6 ms·

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Last Act

85 points by samclemens 4y ago

iKlsR 4y ago
https://archive.is/8X3up https://archive.is/8X3up
MaxHoppersGhost 4y ago
Kind of a strangely flippant article. By the end I was annoyed at the author’s tone and dismissiveness of Arnold.
- drewcoo 4y ago
  His politics and the Atlantic's are at odds. He's far from perfect, but what he's accomplished in the US as a kid from Austria . . . absolutely amazing. Over and over. If the US Constitution didn't prevent it, he'd surely be President. (And I'm from his political antipode.)
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - spaceman_2020 4y ago
    Truly is a remarkable man. Achieved all that he did through sheer will. Even if you ignore his movie and political careers, Arnold would be a legend just for his bodybuilding career. People forget that Arnold and his peers were the pioneers in bodybuilding and achieved all that they did without any set template, industrial support, or even societal approval.
    - harry8 4y ago
      >Achieved all that he did through sheer will. Including the will to take illegal steroids without which he wins nothing and has no fame or career in public life. If you think that differs from Lance Armstrong it's probably informative to know why you think that way. (And i do fwiw)
      - jokowueu 4y ago
        Every body uses steroids in the Mr Olympia competitions comparing it to cycling competitions is wrong . He is born with a perfect physique and the will to work on it extensively
        Traubenfuchs 4y ago
        …and everyone in the cycling community is pumping themselves full of legal and illegal substances, disregarding their health, at the precise border of appearing clean during testing times/days. https://www.velonews.com/news/road/circ-report-20-90-percent-modern-peloton-still-doping/ https://www.velonews.com/news/road/circ-report-20-90-percent...
        j7f3 4y ago
        Can you tell the difference between hearsay and reliable news?
        jokowueu 4y ago
        You don't seem to understand. In the Olympia completions its a grey area and every one knows that they have to do it . Being illegal doesn't matter they don't have to appear clean . With cycling competitions it's very regulated and they try to do substances that don't appear in the tests
      - jbigelow76 4y ago
        Including the will to take illegal steroids without which he wins nothing and has no fame or career in public life. Meh, his biggest body-building claims to fame were multiple Mr. Olympia titles. Is there any other Hollywood A-list type (current or former) of which that title has been the make or break factor? Schwarzenegger's peer at the time for the same title(s) was Lou Ferrigno, and he never did better than runner up at a time in which that competition had the most cultural cache within Hollywood; he even he had his own success in Hollywood as The Hulk (and 36 other movie/TV credits per wikipedia.) Some of Schwarzeneggar's success comes down to "sheer will" as the GP posited. Some of it is also luck (right place/right time, the right "look" for a given role, etc...) And some of it is help from others, which he seems to readily acknowledge and pass on as a message to others[1] To say Schwarzenegger is who he is only because of steroids is as shallow of an assessment as to say it's all "sheer will". 1. https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/comments/o9infd/not_a_selfmade_man/ https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/comments/o9infd/not_a_s... edit: cleaned up a sentence.
  - webmaven 4y ago
    The 1993 movie Demolition Man had Schwarzenegger as a past (ie. prior to the main action in 2032) president by virtue of a constitutional amendment. Schwarzenegger's political career began in 2003 as Governor of California, and an "Arnold Amendment" was actually proposed shortly after that, but didn't get any traction: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Opportunity_to_Govern_Amendment https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Opportunity_to_Govern_...
    - philwelch 4y ago
      Arnold also used to have a huge rivalry with Stallone, and the line in Demolition Man was in part a reference to that.
      - webmaven 4y ago
        I think "Last Action Hero" had a scene in a video store where there was a cardboard standup of Stallone as the Terminator.
  - blindriver 4y ago
    His politics? Do you know anything about him besides the fact he's a so-called "Republican"? He's a Democrat in everything except name. He even married into Democratic royalty. Even when he won as Govenor, we all knew his politics was Democratic rather than Republican.
    - barry-cotter 4y ago
      No one cares about the Kennedys anymore. You too can not care about them.
    - tromp 4y ago
      Are you saying he's in denial about the nature of his politics? > And he’s not about to become a Democrat, either. (“I don’t want to join a party that is destroying every single fucking city,” he told me. “They’re screwing up left and right.”)
  - matwood 4y ago
    > He's far from perfect Arnold himself in Pumping Iron would beg to differ ;) > all I have to do is get my posing routine down more perfect, which is almost impossible to do, you know. It's perfect already.
  - flippinburgers 4y ago
    It really seems to boil down to that anymore: if you don't fit the mold but do something phenomenal you are dismissed.
  - notafraudster 4y ago
