I love the Russian people. That is why I have to tell you the truth. Please watch and share. pic.twitter.com/6gyVRhgpFV
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) March 17, 2022
ADDED: You can read the transcript here. Excerpt:
[My father] didn’t like Russians, because of his experience in the Second World War, when he was injured in Leningrad. (The Nazi army that he was part of did vicious harm to that great city and to its brave people.)...
When my father arrived in Leningrad, he was all pumped up on the lies of his government. When he left Leningrad, he was broken physically and mentally. He spent the rest of his life in pain: pain from a broken back, pain from the shrapnel that always reminded him of those terrible years, pain from the guilt that he felt.
Russian soldiers already know much of this truth. You’ve seen it with your own eyes. I don’t want you to be broken like my father. This is not a war to defend Russia like your grandfathers and your great-grandfathers fought....
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67 comments:
Very smart and effective.
That is about as good as it gets. Arnold has produce material that can only help. As noted elsewhere, it is time for Anonymous to do their part :-)
Does he bring up the Nazis? Just curious. I am just happy we are staying out of it, let the commies fight the Nazis, let the Nazis fight the commies. Too bad civilians have to suffer, but the world needs entertainment too and this war is getting boffo ratings.
Arnold should have played "16 tons" to honour coal mining hillbillies in DonBas who are being shelled by Ukrainians.
I left it when he spoke of a Jan 6 "insurrection".
Russians knowing their own violent history will guffaw at that claim.
Well done, ahnold.
I pushed through the Jan 6 “insurrection” segment to get to the end. Interested to see what he had to say. Tried to put away his “screw your freedom” views on vaccinations and masking. Tried to forget he cheated on his wife and had an “out of wedlock” love child. Or something.
Tried to ignore he might have helped pull California back from the brink as governor - but didn’t.
The basic thing I agreed with was that we are being lied to. Everyone. Russians. Ukrainians. Americans. No true reporting from media. Censored and filtered social media feeds. On and on. Not sure what the plan or goal is other than power and control. He read well written words. I am reasonable sure they were not all his. Hollywood POS. Watch “Pumping Iron” to see what he is really like.
He lost me with the January 6th bullshit.
The man is a RINO doofus...have no regard for his opinion on anything except maybe cigars.
Silly posturing by a make believe "tough guy". Have him pledge sending his sons to fight for "freedom" in the Ukraine. Maybe between feeding ravioli to his genetically modified mini-ponies he keeps at his mansion, he can strap on some bazookas and show us how it's done.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ellievhall/arnold-schwarzenegger-coronavirus-donkey-mini-horse
Why does Russia still have a UN security council seat? Thsi video is preaching to the choir. Nice, but will not change anything.
Silly posturing by a make believe "tough guy". Have him pledge sending his sons to fight for "freedom" in the Ukraine. Maybe between feeding ravioli to his genetically modified mini-ponies he keeps at his mansion, he can strap on some bazookas and show us how it's done.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ellievhall/arnold-schwarzenegger-coronavirus-donkey-mini-horse
Arnold should know some truth about his purported hero, Soviet weightlifter Yuri Vlasov.
Yuri Vlasov was Russian national from Donbas region in Ukraine, which is now separatist Donetsk People’s Republic. After retiring from sports he became a writer and later entered politics. His political stand quickly gravitated to radical Russian patriotism. He died 1 year ago. There is no doubt Yuri Vlasov would support Putin.
Yes, it's a smart approach. Don't vilify the Russian people. Put the blame on the misinformation given to them by their government.
But perhaps a similar video by Russian citizen and Putin friend Steven Seagal would have a greater impact.
Making appeal to Russian people and informing them that his father was on the Nazi side of the Leningrad blockade was particularly stupid.
Leningrad blockade was probably the most horrific episode of the WW2. Any mention that Arnold’s father was enforcing the blockade will not go down well in Russia.
"I bravely sided with the establishment at no risk to my freedom or that of my family by calling for the heads of people protesting a rigged election with raised voices and Trump flags. To be honest I enhanced my standing among party shills, corporate monopolists, public sector unions, tech oligarchs, foreign sweatshop operators, corrupt tax collectors, modern day brownshirts, Keith Olberman, Rachel Maddie and the ladies on The View. Nevertheless it was brave. Don't worry about gulag, be brave like me".
