Fitting right in with the weird, right-wing obsession with historical ideas of masculinity, Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently kicked off promotion of a production called “The End of Men.” A promotional clip for the effort featured shirtless men wrestling, someone apparently tanning their testicles, a man milking a cow without a nearby receptacle for the milk… and more. So in other words, it was pretty bizarre. On Twitter, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) mocked Carlson over the weekend for his obsessions, pointing out how Ukrainians have recently been displaying the sort of valiance that Carlson and those in his corner seem to be deliriously pursuing. Before and throughout the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, Carlson has rhetorically propped up Russian President Vladimir Putin, the murderous authoritarian behind the conflict. As Kinzinger put it:
‘Sorry [Tucker Carlson] [#Ukraine] has better men than you’ll ever be.’
As previously reported here, prior to the present conflict, Carlson characterized Democrats as a greater threat to Americans than Putin and justified the Russian regime’s concerns about Ukraine’s relationship to NATO — hollow concerns that have been among the smokescreens provided by Putin and his cronies for the assault on Ukraine. More recently, Carlson said that observers “can be sure that Russian soldiers have committed atrocities in Ukraine,” citing the numerous pieces of photographic evidence — although he implicitly suggested some could be fake, remarking “some number of them must be real.”
⚡️Kuleba: 'Russia must be designated a state sponsor of terrorism and treated accordingly.'
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said, “the only aim of Russian missile strikes on Odesa is terror.” Earlier, two rockets hit Ukraine’s port city, killing five and injuring 18.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 23, 2022
Carlson justified his equivocation regarding the war in Ukraine by pointing to video footage that appears to reveal captured Russian troops killed by Ukrainian soldiers. However, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated in reference to the video that the “Ukrainian army observes the rules of warfare. There might be isolated incidents of the violation of these rules, and they will be definitely investigated.” Kuleba also broadly spoke of the horrors suffered by Ukraine’s population throughout the course of the war, although he made clear that he was not attempting to justify any war crimes, which is what the deaths depicted in that video could constitute. The simple fact is that there’s a clear distinction between the Ukrainian handling of these issues and Russia’s approach. Russian forces have struck civilians for weeks on-end, killing thousands — the Ukrainian military has not. Incidents involving Ukrainian personnel that — unlike similar incidents involving Russian troops — don’t reflect Ukraine’s official strategies for the conflict do not somehow condemn the whole country and make its struggle any less clearly in the right. And that shouldn’t be complicated.
⚡️ Zelensky: Ukraine will pull out of peace talks if Russia kills Ukrainian troops in Mariupol.
Ukraine will also halt the talks if Russia holds pseudo-referendums in occupied territories, he said on April 23.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 23, 2022
