Watch Tucker's immediate reaction to the interview here: https://bit.ly/3SxeZBYTucker interviews Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia. February 6th, 2024.Follow ...
I wonder how far did Carlson’s soul went during the seconds after it.
The way i read that is that Putin, not Carlson, meant it to appeal less to a Western and more to a global south (and Russian) audience. It’s not so much how Tucker handled the interview but how Putin chose to engage.
I mean obviously Carlson indended it for a domestic conservative audience in the US, but frankly this is above their intellectual level and most of them are likely to check out after ten minutes of Putin not repeating their favorite talking points about Biden’s dementia, liberals, LGBT and the globalists. I’m sure Carlson hoped for something different as well; something that would play better with his conservative base. You could see his frustration throughout the interview at Putin refusing to give him what he wanted and instead engaging in this long winded historical exposition.
So while it was definitely not the intention on Tucker’s part, the objective result will be that this will reach more the audience in the global south than western reactionaries. And although Putin could easily have given him more of the reactionary red meat that he was looking for, i think he recognizes that it is pointless to pander to the western conservative audience since at the end of the day the political elites on both sides will continue to pursue the same aggressively anti-Russian course regardless how sympathetic the average chud is to Russia.
Instead he hijacked Tucker’s platform and just did his usual thing which he knows plays well with the more historically literate and intellectually engaged Russian and Chinese audiences. This doesn’t mean he didn’t bring up any of the reactionary talking points Carlson was looking to get - after all, unfortunately that kind of talk also finds some appeal in the global south, and definitely in Russia - but in proportion to the amount of time he spent on history both recent and less so, i think a lot of Tucker’s chud fans were pretty disappointed/bored.
As for the streamer thing, i think you’ve basically summed it up. I have nothing more to add.
obviously Carlson indended it for a domestic conservative audience in the US, but frankly this is above their intellectual level and most of them are likely to check out after ten minutes of Putin not repeating their favorite talking points about Biden’s dementia, liberals, LGBT and the globalists
Honestly I was surprised- because there is a lot to go on on these fronts (other than the LGBT, and to a lesser extent dementia issues of course).
Putin wouldn’t have had to lie. All he needed to do to toss some crumbs on Tucker’s table, would be to talk about the military-industrial complex and the deep state/“the blob.” He could have used the example of the (after the fact, publicly touted) blatant insubordination, stalling, and sabotage of Trump’s attempts to withdraw from the illegal occupation of Syria as an easy and blatant example that comes to mind. He could have described the neoliberal/neoconservative strategy and vision for the future, which is essentially the typical “globalist” schtick but with actual receipts and not smearing one ethnoreligious group.
I get why he still played so tame, and it was an interesting interview despite it. I suppose we’ll never quite know what could have come, out of what could have been, though- maybe for the better, maybe for the worse.
I mean he could have done that but as Putin said in the interview: it’s pointless to try to engage in the propaganda war against the West’s narrative on their own media turf. In essence with this interview Putin showed that he refuses to play the West’s game. The reaction this interview got from the anti-Russia crowd shows just how much this strategy rattles and confuses them: half of them are screaming about how this was a big propaganda win for Putin and how Carlson needs to be sanctioned and banned, while the other half are busy gloating over how badly Putin failed at delivering effective propaganda to a western audience which has little interest or patience for this kind of long winded history-heavy lecture about a part of the world they already know and care very little about (though i’m sure going forward we’re gonna see plenty short and snappily edited clips pop up of the parts of this interview that actually do appeal to western audiences).
The way i read that is that Putin, not Carlson, meant it to appeal less to a Western and more to a global south (and Russian) audience. It’s not so much how Tucker handled the interview but how Putin chose to engage.
I mean obviously Carlson indended it for a domestic conservative audience in the US, but frankly this is above their intellectual level and most of them are likely to check out after ten minutes of Putin not repeating their favorite talking points about Biden’s dementia, liberals, LGBT and the globalists. I’m sure Carlson hoped for something different as well; something that would play better with his conservative base. You could see his frustration throughout the interview at Putin refusing to give him what he wanted and instead engaging in this long winded historical exposition.
So while it was definitely not the intention on Tucker’s part, the objective result will be that this will reach more the audience in the global south than western reactionaries. And although Putin could easily have given him more of the reactionary red meat that he was looking for, i think he recognizes that it is pointless to pander to the western conservative audience since at the end of the day the political elites on both sides will continue to pursue the same aggressively anti-Russian course regardless how sympathetic the average chud is to Russia.
Instead he hijacked Tucker’s platform and just did his usual thing which he knows plays well with the more historically literate and intellectually engaged Russian and Chinese audiences. This doesn’t mean he didn’t bring up any of the reactionary talking points Carlson was looking to get - after all, unfortunately that kind of talk also finds some appeal in the global south, and definitely in Russia - but in proportion to the amount of time he spent on history both recent and less so, i think a lot of Tucker’s chud fans were pretty disappointed/bored.
As for the streamer thing, i think you’ve basically summed it up. I have nothing more to add.
The American government has already been completely immobilized by flattering the dumbest people on earth with racist memes.
Seems like he knows this and is focusing on more fertile geopolitical ground.
Honestly I was surprised- because there is a lot to go on on these fronts (other than the LGBT, and to a lesser extent dementia issues of course).
Putin wouldn’t have had to lie. All he needed to do to toss some crumbs on Tucker’s table, would be to talk about the military-industrial complex and the deep state/“the blob.” He could have used the example of the (after the fact, publicly touted) blatant insubordination, stalling, and sabotage of Trump’s attempts to withdraw from the illegal occupation of Syria as an easy and blatant example that comes to mind. He could have described the neoliberal/neoconservative strategy and vision for the future, which is essentially the typical “globalist” schtick but with actual receipts and not smearing one ethnoreligious group.
I get why he still played so tame, and it was an interesting interview despite it. I suppose we’ll never quite know what could have come, out of what could have been, though- maybe for the better, maybe for the worse.
I mean he could have done that but as Putin said in the interview: it’s pointless to try to engage in the propaganda war against the West’s narrative on their own media turf. In essence with this interview Putin showed that he refuses to play the West’s game. The reaction this interview got from the anti-Russia crowd shows just how much this strategy rattles and confuses them: half of them are screaming about how this was a big propaganda win for Putin and how Carlson needs to be sanctioned and banned, while the other half are busy gloating over how badly Putin failed at delivering effective propaganda to a western audience which has little interest or patience for this kind of long winded history-heavy lecture about a part of the world they already know and care very little about (though i’m sure going forward we’re gonna see plenty short and snappily edited clips pop up of the parts of this interview that actually do appeal to western audiences).