"Making appeal to Russian people and informing them that his father was on the Nazi side of the Leningrad blockade was particularly stupid."
I thought he took this terribly negative fact and wove it into brilliant rhetoric.
The photo in the background — the upper quadrant of young Arnold — is so delightful: The famous bulkily muscled arm in the flexed position, the profile of the handsome face, no clothing in view.
The photo is part of the rhetoric.
When he runs for office as a Republican he’s a sexual predator. When he’s nor running for office and spreading the insurrection myth he’s a compelling humanitarian.
Isn’t this the guy who said fuck your freedom, well there isn’t a worse advocate for anything in the world. Fuck him I would not listens single to a single word, not one syllable.
Essentially,he said the same thing about Trump voters.
Well written, well delivered, well produced, contemptible spokesmodel. Reminded me of Andrew Cuomo’s COVID briefings.
He’s telling the Russians that they are being lied to while lying about January 6? Disgusting.
"Making appeal to Russian people and informing them that his father was on the Nazi side of the Leningrad blockade was particularly stupid."
You think they don’t know that?
He had to address it, lest it be used against his message.
Arnie needs to do a biopic and play Jesus Christ. It would be epic and could end with him saying, "I'll be back..."
Do you think you could put your butthurtedness aside for a moment and worry about the people of Ukraine?
What the protesters/rioters did on January 6th was damaging and stupid, whether it was a real "insurrection" or "coup" or not. Don't overdo your empathy for them or outrage at the media for exaggerating and dramatizing all that. There are more important things.
That my-father-the-Nazi material was fantastic. He's telling the Russian soldiers that they are going to suffer for the rest of their lives, like Father Schwarzenegger, because in this war, *they* are the Nazis. And no one will empathize with them, because they served the evil cause. And yet Arnold is empathizing, expressing love for them... now, while they can still hear that they need to stop and maybe do something to end it.
"while they can still hear that they need to stop and maybe do something"
Can they? Do what? And then what?
Our sanctions, including on their artists, tell them we despise them. We are bound by no rules ourselves, seizing their property as we see fit. We will make them suffer for something they do not control. With Putin gone their situation is still the same.
And an "excellent presentation" will make them "do something"?
What is our goal? I mean, not Arnold's, but the actual American goal. What do we want to achieve?
I found the delivery very compelling, but was snapped back to reality by the insurrection bit. If I was on the verge of bailing on the video at that point, surely Russians will want to bail on the video at many points where they think Schwarzenegger is off-base. In addition, I wonder how persuasive his delivery will be for non-English speakers? The words are all subtitled in Russian, but I expect that they would be more powerful if delivered in a Russian voice.
I step away from Althouse for months and return to see the word "butthurtedness".
:) Come for the drama, stay for the spelling and grammar.
Isn’t he calling for a Russian “insurrection”?
We'll put our butthurtness aside when they free the political prisoners they are holding in the DC gulag, and try Michael Byrd for the murder of unarmed Ashli Babbitt instead of giving him a gold medal. This butthurtness is not going to end, until the correct people are in prison, not running the country.
Arnold is not perfect; but we are not the target audience here. He might be a very effective messenger to the Russian people. I think bringing up his Nazi father was a master stroke. “Don’t be like my father and don’t let your sons be like my father”. Pretty effective I think. There are likely to be large numbers of people in Russia that don’t trust their government - just like here. They’re not likely to listen to our government either. Maybe, just maybe, they’ll listen to the European/American son of a former Nazi that they are somewhat inclined to like. Might help break through the fog of bullshit they’re being fed.
Don't overdo your empathy for them or outrage at the media for exaggerating and dramatizing all that.
Likewise, because it damages the message you may be trying to make about the war in Ukraine.
It is very important when you consider much of the recent animosity between Russia and Ukraine began with a very real and effective coup in Ukraine in 2014 that went against the government that was empathetic to Russia. Imagine if Jan. 6th was a real coup and Trump was still in office and Schwarzenegger's message was for the people fighting to restore the rightful government to the United States, because that's how his message likely sounds to Russians.
I agree his comments about his father were necessary and compelling.
Why does it start with January 6 episode? Certainly Russians don’t care about it.
“Look how carefully I tow the official line in US! Don’t you do the same in Russia”
Then he proceeds to patronize Russians by telling them what supposedly don’t know.
Then he brings up his family Nazi past, giving Putin press agents a stick to beat him with.
