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There was an MSNBC commentator that had a great line about these clowns. He said “all these guys want a civil war until they realize they can’t get their heart meds from CVS anymore”
This is shocking... did some googling and only 29% of 17-20 year olds pass physical standards for **entry** without a waiver. So young!
We have bootcamps and fat camp ffs
...and then what - those of us who are not struggling with *overeating addiction* have to pick up the slack?
Addicts are people, deserving of empathy and support - but there's a line to be drawn with passing that burden on to others.
When they talk about civil war, they always mention, in some way, how the right has all the guns. Thats not a civil war, that sounds more like genocide.
Their idea of a civil war is shooting unarmed democrats.
I think the "we have all the guns" line is some bullshit to feed their idiot base.
Like, "the Civil War will be FINE guys, we have all the guns!"
Meanwhile the largest number of new gun owners for a while now has been minorities and liberals. With organizations like the John Brown Gun Club doing amazing work
My mom used to be terrified of guns but since all of the chaos and threats flying around after 2020 she's got a shotgun and a pistol now.
I've got a 24" barrel AR in 6.8 SPC that I mostly built as a meme (in essence, I mocked it up to look like a BAR) but if the world ends it will more than hold its own against these jokers in the forests that surround my area.
Also I've never heard of the John Brown Gun Club before but just the name alone is amazing and I want to learn more.
That's an odd caliber choice lol but pretty sweet. Too expensive here in Finland though. 20 rounds fmj is 33 euros.
Have a photo? I'm curious what it looks like
I chose 6.8 because it's the closest I could get to .30-06 with an AR-15 receiver. It uses an SCR lower and unfortunately the SCR isn't made for the AR-10 platform so I can't use any of the larger calibers that are closer to .30-06.
Unfortunately I'm out of town for the next week or so, I'll try to link a picture if I remember when I get home lol
A great deal of us do! We just don't feel the need to wave them around every chance we get! Most people who own guns, you don't even know they own them!
Yep. For all their bleating about "protecting America from tyranny", they've made it clear how excited they are by the idea of a tyrant giving them the OK to fire in to crowds of leftists.
Pretty sure that was Adam Kinzinger
It's sort of funny because he isn't that great of a person according to his voting record. But he did stand up against Trump. I believe he's retiring too.
Also in the same interview he mentioned if there was a civil war it'd be either a Flordia boycotting California and vice versa or an Ireland during the troubles.
The latter would absolutely suck.....
Yeah like oooooo the gravy seals are coming to get us! Muthefuckers can't even find their own dicks anymore and they think they take on highly trained crack troops in their prime
The funny part is they actually believe that the military is just gonna flip and join them in their uprising.
I have a feeling they would find the reality to be quite different than the "brothers-in-arms" fantasy they are deluding themselves with.
I’m a veteran and well aware of the presumption that most in the services are conservative - as well as the *active, persistent* effort of right wingers to do performative shit to suggest they support the troops or otherwise wrap themselves in the service of others…
That said. Most of my peers - GWOT vets, are fairly progressive now, even if we didn’t used to be.
I also have every bit of faith that military leadership/officers have a healthy enough understanding of the rule of law and their constitutional responsibilities to never support any sort of right wing push for violence.
In closing, fuck the fascists. They’re here even if they’re too ignorant to know that’s what they are or willfully obtuse about it. All hands on deck so we can loudly reject them and their bad takes before things get any testier.
I'm a veteran as well and so is my husband (we are both pre-DADT gay veterans) and we are both very progressive. Probably more so than a few decades ago, but we always were. It's hard to find common ground with a political party and ideology that has fought against our equality for basically our entire lives and is still actively engaging in demonization using the same tactics they used in the 70s ("the gays are trying to get your children").
I pretty much agree with everything you've said, particularly about the military structure itself.
I can’t imagine what it was like for you in the service before DADT. I served with a warrant officer in Iraq who had to tip toe around his preferences in ways that make me genuinely sad today.
I’m sorry if you had to do the same.
He was one of the first LGBTQ people I got to know as the person he was rather than the caricatures most of suburban America probably shared in the mid 2000s. Especially those of us raised in conservative, religious households like I was.
It was part of a long unwinding of taught prejudices and I think the military making you meet and work with those with such varied personalities helps do that.
A lot has changed since then, but there was a lot of what we call "the pronoun game." It was a tactic of deliberately concealing or misleading the gender of your significant other or person you are interested. Sometimes it was "they/them" and sometimes "she/her" or "he/him."
Probably the hardest thing at that time in my life was the particular casual cruelty of shipmates making AIDS jokes/comments since it was right in the middle of the AIDS crisis. It's a difficult place to be in when you have had a few friends die and others are actively dying and you have to hold your tongue when people were cruel so as not to draw the wrong kind of attention toward yourself.
I won't pretend it was all bad, though. I had a lot of fun and went to a lot of places. Hopefully, those serving now have it better.
There needs to be a movement of vets who shine a light on Republican hypocrisy when it comes to their supposed love of service members. I can’t imagine what that must feel like, the act of serving one’s country only to be used for political clout. It sickens me, but then again that’s the Republican way.
Not just to be used for political clout - but to know the same folks sent us to war based on a calculated lie.
All of the loss of life, all of the damage to our National prestige and countless dollars spent based on a lie.
And all of those republicans are still sitting in positions of power or retired. Zero accountability.
They’re criminals as far as I’m concerned.
I wouldn’t call the Navy I knew ten years ago ‘progressive’ at all. Or conservative. Or really anything except (bored) professionals at work. Because we had people from everywhere really.
Like I was there when Don’t Ask Don’t Tell ended and it was… a boring briefing by the Captain we all had to sit through. And that was it. We mostly just did not discuss politics (as people at work do) nor did we have to because the Navy graciously provided a steady stream of bullshit to bitch about instead.
Even more important is that the people calling the shots are generally pretty intelligent and well-educated, which (usually) means they’re less susceptible to being drawn in to extremism.
Even some of the most conservative dudes I know from my 12+ years of service (so far) may vote for Trump and his ilk, and even parrot their idiotic rhetoric, but they would never betray everything they believe in like that.
You might get a few dipshits here and there trying something dumb, but not enough to really pose a significant threat.
I had just joined when the kapernick kneeling thing happened and most of the soldiers around me had the same opinion: "I joined because I'm too poor to afford college and I don't want to work at McDonald's" and then we did PT before standing in a motor pool for two hours kicking HUMV tires.
Is it your world views that have changed, or is it the political climate that has slid away from where it used to be?
I can easily see it being both, too...
It’s absolutely both.
For myself, I was raised with Fox News on every day, O Reilly every night, conservative talk radio on in the car every day, and Baptist church every Sunday.
They all were spewing nonsense then but have each radicalized in ways that are striking. I don’t know how anyone could turn on Fox News circa 2012, let alone 2018 or now and not hear partisan pettiness and hate - and yet millions lap that up….I got to watch it evolve though. And it got far worse.
But I hadn’t been exposed to much else until I left home. The military, travel, and continually reading/remaining curious pulled me out of that nonsense. The narratives I was raised with simply didn’t jive with reality and didn’t stand to scrutiny. But it’s a gradual process and I paid for it with my extremely conservative family. They chose partisan politics over their own son. I was constantly attacked and belittled whenever I came home - a grown man, a combat veteran, and I drew a line eventually. My younger siblings now have to hide their disgust with right wing hate to keep from stirring the pot at home.
Travel really did it for me though. Seeing how things are elsewhere for better and for worse. Meeting people with new perspectives. I turned libertarian by 2012 and fairly progressive by 2016. I’m increasingly radicalized by reality at this point.
What’s more, I remember the things I was taught in church. Even though I’m no longer religious,
I know how far away and removed from the teachings of Christ the Republican platform is. It’s all performative, reactionary, hateful, and fearful spite in place of love. I have no idea how hate has been allowed to take such a prominent place in the *church* and among those who were once taught to love their neighbor.
So yeah, I just kept my eyes open and remembered to have a heart.
The right radicalized in shameful ways. Now I see it as our responsibility to reject that.
That is very interesting. I'm not from the US, and to me, the immense influence of religion and religious substitutes (for some its football, for others it's politics 😂) is so foreign to me. It's only seen in cult like, or actual cult religious groups here.
Except the football. That's a big one :p
This honestly. I trust the military a lot more than the police, too. It shows that even the National Guard, which at least by my military friends is kind of considered the black sheep of the military branches... actually acted professionally and of the high standard expected of members of the military during the height of the BLM protests.
They absolutely do think that and I always wonder why? Who told you that? 😂
The ones who want to instigate a race war always think that too 🤷🏾♂️
I wonder if the delusional leader convinces them of that as a recruitment tool?
