- of Russian soldiers who have been killed or wounded won’t even have a record of them being there. It will takes months- maybe years, to identify the missing (including those incinerated in a tank struck by a Javelin or similar Anti-tank missile) and the dead.

There may be only a small portion of the actual dead who have been reported to their families.

[ancianita]

21. An easy bet. We already know the Putin state system, so yes, the numbers will be dropped,

and families will be told a story that implicates any country or leader but Putin. Many, many databases show the long existing differences in number of those Russians who see asylum in other countries, and the much lower totals Putin shows of Russian emigres.

[FakeNoose]

33. Some of the soldiers have defected, not died

I wonder how they're going to handle this. Back in the 60's when young men here in the US wanted to avoid the draft, some of them split for Canada. This isn't exactly the same thing, but it could be treated that way. Eventually our guys were allowed to return home to the US after the Vietnam War was over. (It was called Amnesty.) Many stayed in Canada because they had jobs, new friends, got married, etc.

So the Russian guys who defected to Ukraine, will they ever be allowed to return? I doubt it. They'll stay in Ukraine or go west to Europe probably.

[FrankTC]

9. Appeals to Russians' Strength

I wonder if Arnold wrote the script himself? Delivery was awesome, as you might expect, but the script was superb. Through recollections of his encounters with a Russian bodybuilder who was at one point the world's strongest man, Arnold emphasized that Russia is strong enough to not need to conquer Ukraine. He did not criticize Russians or raise the issue of collective guilt -- even Putin is not denigrated -- just, noted to be able to stop the war that he started.

[crickets]

11. Arnold had some help from a media team and Alexander Vindman,

which takes nothing away from the effort he put into it himself. Asking Vindman to go over it for him was an excellent idea. It was obviously sincere and from the heart - truly well done on his part.

NYT has a good article about this: https://archive.ph/l9Xl2

The former governor’s social media accounts have nearly 61 million followers, according to Daniel Ketchell, his spokesman, who said the statement was written by Mr. Schwarzenegger and his communications team and fact checked by retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, whom Mr. Schwarzenegger knows socially. [snip]

In a response to a Twitter post from Mr. Ketchell sharing Mr. Schwarzenegger’s video, Rob Flaherty, the White House director of digital strategy, called the statement “really, really remarkable.”

[FakeNoose]

17. Yes I believe that, Arnold expressed admiration and sympathy with the Russian people

I thought it was quite well done. His video will get a lot of play in Russia, I'm sure.

[Baked Potato]

10. I hope it helps. Nt

[crickets]

13. So glad to see this is reaching the Russian people. nt

[notinkansas]

14. If this is getting to the Russian people, that's awesome. But didn't

Putin already shut down twitter and facebook - basically all social media? I thought I read that somewhere.

[calimary]

18. It WILL generate word-of-mouth.

You can’t reach everybody. You can’t win over everybody.

But maybe you don’t have to “shoot the moon.” Might be enough to achieve a stable earth orbit. If we can reach enough of the Russian people, that might just do it.

Critical mass is a pretty doggone powerful thing.

[Gore1FL]

20. Youtube is/was still available after the others were blocked.

I don't know if that is the case anymore.

[mopinko]

26. iirc, telegram is also still up.

[renate]

32. I watched several new YouTube videos from Russians yesterday

I think YouTube made it so Russian channels can't be monetized any more (I hope that decision was changed for the small-time content creators, because they're a great source of information and blameless in all of this), but as of yesterday the videos could still be viewed.

[SheltieLover]

15. Excellent! 👏👏👏👏

[BobTheSubgenius]

19. Fantastic!

All I could have hoped for for Arnold's efforts. He hit the tone right on the nail's head, but I never thought it would be allowed to be disseminated within Russia. I'm freely admitting that I have no idea of what Russia's capabilities are in terms of suppressing it.

[lefthandedskyhook]

22. Never been a fan, but I'll applaud the man

today

[Jetheels]

24. Excellent I hope Russians can view this speech.

[L. Coyote]

27. Fmr. Zelenskyy Adviser Calls On Celebrities To Follow Schwarzenegger's Lead

[LAS14]

28. I thought Twitter was shut down in Russia. No??? nt

[IronLionZion]

30. Did he have it translated into Russian?

Otherwise it would only get English speakers.

[renate]

34. Russian subtitles

It was a very powerful video. Normally I wouldn't spend that long watching a video I hadn't sought out for myself, but it was really good.

[patricia92243]

46. His accent was barely noticeable. I guess he wanted English speaking

Russians to be able to hear him clearly.

[Native]

35. It was masterfully done.

[C Moon]

36. That's what I heard, too.

[myohmy2]

37. very good...

...very persuasive...

...Arnold easily lifted 200 political kilos...

...I'm impressed...

[Emrys]

39. He did very well.

It was pitched similarly to his address after the January 6 Capitol invasion:

[pecosbob]

40. Meanwhile Steven Seagal is still praising Putin and is still banned from entering Ukraine

[lindysalsagal]

42. They probably adore him over there. I'm gonna have to stop hating on Aaahhhnooowwd.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

44. This is a very powerful video

I was amazed at this video.

[Renew Deal]

45. He has earned himself a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

For this and the Jan 6 video.