I appreciate the sentiment. I joined the Guard out of high school in 2004 to help my community and have a sense of purpose. Yesterday showed me that maybe it wasn't in vain. I hit a pretty low place this week so seeing some positive affirmations of human commradery was a welcomed sight.
Stay safe and stay hydrated. Much love from the midwest!
To be fair, there was evidence of voter disenfranchisement and voting abnormalities that seem too widespread to ignore. Check out the Election Truth Alliance and see for yourself. This isn't conspiracy shit. The numbers don't lie.
I attended my first protest yesterday, alone, while my wife watched my boy play at a park. Minus a couple of neckbeards in raised trucks sporting Confederate and tRump flags, it was a great experience. Lots of support from drivers as they passed by!
I was surprised at how many older people were there. No offense to anyone over 60 here, but until yesterday it felt like many older folks were fine with shit going down this way. I'm in a blue state, in a purple to blue location. I saw way more tRump shit last year than I had hoped to see.
I plan on making yesterday a regular event!
The conservative propaganda machine has been replacing empathy with cold-hard individualism for going on 50-years. Everything is a wedge issue and if it shouldn't be, it'll be made one. We like to make comparisons to the rise of fascism in the 1930s, but the tools, methods, and reach of today's tech makes that time feel like it took root through fortune cookies in comparison.
I don't know how we can hope to deprogram some of these people.
I will admit, sadly, the current propaganda machines have poisoned the minds of so many servicemen. The popularity of tRump within their ranks is higher than I would like to see, given the blatant demegogory displayed by him at every turn. Still, I hold out hope we see good triumph over evil when this all inevitably goes tits up.
What I wouldn't give to be anywhere else than the states nowadays! I feel like just the headlines take a day off my life, anymore.
Pay no attention to LAPD, we purposely trained them wrong... as a joke.
I'd like to hope you're not wrong. When I was in, honor, integrity, and empathy were tenants put above duty to any one person. I've seen a lot of this anti-soldier sentiment coming in the wake of the CNG being deployed to LA. As far as I have seen, there have been no instances of the California National Guard acting out of line according to the UCMJ. I don't expect all of the men and women, currently serving, to honor their oath as this country has been fed a steady stream of hateful and vitriolic propaganda from all forms of available media, mainstream and social. However, I have to believe those who commit atrocities will be the minority, not the majority.
Let's hope there are vets in the crowd to remind them that their oath is to a principal and not a "man."
It's easy to sit in a computer chair and cast a wide net of indignation across an entire band of people from all manners of background and culture. If you've never served, then you're just a puppet for whatever the media has fed you. If you're in the US, the same people you're shitting all over may be the only thing that stands between you and LEOs that would love nothing more than to get another gun to aim your way.
Everyone. Is. Capable. Of. Evil. You are not immune to propaganda.
Shit, as prior military we were taught you don't point your weapon at anything or anyone unless you're prepared to pull the trigger. The fact that all the others on that line had their weapons down, but this dude has his up the whole time, tells you all you need to know about the lack of training of that individual.
I'm a firm believer that many in MAGA are under a spell. The only hope we have is helping them identify that brainwashing and welcome them back to humanity once they do. However, as I've discussed with my therapist, we can't force them. They have to want to change. It really starts with pushing them from the hateful rhetoric of Faux News and the like. That propaganda is a powerful funnel for their hate, vitriol, and lies. It's the hydra that we must slain if we are ever to fix this without more bloodshed.
I'll see you out there in solidarity with the others who still see humanity as a fighting cause. I bounce between hope and despair, but the bounce on the hope side doesn't seem to go as high as it used to.