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So yes, you missed the clue that might've led to you googling and finding that it refers to the Molotov Ribbentrop, and are now being very defensive 😂 Merry Christmas bud ✌️
Okay, i have adhd and often miss things. You got me. Now can you answer my question? I dont mean to be defensive and I want to be educated.
Judging by your other answer to the other commenter, which is pretty in depth and shows that you definitely have a clear understanding of what this illustrates and which outlines specific issues you have with this piece of art, I'd say I'm probably not gonna be able to teach you much of anything if that's what you're even looking for mate.
To my mind, there's probably not one specific meeting or moment that this piece is analogising as the modern Trump/Putin version of the Molotov-Ribbentrop, but the continued "peace talks" wherein Trump and Putin seem to collaborate to sell Ukraine down the river.
As I don't believe there's a "modern" pact, I can't answer your second question or third question directly, but can say that there were various territories which seemingly had agency removed from them in the aftermath of the historical MR pact, like Poland, being invaded by Germany and USSR.
I think that dovetails a little with how it feels Ukraine is being treated at the moment by Trump and Putin.
I think there's certainly enough here to warrant this metaphor working, even if it's not a direct 1:1 mapping.
I honestly hadn't first considered the Ukraine similarity when I wrote the first comment. That tracks tbh. I'm probably reacting to how much confusion there is generally about the Nazis and the USSR, where most people don't have their own developed views but have appropriated some posture through hegemony, which has its own biases and incentives to confuse understanding. I also didn't see i was posting in a Euro comm or i would have probably stopped myself.
Tbh the Ukraine similarities track, but the issues around that war are very confused as well. In general, I'd say people dont understand how western forces destabilized and used Ukraine to agitate Putin into invasion and war, likely to draw them into a protracted , draining, no-win conflict like Viet Nam. Then people who are aware of that tend to think of Ukraine as US imperialist puppets, and end up buying much of the Russian framing of the issues. Germany was more than happy to keep burning Russian natural gas before the Nord Stream pipelines were blown up, although I think its probably disingenuous to flatten this artist's protest message into the geopolitical maneuvering of German establishment.
I guess I would prefer something more explicit toward acknowledging the incredible hardship this war has created in a country that has known nothing but hardship and exploitation, if that is the intention of the work. By my account, taking all of that and framing it as Trump+Putin=Stalin+Hitler (seriously who is Hitler and who is Stalin in this formula) misses the mark, but I appreciate the challenge and engagement.
I think we're talking interpretation and opinion here, and without digesting much of what you're saying I wouldn't be doing your time justice by responding to much of what you're saying.
However, I want to pick up on this, which you've picked up on at least twice in these comments:
I think the artist of this piece was referencing either this photo:
collapsed inline media
Or this photo:
collapsed inline media
So, if this was a direct 1:1 mapping of leaders (which I'm not convinced it is), it would follow that Putin is Stalin, and Trump is Hitler.
I guess it depends which side of the float you are standing on, like is the writing only on one side, or both? But digging into the comparison is interesting because both leaders are Hitler/Stalin in their own ways.
Oh, duh lol I didn't even think of that. Yeah, it's double-sided, with writing on both sides, so it's probably not a 1:1 mapping.