    So, basically nothing about this tracks. Arnold would have been best characterized as a right-liberal during his time in politics. He was a moderate Republican in a state that was already pretty left-leaning. Since then he's drifted a little left (focusing on criticizing Trump mostly on compassionate grounds, focusing on civic engagement, and focusing on environmental issues). I think he'd best be characterized in the global scale as something between a right-liberal and a left-liberal. The Atlantic has basically Washington Consensus politics, a little left on some issues, but basically market liberals. Maybe a more simplified way to put this: The Atlantic likely would have been closer to Clinton in the 2016 primaries than Sanders, and closer to Biden in 2020 primaries than Warren than Sanders. So it's true that they don't have identical politics, but it's not true that they're really at odds. His life story is really inspirational, but his terms as governor sort of exposed he didn't have a great aptitude for elected politics. After he got whooped in his 2nd year midterm on the bond issues, he acknowledged that to be an effective governor he needed to get better at working with the legislature and making the case for his priorities. Then he served another six years with no major accomplishments; he never really felt like he was in the driver's seat after that midterm. He remained personally likeable, and it's true that Democrats put up only a token challenge to his second term election, but this maybe emphasizes the point: he was not in control of the issue agenda in the state, he wasn't a real threat. He didn't do a terrible job as governor, but he did do a very passive job. And in his second term when he did try to engage with the legislature, it didn't work, and mostly (as the article notes) his popularity eroded significantly. After leaving politics, he didn't really stay engaged in the party or build connections in the state, and indeed it's telling that Republicans have had a terrible record in California since. He's never sought any federal office, and I have no idea why the article accepts the false premise that after being Governor, the only other option is to run for President. He could have, of course, ran as a Senator (Governors often do this!), ran for the house (Governors occasionally do this!), gotten involved in executive politics by taking any of a number of federal appointments that could have been open for him (or made a case for a cabinet position). He didn't. The article suggests he wouldn't mind being Secretary of State. If that were true, we'd expect him to have done... uh... literally anything connected to diplomacy in the 15 years since he left elected office? And frankly a lot of his public engagement with politics over the last few years has been pretty surface level. He's talking directly to the public, mostly in (yes, well articulated) platitudes. I agree with him on all these issues and I'm glad he's using his bully pulpit to advocate for good things that I agree with. But mostly that's where the engagement stops. He's not day-to-day running civil society organizations, he's not building connections with politicians, he's just sort of weighing in in the same way a lot of people do on issues he cares about. I do think there's a lot to admire in Arnold (his life story is amazing). and I don't have any hostility towards him. He's funny, he's using his platform for good, he's a sports hero, he's a unique and fun actor. I don't think he's great at doing electoral politics.
- WalterBright 4y ago
  I had the same impression. He didn't quote anything intelligent that Arnold said. I don't believe Arnold is that shallow. Or maybe Arnold simply didn't find the author worth the effort.
  - Kye 4y ago
    He's a pretty sharp dude. https://www.youtube.com/@ArnoldSchwarzenegger/videos https://www.youtube.com/@ArnoldSchwarzenegger/videos
- ur-whale 4y ago
  You don't need to get to the end. The very first paragraph tells you everything you need to know bout the article: cheap journalistic style trick. Ugh.
CobrastanJorji 4y ago
A few days ago, there was a link that came by here about Agnes Callard, a philosopher who left her husband for one of her grad students. Both are well written pieces and worth reading. This article makes me think of that one because it feels like the two subjects are exactly opposite people. Both had failed marriages, but one's reaction was an almost absurd degree of navel gazing, and the other's was an absolute lack of it. Both are clearly very smart people, but one speaks almost too plainly, and the other is, well, a philosopher. It's fun to compare them.
- mwnivek 4y ago
  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/13/agnes-callard-profile-marriage-philosophy https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/13/agnes-callard-...
geewee 4y ago
That was a wonderful and nuanced portrait. Very much enjoyed reading.
Fezzik 4y ago
Forevermore, whenever anyone mentions Arnold my brain just automatically starts playing Bill Burr’s bit in my head: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JUrMSK8XWFc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JUrMSK8XWFc Perhaps a bit vulgar for the HN crowd, but I find it witty and hilarious.
lakomen 4y ago
Paywalled
unixhero 4y ago
I don't want to read this
- dinkleberg 4y ago
  Then don’t?
prmoustache 4y ago
Can't see the rest but just after 4-5 lines they have just exposed what is totally wrong with the USA and people living there: Putting a bike in a large SUV to go for a bike ride.
- addisonl 4y ago
  Yeah America is the _only_ country in the world where people transport their bikes with their cars.
- meany 4y ago
  I think it’s worth reflecting on how you incorporate and use anecdotal stories to broadly characterize 320M inhabitants from one of the most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations on earth.
grecy 4y ago
His latest anti-hate video is extremely good, well worth a watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsETTn7DehI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsETTn7DehI He does seem like he's being a lot more open these days, doing more self-reflection and introspection.

