Something to Look At

Here's a recent press photo.

We got a couple guys striding along in what are arguably humorously large helmets, one looking fairly serious and filling out his clothes because he's a stocky dude, and another dude not-quite smiling and being, well, kinda skinny and goofy looking. The men are, of course, Volodymyr Zelensky and Rishi Sunak, the leaders of Ukraine and Britain respectively. The obvious reference to the film "Spaceballs" has been made a bunch of times.

This photo (well, a crop of it focusing on the two men) is Doing The Rounds as the kids say, and generally the consensus is that while Zelensky looks like a big stud and is fully legit in his giant hat, Sunak just looks like an opportunistic idiot.

This is interesting to me, because the dudes literally look the same, apart from their body shapes which, I am reliably informed, we're not supposed to shame people for. Same demeanour (Sunak is showing some teeth, but not really smiling, Zelensky has the same slight humor vibe but without teeth) same posture, same stride, etc etc. The point, though, is that Zelensky is a good guy and Sunak is a bad guy.

They're wearing, I am informed, pretty ordinary aviation helmets. Everyone kind of looks like an idiot in those things, especially with the visor up which is why they look Extremely Huge. I assume that they were told to don the helmets, because you don't get into a military helicopter without a helmet, but maybe not. Either way, though, it's totally a photo-op. They're both trying to look military as hell and so on, doing the buddy-film "serious but with good humor" vibe, because the newspaper tog is standing right there and they're both pretty accomplished politicians. They're probably both thinking "I feel the need... the need for speed!" or possibly ".. talk to me Goose .." right now.

The contortions people are going through to argue that Zelensky is awesome and Sunak is a dipshit are pretty funny, and also illustrative. There is nothing visible in the frame that supports this interpretation. People are simply projecting their preferences onto the picture, and then the more self-aware ones are scrabbling around for some support. All the come up with is essentially that Sunak has a small head, which, see above.

To be honest, a lot of people are essentially taking as given that Sunak looks dumb and Zelensky awesome. It's Just Obvious.

Except that it's not.

I've hammered this point a few times before, the fact that we read a photo of a politician based largely on our politics, and not on anything in the photo. So-and-so "just looks sneaky" when in fact he looks utterly bland, and the other guy looks "statesmanlike" when in fact etc. Whatever. This is the first case I've seen where we have two figures at opposite ends of the "like" spectrum in the same photo, in the same posture, doing the same things.

The polarization in reading remains as clear as ever.

Thanks to Andy B. (name elided to protect the innocent from my bad reputation) for consulting on wtf those helmets actually are and what's probably going on