Bullies Should Never Win
A stream of consciousness from the past 24 hours. You've been warned.
“Always go too far, because that’s where you’ll find the truth.”
Albert Camus
When this week started, I wanted to write about my evolving opinion on Jon Stewart and how I rather be a self-hating Jew. Trump’s infamous video only made the desire to write it more apparent. I have started working on it when I decided to quickly check out how President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the White House is going.
Oh boy.
Immediately I saved my draft and starting typing an entirely new essay based on what we have all saw from the White House yesterday afternoon. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should. Make sure it’s a full version, as the White House appears to have edited out a portion of the video footage from President Trump’s Oval Office meeting with President Zelenskyy. The meeting that WaPo described as “contentious” whereas, we all know it was much worse and much more than that.
My tolerance level for bullshit is extremely, extremely low right now. You don’t need to be Ukrainian to support Ukraine. You just need to be human, to stand for freedom, justice, and the right of people to live in peace. It’s about empathy, dignity, and defending what’s right for all of humanity.
More than a few people posted all over the internet of how ashamed they are. My response was that I have never been more ashamed to be an AMERICAN in my life than I am now. A German word for being embarrassed by the actions of someone else is Fremdscham, or “foreign shame.” A similar word from Icelandic is aulahrollur, which is quite tricky to translate but basically means something along the lines of “cringe quake” or “douchebag chills.”
I felt the cringe quake and the douchebag chills all at once.
I did not catch it right away, but my reaction to this shitshow was more than simply an earnest and honest shame, as an American, for arguably the worst performance in the Oval Office by any President ever. Then I read Professor Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s reaction:
It’s probably an irrational reaction but seeing Zelenskyy treated this way just feels to me like it has something to do with the fact that he is Jewish As I said I don’t think it’s rational but my gut is screaming
I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few years wondering what my Polish side of Ukraine Jewish ancestors who escaped pogroms would think of a Jew being a war time president of Ukraine which is defending itself from a genocidal invasion and it’s just … a lot of layers
Prof. Prescod-Weinstein is correct, there a lot of layers. In all honesty, I forgot that Zelenskyy is Jewish as my perception of him was always as a Ukrainian. My own struggle with post-soviet self-identity is the too significant of a bias I guess. What is not biased is that the entirety of the debacle in the Oval Office yesterday brought back a tsunami of emotional memories of being publicly bullied.
It was an apt parallel to the memories of the Russian ethnofascist bullies that tormented me and millions of other kids and American President and Vice President openly bullying a heroic Ukrainian President of Jewish ancestry with verbiage and statements indistinguishable from Russian propaganda.
The entire vile performance was to give talking points to Rs in Congress and as many others already noted, to demonstrate to the worldwide fascist movement that it's open season going forward.
On 15 March 1939 Hitler summoned the Czech President to his residence in Berlin and then bullied him to submit to a German takeover of his country. He was driven to the point of physical collapse. They kept threatening him until he eventually signed his country’s death warrant. This is also what I remembered yesterday while watching the despicable debacle.
Zelenskyy truly is heroic. He walked into the lion’s den, knowing he would be abused and diminished. Yet he stood tall, honest, honorable, and walked out with his head high, no matter the bullies in tailor-made suits.
I will never forget Zelenskyy’s face after he saw the atrocities in Bucha. He aged years in a single afternoon. So when Trump attempted to question Zelenskyy’s moral standing and passionate try to keep with actual facts, I felt sick. I felt like I was back in the middle school.
TRUMP: "You're not in a good position, you don't have the cards right now" ZELENSKYY: "I'm not playing cards"
As I am trying to verbalize my thoughts on this sociopathic behavior, I am literally stuttering in my own mind! Because if Trump was abhorrent, JD Vance was so much worse. In the moment Vance’s “I think it's disrespectful to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media” felt like he finally hit the proverbial bottom as his response has nothing to do with Zelenskyy’s question on whether JD ever been to Ukraine. Apparently, JD watched a lot of stories!