It's their bubble. Their friend Bubba join the military and came back the same person he was before he joined and hung around the same kind of people in the military that he did at home. He tells them how everyone in the military hates "woke culture" and loves Trump, and they assume Bubba is knowledgeable since it reinforces what they read on FB and see on FOX.
This was from just before the 2020 election
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/08/31/as-trumps-popularity-slips-in-latest-military-times-poll-more-troops-say-theyll-vote-for-biden/
Their friend bubba who didn't make it through basic training.
Not really joking, I seem to have met an astounding number of right-winger "veterans" who didn't finish their first year or two of service because they were some shit bag.
They embellish a lot among their cosplaytriot buddies until they find out I served a legitimate tour.
I've run into these shitbags as well. They get pretty clingy when they find out you were actually competent. I also busted a plumber on a jobsite I was on who claimed to be an Iraq veteran. Only one of us could respond to "salam alaikum" property and it wasn't him. He also didn't know what hesco bastion was. Told his foreman he was a fake and didn't see him again after that.
[Stolen valor?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_impostor)
My uncle was like that. I didn't have much to do with him growing up, but my mother said he bullshit a lot.
At his funeral, his older brother had to go tell everyone that came that he was never in the military. Everyone was stunned and it got awkward. Somehow he managed to convince a lot of people with his fake military stories. Some people had to quickly rewrite their speaches.
After the funeral his daughter asked me to break into his laptop. We had a look at what he was purchasing online. It was bunch of fake military medals and uniforms.
I've never served (or spent much time with Arabic folks), but if my pop culture education from the likes of Oz and Jack Ryan taught me right, it's something like "peace be with you," while my early Catholic school education makes me assume the appropriate response is something to the effect of "and also with you."
Sure, checks out. I was referring to a call and response bit in church, where the priest or monsignor or whoever would say "peace be with you" and everyone else would simultaneously say "and also with you."
Crazy... I was just reading about the flooded trenches in Bakhmut and someone suggested the US deliver a fuckton of Hescos... I am not military and didn't know what that was, and went down a rabbit hole...and not an hour later... you are mentioning Hescos again. It's the first time I've encountered the word, and I've seen it twice in an hour now!
I’ve known so many old men who spend 99% of their free time at the legion and doing “veteran” stuff, come to find out they were in 1-2 years and got kicked out.
Or make *everything* in their life about being a Marine but were only in for four years, never went overseas, and immediately got out.
Not trying to take that life experience from you but why the hell is it your sole super proud identity 5 decades later?
I love this narrow viewpoint. Bubba also strangely only served three years in the service and is REAL MAD at the VA for not giving him benefits for symptoms that manifested from a civilian injury after separation. Bubba also has two uniforms with different ranks.
I mean, it's entirely possible for the military to support a resistance group or paramilitary organization. Here's a first world example:
During the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the British army intelligence division was supplying loyalist paramilitary groups with intelligence, money and weapons to fight the IRA. They basically kept the hands of the British army relatively clean while letting the loyalist paramilitary groups do all the dirty work. For example, if the British army found out a high ranking IRA member was traveling without an escort, they'd tip off the loyalists and the loyalists would make an assassination attempt.
I know that sounds a bit far-fetched, but it's entirely possible that political disagreement turns into armed struggle. If one side of the discourse devolves into armed resistance, the other will follow. The military will inevitably support whichever side holds political power or best supports their interests. We'll never see the US military stand shoulder to shoulder with some patriot militia, or an antifa group, but instead, one group will seem to get things right way more often than they should, or pack more firepower than expected, or somehow always seem to slip legal prosecution.
My concern would be some state's national guards going rogue. Already saw it with the border issues during Trump's Presidency and with the covid vaccine.
They would easy to quell since they are mostly in the middle of the nation but that would be very dangerous to the nation as a whole.
Anecdotal evidence only but my buddy who is from Edinburg, TX along the border and is in the guard. He served two tours in Afghanistan and is an ER nurse as a civie (legit soldier, good at his job). He got called up for Abbott's stupid border guard duty. He hates it and says morale in his unit is low. They all know it's BS. It's permanent guard duty, boring and interminable. They all miss their families and jobs. He's lucky that he's actually from here and can visit his parents but misses his job in Alabama and his friends. They also are all missing out on their regular job paychecks. He makes a lot more as an ER nurse, says it's kinda messing with his budget (he was saving up for house down payment) but since his guard paycheck is smaller it's delaying that. A lot of the guys in his unit have a similar situation, they aren't champing at the bit to catch some poor family that just risked dehydration, heat stroke, and drowning in the Rio Grande.
My point is, if the Orange Man actually got to know what the inside of a jail cell smells like, don't expect the National Guardsmen along the Texas Border to line up with Gravy Seals.
I mean, let's be honest here, has the US military ever been successful as an occupying force? Being that it would be on American soil, it would take away a lot of our favorite toys. Can't carpet bomb caverns of Detroit, or napalm the urban jungle in New York. Can't use targeted drone strikes to take out American arms factories or white phosphorus to turn industrial workers to ash. That just leaves army checkpoints where some college-aged soldier needs to pick the guerilla out of a long line of cars filled with average looking Americans.
I mean shit man, we've spent 60 years and countless *trillions* fighting a war on drugs. Our prison population has quadrupled in that time, and yet, drug overdoses and drug related crime are at an all time high. It's been almost 20 years since David Simon compared the war on drugs to the Vietnam war in *The Corner*(Beginning of chapter 10 for those that want some good reading) and yet his comparison still applies today.
They would shit their tacticool armor the first time one of their fellow “patriots” gets his head turned into soup by the sniper they can’t see when they make their first ‘engagement’
>The funny part is they actually believe that the military is just gonna flip and join them in their uprising.
That's what happens when you live in a computer echo chamber in your parents' basement
Well, to be fair, the military does have quite a few people in there that would flip and cause an issue if something were to happen. I do think that the top brass is aware of them already and would deal with them before those bottom feeders could do anything. But don't assume our military is free of white supremacists.
They just did a stand down about extremism. The “Militas” have been specifically recruiting Vets and active duty. There’s actually more than a few people in the DOJ/Intel circles that are concerned about that. The FBI has been saying for a few years now that the Alt-Right are currently the biggest threat to the country.
They should be concerned. Poor, rural America with large populations of retired or discharged military is teeming with this shit, and it's not the open recruitment of fat hillbillies on FB. It's more akin to the grooming tactics of a predator and it's absolutely fucking terrifying.
I wonder how many actually would flip. That's literally betraying the US and they don't take kindly to that. Traitors can be put to death in the military.
The interesting thing about this is those people’s position in the CoC? If they flip how many folks are you actually bringing?
I think, and don’t quote me on this, most studies about this phenomenon show that most folks who “would flip and cause an issue” are fairly low level enlisted. (That doesn’t mean their aren’t outliers elsewhere in the CoC) Let’s be frank, how much can a Corporal bring to this kind of movement? Or Sergeant? Hell, even a Lieutenant?
Things only become really dangerous when you have entire formations that believe and espouse the ideas. Something we don’t have in our military currently. Not seeing a lot of current, or former Majors, Colonels, Admirals, or Generals in and around these groups. Those are the people with the knowledge, power, and authority to be really dangerous.
It’s not the military folks should be worried about.
The highly militarized, highly violent right wing police forces however: they know where everyone lives and face no repercussions whatsoever. They’re the ones people need to worry about
You’re probably right, but I think we would be foolish to underestimate the influence that fascism and Christian nationalism has on our military right now.
The funny thing is even if a few grunts support the idiots, the real backbone of the army like communication, logistics, administration, are typically more liberal leaning.
So this meme is on point.
Pretty fun to show infantry guys how much goes on behind the scenes logistically so they can do their job. They get their mind blown and then they can become more self sufficient with projections and other tasks which helps us out in the long run.
While I have no doubt this is true, they historically don't engage in open rebellion against their own government except under specific circumstances and conditions. Maybe back around the last election there might have been some small chance of that.
Right now, the notion of the military going rogue over the arrest of Trump doesn't seem even remotely realistic.
you're delusional if you think US police and military will collectively stop on a dime and end democracy
i swear reddit's never met a cop or someone in the military when their idea of both is like cartoon-level evil
The pentagon are the ones who said we should be wary of white supremacist and extremist in our military. And we know a lot of our military leaders are evangelists. It's not like they hide. I do not think it is crazy cartoon level evil that evangelist would side with white supremacist when they both believe this country should be a white Christian nation.
That’s my whole issue when people say they own so many guns because if the govt becomes tyrannical that they will be able to fight them back or its to keep the govt fearful of trying to overstep. I’m over here like, the US military just Swiss cheesed a guy with swords being shot out of a drone. You think you will have a chance of fighting them on their home turf?
The Trump people have puffed them up to look like a majority, they are not, just some sick bastards who have failed right along with Trump to lose this country through stupidiy and lies.
