Thread by @dpinsen

Arnold takes a brave stand here against (in reverse chronological order) @RichardBSpencer’s tiki torch march in Charlottesville, Apartheid, Nazi Germany, and the Confederacy.

I have some thoughts, but first watch this; it’s very well done. 🧵 1/

https://twitter.com/Schwarzenegger/status/1632823423159107591

First, I think you’ve got to be a miserable person to dislike Arnold or Trump. If you were born in America in the ‘70s or any decade after, they’ve been deservedly famous for as long as you can remember. 2/

Both were impressive athletes as young men, both handsome, both branched out beyond their fields to become famous personalities, both had successful political careers. 3/

But Trump has eclipsed Arnold in recent years (and trolled him about it), and I suspect Arnold resents that a bit.

So that’s some of the subtext here. 4/

Also, Trump has been braver than Arnold, for example in his comments about Charlottesville, and by extension the Confederacy. 5/ talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/full-tr…

Both Trump and Arnold are American “newcomers”, to use @AnnCoulter’s terminology (immigrants and descendants of post-Civil War immigrants),

But Trump’s take on Lee mirrors Eisenhower’s, while Arnold’s is current-year, woke scab-picking. 6/

vicksburgpost.com/2010/01/17/rob…

Which takes more courage today, @Schwarzenegger? 7/

Arnold’s lazy conflation of South Africa’s Apartheid government, the Confederacy, and Nazi Germany as “losers” is worth a comment as well.

For starters, F. W. de Klerk didn’t lose; he voluntarily ceded power, and was awarded a Nobel Prize for dismantling Apartheid. 8/

Sweeping him into the same pile with Hitler is outrageous.

And second, Arnold’s emphasis on winners and losers suggests that what motivates him more than his moral compass is siding with power.

Arnold could have included Azov’s torches instead… 9/

But then he wouldn’t have gotten all those favorable quote tweets by accounts with 🇺🇦 flags in their handles.

Arnold’s message against hate is of course correct, but he didn’t have the courage to call out the hate that’s popular today. /Fin

A quick addendum, for those saying “what about his father”, or suggesting Arnold has made a late-in-life turn against Nazism:

1) He mentions his father in the video.

2) He’s been a patron of the @simonwiesenthal since the ‘80s and had them research his father’s wartime record.

And for those suggesting Arnold has becoming a girly man in his old age, here he is easily out lifting an interviewer half his age at 71.

https://twitter.com/dpinsen/status/1132573918370377728