Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley): It is the Republican Party’s job to expand the US military, rob and oppress the working class, serve US plutocrats, facilitate ecocidal capitalism, and foment division among the electorate. It is the Democratic Party’s job to do these same things while blaming it on Republicans.
When I have kids I'll try to dissuade them from signing up. I'll hand them a copy of General Smedley Butler's, "War is a Racket" and have them do a book review on it.
Not because the military has gone woke but because we were never fighting for anything meaningful. I served with many great individuals and the day to day tasks keep you so busy that one might not have the time to ask, "Is this actually preserving our freedoms at home?" If you do have time to ask and investigate, the answer could lead you down a dark path which most would want to avoid.
Who benefits from our sweat and blood day in and day out is an important question.
When the abuser goes just a little bit farther into sadism than necessary... That can snap the abused out of their Stockholm Syndrome state and into a state of panic, resulting in fleeing the scene of the crimes.
I did 10 years in the Army. Left me with a high degree of PTSD and I lost my job to bipolar disorder. The only thing I can say about it that's good is once you have been broken by the military, the VA is good at giving you the money you need to get by since you can't work anymore. You just need an effective lawyer.
Ronald J B II: I have a friend in a similar situation. He also says the VA has helped him a lot with medical expenses and the Vicodin is cheap. Another friend was paid pretty well. He had a good lawyer. That friend is now dead from Agent Orange but he made it to 68 years of age.
All my meds are free, and the routine exams are regular. I have a much, much better healthcare plan than most Americans. I had to die a little to live like this, but generations of soldiers before me did not get taken care of like this. Only recently is the VA beginning to wake up to just how many of us have been dying on their feet.
I wish someone would write me a Vicodin prescription. Don't you? Seriously, though, what you get are the generic versions of essential meds in formularies around the world. There's nothing sinister about it-the atypical antipsychotics are really good at beating back bipolar.
We are living in a world where imbecilic elites live in their invincible present where there are no consequences to their moronic beliefs, policies, wars and corruptions. They have amassed so much power and money they see themselves as gods with impunity to the destruction they sow and the natural law that rules us all. They have a well developed contempt for those they are supposed to serve and their betrayal is manifest. The revolution is past due.
"The Wall Street Journal has a new article out about how US war veterans are no longer recommending their kids join the military, which is cutting the war machine off from an important recruitment “pipeline” because the children of military families make up the majority of military recruits."
Because shooting with automatic rifles at brown people four feet high and armed with blades of dried grass (pace Blackadder Goes Fourth) is one thing, but people who are actually capable of shooting back ain't nearly as much fun.
As an aside, a human woman I know, who had been career Army intelligence (enlisted) told me that nearly every white man who was in the ranks in the Army was a loser. Her words. Not mine.
Although she also said that the ones who weren't obvious losers pretty much had their pick of females.
I suspect that there is plenty such motivation to be had in college. No need to sign up if that's what you are looking to find.
My acquaintance told me that the Army inadvertently encouraged interracial dating for precisely that reason. The white guys were mostly losers. Black women in the ranks were pretty much all hardasses, tough-minded, critical, and focused solely on doing whatever it took to get ahead, or at least not to have to go back to whatever hellhole (again, her words) they came from.
Kamala Harris has a Twitter army of rabies victims that vociferously and acidly attack anyone who is not supporting the Current Thing with sufficient alacrity, essentially the formula N@FO is using. I might even suppose that her ability to pollute the public discourse is the *actual* reason the smoke-filled room denizens anointed her as VP.
Well, it assuredly wasn't her Pied Piper like appeal to voters.
Still, sleeping with Willie Brown? You have to be gobsmacked by that Harris woman's willingness to do *whatever* *it* *takes* to get ahead. Makes Lady Macbeth seem dainty and principled by comparison.
Letsrock: James Jones was in the Army. Here is part of his bio on Wikipedia:
"James Ramon Jones was born and raised in Robinson, Illinois, the son of Ramon and Ada M. (née Blessing) Jones. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1939 at the age of 17 and served in the 25th Infantry Division, 27th Infantry Regiment before and during World War II, first in Hawaii at Schofield Barracks on Oahu, then in combat on Guadalcanal at the Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse, where he was wounded in his ankle. He returned to the US and was discharged in July 1944.[2] He also worked as a journalist covering the Vietnam War."