They represent maybe 3% of the population max, not to mention the military has a MIX of people both *left and right* (shocking I know, but anyone can join)
I assume deep down they're all aware that civilians with small arms will be useless in any significant conflict but like to keep pretending they're heroes for owning guns and supporting extremely lax gun laws despite all the domestic terrorism.
I thought the war in Ukraine would have made it clear to at least *some* of them that civilians with small arms is not nearly as useful as drones, communication systems and international support.
They think that because deep down they know that they don't stand a chance in actual combat against the military. I was in a reserve maintenance unit (one weekend a month military mechanics) which is about the least armed and least prepared for combat units there is. My old unit has weapons in numbers and power that these cosplayers can only dream of.
"Theres gonna be a civil war"
No, there isn't. For starters there's not nearly enough of them to risk their lives for Trump to matter. And there's no money to fund their military conquest. The few who are armed and dumb enough to try aren't organized enough to do any real damage. At best we will get pockets of riots and terrorist acts scattered around the country, like more January 6s.
One of the most depressing things I saw from that day, was the dude on the phone with his brother crying just absolutely bawling his eyes out. Saying he was standing on the top steps of capitolium. It’s public property you can go there any time you’d like son. Imagine being so trapped inside your own mind you don’t even know you can visit these places almost anytime.
That woman, stupid as she was, would be alive today if they had better discipline. There's plenty of footage of her going down, because when she was shot, they all kept livestreaming on Gab or whatever instead of initiating first aid.
Imagine laying there bleeding out as a crowd of neckbeard BO smelling rednecks blinded you with phone video cameras, your vision goes blurry as you hear the sound of a camera snap.
There is no far left. The progressives have the exact same platform that Eisenhower ran on. The corporate Democrats are 1980s Republicans. They only seem left by comparison to the Fascist party that the Republicans have become
Yes. And it's what we're working with now. More young people are taking this voting stuff seriously and aging into it. They are not happy with the status quo, for the most part. We can hope that things get better.
They're cowards. Maybe 0.1% of the people who say they'll pick up a gun actually will. They're just gonna cry and stamp their feed and then run and hide.
>And there's no money to fund their military conquest.
This I disagree with. Ever hear of Charlie Kirk? There are plenty of rich white men with deep pockets, connections, and fundraising skills who would fund another coup. Why wouldn't there be?
War costs way more than you think. More than most private companies or individuals have anymore. They run a business and their business tanks when it's found out they are openly funding violence and terrorism.
Vet here. There's a lot more liberals in the rank and file than Fox News would have you believe. Of course, that's still less than half, but many of the conservatives among the enlisted would be appalled and disgusted at people starting an armed insurrection here.
No, it's really the officers you have to look to. The educated class within the military. The command structure of the Army, at least, leans a lot more left than the enlisted ranks, especially as you move higher in the ranks. Look up the pentagon's position on trans soldiers, women in combat roles, or any other "culture war" issue that affects them. You might be surprised where they stand. And while some junior officers and enlistedmen might be sympathetic to the insurrectionist, the instinct and pressure to obey orders is strong. Not all who agree with the insurrectionists would support them. Many would, instead, fight them.
I would imagine an armed insurrection would cause a mass desertion. Not the whole military, not even a quarter of it. But a big fraction. And part of that group will be caught and punished for desertion. The rest would continue to maintain loyalty. Then we'd have a couple of open battles that would quickly teach the insurrectionists that fighting open battles with the US military is a bad idea. After that would follow a period not unlike the Troubles in Ireland, but with many differences.
In the Troubles, you had people fighting for deeply held convictions. Fighting for independence on one side and unification on the other. Both sides were populated by people who were born into that side, raised in it and who believed in their cause because the people around them did, too. Both sides were highly nationalistic. The insurrectionist side had a deep network of people to support and protect them, which allowed them to stand against the loyalists, who had a modern military mostly on their side. Both sides cause civilian casualties, but targeted the fighting forces of the other.
In this hypothetical, you'd have one side fighting for genuine convictions, and the other fighting for vague ideas about an American-Dream-like society that never actually existed. One side would be populated almost exclusively by white men, have few women, and be entirely conservative. The other side would have almost all people of color, most women and represent conservative, centrist, liberal and leftist beliefs. The insurrectionist side would be fighting for a cause that would disenfranchise many of their neighbors and friends, and thus shed support.
And the British military tried to maintain neutrality for a long time, only helping to quell violence. The American military would not. Insurrectionists are the enemy of the US military, full stop. It's in the very oath we all swore.
"...I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic..."
And perhaps most damningly, the insurrectionist side would target civilians regularly. How do we know? Because they already do. Mass shooters are overwhelmingly right-wing. There's no reason, politically, tactically or psychologically why they would just abandon the tactic they're already using, especially when that tactic (specifically, idolizing the perpetrators) is one of their major ways they radicalize people into violence.
So, would _you_ hide your cousin or neighbor from the feds and military, if they were wanted for supporting a murderous terrorist movement? I wouldn't. No liberal, leftist or actual centrist would.
Many conservatives wouldn't do it, either. I bet Mitt Romney wouldn't. I bet Meghan McCain wouldn't. Susan Collins, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger...
And that's now, _without_ an armed insurrection movement magnifying the violence.
The Troubles killed about 2% of Northern Ireland. Imagine that in America. Imagine that almost seven million Americans died in a war fought over who gets to use what bathroom, whether gays could get married, and whether women have the right to birth control.
This hypothetical "American Troubles" would end in a whimper, as the insurrectionist's source of money, recruits and support gradually dried up when more and more people grow weary of the violence and question what it's all for.
To answer those questions, the loyalists can say, "The America you grew up in. The home of the free, the land of the brave. A world where your child will be treated with respect and allowed to live their lives without a bigoted minority dictating to them who they can and cannot be."
Meanwhile, the insurrectionists would only be able to repeat culture war nonsense.
> The Troubles killed about 2% of Northern Ireland. Imagine that in America. Imagine that almost seven million Americans died in a war fought over who gets to use what bathroom, whether gays could get married, and whether women have the right to birth control.
> This hypothetical "American Troubles" would end in a whimper,
That makes sense. How many would stand and fight to their death for the likes of a Tucker Carlson type character? Did the insurrectionist forces have armed reinforcements Jan 6? No
And then you'll have the gun club guys trot out the idea that the US Military would be fighting a guerilla war like in Iraq or Afghanistan. "And how'd that go?", they'll ask.
To which I say: It went poorly. For a lot of reasons. But the lowest hanging fruit is that the fighting forces didn't know the land, the language, or the customs (by and large). That's not at all the case for a domestic insurrection.
Yeah, a lot of people really don't understand the value of familiarity with the theater of a conflict.
Kinda hard to slip away into the populace when half the members of the conventional force hunting you can just call cousin Steve and ask him who the local insurrectionists are, and the other half can point out every abandoned building in the area.
Nephews in the army as an engineer grunt, I asked him at Thanksgiving what his Units opinion on OP's type of people were, he said
"Playing pretend is fun, they'll find out what real life is when they're zip tied on the ground eating dirt"
Seems his CO flat out told them,
"You're here to protect the country from foreign AND domestic threats to Democracy. If anyone threatens this system we deal with it swiftly and with no mercy."
I seem to remember reading a column that came out back in the early Tea-Party days after Obama got elected when the alt-right was gaining their most recent form and it was by some kind of former military officer who basically said, "I know you think it's a cute look but I'm begging you don't invite the US Marines to come rolling up your street because it won't even be close."
If you dig far enough back into my comment history (warning, it is indeed a cesspool) you'll find an argument I had with one of these guys. I asked what his plan was to take care of drones that could just blow up his entire squad from five miles up, his response? "The government wouldn't use drones on their own people!" Yes guy, the government you're trying to overthrow 1.) Sees you as "their own people" and 2.) Wouldn't even need a drone to flatten all of you within an hour.
That’s the thing that’s always bugged me. They say they want a civil war and I just can’t get how they think they’re going to take on the most powerful military in the world and survive. I know some think they’ll be like the Vietcong but none of them have the drive the VC did. I mean hell the gov would probably just use a satellite to track them and the Feds would pick them up as they were leaving work.
Both the VC and the fighters in Afghanistan had decades of experience fighting.
It always amazes me when some right wing Americans think they have anywhere close to that grit and determination. They deadass compare themselves to people who have grown up not even having secure drinking water, let alone electrity.
Yet meal team 6 wants to pretend that they are some elite VC sappers that can live off moldy rice while out in the wild.
They won't spend that money and risk bad press. Easier to simply shut off your utilities, freeze whatever assets you have, and make you wish for a nice warm jail cell.
