J.D. Vance's 'I watched the stories' remark reveals a postmodern political epistemology

In a viral Oval Office video, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, when asked by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky if he had ever visited Ukraine to see the problems firsthand, replied that he had 'watched and seen the stories'—referring to Instagram Stories. Art historian Christian Caliandro analyzes this moment as a symptom of a postmodern rejection of objective truth, where subjects prefer simplified, self-confirming narratives over verifiable intelligence. The exchange, occurring just before a heated argument, encapsulates a clash between direct experience and mediated representation. Caliandro argues that this preference for easy, falsifiable sources over powerful truth-seeking tools is the antithesis of intelligence. The article, published on Artribune, uses the incident to reflect on contemporary culture's relationship with reality and fiction, drawing parallels to Italo Calvino's concept of the 'sea of non-objectivity.'