Forget visiting the White House. The other day, Zelensky visited Bakhmut. It’s the most infernal place in the war. Russians have been storming it for weeks. Rubble, piles of corpses, and ongoing hostilities with Russian troops a couple of miles away – and still Zelensky went.
Russians had just declared the capture of Bakhmut, and then Zelensky showed up in the supposedly captured city. So they had to scramble to declare that they never intended to fight for Bakhmut anyway.
During the visit, Zelensky stood in the midst of dozens of heavily armed soldiers. Any one of them could have been upset, traumatized, shell-shocked, supportive of Zelensky’s electoral opponent* – and decided to take a shot. But they weren’t asked to disarm in view of the president’s visit. The right to bear arms is so sacred right now in Ukraine that it would not have been possible.
Imagine the balls one needs to do something like this. Also, imagine how far safe spaces, hurt feelings, and trigger warnings are from the reality I describe.
The crisis of masculinity is over, my friends. Manliness is back, safetyism is out.
* In case people are completely clueless, Zelensky’s electoral opponent is more anti-Russia than Zelensky. There are no pro-Russia political figures or voting blocs. Zelensky supporters bicker with Poroshenko supporters about who hates Russia more.
Clarissa's Blog 
Not exactly how that works.
Deep in the middle of the Area of Operation (AO), it’s likely that he was surrounded by snipers.
Those snipers, who are on his side, gain nothing by sniping him.
That’s because the Opposing Forces (OPFOR) would gladly get rid of the snipers because they can’t be trusted to roll over to their side.
The same is true for all of his forces who were surrounding him.
In fact, he had found what was likely the safest place in Ukraine at that moment.
No upgrades in masculinity required: everyone there was a captive of the situation, and the ones who weren’t involuntarily committed and knew their real odds were his actual suppoters.
Nobody was going to shoot Curtis Lemay either, even if the bastard might have deserved it.
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I know it’s hard to believe but another reality is possible and it already exists.
Snipers are useless in a small cramped room where everybody is crowding around the president.
Here’s another thing that looks quite a miracle: in the first days of the war, the authorities gave out weapons to anybody who wanted them. Completely freely, all you had to do was show up. And people didn’t turn the weapons on each other. No gang violence or increase in crime happened. No drunken brawls ending up in shootouts, no conflicts with neighbors or spouses. People put their freedom to good use.
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