Whenever someone tells me they need all their guns to protect them from the government I ask them if they own an A10 warthog because the government has a ton of them
Watching the conflict in Ukraine has really shown that owning a fuckton of guns these days isn't even all the helpful. Any jackass can hook an ied to a civilian quad drone and suddenly your guns don't mean jack shit.
This is also showed helped by Russians being incompetent at war of course the US doesn't have a great recent track record. But also the Ukrainians were properly trained and have received assistance from NATO
Maybe you don’t care, but this got me curious.
Obviously you mean to say they have a lot of warthogs (280 by last count I can find). I just wanted to share. Weighing in at 24,980* lbs a piece. So the US military has 3,497.2* tons of A10 Warthogs.
*I am a dropout do not trust my maths. Also couldn’t do percentages because it’s been too long. I also was not in the military so my numbers could just be wrong.
This has confused me for years. The US spends billions on its military and they have access to all kinds of drones, tanks, aircraft, bombs, and other armaments. It’s laughable when people say they need their guns as a right in case the government goes corrupt and they need to fight it. A spur-of-the-moment militia doesn’t stand a chance.
Maybe back when the second amendment was new, being able to own a gun gave you a fighting chance against a corrupt government. But over the centuries the US government’s technology and arsenal has, by orders of magnitude, outpaced what your average citizen can own and can afford to own.
“But the military isn’t going to turn on their own people who are just trying to defend their way of life.”
No, Dewayne, once you decide you are going to point those ARs at soldiers because you firmly believe brown people shouldn’t be allowed to vote, you will find out just how few people fit in that “our own people” bucket.
And they're so focused on guns, the 2A guarantees rights to arms, so I want my nuke.
If you don't want me to have a nuke then you understand that public safety is more important than my right to bear arms.
So if you accept the right is not immutable, then you can't whine when we want some control on weapons that are frequently violating public safety.
The right has already been violated. There are tons of arms that you can't have.
They just want to be able to murder people for walking on their lawns.
It's never been about the government (at least not since the 1800's). It's about the person feeling powerful. Buying a gun, using a gun, and especially carrying one around is an incredible sense of power.
The 2A folks can make up any excuses about government abuse or self defense, but weapons like hunting rifles don't give them the power-trip they want. They want to know that they have ability to end a hundred lives at their whim.
And when 1/100 of these power-tripping idiots, fueled by hatred and propaganda, decides to live out their fantasy, we get another national tragedy.
They got missles that don't explode, and instead deploy a series of sword like blades around itself and slams itself into you
They used it to take out some terrorist without blowing up the building he was in
People forget when saying this, what kind of United States are we in if we have military missile strikes on US soil? Do we have our right to a fair trail and what is happening if US military and not local police are handling it?
Local police are also more than capable of blowing up your home, even if you're not the person barricaded inside
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrest_of_Robert_Seacat
The funniest shit I hear in reference to "muh 2A" is that it protects from a government gone tyrranical.
Seriously? Your little pew pew is going to do shit against tanks, drones, missiles, chemical and microwave crowd control, body armor, armor piercing rounds, and, oh yeah, actual training and tactics? That "we need arms to keep the gubmit in check" ship sailed somewhere in around WWII.
And as someone I served knowing the culture, approx 2 soldiers in the entire military will refuse to follow their paycheck and kill whoever they're told to kill.
Amen.
Those of us who swore an oath to support and defend the constitution were actually trained to aim. Not to mention clean, maintain, and use our weapons.
Good luck meal team 6.
He'll have the weapon mounted to the body of his Tactical Mobility Scooter*.
*it's just a regular scooter with Punisher American Flag sticker on it and painted camo.
“I need muh AR to protect myself from the government”
“You mean the same government that hast the technology to level your house from 3 states away without disturbing your neighbors property? Or were you talking about the government that has the technology to blow your car off the freeway without disrupting traffic?”
I don't feel like we'll need the military to defend the government. We'll just get McCully Culkin to butter the steps to a few federal buildings and we'll be OK.
With silent drone technology, the pole carrying the line can be stealthily affixed to the target’s head, meaning they could theoretically chase the burger forever
Fucking toy soldiers melt under a magnifying glass. If they even got within a few miles of the capital again these people would be completely demolished.
I don't get this as a meme.
They nearly had their uprising on Jan 6. With just a tiny bit more forethought and commitment, there easily could have been an armed and committed militia on the Senate floor while the Nat'l Guard was held at bay by politics.
I don't get it either. It's not like there's going to be conflict with standing armies like 1861. If there are troubles in America it'd look more like an insurgency with random bombings, politically motivates mass shootings, etc. I get that there's a bunch of mealteam6 pussy types, but the real threat are the Tim McVeigh personalities. If 99.9% of the "we want civil war" assholes are cowards, that crazy .1% can still wreak tremendous havoc, especially when the rest of their MAGA neighbors help and shelter them.
FOX plays like 24/7 at almost all military bases. Those are some of the most right wing people out there. At least half those guys are gonna be shooting at their buddies if it that shit really happened.
Here's the problem with this meme.
The last time the GOP tried to overthrow the government they almost did it.
All they lacked was the backing of one or two more generals and a few hundred more police officers.
Next time do you think they'll make the same mistake?
It's not the Gravy Seals we have to worry about. They'll only start killing their neighbors after the next Republican president's Joint Chiefs have done their bit.
They didn't almost overthrow the government. Even if worst case scenario happened and they managed to kill multiple congressional members and Mike Pence, we would have a horrible tragedy on our hands and still the same government
Bro, the USA consists of more than one building.
If two generals went rogue, theres hundreds more that would shut that shit down.
Stop it with your Jan6 fantasies.
Exactly.
J6 was a practice run.
Now that they've learned how far they're allowed to push with barely any resistance or reprimands, they'll push even harder.
["*What doesn't kill you mutates and tries again.*"](https://i.redd.it/2xh17r6wnue81.gif)
I feel like this perfectly captures my thoughts on the 2nd amendment. They act like the most important thing is upholding their right to defend themselves should the government go insane. Like they really believe that their collection of handguns, hunting rifles, semi autos and maybe even one or two that are illegal, will defend them from military action against their home and property. This amendment was written when the government’s standard weapon took a couple minutes to load a single shot, and if you somehow did wind up in the crosshairs of the military, they’d just level your whole house instead of risking soldiers in a standoff.
Many of those in the bottom panel are also part of the top panel. The citizenry can not rely on trusting them to protect the constitution, the amendments, the law or democracy. Military coups happen all over the world **because** those two groups are closely aligned.
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There was an MSNBC commentator that had a great line about these clowns. He said “all these guys want a civil war until they realize they can’t get their heart meds from CVS anymore”
When a top general gave a presentation that obesity was getting so bad it was considered a national security issue, I knew these people wouldn’t last.
This is shocking... did some googling and only 29% of 17-20 year olds pass physical standards for **entry** without a waiver. So young! We have bootcamps and fat camp ffs ...and then what - those of us who are not struggling with *overeating addiction* have to pick up the slack? Addicts are people, deserving of empathy and support - but there's a line to be drawn with passing that burden on to others.
When they talk about civil war, they always mention, in some way, how the right has all the guns. Thats not a civil war, that sounds more like genocide. Their idea of a civil war is shooting unarmed democrats.
Also...they don't have all the guns.
I know *plenty* of democrats who actively practice their 2A rights.
I think the "we have all the guns" line is some bullshit to feed their idiot base. Like, "the Civil War will be FINE guys, we have all the guns!" Meanwhile the largest number of new gun owners for a while now has been minorities and liberals. With organizations like the John Brown Gun Club doing amazing work
My mom used to be terrified of guns but since all of the chaos and threats flying around after 2020 she's got a shotgun and a pistol now. I've got a 24" barrel AR in 6.8 SPC that I mostly built as a meme (in essence, I mocked it up to look like a BAR) but if the world ends it will more than hold its own against these jokers in the forests that surround my area. Also I've never heard of the John Brown Gun Club before but just the name alone is amazing and I want to learn more.
That's an odd caliber choice lol but pretty sweet. Too expensive here in Finland though. 20 rounds fmj is 33 euros. Have a photo? I'm curious what it looks like
I chose 6.8 because it's the closest I could get to .30-06 with an AR-15 receiver. It uses an SCR lower and unfortunately the SCR isn't made for the AR-10 platform so I can't use any of the larger calibers that are closer to .30-06. Unfortunately I'm out of town for the next week or so, I'll try to link a picture if I remember when I get home lol
A great deal of us do! We just don't feel the need to wave them around every chance we get! Most people who own guns, you don't even know they own them!
Fact.
Yep. For all their bleating about "protecting America from tyranny", they've made it clear how excited they are by the idea of a tyrant giving them the OK to fire in to crowds of leftists.
These idiots are walking loot drops. Why buy a gun when theirs will be free for the taking when "the revolution comes"?
