You see american choppers in the bright blue sky, hundreds and hundreds of screaming american soldiers drop from it, you look across the field and see the tanks rolling in. You hear a loud explosion and realise that the shrine you have protected for thousands of years with tooth and nail is destroyed by the empire, you come to the realisation that this is very probably the end of your people who’ve struggled to survive all these centuries.You realise that very soon there is going to be a river of blood of your people here; white phosphorus and depleted uranium will be shot very soon, deforming babies for decades to come, and millions of your people are gonna be killed. Your millennia old language and religion will be wiped out, you’re very likely the last of your kind.
Suddenly, an American soldier kicks you down, puts his foot on your neck and aims his standard ar-15 on the side of your head all while screaming; you realise you’re gonna die, and you won’t have to see the destruction of your community that you fostered so carefully all these centuries for.
Just before he pulls the trigger, you think to yourself, “To be fair to him, he probably had a low GPA in highschool and didnt have a health-care, those are notoriously hard to get in America”.
Yeah, I see our veterans and fallen as victims rather than heroes, at least since Vietnam, when it was no longer clear we weren't the baddies.
By the time of the Gulf war and the Iraq war, it was clear we were poking our guns into places they didn't belong at costs the US couldn't afford, and we did anyway. And PMCs and torture made it super clear the US was the baddies.
I got closely acquainted with vets with TBIs (being a civilian TBI victim, myself) and the DVI did fuck-all for them, which was a disappointment since solders were coming home IED victims often with TBIs by the tens of thousands (but they survived, which means they weren't counted among our dead). The hope was the military was going to lead the way when it came to treatment and we civvies would ride on the coat-tails. Nope.
We're asked to remember them. There's lots of young people who were swindled into enlisting and died for a country that doesn't give a shit about them over a war for nothing.
Can we at least have a moment of silence for them?
Or for the ones who survived, but disillusioned, and struggling to readjust to life back home? Not every vet is a chud. Not every vet is pro war. Not every vet is pro America.
I've met four different people involved in the military and also have met four questionable people.
My dad, never got deployed, was in prison for fencing items, also owned businesses that in retrospect were suspiciously ideal for money laundering. o7
Then my childhood friend, sprayed nazi graffiti around town, went to juvie, now serves the troops. o7
Then a coworker, former military (allegedly), has a psychosis (which isn't bad!), and was harassing his ex at her work based on delusions (which is bad). o7
Then a different coworker at a different place, active military, very authoritarian despite not knowing much and not being our supervisor. Made everyone uncomfortable and frustrated including our actual supervisor. Now he's becoming a National Guard. o7
Idk, I feel like this is kind of reductive. I honestly more feel bad for troops and veterans. Recruitment takes advantage of people without much money or direction in life, promising things like a free college education, employment, and benefits for them and their family. Lots of people who join just don't have many other options. I opt to blame the system, not the people the system takes advantage of.
Totally true, and also why the practice of publicly glorifying veterans in social gatherings puts me off so hard
The very shallow showing of respect is part of the recruitment effort. It seems like veterans are respected, but they're not - they get a moment of applause during events, but it basically starts and ends there
Brb, bout to post this on nextdoor and watch all my neighbors fight.
Seriously though, this dude made a post on there today about how he's "been wearing his army gear the last few days and no one has thanked him for his service." I would walk into traffic if I was ever that embarrassing.
How much you wanna make a bet I can throw a football over them mountains?... Yeah... Coach woulda put me in fourth quarter, we would've been state champions. No doubt. No doubt in my mind.
My area has near constant posts about a vehicle driving by someone's house, accompanied by blurry footage of absolutely nothing of note, and half the commenters are convinced that it's for a crime and the other half are like, "you know this is a public street with other residents, right?" God forbid a realtor ever takes photos for comps. It's the fucking mafia, out to steal all of Janice's lawn ornaments, obviously.
It's just an absolute black hole of suck, but I work for a nearby city, so it's a good way to find out if there are resident concerns that aren't batshit crazy, so I keep my account active. I can only tolerate about 5 minutes at a time, though.
A lot of other veterans would agree with you. Memorial day is for the ones that didnt make it home. This dumbass mightve been better off following their footsteps if this is his usual level of thoughtfulness.
Some did point that out - about 200 other comments fell all over themselves to thank him and blame "kids these days," though, so it was pretty much the worst. My ex-husband spent a couple decades in the military, and he was suuuper uncomfortable being thanked, so I know that attitude is by no means universal. It's just cringey as hell.
Oh my god, finally. I've been wearing my Internet Cringe Police shirt all week and you're the only one who has thanked me for protecting the American people with my life or my wifi or whatever.
Anyway it seems plenty of people are confused about what the holidays are for. memorial Day is about remembering people who have died, particularly the people who died in line of combat in the military.
Veterans Day is the day we're supposed to thank a veteran.
Labor Day, I still don't know what that one's about, something about honoring everyone who has to work all the time? Labor?. So we get a day off. I guess.
Labor Day was supposed to be a celebration of the organized labor that got most of our worker's rights, but now it's just a celebration of day drinking and an excuse to offload the excess stock from Memorial Day and Independence Day.