Letsrock: I prefer to read non-fiction. Currently I'm reading "Masking the Truth" by Donald Jeffries. Before that I read "Reporting Always" by Lilian Ross.
I was never much into reading war stories. I remember in HS we had to read Red Badge of Courage, I couldn't deal w it. And after what we're going thru now even worse.
The celebration of the 50th anniversary of the US military's "all voluntary force" forgot to mention that the draft was ended in 1973 due to huge protests and opposition to the illegal US invasion and war on Vietnam. That war was so strongly hated, that within the US military forces stationed in Vietnam, "fragging" was a major cause of death.
To now celebrate that with some diversity rainbow is sickening.
I also bet some in the military, or prospective members of the military, are figuring out they are being used as guinea pigs with all the "vaccines" they MUST receive.
Also, it's obvious most U.S. military members don't understand that they are really "defending" the Military Intelligence Surveillance Industrial Complex. Nor do they understand they are also defending the Science/Medicine/Big Pharma Industrial Complex.
I'd argue the latter complex/alliance caused more unnecessary deaths in the last 10 to 20 years than the former.
I'd also note that the U.S. Department of Defense took over logistics and planning for "Covid response." So the Military Industrial Complex has now merged with the Science/Medicine/Big Pharma Industrial Complex.
IMO this is the worst marriage/alliance that could ever happen to the world. Maybe some would-be soldiers and sailors are saying they'd rather opt out of both programs? Maybe more realize they could killed by land mines or mandatory vaccines? Or they don't know why they should be defending the "leaders" who are profiting so much from these programs?
Caitlin is the Queen of Cynical Skepticism and wrote the Book on the Power of Bogus Narratives. My question is does it really matter what the bogus operative narrative is? The end goal is to "control the people" and make more money for the 1 percent.
The narrative could be, "North Korea is going to nuke America! We have to stop North Korea!"
Or: It could be, "A new virus is going to kill us all! We have to stop the spread of the virus and so everyone has to do A, B, C and Z .... and can't do A, B, C and Z. You have to do what the experts and authorities say."
The end result is the same: More power for liars and frauds ... achieved by fear of a bogus narrative.
Caitlin, I like your work, but it sure is dark. It's easy enough to get depressed reading twitter or the propaganda presented as news. Do you have any lighter thoughts on things that are going right? Like people starting to realize they have been lied to by the government for many years?
BTW, I'm retired military and I read that WSJ article on recruiting with interest. A lot of truth to what you and the article say. I would not recommend the military to a young person not only for the reasons cited, including multiple and dangerous deployments. There are just so many better options for young people.
These truly are very depressing times! But the war for the truth being told is essential as it has been smothered for too long. Its roots have been starved for too long and have to be well watered to get us back on track.
All of us have an obligation to pursue the truths of our times, no matter how painful.
There is nothing radical about the truth, it is just not told often enough.
Craig: I read the James Jones trilogy ("From Here to Eternity", "The Thin Red Line", and "Some Can Whistle") when I was a teenager. The books convinced me to NEVER join the military.
As for lighter thoughts; I suppose I retreat to our garden and back patio. There is beauty in nature if you work at it a little. Haha. And I write skits and make jokes with friends online. Even the banter here on CJ's substack cheers me up. Nothing like a good zinger to make me smile.
The little town I live in is very "progressive and woke". 83% of the people here vote Democratic and got at least two jabs. Some still wear masks while outdoors in our sunny warm weather even while riding bicycles. Cracks me up.
The stupidity of man can be entertaining and funny.
The Nation piece CJ linked to on Azov Nazi's included this western whopper:
"Azov is the linchpin in Putin’s narrative—without it, his excuse for the war is gone."
Putin's so called "excuse" for the war is primarily NATO expansion and the US/NATO use of Ukraine as a bulwark of western imperialism and military power.