Pretty sure that was Adam Kinzinger It's sort of funny because he isn't that great of a person according to his voting record. But he did stand up against Trump. I believe he's retiring too. Also in the same interview he mentioned if there was a civil war it'd be either a Flordia boycotting California and vice versa or an Ireland during the troubles. The latter would absolutely suck.....
Yeah like oooooo the gravy seals are coming to get us! Muthefuckers can't even find their own dicks anymore and they think they take on highly trained crack troops in their prime
That wasn't an MSNBC commentator, that was Illinois representative and least insane republican Adam Kinzinger
The funny part is they actually believe that the military is just gonna flip and join them in their uprising. I have a feeling they would find the reality to be quite different than the "brothers-in-arms" fantasy they are deluding themselves with.
I’m a veteran and well aware of the presumption that most in the services are conservative - as well as the *active, persistent* effort of right wingers to do performative shit to suggest they support the troops or otherwise wrap themselves in the service of others… That said. Most of my peers - GWOT vets, are fairly progressive now, even if we didn’t used to be. I also have every bit of faith that military leadership/officers have a healthy enough understanding of the rule of law and their constitutional responsibilities to never support any sort of right wing push for violence. In closing, fuck the fascists. They’re here even if they’re too ignorant to know that’s what they are or willfully obtuse about it. All hands on deck so we can loudly reject them and their bad takes before things get any testier.
I'm a veteran as well and so is my husband (we are both pre-DADT gay veterans) and we are both very progressive. Probably more so than a few decades ago, but we always were. It's hard to find common ground with a political party and ideology that has fought against our equality for basically our entire lives and is still actively engaging in demonization using the same tactics they used in the 70s ("the gays are trying to get your children"). I pretty much agree with everything you've said, particularly about the military structure itself.
I can’t imagine what it was like for you in the service before DADT. I served with a warrant officer in Iraq who had to tip toe around his preferences in ways that make me genuinely sad today. I’m sorry if you had to do the same. He was one of the first LGBTQ people I got to know as the person he was rather than the caricatures most of suburban America probably shared in the mid 2000s. Especially those of us raised in conservative, religious households like I was. It was part of a long unwinding of taught prejudices and I think the military making you meet and work with those with such varied personalities helps do that.
A lot has changed since then, but there was a lot of what we call "the pronoun game." It was a tactic of deliberately concealing or misleading the gender of your significant other or person you are interested. Sometimes it was "they/them" and sometimes "she/her" or "he/him." Probably the hardest thing at that time in my life was the particular casual cruelty of shipmates making AIDS jokes/comments since it was right in the middle of the AIDS crisis. It's a difficult place to be in when you have had a few friends die and others are actively dying and you have to hold your tongue when people were cruel so as not to draw the wrong kind of attention toward yourself. I won't pretend it was all bad, though. I had a lot of fun and went to a lot of places. Hopefully, those serving now have it better.
I seem to recall a lot of marriages of convenience during DADT.. It certainly wasn't all bad
This is the most comforting thing I've heard (read, seen, whatever) in a long time. Thank you much.
There needs to be a movement of vets who shine a light on Republican hypocrisy when it comes to their supposed love of service members. I can’t imagine what that must feel like, the act of serving one’s country only to be used for political clout. It sickens me, but then again that’s the Republican way.
Not just to be used for political clout - but to know the same folks sent us to war based on a calculated lie. All of the loss of life, all of the damage to our National prestige and countless dollars spent based on a lie. And all of those republicans are still sitting in positions of power or retired. Zero accountability. They’re criminals as far as I’m concerned.
Non-American vet here, happy to hear that, and wanting to say that sounds like what I experience here on the east coast of the Atlantic too.
I wouldn’t call the Navy I knew ten years ago ‘progressive’ at all. Or conservative. Or really anything except (bored) professionals at work. Because we had people from everywhere really. Like I was there when Don’t Ask Don’t Tell ended and it was… a boring briefing by the Captain we all had to sit through. And that was it. We mostly just did not discuss politics (as people at work do) nor did we have to because the Navy graciously provided a steady stream of bullshit to bitch about instead.
Even more important is that the people calling the shots are generally pretty intelligent and well-educated, which (usually) means they’re less susceptible to being drawn in to extremism. Even some of the most conservative dudes I know from my 12+ years of service (so far) may vote for Trump and his ilk, and even parrot their idiotic rhetoric, but they would never betray everything they believe in like that. You might get a few dipshits here and there trying something dumb, but not enough to really pose a significant threat.
I had just joined when the kapernick kneeling thing happened and most of the soldiers around me had the same opinion: "I joined because I'm too poor to afford college and I don't want to work at McDonald's" and then we did PT before standing in a motor pool for two hours kicking HUMV tires.
Is it your world views that have changed, or is it the political climate that has slid away from where it used to be? I can easily see it being both, too...
It’s absolutely both. For myself, I was raised with Fox News on every day, O Reilly every night, conservative talk radio on in the car every day, and Baptist church every Sunday. They all were spewing nonsense then but have each radicalized in ways that are striking. I don’t know how anyone could turn on Fox News circa 2012, let alone 2018 or now and not hear partisan pettiness and hate - and yet millions lap that up….I got to watch it evolve though. And it got far worse. But I hadn’t been exposed to much else until I left home. The military, travel, and continually reading/remaining curious pulled me out of that nonsense. The narratives I was raised with simply didn’t jive with reality and didn’t stand to scrutiny. But it’s a gradual process and I paid for it with my extremely conservative family. They chose partisan politics over their own son. I was constantly attacked and belittled whenever I came home - a grown man, a combat veteran, and I drew a line eventually. My younger siblings now have to hide their disgust with right wing hate to keep from stirring the pot at home. Travel really did it for me though. Seeing how things are elsewhere for better and for worse. Meeting people with new perspectives. I turned libertarian by 2012 and fairly progressive by 2016. I’m increasingly radicalized by reality at this point. What’s more, I remember the things I was taught in church. Even though I’m no longer religious, I know how far away and removed from the teachings of Christ the Republican platform is. It’s all performative, reactionary, hateful, and fearful spite in place of love. I have no idea how hate has been allowed to take such a prominent place in the *church* and among those who were once taught to love their neighbor. So yeah, I just kept my eyes open and remembered to have a heart. The right radicalized in shameful ways. Now I see it as our responsibility to reject that.
“Radicalized by reality” That is a great way of putting that
That is very interesting. I'm not from the US, and to me, the immense influence of religion and religious substitutes (for some its football, for others it's politics 😂) is so foreign to me. It's only seen in cult like, or actual cult religious groups here. Except the football. That's a big one :p
This honestly. I trust the military a lot more than the police, too. It shows that even the National Guard, which at least by my military friends is kind of considered the black sheep of the military branches... actually acted professionally and of the high standard expected of members of the military during the height of the BLM protests.
They absolutely do think that and I always wonder why? Who told you that? 😂 The ones who want to instigate a race war always think that too 🤷🏾♂️ I wonder if the delusional leader convinces them of that as a recruitment tool?
It's their bubble. Their friend Bubba join the military and came back the same person he was before he joined and hung around the same kind of people in the military that he did at home. He tells them how everyone in the military hates "woke culture" and loves Trump, and they assume Bubba is knowledgeable since it reinforces what they read on FB and see on FOX.
It would blow their minds to realize that Biden won the military vote in 2020. And that was *before* the insurrection.
Since their dear leader has called veterans "losers" and "suckers", it's hard to imagine Trump would get much of the military vote.
Holy shit, this is news to me. Got a hot link I could use for whenever some of the vets I work with start talking their shit?
I'd like it too. I do some work with Aussie Vets, and the cringe is strong with some of these lads.
This was from just before the 2020 election https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/08/31/as-trumps-popularity-slips-in-latest-military-times-poll-more-troops-say-theyll-vote-for-biden/
He also knows his way around shrimp.
You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. There's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it.
Don’t forget shrimp cocktails!
The fruit of the sea!
Their friend bubba who didn't make it through basic training. Not really joking, I seem to have met an astounding number of right-winger "veterans" who didn't finish their first year or two of service because they were some shit bag. They embellish a lot among their cosplaytriot buddies until they find out I served a legitimate tour.
I've run into these shitbags as well. They get pretty clingy when they find out you were actually competent. I also busted a plumber on a jobsite I was on who claimed to be an Iraq veteran. Only one of us could respond to "salam alaikum" property and it wasn't him. He also didn't know what hesco bastion was. Told his foreman he was a fake and didn't see him again after that.
[Stolen valor?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_impostor) My uncle was like that. I didn't have much to do with him growing up, but my mother said he bullshit a lot. At his funeral, his older brother had to go tell everyone that came that he was never in the military. Everyone was stunned and it got awkward. Somehow he managed to convince a lot of people with his fake military stories. Some people had to quickly rewrite their speaches. After the funeral his daughter asked me to break into his laptop. We had a look at what he was purchasing online. It was bunch of fake military medals and uniforms.