85 points by samclemens 4y ago

iKlsR 4y ago

https://archive.is/8X3up https://archive.is/8X3up

MaxHoppersGhost 4y ago

Kind of a strangely flippant article. By the end I was annoyed at the author’s tone and dismissiveness of Arnold.

drewcoo 4y ago
His politics and the Atlantic's are at odds. He's far from perfect, but what he's accomplished in the US as a kid from Austria . . . absolutely amazing. Over and over. If the US Constitution didn't prevent it, he'd surely be President. (And I'm from his political antipode.)
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- spaceman_2020 4y ago
  Truly is a remarkable man. Achieved all that he did through sheer will. Even if you ignore his movie and political careers, Arnold would be a legend just for his bodybuilding career. People forget that Arnold and his peers were the pioneers in bodybuilding and achieved all that they did without any set template, industrial support, or even societal approval.
  - harry8 4y ago
    >Achieved all that he did through sheer will. Including the will to take illegal steroids without which he wins nothing and has no fame or career in public life. If you think that differs from Lance Armstrong it's probably informative to know why you think that way. (And i do fwiw)
    - jokowueu 4y ago
      Every body uses steroids in the Mr Olympia competitions comparing it to cycling competitions is wrong . He is born with a perfect physique and the will to work on it extensively
      - Traubenfuchs 4y ago
        …and everyone in the cycling community is pumping themselves full of legal and illegal substances, disregarding their health, at the precise border of appearing clean during testing times/days. https://www.velonews.com/news/road/circ-report-20-90-percent-modern-peloton-still-doping/ https://www.velonews.com/news/road/circ-report-20-90-percent...
        j7f3 4y ago
        Can you tell the difference between hearsay and reliable news?
        jokowueu 4y ago
        You don't seem to understand. In the Olympia completions its a grey area and every one knows that they have to do it . Being illegal doesn't matter they don't have to appear clean . With cycling competitions it's very regulated and they try to do substances that don't appear in the tests
    - jbigelow76 4y ago
      Including the will to take illegal steroids without which he wins nothing and has no fame or career in public life. Meh, his biggest body-building claims to fame were multiple Mr. Olympia titles. Is there any other Hollywood A-list type (current or former) of which that title has been the make or break factor? Schwarzenegger's peer at the time for the same title(s) was Lou Ferrigno, and he never did better than runner up at a time in which that competition had the most cultural cache within Hollywood; he even he had his own success in Hollywood as The Hulk (and 36 other movie/TV credits per wikipedia.) Some of Schwarzeneggar's success comes down to "sheer will" as the GP posited. Some of it is also luck (right place/right time, the right "look" for a given role, etc...) And some of it is help from others, which he seems to readily acknowledge and pass on as a message to others[1] To say Schwarzenegger is who he is only because of steroids is as shallow of an assessment as to say it's all "sheer will". 1. https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/comments/o9infd/not_a_selfmade_man/ https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/comments/o9infd/not_a_s... edit: cleaned up a sentence.
- webmaven 4y ago
  The 1993 movie Demolition Man had Schwarzenegger as a past (ie. prior to the main action in 2032) president by virtue of a constitutional amendment. Schwarzenegger's political career began in 2003 as Governor of California, and an "Arnold Amendment" was actually proposed shortly after that, but didn't get any traction: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Opportunity_to_Govern_Amendment https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Opportunity_to_Govern_...
  - philwelch 4y ago
    Arnold also used to have a huge rivalry with Stallone, and the line in Demolition Man was in part a reference to that.
    - webmaven 4y ago
      I think "Last Action Hero" had a scene in a video store where there was a cardboard standup of Stallone as the Terminator.
- blindriver 4y ago
  His politics? Do you know anything about him besides the fact he's a so-called "Republican"? He's a Democrat in everything except name. He even married into Democratic royalty. Even when he won as Govenor, we all knew his politics was Democratic rather than Republican.
  - barry-cotter 4y ago
    No one cares about the Kennedys anymore. You too can not care about them.
  - tromp 4y ago
    Are you saying he's in denial about the nature of his politics? > And he’s not about to become a Democrat, either. (“I don’t want to join a party that is destroying every single fucking city,” he told me. “They’re screwing up left and right.”)
- matwood 4y ago
  > He's far from perfect Arnold himself in Pumping Iron would beg to differ ;) > all I have to do is get my posing routine down more perfect, which is almost impossible to do, you know. It's perfect already.
- flippinburgers 4y ago
  It really seems to boil down to that anymore: if you don't fit the mold but do something phenomenal you are dismissed.
- notafraudster 4y ago
  So, basically nothing about this tracks. Arnold would have been best characterized as a right-liberal during his time in politics. He was a moderate Republican in a state that was already pretty left-leaning. Since then he's drifted a little left (focusing on criticizing Trump mostly on compassionate grounds, focusing on civic engagement, and focusing on environmental issues). I think he'd best be characterized in the global scale as something between a right-liberal and a left-liberal. The Atlantic has basically Washington Consensus politics, a little left on some issues, but basically market liberals. Maybe a more simplified way to put this: The Atlantic likely would have been closer to Clinton in the 2016 primaries than Sanders, and closer to Biden in 2020 primaries than Warren than Sanders. So it's true that they don't have identical politics, but it's not true that they're really at odds. His life story is really inspirational, but his terms as governor sort of exposed he didn't have a great aptitude for elected politics. After he got whooped in his 2nd year midterm on the bond issues, he acknowledged that to be an effective governor he needed to get better at working with the legislature and making the case for his priorities. Then he served another six years with no major accomplishments; he never really felt like he was in the driver's seat after that midterm. He remained personally likeable, and it's true that Democrats put up only a token challenge to his second term election, but this maybe emphasizes the point: he was not in control of the issue agenda in the state, he wasn't a real threat. He didn't do a terrible job as governor, but he did do a very passive job. And in his second term when he did try to engage with the legislature, it didn't work, and mostly (as the article notes) his popularity eroded significantly. After leaving politics, he didn't really stay engaged in the party or build connections in the state, and indeed it's telling that Republicans have had a terrible record in California since. He's never sought any federal office, and I have no idea why the article accepts the false premise that after being Governor, the only other option is to run for President. He could have, of course, ran as a Senator (Governors often do this!), ran for the house (Governors occasionally do this!), gotten involved in executive politics by taking any of a number of federal appointments that could have been open for him (or made a case for a cabinet position). He didn't. The article suggests he wouldn't mind being Secretary of State. If that were true, we'd expect him to have done... uh... literally anything connected to diplomacy in the 15 years since he left elected office? And frankly a lot of his public engagement with politics over the last few years has been pretty surface level. He's talking directly to the public, mostly in (yes, well articulated) platitudes. I agree with him on all these issues and I'm glad he's using his bully pulpit to advocate for good things that I agree with. But mostly that's where the engagement stops. He's not day-to-day running civil society organizations, he's not building connections with politicians, he's just sort of weighing in in the same way a lot of people do on issues he cares about. I do think there's a lot to admire in Arnold (his life story is amazing). and I don't have any hostility towards him. He's funny, he's using his platform for good, he's a sports hero, he's a unique and fun actor. I don't think he's great at doing electoral politics.
WalterBright 4y ago
I had the same impression. He didn't quote anything intelligent that Arnold said. I don't believe Arnold is that shallow. Or maybe Arnold simply didn't find the author worth the effort.
- Kye 4y ago
  He's a pretty sharp dude. https://www.youtube.com/@ArnoldSchwarzenegger/videos https://www.youtube.com/@ArnoldSchwarzenegger/videos
ur-whale 4y ago
You don't need to get to the end. The very first paragraph tells you everything you need to know bout the article: cheap journalistic style trick. Ugh.