The snipe about "not saying thank you” reminded me that there is no bottom with these vile people. As someone noted, it took 30 seconds to find at least ten postings from Zelenskyy directly thanking the United States for their support. There are many more.
More to the point, Zelenskyy stood in front of the American people in our Cathedral of Democracy and thanked our entire nation. Every farmer, teacher, engineer, nurse, and cop. Thanked us on behalf of his entire country. Here’s how I know:
Took another 30 seconds and likely only because of the complete enshittification of Google search.
According to NBC, later in the day, a White House official when asked what happened in the Oval Office responded with "America First happened." “America First" in case you don’t know, is a pro-fascist, pro-Nazi movement that started in America to support Hitler. President Trump’s statement clearly confirms this yet again:
Are you fucking kidding me???
When I first saw this yesterday, I really had no bloody words and felt myself literally shaking with rage...
Yet, there is no fucking bottom with Nazis.
Here’s an actual question from ostensibly a reporter: "Why don't you wear a suit?" I applaud Zelenskyy’s inner stand up comedian who perfectly inserted the word “costume” in his response. Costume, or "kostyum" is "suit" in Ukrainian. I am sure that Zelenskyy’s knowledge of and fluency in English is more than sufficient to have done this on purpose. I wonder, however, if the question was also meant to allude to communist dictators wearing military style clothing and uniforms... Kind of like, “see Zelenskyy is just another Fidel Castro.”
Ironically, it is the current administration that is most reminiscent of Castro’s regime or really any Dear Leader type government. White House released an official statement (!!!) regarding the support pouring in for President Trump, VP Vance’s America First Strength.
Yes, the very same Nazi America First.
Of course all of the support was from hangeronss and lackeys. Like the one every single Democrat in the Senate voted to confirm. They all decided to vote for this fascist because *waves hands.*
Almost immediately NBC reported the America’s withdrawal from Ukraine appears to be moving to warp speed.
Actually, I just lied. There was support from some heads of state. Victor Orban said, "Strong men make peace, weak men make war. Today President Trump stood bravely for peace. Even if it was difficult for many to digest. Thank you, Mr. President!"
I am not sure who is a bigger Putin’s lickspittle Orban, Trump, or Musk?
There are of course people like Jesse Watters, who proclaimed: “We run the world. This is America's world. He's our proxy. This ends when we say it ends. It doesn’t end when Zelenskyy says.”
When I started writing this essay, I was incredibly pessimistic on how American public will be able to manage dealing with this propaganda. I had to completely reassess my perceptive, and by default the premise of this essay when earlier today I was asked by a worker at the township trash and recycling center on what are the flags on the back of my car.
He looked like a stereotypical redneck, even down to missing a tooth.
I dreaded the reaction but honestly told him that one was Ukrainian and the other Latvian1.
He looked at me, smiled and said:
“Oh, cool. I did not know. Sorry bout yesterday.”
He clearly had no idea what a Ukrainian flag looks like and by the look on his face he probably has no idea what in the bloody hell is Estonia…. err Latvia. Yet, he displayed the same feeling of cringe quake and the douchebag chills that I did and it was authentic.
It gave me hope.
Perhaps it is silly and naive but I do feel more hopeful than angry now.
The outpour of support from all over Europe, from Polish President Donald Tusk immediately saying “Dear Volodymyr Zelenskyy, dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone” to President Macron’s “We all know the situation. The aggressor is Russia. Ukraine are a nation under attack. I think we were all right to help Ukraine and sanction Russia three years ago, and to continue to do so.” Macron says he’s prepared to open discussions about France providing a nuclear umbrella for all of Europe.
Jared Yates Sexton, writes: “I am so ashamed of how many people with power and influence are choosing to let this administration and the oligarchs that control them do and say whatever they want. We need a better class of leaders. People who meet this moment instead of folding and counting their profits.”
We need leaders like Zelenskyy.
We need reason for hope.
“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed.”
William Faulkner
I did not have it in me to correct him and explain that those actually are coats of armor an not actual flags.