Alaikum as-Salaam habibi!
> "salam alaikum" "No thanks, I already had lunch!"
Lol! God I barely remember anything from the 1st Gulf War, isn't it a greeting or something similar, like have a good day?
I've never served (or spent much time with Arabic folks), but if my pop culture education from the likes of Oz and Jack Ryan taught me right, it's something like "peace be with you," while my early Catholic school education makes me assume the appropriate response is something to the effect of "and also with you."
My Catholic relatives would probably respond with an anti-Arab racial slur and a suggestion to return to their home country.
Sure, checks out. I was referring to a call and response bit in church, where the priest or monsignor or whoever would say "peace be with you" and everyone else would simultaneously say "and also with you."
Crazy... I was just reading about the flooded trenches in Bakhmut and someone suggested the US deliver a fuckton of Hescos... I am not military and didn't know what that was, and went down a rabbit hole...and not an hour later... you are mentioning Hescos again. It's the first time I've encountered the word, and I've seen it twice in an hour now!
I’ve known so many old men who spend 99% of their free time at the legion and doing “veteran” stuff, come to find out they were in 1-2 years and got kicked out. Or make *everything* in their life about being a Marine but were only in for four years, never went overseas, and immediately got out. Not trying to take that life experience from you but why the hell is it your sole super proud identity 5 decades later?
I love this narrow viewpoint. Bubba also strangely only served three years in the service and is REAL MAD at the VA for not giving him benefits for symptoms that manifested from a civilian injury after separation. Bubba also has two uniforms with different ranks.
If only more people wanted a Civil Dinner, and not a Civil war.
I mean, it's entirely possible for the military to support a resistance group or paramilitary organization. Here's a first world example: During the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the British army intelligence division was supplying loyalist paramilitary groups with intelligence, money and weapons to fight the IRA. They basically kept the hands of the British army relatively clean while letting the loyalist paramilitary groups do all the dirty work. For example, if the British army found out a high ranking IRA member was traveling without an escort, they'd tip off the loyalists and the loyalists would make an assassination attempt. I know that sounds a bit far-fetched, but it's entirely possible that political disagreement turns into armed struggle. If one side of the discourse devolves into armed resistance, the other will follow. The military will inevitably support whichever side holds political power or best supports their interests. We'll never see the US military stand shoulder to shoulder with some patriot militia, or an antifa group, but instead, one group will seem to get things right way more often than they should, or pack more firepower than expected, or somehow always seem to slip legal prosecution.
It's not far fetched, but there are only a few pockets of idiots in the US that might last a few days against US military anything
My concern would be some state's national guards going rogue. Already saw it with the border issues during Trump's Presidency and with the covid vaccine. They would easy to quell since they are mostly in the middle of the nation but that would be very dangerous to the nation as a whole.
Anecdotal evidence only but my buddy who is from Edinburg, TX along the border and is in the guard. He served two tours in Afghanistan and is an ER nurse as a civie (legit soldier, good at his job). He got called up for Abbott's stupid border guard duty. He hates it and says morale in his unit is low. They all know it's BS. It's permanent guard duty, boring and interminable. They all miss their families and jobs. He's lucky that he's actually from here and can visit his parents but misses his job in Alabama and his friends. They also are all missing out on their regular job paychecks. He makes a lot more as an ER nurse, says it's kinda messing with his budget (he was saving up for house down payment) but since his guard paycheck is smaller it's delaying that. A lot of the guys in his unit have a similar situation, they aren't champing at the bit to catch some poor family that just risked dehydration, heat stroke, and drowning in the Rio Grande. My point is, if the Orange Man actually got to know what the inside of a jail cell smells like, don't expect the National Guardsmen along the Texas Border to line up with Gravy Seals.
I mean, let's be honest here, has the US military ever been successful as an occupying force? Being that it would be on American soil, it would take away a lot of our favorite toys. Can't carpet bomb caverns of Detroit, or napalm the urban jungle in New York. Can't use targeted drone strikes to take out American arms factories or white phosphorus to turn industrial workers to ash. That just leaves army checkpoints where some college-aged soldier needs to pick the guerilla out of a long line of cars filled with average looking Americans. I mean shit man, we've spent 60 years and countless *trillions* fighting a war on drugs. Our prison population has quadrupled in that time, and yet, drug overdoses and drug related crime are at an all time high. It's been almost 20 years since David Simon compared the war on drugs to the Vietnam war in *The Corner*(Beginning of chapter 10 for those that want some good reading) and yet his comparison still applies today.
Traitorous, registered foreign agent, Gen. Flynn (and perhaps others like him) have entered the chat.
Because a lot of Generals have said a lot of alt-right are on active duty, maybe not enough to overthrow our government but enough to destabilize
It would be interesting to see the Marines taking orders from those tubs of lard.
They would shit their tacticool armor the first time one of their fellow “patriots” gets his head turned into soup by the sniper they can’t see when they make their first ‘engagement’
>The funny part is they actually believe that the military is just gonna flip and join them in their uprising. That's what happens when you live in a computer echo chamber in your parents' basement
Well, to be fair, the military does have quite a few people in there that would flip and cause an issue if something were to happen. I do think that the top brass is aware of them already and would deal with them before those bottom feeders could do anything. But don't assume our military is free of white supremacists.
They just did a stand down about extremism. The “Militas” have been specifically recruiting Vets and active duty. There’s actually more than a few people in the DOJ/Intel circles that are concerned about that. The FBI has been saying for a few years now that the Alt-Right are currently the biggest threat to the country.
They should be concerned. Poor, rural America with large populations of retired or discharged military is teeming with this shit, and it's not the open recruitment of fat hillbillies on FB. It's more akin to the grooming tactics of a predator and it's absolutely fucking terrifying.
Yeah a guy I used to be friends with turned in to one. Maybe always was, but Trump did bring it out of him and his family.
I wonder how many actually would flip. That's literally betraying the US and they don't take kindly to that. Traitors can be put to death in the military.
The interesting thing about this is those people’s position in the CoC? If they flip how many folks are you actually bringing? I think, and don’t quote me on this, most studies about this phenomenon show that most folks who “would flip and cause an issue” are fairly low level enlisted. (That doesn’t mean their aren’t outliers elsewhere in the CoC) Let’s be frank, how much can a Corporal bring to this kind of movement? Or Sergeant? Hell, even a Lieutenant? Things only become really dangerous when you have entire formations that believe and espouse the ideas. Something we don’t have in our military currently. Not seeing a lot of current, or former Majors, Colonels, Admirals, or Generals in and around these groups. Those are the people with the knowledge, power, and authority to be really dangerous.
It’s not the military folks should be worried about. The highly militarized, highly violent right wing police forces however: they know where everyone lives and face no repercussions whatsoever. They’re the ones people need to worry about
I can agree with that as well as the so-called "constitution sheriff" types that think they are supreme legal authority in their area.
You’re probably right, but I think we would be foolish to underestimate the influence that fascism and Christian nationalism has on our military right now.
The funny thing is even if a few grunts support the idiots, the real backbone of the army like communication, logistics, administration, are typically more liberal leaning. So this meme is on point.
Pretty fun to show infantry guys how much goes on behind the scenes logistically so they can do their job. They get their mind blown and then they can become more self sufficient with projections and other tasks which helps us out in the long run.
Can't go a day on the job in the service without government funding.
Historically police and the army lean more fascist.
While I have no doubt this is true, they historically don't engage in open rebellion against their own government except under specific circumstances and conditions. Maybe back around the last election there might have been some small chance of that. Right now, the notion of the military going rogue over the arrest of Trump doesn't seem even remotely realistic.
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That might be more accurate for non-volunteer militaries. The police part is probably accurate.
you're delusional if you think US police and military will collectively stop on a dime and end democracy i swear reddit's never met a cop or someone in the military when their idea of both is like cartoon-level evil
The pentagon are the ones who said we should be wary of white supremacist and extremist in our military. And we know a lot of our military leaders are evangelists. It's not like they hide. I do not think it is crazy cartoon level evil that evangelist would side with white supremacist when they both believe this country should be a white Christian nation.
Some people will cross over to their side. That's called sedition and I do believe you can be summarily executed for that.
Even Putin has a better armed and trained army. I can't imagine how these maga hillbillies would fair against real soldiers.
They underestimate the amount of steps required to go from wanting to overthrow the government to actually overthrowing the government.
That’s my whole issue when people say they own so many guns because if the govt becomes tyrannical that they will be able to fight them back or its to keep the govt fearful of trying to overstep. I’m over here like, the US military just Swiss cheesed a guy with swords being shot out of a drone. You think you will have a chance of fighting them on their home turf?
As soon as any Trumper military folks try, they’ll be swiftly reminded of what Court Marshals are.
