Politicians Are Actors – The Optics Of Politics

Politicians are actors. At least to a certain extent.

Actors rehearse before they form. Politicians rehearse before they perform.

Actors memorise lines. Politicians memories lines.

Actors obsess over their body language and gestures. Politicians obsess over their body language and gestures.

Do you ever get the sense that the politicians don’t seem like regular people? Do you ever feel as though they move and speak differently? That’s because today most politicians that you see on screen have been given media training.

Politicians are taught by media training experts about exactly how to move, act and gesture in front of the camera. These politicians will practise, watch their own footage back, practise again, get advice from experts, and practise again until they have perfected the art of appearing on camera.

Two factors in particular are incredibly important if politicians want to make the right impression on the public: 1. Body Language 2. Fashion (for politicians).

I’m about to go in-depth in exactly why these areas are so important and exactly how politicians craft their body language and fashion on camera.

1. Body Language

As the president or prime minster of a country, you’re the leader of a tribe. A huge tribe.

The public may seem as though they’re modern, sophisticated people. They walk around wearing smart clothes, using laptops and driving cars. Yet unknown to the average person, their tribal brain, the one that evolved for the jungle hundreds of thousands of years ago, is still active.

As the leader of a country, connecting with the public on a logical level isn’t particularly important. Instead, you have to make the public feel as though you’re worthy of leading the tribe.

If they public sense weakness, if they sense that you don’t deserve your position as tribe leader, they will start to rebel, and your reputation will decrease in their minds.

That’s why it’s vital that you have the body language of a leader.

As human-beings we’re emotionally affected by body language to a huge degree. Just go to a party and talk to everybody while holding your right fist against the side of your head — you certainly wouldn’t be making any friends and you most definitely wouldn’t be taking anybody home.

One popular gesture is the closed-fist “power gesture”. This gesture obviously signifies strength in a leader.

The “OK symbol” used frequently by Donald Trump is a kind of precision gesture indicating a sense of intelligence in the leader.

When two politicians meet, particularly male politicians, a silent power game of body language begins.

The two politicians shake hands in-front of an audience of millions of monkey-brained humans, and it’s imperative that no signs of weakness are displayed to the minds of the populations they govern.

Leaders must shake hands firmly, making strong eye-contact with the opposing leader. To have a weak, limp handshake or to look down during the handshake would be to sub-communicate to millions of people that you’re a weak character who’s not worthy of being the tribe leader.

And remember, you’re surrounded by journalists snapping photos of the interaction non-stop; photos that will appear right underneath headlines the following day.

Do you want millions of people to see you looking down during a handshake while the opposing leader makes direct eye-contact, indicating his superiority over you?

Ever wondered why politicians obsessively pat each other on the back? Well, just think about it? Do you want to stand there flinching meekly as Donald Trump pats you on the back, indicating your submission to him in the tribal minds of the public you govern?

Ever wondered why politicians randomly point to things and gesture to things as they walk alongside each other? Well, they know that the media be choosing an image to go underneath the headlines the next day.

Would it be better for them to leave their arms hanging meekly by their sides, or to point at something indicating a sense of purpose and direction?

When a politician points to something, they’re probably pointing at absolutely nothing. When they come on stage and start waving at individual people in the crowd, they’re probably waving at absolutely nobody. It’s all theatre.

Donald Trump understands the importance of body language all too well. Although his over-zealous, “alpha male”, tugging handshakes may seem completely ridiculous, they do indicate a sense of strength to the public.

When he does these kinds of handshakes, he may be seen as silly, as a clown or as ridiculous, but he will never be seen as weak. After all, even if his handshakes seen as a silly. the sheer audacity of tugging on the arm of French President Macron to the point that he nearly topples over is a sign of a strength, if nothing else.

When Donald Trump unbalances other leaders with one of his ridiculous handshakes, large segments of the population will subconsciously see him as a “strong leader” in their tribal, monkey-mind. On a deep level, they will emotionally “feel” as though he’s a strong leader, which will them lead them to making logical rationalisations as to why he’s a good president overall.

Lip-biting, ventilating behaviour (pulling on your collar), tics or any other behaviours that indicate signs of distress need to be avoided at all costs.

Any kind of “blocking behaviours”, behaviours that block the neck, the chest or any other vital organs of the body, must also be avoided (like covering your neck or mouth).

Any “self-soothing behaviours” like face-touching or wringing their hands are indicators of nervousness and weakness and must be avoided at all costs (touching your face actually releases calming signals to your brain).

To do any of these things on national television would be to subconsciously indicate to your population that you’re not fit to be the leader of the tribe.