«….Part of the problem is that westerners live in a pre-revolutionary society that we’ve been duped into believing is a post-revolutionary society. We self-righteously look down at our noses at other nations and pity their lack of freedom and political sophistication, when in actuality we’re all deeply enslaved and the global south is the only place where anything real has been happening politically.…»
The core of the dupe is that there is a «West» at all.
European colonialists migrated to the Americas, have gradually spread a violebt, greed-driven culture that exploits their own people , as well as others. Their empire includes not only the U.S. but Europe where they came from and even Japan and South Korea. All these territories are held at gun point,(see map of military base and “NATO” but told it’s a fellowship called “the west” and that there is a jungle outside.
And yes the threat outside is that China is in danger of t forging a path to national wealth that involves uplifting your own people.
It’s dangerous because this might induce leaders in Africa, Asia and the South and Central America’s to not hand over their nations to the slavery of the “west”.
That’s why China is being encircled and their ally Russia is being attacked even though Russia doesn’t even share the philosophy of China.
Glad Caitlin wrote this. We were asking the very same questions 50 years ago while protesting the war on the Vietnamese. But then the Yuppies took over with their laptops and lattes and surrendered their minds to Wall Street and the corporate ladder. So ya, it would be nice if this unbelievably stupid, narcissistic, generation of sheep got woke, but even that’s expecting a lot from them. Maybe Caitlin’s comments can reach them. I place my faith in their children.
Oh, what self-serving crap. Your whole generation disappeared into the woodwork the day after Kent State. By the time I graduated high school in 75, there was nothing left but the stinking drugs and that Moon is in the Seventh House hogwash.
In 75, I was 31. I’d been at it for 10 years. TEN years before the type you are describing showed up looking for weed and a lay. And we didn’t scatter, we just didn’t stand in front of the maniacs with rifles to be shot down. How dumb do you think we were? We didn’t flee, we just went underground. We’d helped pushed that ass hole LBJ to sign the ‘65 civil rights bill, helped end that awful war, had ended the draft so your poor little wiener graduating class didn’t have to worry about war, we, many of us, went to work in the environmental movement and the women’s movement and as Nixon was impeached many of us kept looking for younger people coming up behind us to pass the torch to. But there were none. You were too busy head banging to Angus and smoking what you hoped was weed and thinking that was radical, man! You never cared a whit about civil or political justice, and didn’t even get it that by then WALL STREET was wearing long hair! Of course we cut it. Plus, you weren’t even there so how would you know? The people you’re identifying are your own class. And a great disappointment you have always been been to my class. 😤🤯🖕🖕🏼🖕🏾🖕🏿
Sorry, but Jesus, I've been hearing this all my life. There were a few dozen people nationwide organizing and fomenting real resistance in the 60s; the rest were there for the party and the costumes. When the leaders who could not be co-opted were safely in jail, a confrontation was engineered that got four people killed, and the rest of you scampered squealing. Sold the van, got the haircut, buried the guitar.
You weren’t there booby. And you’ve swallowed the mainstream Re-thug propaganda about us hook line and block head. And never use the word “co-opted”. It shows you to be a bourgeoisie loser. People who use that word were never “opted” to even be “co”.
There is not much use in asking ordinary people to do analytical thinking about matters of state policy and performance -- or anything else -- when it makes no difference what they think to those who have power.
Not necessarily. They still believe that "power" is a thing that can be had, rather than a hidden potential for action. The Western game itself has been looking less attractive and less rewarding, and I think it could fall apart on its own accord rather quickly. That lack of team spirit explains the Ukraine pep rally, the tendentious, characteristic WASP whining about popular impiety, and the war they are trying to have.
I suppose one might say that for the PMC, or most of it, the current disposition of forces and events around Ukraine, Russia, Trump, NATO/EU/Nordstream etc. etc. is a crucial ("existential") phase of class war which is why such a great effort has been put into propaganda. I agree that support for this faction is very thin and a serious misstep on the part of the leadership would cause current arrangements to fall apart. What I was referring to above was the majority whose interests and desires are not considered as goals to be achieved by the ruling class but impediments and stumbling-blocks to be overcome or finessed.