This has nothing to do with trying to win Russian “hearts and minds”. Just another example of virtue signaling between US “elites”.
This is the commentariat you have carefully curated over the years, Althouse. You sound surprised. Your own husband is one of their fellow travellers and cheerleader. As such, I appreciate what you have done. Now we can fully see the depths people who follow an evil traitorous con man will fall. Nearly all of your deplorables are unapologetically racist, Covid deniers and insurrection fanboys. However, a significant chunk of your right wing clients have drawn the line at Putin apologist. That's been good to see that there is a semblance of humanity left in the Trump base.
Thank you for your service.
The January 6 insurrection establishes him as a moron.
"What the protesters/rioters did on January 6th was damaging and stupid, whether it was a real "insurrection" or "coup" or not. Don't overdo your empathy for them or outrage at the media for exaggerating and dramatizing all that. There are more important things."
I agree it was damaging and stupid, but it clearly was neither an insurrection nor a coup, period.
As to there being more important things in the world, well, duh -- I suppose there are always things that are more important than the things we don't want to talk about or acknowledge. However, the lie that January 6 constituted an attempt to overthrow the government is pretty goddam important. Among other things, there are folks who are suing to prevent people who merely "supported" the protests from ever running for elected office, under the 14th Amendment. IOW, the hyperbolic claims about Jan. 6 are being used as a justification to attack our representative democracy by controlling who is eligible for election.
I agree this is a very effective piece of propaganda, but it's still propaganda. I suspect the ex-Gov had plenty of help from the State Department in producing it.
And when you dig down deep....."Aside from the obvious problems of it -- its false equivalence of a crowd protesting election fraud that got out of control in Washington apparently with some official complicity and blundering, and the queasy-making memories Russians themselves would have of their own protests against election fraud in Russia over the past decade, the comparision was irrelevant and gratuitous.
Why did he include that nonsense, which not only ruined the rest of the message like a turd in a punchbowl, but managed to remind many Americans that he had gone rotten on them?
Buried deep in the New York Times article about it was probably the answer:
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.
Formerly a top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, Colonel Vindman was a prominent witness in former President Donald J. Trump’s first impeachment trial, testifying about a phone call in which Mr. Trump asked President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine for help with investigations against his political opponents."
It's a bunch of Progressive bullshit.
I was prewarned to push past the January 6th reference and I am glad that I did.
What the protesters/rioters did on January 6th was damaging and stupid, whether it was a real "insurrection" or "coup" or not
Agreed. I don't think it was either a "coup" or "insurrection", but it was damaging and stupid. Even if it was a "trap", the rioters didn't have to step into it.
I thought his presentation was well written and well delivered. His past celebrity make it more likely to be heard and heeded by the audience he was targeting. We probably will never know if it had an effect or not but it was worth trying.
Is Arnold a great role model as a human being? Not in my opinion, but a broken clock can be right twice a day.
That was posted @The American Thinker By Monica Showalter
Serious question: Regardless of the quality or substance of the video, who will this really impact? Name one person, whether in Russia, Ukraine, here in the US, or anywhere else, who will watch this video and think, "Wow, he's really given me something to think about. I need to reconsider." Does Arnold really have that kind of clout, anyway? His glory days are far behind him. But even if he were still a celebrity of importance, so what? Who is he speaking to? Will even one mind be changed by this video?
It seems to me he's doing this for himself, and himself alone. He wants to stay relevant, but its too late for that. Sorry, Arnold. Go make another Terminator movie. Come back as a ghost this time, that will pack an audience.
PS Howard, go f yourself.
I'm incredibly distracted by his hair. Dyed so poorly. I did like the weaving of my father was a Nazi into the Ukraine's President's Uncles were killed by Nazi. That was a great example or parallel lives, and who is right and who is evil.
I wonder how many people in Russia will even see this however.
Ignore the lies. Do it for Ukraine.
the venn diagram
there’s howard and his shine box
a lovely couple
Tokyo Rose.
Found on Arnold's cutting room floor:
Hey Russian soldier boy, while you're stuck in Ukraine your girl back home is seeing other guys.
"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." -@American Thinker
All You need to know. Why isn't Vindman going back to fight for his country, instead of insulting President Trump when THIS has nothing to do with Trump???
