Not AI. This is an actual photo and is chilling.
This photo will be his photo for history.
Some photographs are so iconic, they will go down in history. They capture a moment so perfectly that, decades later, we can look at them and immediately understand something about the people and the time in which they live.
One of the most chilling examples is the famous photograph known as “Eyes of Hate” - that 1933 photograph of Joseph Goebbels, captured in the moment after he learned that the photographer assigned to photograph him was Jewish.
Look at his eyes. You don't need a caption. You don't need an explanation. The hatred is right there.
And now, we have a new “Eyes of Hate” photograph for our generation - this one, snapped yesterday during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit.
Look at their eyes. Really look at them. They show the very essence of these two people. There is no warmth. No joy. No humanity. Just that cold, unmistakable look of contempt.
And the question isn't whether they hate someone. The question is who they hate.
They hate the people who stand in their way. They hate the people who challenge them. They hate the people who refuse to bend the knee. They hate the journalists, the critics, the protesters, the immigrants, the political opponents, the institutions that constrain them, and anyone who dares to say, “No.”
Ultimately, they hate the very idea that the American people are supposed to be their masters - not the other way around.
That is what makes this photograph so chilling. Because sometimes a photograph captures far more than a facial expression. Sometimes it captures an entire moment in history.
We will look back at this photograph years from now and remember exactly what we were seeing. Eyes of hate.
And they were looking straight at us.