That’s why politicians hire media training experts to help them conduct their body language in a way that convinces their population that they’re fit to be the tribe leader.

Of course, sometimes politicians can be “overtrained” and end up adopting unnatural and awkward gestures like this:

2. Fashion (for politicians)

The clothes that politicians wear are chosen very, very carefully.

Every single politician (at least the successful ones) have a story. They have a narrative about who they are, where they came from and what they represent; this story needs to be represented in their fashion choices.

Take Ukraine’s President Zelensky for example. Why does he always wear t-shirts wherever he goes? Why doesn’t he wear a suit like all of the other leaders?

It’s to show the Ukrainian people (the army in particular) that he’s “down in the trenches” and not living in luxury, safe from harm, while they fight the war.

If he was to wear a suit like Biden, it would give the impression that he’s above other Ukrainians, as though he’s using his soldiers like expendable pawns while he collects money to go in his back pocket.

He instead frequently wears dark green t-shirts — the same colours as his army; he looks like a military commander rather than a typical politician.

He wears casual clothes, not because he doesn’t care how he dresses, but because he cares immensely.

Bernie Saunders wears suits that are a size too big for him. Why? Because he doesn’t know how to wear a suit properly? No, it’s because he wants to convey the following message: I’m too busy campaigning against the billionaire class and corporations to worry about looking fashionable.

It also distinguishes him from all of the typical politicians wearing there perfectly tailored, expensive suits.

You see, a politicians clothes need to reflect their story. Again, the purpose of a politician’s outfit is not necessarily to make them look good, but to tell a story.

Donald Trump, along with most mainstream politicians, always wear either a blue or black tie. Why? To signify patriotism to the USA. Also, most politicians have started wearing a pin of the US flag — a symbol subconsciously signalling their patriotic love for America.

Tulsi Gabbard purposefully let a grey streak of hair grow into her hair. Why not dye it black? Because it suggestion a dedication to her purpose rather than a preoccupation with beauty. It also marks her as a serious candidate rather than a young, naive, pretty outsider.

Javier Milei’s crazy haircut may seem to us as ridiculous, unkept and unprofessional. Yet to an Argentinian it’s a breakaway from the norm; the norm in Argentinian politics being astounding levels of corruption.

Javier Milei, with his eccentric personality and crazy hair, is at the very least different from the entrenched corruption that characterises normal politics in Argentina.

Does his haircut look good? Not really. Does it convey the message it’s supposed to convey in order to get votes? Absolutely. And that’s what fashion for politicians is all about.

A path for an honest politician?

The problem with all of this media training, all of this trained body language, all of these carefully designed fashioned choices and all of this theatre is that the public can feel the fakeness in their bones.

The public can just feel that their politicians are fake. They wouldn’t be able to tell you exactly why they feel this way, but they can just sense the fakeness of the politicians on their screens.

Human-beings are incredibly skilled at picking up the body language of other people, and the public can sense that the body language of the politicians on our screens is orchestrated and fake.

The public subconsciously notices all of this fake, orchestrated body language and feels as though they cannot trust the typical polticians on their screen.

The people don’t trust regular politicians anymore. This leaves a gigantic space in the market for somebody who actually tells the truth. Somebody who says exactly what they feel, without trying to cater to any particular audience. Somebody with no media training whatsoever.

A politician who hasn’t been trained, someone who openly displays all of their unique, weird and even unflattering quirks is somebody who the public can trust, unlike the plastic, trained, mainstream politicians who symbolise fakery and lies.

This explains the success of Donald Trump(USA) , Javier Milei (Argentina) and Giorgia Meloni (Italy).

Trump has weird, awkward hair that flaps around in the wind and he does weird hand gestures that are unique only to him. Javier Milei has a crazy haircut that looks like it belongs in a different century, and acts erratically on stage, Giorgia Meloni shouts and screams on stage with such passion that it seems as though she truly believes what she says.

These politicians are successful because they don’t follow the regular media training that all of the other cookie-cutter politicians do. The people are starving for an leader who is uniquely themselves and does not take media training.

The more people who understand the political theatre that’s put on our screens, the more people who understand all of the little tricks they play to mold our perceptions of them, the less they will do them and the more honest politicians will become.

When the public becomes wise to all the lies that politicians tell, they have no choice left but to be honest.

Politicians are liars and manipulators because the public are too stupid to see through their manipulation — the politicians we get match the stupidity and naivety of the public.

I hope that one day, when the public grows up, when they become wise to the lies of politicians, that leaders will have no choice but to be completely honest if they way to get elected.