"It seems to me he's doing this for himself, and himself alone. He wants to stay relevant, but its too late for that" This is pretty much spot on. Hollywood stars, particularly fading ones, crave the spotlight.
The shadow clique that is trying to gin up a war with Russia are only too willing to oblige Arnold's need for attention.
You can bet more people in the west will see this video than any Russian it is supposedly meant to influence.
Why would anyone talk about Jan 6th in the same breath as a war where thousands are being killed and maimed.
Idiotcy. And yes, some of the people on Jan 6th who committed vandalism or fought with the police were Stupid, but the vast majority did nothing more then walk into the building. Neither stupid nor dangerous. They don't deserve to be hunted down (still ongoing 1 year after the event) and thrown in prison. Nor did Ashli babbitt and 3 others deserve to be murdered.
As for Arnold, this is just more Hollywood grandstanding. Going with the Establishment and repeating the regime propaganda points. No Russian soldier cares what some old Austrian thinks. And they're probably outraged that the son of a Nazi soldier who invaded their country is giving them anti-Russian "advice".
People like Althouse are the target audience for this, not Rusisans. And if you like it, thank Arnold's scriptwriter. Arnold didn't write it.
Arnold is close to that "AMerican Hero" Vindmann. The man who lied about Trump his commander-in-chief, and tried to destroy him. As stated above, Vindmann is a Ukrainian with military experience and was offered the Ukrainian DoD job. Why isn't he in Kiev, figthing?
Is Ahnuld that big in Russia? I really have no idea.
Pretty good propaganda; maybe the has-been's sermonette will help undermine Putin. It has certainly reminded people that Ahnuld still breathes.
Put aside our butthurtedness?
A- We're good at multi-tasking and...
2- What are you? Fucking seven?
That is what celebrities do. One year they all make porn videos, the year of Covid they do “We all in this together” videos, this year they do “Save Ukraine” videos.
Arnold is the son of a Nazi who lied to his wife to fuck a skank - he also lied during "pumping Iron".
He is in capable of making an "excellent" presentation.
Crack you really blew it, guy. You had intergrity.
Shilling and selling out to the liberal/left establishment is the way to $$. Did you see Bono's ukraine poem?
Set that to some good music and you'll make a fortune.
“ I did like the weaving of my father was a Nazi into the Ukraine's President's Uncles were killed by Nazi.”
No
Say, can we do better than that? How about Arnold’s father personally shooting Zelensky’s uncles? Get the right soundtrack and… multiple Oscars, baby!
The guy who said 'screw your freedom' is running his mouth about what?
Hard pass.
Do you think you could put your butthurtedness aside for a moment and worry about the people of Ukraine?
It's not 'butthurtedness' to ignore an asshole who basically told me to fuck off about my freedom.
I pray it helps someone. It’s subtitled.
I’m so far disconnected from LA/Hollywood- I really don’t listen. I did listen to Arnold. I thought how sad it must be to have a broken father, which spellcheck changed to faith… w/all the noise- I hope he can help someone find the Truth.
Maybe Arnold will find the Truth.
Jesus; all I can say is it's a good thing Howard is here to redeem this deplorable space.
(What an insufferable ass.)
In Austria back in the late 70s I saw a lot of world war memorials. The ones for 1939-1945 were often pretty oblique about the context and if figural were more likely to feature the lost warriors in Austrian field caps than coal-scuttle helmets.
At least Ahnuld didn't dodge the Nazi in the family issue, so props for that; as to the J6 references, as someone said, people who like Trump aren't the audience.
As for WWII analogies, perhaps we aren't watching Hitler's Country Crushers but Mussolini's
Hollow Legions.
Tomcc:
scroll, baby- scroll…
Do you think you could put your butthurtedness aside for a moment and worry about the people of Ukraine?
The Ukrainians who were disenfranchised, denied essential services, and under attack by Kiev-aligned military and paramilitary forces since 2014? Zelensky had more than 2 years to reconcile with them and end the civil war, the Slavic Spring. Since 2019, they could have opened the bio-hazardous labs to inspection or closed them. Harris could have avoid announcing support for NATO expansion. All the empathy that has been used is a double-edged scalpel that was conceived, birthed, and nurtured by the Kiev regime and foreign axis forced the hand of Ukrainians to invite an outside force to stand with them. Zelensky has an opportunity, two years, more, late, but never, to end the war in Ukraine, and restore regional, if not comity, then civility bullshit.
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