We live in the shittiest, most obnoxious timeline.
JFC they did it. They actually did it https://t.co/6DTl3LHEm1 pic.twitter.com/f7KzvU8brz
— We Will Be Ruthless (@RuthlessWe) June 1, 2022
For those who can’t see, the image in the top tweet is two images pf a bomber dropping bombs. The first, labeled “Republicans”, is just a photo of a bomber. The second, labeled “Democrats” is the same bomber, with a rainbow, a BLM sign, and a “Yes she can!” sign photoshopped onto them. The bottom tweet is from the United States Marine Corp, and it’s a digital camo helmet with six rifle shells held by a band. The bullets are painted with rainbow colors.
It reminds me of a folk song I heard a while back, pointing out the absurdity of the military’s resistance to having specifically homosexual soldiers killing poor villagers for the U.S. empire, except now instead we’re supposed to celebrate that. It is progress, in a way. The advancement of civil rights, even within a flawed society, is 100% a win, and we should be glad that it’s gotten to the point where the marines of all organizations wants to be seen as supporting Pride.
But holy shit does this feel like a grim commentary on our society.
i love that the helmet is a clear visual nod to “born to kill” helmet from Full Metal Jacket – wouldn’t call that a pro-marines movie.
It’s rather tasteless, and lacking in self-awareness, but as much as I hate to defend the U.S. military, A lot of social progress has happened first there, before gaining wider acceptance. I believe the military racially integrated before the entire U.S. did, and as much as I despised “don’t ask, don’t tell”, it was an improvement on the prior model…
As I’ll frequently ramble on about to anyone willing to listen, the U.S. Military is pretty much the Platonic ideal of a conservative organization, it will resist change for almost any reason until the proposed change is thoroughly proven to improve military functioning, etc. And prior to the previous U.S. presidents stupid bullshit, the U.S. military had decided that accepting trans service members would be an overall benefit to the institution.
I believe the military racially integrated before the entire U.S. did…
Not sure if that’s true, but Black soldiers fighting to crush a racist tyranny, and then coming back home to another racist tyranny, were a definite kick-start to the US Civil Rights Movement.
President Harry Truman integrated the US military by executive order.
https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/executive-order-9981
The top brass threatened to quit if the armed forces became integrated. Truman’s response was largely “so quit. We can replace you.”
Nobody quit. At that level, you are a careerist anyway. You don’t become a general through social promotion.
Are you at all familiar with the song Alice’s Restaurant?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m57gzA2JCcM
at the 15:10 mark is the relevant part to this thread. Progress!
or you can just read the lyrics here:
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/arloguthrie/alicesrestaurantmassacree.html
Listened to Alice’s Restaurant every Thanksgiving as a kid, if memory serves. That said, I’d forgotten about that bit. Thanks for the reminder!