Good points. I was an enlisted man in the US Navy in the late 80s and early 90s, stationed in San Diego. I had a wife and baby daughter. There was a 5 or 6 year long waiting list for onbase housing then, and San Diego rents left us with barely enough to afford food and utilities.
In fact, I made precisely $5 a month too much to qualify for food assistance. Wasn't that convenient?
It could only be far worse now. If families with traditions of military service start discouraging their young to avoid the military, the armed forces are in trouble. That's got to be at least their second largest pool of potential recruits.
Those idiots who blame it all on wokeism don't know what they are talking about.
When I have kids I'll try to dissuade them from signing up. I'll hand them a copy of General Smedley Butler's, "War is a Racket" and have them do a book review on it.
Not because the military has gone woke but because we were never fighting for anything meaningful. I served with many great individuals and the day to day tasks keep you so busy that one might not have the time to ask, "Is this actually preserving our freedoms at home?" If you do have time to ask and investigate, the answer could lead you down a dark path which most would want to avoid.
Who benefits from our sweat and blood day in and day out is an important question.
When does the abused finally leave the abuser?
Same as any other job, no?
When the abuser goes just a little bit farther into sadism than necessary... That can snap the abused out of their Stockholm Syndrome state and into a state of panic, resulting in fleeing the scene of the crimes.
Well, short of nuclear Armageddon or martial law or war on our own soil, it's seem to me that people are pretty inured to just about anything else.
People don't like change - don't like it so much they would need to be EXCEEDINGLY uncomfortable to do something different.
I don't know what that would look like.
People don't even bat an eye anymore. There's an utter disconnect that's akin to a trauma response.
I did 10 years in the Army. Left me with a high degree of PTSD and I lost my job to bipolar disorder. The only thing I can say about it that's good is once you have been broken by the military, the VA is good at giving you the money you need to get by since you can't work anymore. You just need an effective lawyer.
Sorry to hear about the Man but I'm glad you've found some silver lining in all this.
Ronald J B II: I have a friend in a similar situation. He also says the VA has helped him a lot with medical expenses and the Vicodin is cheap. Another friend was paid pretty well. He had a good lawyer. That friend is now dead from Agent Orange but he made it to 68 years of age.
Some consolation.
All my meds are free, and the routine exams are regular. I have a much, much better healthcare plan than most Americans. I had to die a little to live like this, but generations of soldiers before me did not get taken care of like this. Only recently is the VA beginning to wake up to just how many of us have been dying on their feet.
Well, of course, they want you hooked on their drugs.
I wish someone would write me a Vicodin prescription. Don't you? Seriously, though, what you get are the generic versions of essential meds in formularies around the world. There's nothing sinister about it-the atypical antipsychotics are really good at beating back bipolar.
Generic drugs are a crap shoot
You might be skeptical to a fault on this one. Sure, trust nothing especially anecdote, but I can tell when my meds are working and so can my family.
We are living in a world where imbecilic elites live in their invincible present where there are no consequences to their moronic beliefs, policies, wars and corruptions. They have amassed so much power and money they see themselves as gods with impunity to the destruction they sow and the natural law that rules us all. They have a well developed contempt for those they are supposed to serve and their betrayal is manifest. The revolution is past due.
"The Wall Street Journal has a new article out about how US war veterans are no longer recommending their kids join the military, which is cutting the war machine off from an important recruitment “pipeline” because the children of military families make up the majority of military recruits."
Because shooting with automatic rifles at brown people four feet high and armed with blades of dried grass (pace Blackadder Goes Fourth) is one thing, but people who are actually capable of shooting back ain't nearly as much fun.
As an aside, a human woman I know, who had been career Army intelligence (enlisted) told me that nearly every white man who was in the ranks in the Army was a loser. Her words. Not mine.
Although she also said that the ones who weren't obvious losers pretty much had their pick of females.
So there's a different kind of motivation for the smarter ones, not openly advertised.
I suspect that there is plenty such motivation to be had in college. No need to sign up if that's what you are looking to find.