CobrastanJorji 4y ago

A few days ago, there was a link that came by here about Agnes Callard, a philosopher who left her husband for one of her grad students. Both are well written pieces and worth reading. This article makes me think of that one because it feels like the two subjects are exactly opposite people. Both had failed marriages, but one's reaction was an almost absurd degree of navel gazing, and the other's was an absolute lack of it. Both are clearly very smart people, but one speaks almost too plainly, and the other is, well, a philosopher. It's fun to compare them.

mwnivek 4y ago
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/13/agnes-callard-profile-marriage-philosophy https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/13/agnes-callard-...

geewee 4y ago

That was a wonderful and nuanced portrait. Very much enjoyed reading.

Fezzik 4y ago

Forevermore, whenever anyone mentions Arnold my brain just automatically starts playing Bill Burr’s bit in my head: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JUrMSK8XWFc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JUrMSK8XWFc Perhaps a bit vulgar for the HN crowd, but I find it witty and hilarious.

lakomen 4y ago

Paywalled

unixhero 4y ago

I don't want to read this

dinkleberg 4y ago
Then don’t?

prmoustache 4y ago

Can't see the rest but just after 4-5 lines they have just exposed what is totally wrong with the USA and people living there: Putting a bike in a large SUV to go for a bike ride.

addisonl 4y ago
Yeah America is the _only_ country in the world where people transport their bikes with their cars.
meany 4y ago
I think it’s worth reflecting on how you incorporate and use anecdotal stories to broadly characterize 320M inhabitants from one of the most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations on earth.

grecy 4y ago

His latest anti-hate video is extremely good, well worth a watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsETTn7DehI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsETTn7DehI He does seem like he's being a lot more open these days, doing more self-reflection and introspection.