McMILLAN: Tucker Carlson's conversation with a troll

We have heard an overwhelming amount of news about Tucker Carlson’s interview of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but no one is talking about what a magnificent troll Putin is. I am not talking about Putin as some mythical creature, nor am I even speaking of him in ethical terms.I am speaking as a communications professional and I am addressing why I believe Putin said what he did and what its strategic use is.Putin literally just trolled the entire Western world and the implications are incredible if you pause to think about it. It's not the first time that Putin has done this, but I think this trend needs to be seen and understood.Think back to the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022. Trudeau had just wrongly used the War Measures (Emergencies) Act to quash what he claimed was a fascist movement with 'extreme right' elements that was terrorizing Ottawa.Everyone else knows it as the Freedom Convoy where bouncy castles, food stands, and families from diverse backgrounds gathered for the cause of freedom. However, in March of 2022, around the same time that pictures of Chrystia Freeland were circulated associating her with Ukrainian extremists, Putin declared that he was de-nazifying Ukraine. If you read Putin’s rhetoric from back then it was as if he was mimicking Trudeau to justify his invasion of Ukraine.Fast forward to February of 2024 and I could not believe what I was hearing while Putin lectured Carlson about more than a millennium of history. Why would Putin take the time to do that? Was it so he could show the world how smart he is?Not at all. Putin already knows he is smartest leader in the room.But he also knows how Marxist ideology can be weaponized against the citizens of a country. Everyone talks about Putin as an ex-KGB man as if he was an assassin, but forget he was more of an information officer in Dresden, Germany.The first thing Putin did when talking with Carlson was to establish that Russia has a land claim on Ukrainian territory and traced the history back for more than 1,000 years to benchmark it. Do you think Putin is unaware of the growing trend of land acknowledgments in the west?Does this mean President Zelensky will have to start offering land acknowledgments for the unceded territory in Eastern Ukraine now? Maybe Trudeau can send the Ukrainians another billion dollars to start proper DEI and land acknowledgment training in the Donetsk region.It was barely a couple months ago that people across the West were using land rights rhetoric to justify Hamas terrorists raping and mutilating their way through Israel. The concept of land rights has become a powerful tool in establishing both victimhood and entitlement across the West— Putin knows this.Not only does Putin know all of this, but he has just demonstrated that he can use the rhetoric of the West as a weapon against it.We live in a time where reality is stranger than fiction and no one could have imagined these circumstances five years ago. My challenge to the voices, supporters and champions of DEI is to ask you on what grounds you condemn Russia for the war in Ukraine now.If you believe that colonialism and corrupt capitalism has wrongly shaped our modern world then on what grounds do you oppose a man such as Putin who claims that Russia has a historical, ethnic and legal claim to parts, at least, of Ukraine?Will you abandon the use land acknowledgments, or will you tell Ukrainians to admit their colonial guilt and give lip service to the original inhabitants of the land?Either way, Putin is openly mocking you.Ryan McMillan is a fourth year Journalism student at Mount Royal University. X @RyaniMcMillan