My acquaintance told me that the Army inadvertently encouraged interracial dating for precisely that reason. The white guys were mostly losers. Black women in the ranks were pretty much all hardasses, tough-minded, critical, and focused solely on doing whatever it took to get ahead, or at least not to have to go back to whatever hellhole (again, her words) they came from.
That left white women and black men.
Oh, is *that* where the KHive comes from!
KHive?
Kamala Harris has a Twitter army of rabies victims that vociferously and acidly attack anyone who is not supporting the Current Thing with sufficient alacrity, essentially the formula N@FO is using. I might even suppose that her ability to pollute the public discourse is the *actual* reason the smoke-filled room denizens anointed her as VP.
Well, it assuredly wasn't her Pied Piper like appeal to voters.
Still, sleeping with Willie Brown? You have to be gobsmacked by that Harris woman's willingness to do *whatever* *it* *takes* to get ahead. Makes Lady Macbeth seem dainty and principled by comparison.
Stinky: My friends and I call her "Kamalatoe". After the saying "camel toe". We write skits making fun of her.
🤮🤮🤮
Why would you join a military to fight and possibly die supporting a government that hates you and wants you dead anyway?
Nationalism? Ever go to a US football game recently?
Makes my head hurt, seeing that much mindless cheerleaders and rah rah talk.
Some people just aren't minion material.
Cats are not minion material. It's not our nature.
Crixcyon: "I killed a man and no one can touch me." A quote from James Jones' book "The Thin Red Line" about fighting on Guadalcanal in WWII.
DOES ANYONE READ NON-FICTION???
Letsrock: James Jones was in the Army. Here is part of his bio on Wikipedia:
"James Ramon Jones was born and raised in Robinson, Illinois, the son of Ramon and Ada M. (née Blessing) Jones. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1939 at the age of 17 and served in the 25th Infantry Division, 27th Infantry Regiment before and during World War II, first in Hawaii at Schofield Barracks on Oahu, then in combat on Guadalcanal at the Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse, where he was wounded in his ankle. He returned to the US and was discharged in July 1944.[2] He also worked as a journalist covering the Vietnam War."
Letsrock: I prefer to read non-fiction. Currently I'm reading "Masking the Truth" by Donald Jeffries. Before that I read "Reporting Always" by Lilian Ross.
I only read non-fiction. Fiction on very rare occasion.
Letsrock: James Jones based his novels on his own experiences in WWII. Sometimes an author has to change names and locations to protect himself.
I was never much into reading war stories. I remember in HS we had to read Red Badge of Courage, I couldn't deal w it. And after what we're going thru now even worse.
Uh...to be all you can be?
Orwell lives:
The celebration of the 50th anniversary of the US military's "all voluntary force" forgot to mention that the draft was ended in 1973 due to huge protests and opposition to the illegal US invasion and war on Vietnam. That war was so strongly hated, that within the US military forces stationed in Vietnam, "fragging" was a major cause of death.
To now celebrate that with some diversity rainbow is sickening.
“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.” ~Oscar Wilde
Values transcend truth and their only purpose is for dying for (or killing for, for those who are into that sort of thing).
bill wolfe: Military Draft Lottery # 279 here. I got lucky that day, August 21, 1971. 6 days earlier Nixon closed the gold window. Helluva month.
I also bet some in the military, or prospective members of the military, are figuring out they are being used as guinea pigs with all the "vaccines" they MUST receive.
Also, it's obvious most U.S. military members don't understand that they are really "defending" the Military Intelligence Surveillance Industrial Complex. Nor do they understand they are also defending the Science/Medicine/Big Pharma Industrial Complex.
I'd argue the latter complex/alliance caused more unnecessary deaths in the last 10 to 20 years than the former.
I'd also note that the U.S. Department of Defense took over logistics and planning for "Covid response." So the Military Industrial Complex has now merged with the Science/Medicine/Big Pharma Industrial Complex.
IMO this is the worst marriage/alliance that could ever happen to the world. Maybe some would-be soldiers and sailors are saying they'd rather opt out of both programs? Maybe more realize they could killed by land mines or mandatory vaccines? Or they don't know why they should be defending the "leaders" who are profiting so much from these programs?