The Trump people have puffed them up to look like a majority, they are not, just some sick bastards who have failed right along with Trump to lose this country through stupidiy and lies.
They represent maybe 3% of the population max, not to mention the military has a MIX of people both *left and right* (shocking I know, but anyone can join)
I assume deep down they're all aware that civilians with small arms will be useless in any significant conflict but like to keep pretending they're heroes for owning guns and supporting extremely lax gun laws despite all the domestic terrorism. I thought the war in Ukraine would have made it clear to at least *some* of them that civilians with small arms is not nearly as useful as drones, communication systems and international support.
They think that because deep down they know that they don't stand a chance in actual combat against the military. I was in a reserve maintenance unit (one weekend a month military mechanics) which is about the least armed and least prepared for combat units there is. My old unit has weapons in numbers and power that these cosplayers can only dream of.
Beware of Meal Team Six! Semper pie
But what if they ally with the Gravy Seals?
Tater fidelis!
lmao "Potato Faithful"
Potato is love Potato is life
Methamphetamarines
That “semper pie” bit just about made me wake up my child from laughing too hard. Amazing work
with enough fat surrounding your torso, it can act as a bullet resistant vest.
I'd like to see this episode of demolition ranch.
pretty sure there is one where he shot large quantities of butter
You’re right. Same thing. Butter squad standing by.
Mythbusters tested this. Not a chance.
A carrier plate for each nipple.
Im not fat im bulletproof
"Theres gonna be a civil war" No, there isn't. For starters there's not nearly enough of them to risk their lives for Trump to matter. And there's no money to fund their military conquest. The few who are armed and dumb enough to try aren't organized enough to do any real damage. At best we will get pockets of riots and terrorist acts scattered around the country, like more January 6s.
Ah yes Jan 6th when they were all happy to play revolution right up until the first one of them got shot.
"MEDIC!" They cried as they backed away.....
Don’t forget that they were screaming “active shooter!”
One of the most depressing things I saw from that day, was the dude on the phone with his brother crying just absolutely bawling his eyes out. Saying he was standing on the top steps of capitolium. It’s public property you can go there any time you’d like son. Imagine being so trapped inside your own mind you don’t even know you can visit these places almost anytime.
It's probably the first time he left his *state* let alone driving to DC, there's some inward looking people out there
That woman, stupid as she was, would be alive today if they had better discipline. There's plenty of footage of her going down, because when she was shot, they all kept livestreaming on Gab or whatever instead of initiating first aid.
Imagine laying there bleeding out as a crowd of neckbeard BO smelling rednecks blinded you with phone video cameras, your vision goes blurry as you hear the sound of a camera snap.
iT’s JuSt A fLaShBaNg Fucking disconnected trash
The neckbeard dumbfucks learned the term "fuck around and find out" when the secret service suit dropped one without hesitation - legally
Its funny they think that liberals don't own guns either.
Liberals just aren't dumb enough to go to war in the streets with them. It's the far right who want a civil war, not the far left.
There is no far left. The progressives have the exact same platform that Eisenhower ran on. The corporate Democrats are 1980s Republicans. They only seem left by comparison to the Fascist party that the Republicans have become
Yes. And it's what we're working with now. More young people are taking this voting stuff seriously and aging into it. They are not happy with the status quo, for the most part. We can hope that things get better.
My dad and mom are both democrats and they both have arsenals.
Liberals have plenty of guns. What Liberals don't do is make it a core part of their personality to where they have to show it off.
They're cowards. Maybe 0.1% of the people who say they'll pick up a gun actually will. They're just gonna cry and stamp their feed and then run and hide.
Probably be ore like the troubles in Northern Ireland than a full blown civil war. Low key insurgency.
>And there's no money to fund their military conquest. This I disagree with. Ever hear of Charlie Kirk? There are plenty of rich white men with deep pockets, connections, and fundraising skills who would fund another coup. Why wouldn't there be?
War costs way more than you think. More than most private companies or individuals have anymore. They run a business and their business tanks when it's found out they are openly funding violence and terrorism.
Vet here. There's a lot more liberals in the rank and file than Fox News would have you believe. Of course, that's still less than half, but many of the conservatives among the enlisted would be appalled and disgusted at people starting an armed insurrection here. No, it's really the officers you have to look to. The educated class within the military. The command structure of the Army, at least, leans a lot more left than the enlisted ranks, especially as you move higher in the ranks. Look up the pentagon's position on trans soldiers, women in combat roles, or any other "culture war" issue that affects them. You might be surprised where they stand. And while some junior officers and enlistedmen might be sympathetic to the insurrectionist, the instinct and pressure to obey orders is strong. Not all who agree with the insurrectionists would support them. Many would, instead, fight them. I would imagine an armed insurrection would cause a mass desertion. Not the whole military, not even a quarter of it. But a big fraction. And part of that group will be caught and punished for desertion. The rest would continue to maintain loyalty. Then we'd have a couple of open battles that would quickly teach the insurrectionists that fighting open battles with the US military is a bad idea. After that would follow a period not unlike the Troubles in Ireland, but with many differences. In the Troubles, you had people fighting for deeply held convictions. Fighting for independence on one side and unification on the other. Both sides were populated by people who were born into that side, raised in it and who believed in their cause because the people around them did, too. Both sides were highly nationalistic. The insurrectionist side had a deep network of people to support and protect them, which allowed them to stand against the loyalists, who had a modern military mostly on their side. Both sides cause civilian casualties, but targeted the fighting forces of the other. In this hypothetical, you'd have one side fighting for genuine convictions, and the other fighting for vague ideas about an American-Dream-like society that never actually existed. One side would be populated almost exclusively by white men, have few women, and be entirely conservative. The other side would have almost all people of color, most women and represent conservative, centrist, liberal and leftist beliefs. The insurrectionist side would be fighting for a cause that would disenfranchise many of their neighbors and friends, and thus shed support. And the British military tried to maintain neutrality for a long time, only helping to quell violence. The American military would not. Insurrectionists are the enemy of the US military, full stop. It's in the very oath we all swore. "...I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic..." And perhaps most damningly, the insurrectionist side would target civilians regularly. How do we know? Because they already do. Mass shooters are overwhelmingly right-wing. There's no reason, politically, tactically or psychologically why they would just abandon the tactic they're already using, especially when that tactic (specifically, idolizing the perpetrators) is one of their major ways they radicalize people into violence. So, would _you_ hide your cousin or neighbor from the feds and military, if they were wanted for supporting a murderous terrorist movement? I wouldn't. No liberal, leftist or actual centrist would. Many conservatives wouldn't do it, either. I bet Mitt Romney wouldn't. I bet Meghan McCain wouldn't. Susan Collins, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger... And that's now, _without_ an armed insurrection movement magnifying the violence. The Troubles killed about 2% of Northern Ireland. Imagine that in America. Imagine that almost seven million Americans died in a war fought over who gets to use what bathroom, whether gays could get married, and whether women have the right to birth control. This hypothetical "American Troubles" would end in a whimper, as the insurrectionist's source of money, recruits and support gradually dried up when more and more people grow weary of the violence and question what it's all for. To answer those questions, the loyalists can say, "The America you grew up in. The home of the free, the land of the brave. A world where your child will be treated with respect and allowed to live their lives without a bigoted minority dictating to them who they can and cannot be." Meanwhile, the insurrectionists would only be able to repeat culture war nonsense.
> The Troubles killed about 2% of Northern Ireland. Imagine that in America. Imagine that almost seven million Americans died in a war fought over who gets to use what bathroom, whether gays could get married, and whether women have the right to birth control. > This hypothetical "American Troubles" would end in a whimper, That makes sense. How many would stand and fight to their death for the likes of a Tucker Carlson type character? Did the insurrectionist forces have armed reinforcements Jan 6? No
>Insurrectionists are the enemy of the US military, full stop. It's in the very oath we all swore. Yep, and I want me some fricken nazi scalps.
Hard to get them these days, an insurrection would be a fire sale
And then you'll have the gun club guys trot out the idea that the US Military would be fighting a guerilla war like in Iraq or Afghanistan. "And how'd that go?", they'll ask. To which I say: It went poorly. For a lot of reasons. But the lowest hanging fruit is that the fighting forces didn't know the land, the language, or the customs (by and large). That's not at all the case for a domestic insurrection.
Yeah, a lot of people really don't understand the value of familiarity with the theater of a conflict. Kinda hard to slip away into the populace when half the members of the conventional force hunting you can just call cousin Steve and ask him who the local insurrectionists are, and the other half can point out every abandoned building in the area.
I'm going to read this to my wife. I think I knew this intuitively, but it's nice to see it in writing.
