Beauty or the Beast: Peace or War? Ukraine Has a Social Media Problem
Between provoking Russia as well as its allies, there are moments this war seems like a game.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry sent another bizarre tweet appealing for France to provide more weapons of death in its losing war effort with Russia.
The video in the tweet begins with red roses and looks like a love letter.
“Romantic gestures take many forms,” the caption read, before showing a couple holding hands and some pieces of chocolate. “But if you really want to win our hearts…” there’s a smash cut to a rocket system firing…. “Nothing beats 155-mm highly mobile self-propelled artillery.”
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Who is this supposed to appeal to?
One commenter posted, “No but they are fucking serious? Do they reach orgasm by killing people or do they prefer jerking off in front of corpses? Leave the eroticism out of it, you're pissing me off.”
We are witnessing the first major war play out in the age of social media, and have seen how countries can weaponize the platform for their own benefit. Ukraine can post anything on these outlets because the Western media wants Russian President Vladimir Putin to be defeated.
But how long will the mainstream media be able to cover for these kinds of tweets?
President Volodymyr Zelensky and his team have shown the ability to turn on any ally at any moment. Any talk of peace that does not include a full Russian retreat — including Crimea— is met with the kind of mean tweets often reserved for high school.
But these tweets that were once effective in embarrassing Russia — again, only because the propaganda in the Western media is at such a high level — seem to becoming more of a distraction and could backfire.
Just look at the recent bombing of the Crimea bridge that we point out in great detail in this week’s Trends Journal.
Ukraine did not claim responsibility for the bridge bombing. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, took to Twitter after the explosion, “Crimea, the bridge, the beginning. Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled.”
Of course, the bombing led to a Russian missile campaign in major cities across Ukraine, which prompted Kyiv to call on the world — not to negotiate for peace — but for air defense systems.
The one tweet that we’re waiting for from Zelensky is two simple words, “Let’s talk.”