Caitlin is the Queen of Cynical Skepticism and wrote the Book on the Power of Bogus Narratives. My question is does it really matter what the bogus operative narrative is? The end goal is to "control the people" and make more money for the 1 percent.
The narrative could be, "North Korea is going to nuke America! We have to stop North Korea!"
Or: It could be, "A new virus is going to kill us all! We have to stop the spread of the virus and so everyone has to do A, B, C and Z .... and can't do A, B, C and Z. You have to do what the experts and authorities say."
The end result is the same: More power for liars and frauds ... achieved by fear of a bogus narrative.
Our military has been hijacked like everything else.
Caitlin, I like your work, but it sure is dark. It's easy enough to get depressed reading twitter or the propaganda presented as news. Do you have any lighter thoughts on things that are going right? Like people starting to realize they have been lied to by the government for many years?
BTW, I'm retired military and I read that WSJ article on recruiting with interest. A lot of truth to what you and the article say. I would not recommend the military to a young person not only for the reasons cited, including multiple and dangerous deployments. There are just so many better options for young people.
These truly are very depressing times! But the war for the truth being told is essential as it has been smothered for too long. Its roots have been starved for too long and have to be well watered to get us back on track.
All of us have an obligation to pursue the truths of our times, no matter how painful.
There is nothing radical about the truth, it is just not told often enough.
Craig: I read the James Jones trilogy ("From Here to Eternity", "The Thin Red Line", and "Some Can Whistle") when I was a teenager. The books convinced me to NEVER join the military.
As for lighter thoughts; I suppose I retreat to our garden and back patio. There is beauty in nature if you work at it a little. Haha. And I write skits and make jokes with friends online. Even the banter here on CJ's substack cheers me up. Nothing like a good zinger to make me smile.
The little town I live in is very "progressive and woke". 83% of the people here vote Democratic and got at least two jabs. Some still wear masks while outdoors in our sunny warm weather even while riding bicycles. Cracks me up.
The stupidity of man can be entertaining and funny.
"The stupidity of man can be entertaining and funny."
I'm convinced our world was created to be an endless source of "stupid human" videos.
PP: Me too! LOL!
Exposing lies with other lies.
The Nation piece CJ linked to on Azov Nazi's included this western whopper:
"Azov is the linchpin in Putin’s narrative—without it, his excuse for the war is gone."
Putin's so called "excuse" for the war is primarily NATO expansion and the US/NATO use of Ukraine as a bulwark of western imperialism and military power.
«….Part of the problem is that westerners live in a pre-revolutionary society that we’ve been duped into believing is a post-revolutionary society. We self-righteously look down at our noses at other nations and pity their lack of freedom and political sophistication, when in actuality we’re all deeply enslaved and the global south is the only place where anything real has been happening politically.…»
The core of the dupe is that there is a «West» at all.
European colonialists migrated to the Americas, have gradually spread a violebt, greed-driven culture that exploits their own people , as well as others. Their empire includes not only the U.S. but Europe where they came from and even Japan and South Korea. All these territories are held at gun point,(see map of military base and “NATO” but told it’s a fellowship called “the west” and that there is a jungle outside.
And yes the threat outside is that China is in danger of t forging a path to national wealth that involves uplifting your own people.
It’s dangerous because this might induce leaders in Africa, Asia and the South and Central America’s to not hand over their nations to the slavery of the “west”.
That’s why China is being encircled and their ally Russia is being attacked even though Russia doesn’t even share the philosophy of China.
China is dangerous because it is prosperous. Wages are rising and they are starting to beat us in the tech race. The answer to 5G technology is war!
Flash from the past poster, which hung on my 4th grade wall, 1970-3: What if they gave a war and nobody came?
Harold and Maude: "Boundaries, nations, patriotism!"--Maude, aka the late Ruth Gordon, shaking her head.
If you haven't watched it recently or at all, check out Blast From the Past. You will NOT be disappointed.
MT: My main disagreement with the military is that I don't like to kill people until I get to know them a little.
