Is anyone here from a country NOT called USA where they pile up a bunch of people in the background of a politician who then gets applause for everything?
I have literally never seen this in Europe. In Germany, we’d probably consider this “weird” in case our politicians did that. Feels a bit like clicking the thumbs-up button of my own social media post…
Completely staged. That’s why we don’t take it seriously in the US.
This happens in Canada as well. The way I see it is it’s supposed to show support for the candidate in question.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a politician getting applauded regularily, outside maybe of a talkshow setting. And not during a speech, maybe at the end when they finished. They also don’t really take center stage to give big speeches all that often. And having 7 presidents means less cult of personality.
It mostly looks like
This is one of the presidents giving a press conference, with several experts/advisors next to him (and more experts in the front row, should more specific questions come up). The rest are journalists. I’d say press conferences make up the majority of appearances, so there’s no crowds/“fans”. Heck even the concept of a fan of one of the presidents sounds weird. Maybe for the parties, but I have never heard of anyone being a fan of one of the presidents.Then there’s other events, but even for national day celebration speeches, it’s nothing crazy, this has some pictures of several of the presidents giving various national day speeches last year. No people in the background. But then I don’t think most people really watch any of this, so why bother?
This is Switzerland right? I find their / your system of government fascinating.
In Germany, we’d probably consider this “weird” in case our politicians did that.
I mean, he was weird…
Holy watermark! Alamy!
Alamy Not sure Alamy what you’re talking Alamy about, I see Alamy nothing wrong Alamy.
I can see why Germany would not be receptive of large political rallies based on recent history. The same should be the case in the US. But yet here we are.
I’m in the UK, and politicians do this too at campaign rallies now, and have done so for some years. We certainly took this from US style electioneering.
It’s all about optics - it supposedly looks good for a politician to be talking and people enthusiastically cheering on in the background. It kind of makes sense if you accept that all that will be shown on TV or social media is a clip from a speech, so you want to try and package that with as positive a spin on it as possible. The political party can control the background this way and it’s impossible for the media companies to edit it out.
I can’t speak for other European countries, but I have seen clips from other electioneering videos with a similar set up, so it’s not just the US and the UK. For example: This article from SBS in Australia (one of their public service broadcasters) has a picture of exactly this phenomenon: https://www.sbs.com.au/language/gujarati/en/article/profile-of-australian-labor-party/ji29c0grz
But I’m pretty certain we in the UK took this from the US in the last 15-20 years maybe? I don’t know if it came from somewhere else before? I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s older than we think!
I know you asked for non-USA opinions, but as someone from the USA, I have always thought this was weird. Not only are they either fake or paid or self-centered extreme fans, but they got to sign away their “show up on TV and photos” rights, all for the privilege of looking at Trump’s ass while he speaks. Worst seat in the house.
Yeah, we have this in the UK, and I’m sure it’s taken from the US originally.
It is the worst seat in the house, but I get it’s to try and control the background on clips from speeches. Having people cheering and fawning over everything the candidate says is effective when most people will only see a 5 second clip of whatever event it was. It’s a product of modern social media and clip based news sadly.
Regardless of who’s speaking, I always end up staring at the people sitting/standing behind them. Some part of me is waiting for them to break character, I think.
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Heads up: we also clap when the plane lands.
Well, given Boeing’s recent track record…
I find that is very rare. It was kind of popular for a few years but thankfully that’s gone away for the most part.
Nah, North Korea do it
Yep, it definitely reminds me of North Korea.
This happens a lot in Prime Minister question time because the people sitting next and behind them are their own party people.
Couldn’t they be paid actors?
I sometimes see this with public speakers, but it’s rare that the audience is in the background. Creepy, I’d say.
Im not sure when it started and seems to be more vigourously done with republicans. It was not always so or at least rallies were not televised so much.
In Germany they usually stand in front of a wall with a colorful curtain. Nobody directly behind them.
We also don’t have / expect that many snipers.
I think I’ve seen a recording of exactly this scene and had similar thoughts. You can see similar things in Germany when elections are coming up and prominent people go up on a stage to make a speech or walk a few steps in public towards others or speak to the media. They tend to have their colleagues in the back, supporters are in front of them or within a little distance at the side.
When I look for footage in the archives it seems it was more of a thing in the past, especially when it comes to bigger events on the street. Also it looks like it is more of a thing from authoritarian propaganda playbooks. The Nazis used it aswell as the SED.
Well here in the UK it’s used by all the political parties - conservative and labour. I see it more as a way of controlling the background in the image for photographs and the short clips that dominate the news cycle on TV and social media. It makes sense for political parties to want to project a positive image of people cheering on whatever the candidate is saying.
It’s all nonsense of course, as they’re just members of whatever party is holding the rally.
They LOVE putting young people, and especially young women in the background, probably to help soften the image of the often old white male doing the talking. The left her in the UK tend to also have a mix of different races to reflect diversity, while the far right (Reform) pointedly only has white people, while the Conservatives will have a mix of people too to show how modern they are. It’s all just PR nonsense and manipulation to help sell their messages.
Ich finde gerade auf Anhieb nicht mehr die Quelle bei der ich zum ersten Mal davon gehört oder gelesen habe, aber es handelte sich um ein Auftritt von Erich Honecker meine ich. Er lief oder fuhr alleine entlang einer Strecke an Leuten vorbei die ihm und/oder seiner Begleitung zujubelten. Erwähnt wurden dabei “gesellschaftliche Kräfte”, aus den Reihen der lokalen Bevölkerung die dazu entweder von der Stasi oder Volkspolizei dorthin kommandiert wurden oder aber in zivil zusammen mit anderen loyalen Leuten diese lokale Bevölkerung für die Medien mimten. Um Akzeptanz bzw. Begeisterung zu suggerieren, wohlmöglich auch unterschwellig eine gewisse Kultur der Angst zu schüren oder einen Konformitätsdruck zu erzeugen. Trump, MAGA-Strategen und die Republikaner machen das aus meiner Sicht quasi genauso und auch hier gibt es so stark von der Ideologie eingenommene die sogar noch Geld dafür bezahlen dort hinzureisen und sich mit allerlei Produkten einzudecken.