What's this noise about nuclear war? I mean really? Watch the first 25 minutes of the first video here: helencaldicott.com
Corporate Capitalism: Greatest force for economic enslavement
US imperialism: Greatest force for the authoritarian implementation of economic subjugation
US military: the robot arm of physical and economic subjugation which simultaneously enslaves its own components
Glad Caitlin wrote this. We were asking the very same questions 50 years ago while protesting the war on the Vietnamese. But then the Yuppies took over with their laptops and lattes and surrendered their minds to Wall Street and the corporate ladder. So ya, it would be nice if this unbelievably stupid, narcissistic, generation of sheep got woke, but even that’s expecting a lot from them. Maybe Caitlin’s comments can reach them. I place my faith in their children.
Oh, what self-serving crap. Your whole generation disappeared into the woodwork the day after Kent State. By the time I graduated high school in 75, there was nothing left but the stinking drugs and that Moon is in the Seventh House hogwash.
In 75, I was 31. I’d been at it for 10 years. TEN years before the type you are describing showed up looking for weed and a lay. And we didn’t scatter, we just didn’t stand in front of the maniacs with rifles to be shot down. How dumb do you think we were? We didn’t flee, we just went underground. We’d helped pushed that ass hole LBJ to sign the ‘65 civil rights bill, helped end that awful war, had ended the draft so your poor little wiener graduating class didn’t have to worry about war, we, many of us, went to work in the environmental movement and the women’s movement and as Nixon was impeached many of us kept looking for younger people coming up behind us to pass the torch to. But there were none. You were too busy head banging to Angus and smoking what you hoped was weed and thinking that was radical, man! You never cared a whit about civil or political justice, and didn’t even get it that by then WALL STREET was wearing long hair! Of course we cut it. Plus, you weren’t even there so how would you know? The people you’re identifying are your own class. And a great disappointment you have always been been to my class. 😤🤯🖕🖕🏼🖕🏾🖕🏿
Sorry, but Jesus, I've been hearing this all my life. There were a few dozen people nationwide organizing and fomenting real resistance in the 60s; the rest were there for the party and the costumes. When the leaders who could not be co-opted were safely in jail, a confrontation was engineered that got four people killed, and the rest of you scampered squealing. Sold the van, got the haircut, buried the guitar.
You weren’t there booby. And you’ve swallowed the mainstream Re-thug propaganda about us hook line and block head. And never use the word “co-opted”. It shows you to be a bourgeoisie loser. People who use that word were never “opted” to even be “co”.
Too well said to argue with! That was fun, thanks. That must be some underground.
It is. And it’s still going on. You are welcome to join anytime.
There is not much use in asking ordinary people to do analytical thinking about matters of state policy and performance -- or anything else -- when it makes no difference what they think to those who have power.
Not necessarily. They still believe that "power" is a thing that can be had, rather than a hidden potential for action. The Western game itself has been looking less attractive and less rewarding, and I think it could fall apart on its own accord rather quickly. That lack of team spirit explains the Ukraine pep rally, the tendentious, characteristic WASP whining about popular impiety, and the war they are trying to have.
I suppose one might say that for the PMC, or most of it, the current disposition of forces and events around Ukraine, Russia, Trump, NATO/EU/Nordstream etc. etc. is a crucial ("existential") phase of class war which is why such a great effort has been put into propaganda. I agree that support for this faction is very thin and a serious misstep on the part of the leadership would cause current arrangements to fall apart. What I was referring to above was the majority whose interests and desires are not considered as goals to be achieved by the ruling class but impediments and stumbling-blocks to be overcome or finessed.
Good points. I was an enlisted man in the US Navy in the late 80s and early 90s, stationed in San Diego. I had a wife and baby daughter. There was a 5 or 6 year long waiting list for onbase housing then, and San Diego rents left us with barely enough to afford food and utilities.
In fact, I made precisely $5 a month too much to qualify for food assistance. Wasn't that convenient?
It could only be far worse now. If families with traditions of military service start discouraging their young to avoid the military, the armed forces are in trouble. That's got to be at least their second largest pool of potential recruits.
Those idiots who blame it all on wokeism don't know what they are talking about.