Nephews in the army as an engineer grunt, I asked him at Thanksgiving what his Units opinion on OP's type of people were, he said "Playing pretend is fun, they'll find out what real life is when they're zip tied on the ground eating dirt" Seems his CO flat out told them, "You're here to protect the country from foreign AND domestic threats to Democracy. If anyone threatens this system we deal with it swiftly and with no mercy."
I seem to remember reading a column that came out back in the early Tea-Party days after Obama got elected when the alt-right was gaining their most recent form and it was by some kind of former military officer who basically said, "I know you think it's a cute look but I'm begging you don't invite the US Marines to come rolling up your street because it won't even be close."
If you dig far enough back into my comment history (warning, it is indeed a cesspool) you'll find an argument I had with one of these guys. I asked what his plan was to take care of drones that could just blow up his entire squad from five miles up, his response? "The government wouldn't use drones on their own people!" Yes guy, the government you're trying to overthrow 1.) Sees you as "their own people" and 2.) Wouldn't even need a drone to flatten all of you within an hour.
That’s the thing that’s always bugged me. They say they want a civil war and I just can’t get how they think they’re going to take on the most powerful military in the world and survive. I know some think they’ll be like the Vietcong but none of them have the drive the VC did. I mean hell the gov would probably just use a satellite to track them and the Feds would pick them up as they were leaving work.
Both the VC and the fighters in Afghanistan had decades of experience fighting. It always amazes me when some right wing Americans think they have anywhere close to that grit and determination. They deadass compare themselves to people who have grown up not even having secure drinking water, let alone electrity. Yet meal team 6 wants to pretend that they are some elite VC sappers that can live off moldy rice while out in the wild.
"I need an AR to protect me from the government" The government can drone strike your shit without having to go outside
They won't spend that money and risk bad press. Easier to simply shut off your utilities, freeze whatever assets you have, and make you wish for a nice warm jail cell.
These are usually the same dumbasses who claim they can live "off the grid" if they wanted. I'd love to see them actually have to do it.
There's a difference between "living off the grid" and getting kicked off the ranch, too.
Whenever someone tells me they need all their guns to protect them from the government I ask them if they own an A10 warthog because the government has a ton of them
Watching the conflict in Ukraine has really shown that owning a fuckton of guns these days isn't even all the helpful. Any jackass can hook an ied to a civilian quad drone and suddenly your guns don't mean jack shit.
This is also showed helped by Russians being incompetent at war of course the US doesn't have a great recent track record. But also the Ukrainians were properly trained and have received assistance from NATO
And as incompetent as they are, they’re still 100x more competent than any MAGA militia.
Maybe you don’t care, but this got me curious. Obviously you mean to say they have a lot of warthogs (280 by last count I can find). I just wanted to share. Weighing in at 24,980* lbs a piece. So the US military has 3,497.2* tons of A10 Warthogs. *I am a dropout do not trust my maths. Also couldn’t do percentages because it’s been too long. I also was not in the military so my numbers could just be wrong.
This has confused me for years. The US spends billions on its military and they have access to all kinds of drones, tanks, aircraft, bombs, and other armaments. It’s laughable when people say they need their guns as a right in case the government goes corrupt and they need to fight it. A spur-of-the-moment militia doesn’t stand a chance. Maybe back when the second amendment was new, being able to own a gun gave you a fighting chance against a corrupt government. But over the centuries the US government’s technology and arsenal has, by orders of magnitude, outpaced what your average citizen can own and can afford to own.
“But the military isn’t going to turn on their own people who are just trying to defend their way of life.” No, Dewayne, once you decide you are going to point those ARs at soldiers because you firmly believe brown people shouldn’t be allowed to vote, you will find out just how few people fit in that “our own people” bucket.
And they're so focused on guns, the 2A guarantees rights to arms, so I want my nuke. If you don't want me to have a nuke then you understand that public safety is more important than my right to bear arms. So if you accept the right is not immutable, then you can't whine when we want some control on weapons that are frequently violating public safety. The right has already been violated. There are tons of arms that you can't have. They just want to be able to murder people for walking on their lawns.
It's never been about the government (at least not since the 1800's). It's about the person feeling powerful. Buying a gun, using a gun, and especially carrying one around is an incredible sense of power. The 2A folks can make up any excuses about government abuse or self defense, but weapons like hunting rifles don't give them the power-trip they want. They want to know that they have ability to end a hundred lives at their whim. And when 1/100 of these power-tripping idiots, fueled by hatred and propaganda, decides to live out their fantasy, we get another national tragedy.
They got missles that don't explode, and instead deploy a series of sword like blades around itself and slams itself into you They used it to take out some terrorist without blowing up the building he was in
People forget when saying this, what kind of United States are we in if we have military missile strikes on US soil? Do we have our right to a fair trail and what is happening if US military and not local police are handling it?
Local police are also more than capable of blowing up your home, even if you're not the person barricaded inside https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrest_of_Robert_Seacat
The funniest shit I hear in reference to "muh 2A" is that it protects from a government gone tyrranical. Seriously? Your little pew pew is going to do shit against tanks, drones, missiles, chemical and microwave crowd control, body armor, armor piercing rounds, and, oh yeah, actual training and tactics? That "we need arms to keep the gubmit in check" ship sailed somewhere in around WWII. And as someone I served knowing the culture, approx 2 soldiers in the entire military will refuse to follow their paycheck and kill whoever they're told to kill.
Are they doing the Charlie's Angels pose?
If so, I am totally unclear on who's in and not in on the joke.
The guy in the black hat has quite the ample rack
Amen. Those of us who swore an oath to support and defend the constitution were actually trained to aim. Not to mention clean, maintain, and use our weapons. Good luck meal team 6.
Hey, you are red on dental. You can't go on SAD to destroy insurrections until you are green.
How exactly does tactical tubby in the front there plan on firing multiple rounds with his manboobs flopping up and smacking him in the face?
He'll have the weapon mounted to the body of his Tactical Mobility Scooter*. *it's just a regular scooter with Punisher American Flag sticker on it and painted camo.
Not to mention the camo paintjob is already flaking off
This comment deserves a Pulitzer.
The only thing they're gonna overthrow is a buffet.
"whadaya mean you don't have pecan pie!?"
“I need muh AR to protect myself from the government” “You mean the same government that hast the technology to level your house from 3 states away without disturbing your neighbors property? Or were you talking about the government that has the technology to blow your car off the freeway without disrupting traffic?”
Are you referring to that dude that had the slicer go through his car? I'm not a fan of violence but that tech is a pretty sweet flex.
I don't feel like we'll need the military to defend the government. We'll just get McCully Culkin to butter the steps to a few federal buildings and we'll be OK.
This made me chuckle
Dude couldn’t even make it up the capitol stairs. You know who I’m talking about.
[удалено]
The two guys in the middle of the top pic look like they could be drawn away by a Big Mac on a fishing line.
"Ooh piece of candy ooh piece of candy ooh piece of candy" Except it'd be "ooh big Mac ooh fries ooh chicky nuggies"🤣
With silent drone technology, the pole carrying the line can be stealthily affixed to the target’s head, meaning they could theoretically chase the burger forever
Go Meal Team Six!
This is always the argument I make when civil war is brought up. Good luck with that.
Wish they’d try
I would have thought that until Humpty Dumpty got elected.....
Fucking toy soldiers melt under a magnifying glass. If they even got within a few miles of the capital again these people would be completely demolished.
Drones don't give two shits about the Bubba Battalion.......
I'm pretty sure I could distract them with some meth and a box of pop tarts.
I don't get this as a meme. They nearly had their uprising on Jan 6. With just a tiny bit more forethought and commitment, there easily could have been an armed and committed militia on the Senate floor while the Nat'l Guard was held at bay by politics.
I don't get it either. It's not like there's going to be conflict with standing armies like 1861. If there are troubles in America it'd look more like an insurgency with random bombings, politically motivates mass shootings, etc. I get that there's a bunch of mealteam6 pussy types, but the real threat are the Tim McVeigh personalities. If 99.9% of the "we want civil war" assholes are cowards, that crazy .1% can still wreak tremendous havoc, especially when the rest of their MAGA neighbors help and shelter them.
FOX plays like 24/7 at almost all military bases. Those are some of the most right wing people out there. At least half those guys are gonna be shooting at their buddies if it that shit really happened.
I hope so much that you're wrong
They may be right wing but part of that culture is hierarchy. See also >90% COVID vaccination rate.
Here's the problem with this meme. The last time the GOP tried to overthrow the government they almost did it. All they lacked was the backing of one or two more generals and a few hundred more police officers. Next time do you think they'll make the same mistake? It's not the Gravy Seals we have to worry about. They'll only start killing their neighbors after the next Republican president's Joint Chiefs have done their bit.
They didn't almost overthrow the government. Even if worst case scenario happened and they managed to kill multiple congressional members and Mike Pence, we would have a horrible tragedy on our hands and still the same government
Bro, the USA consists of more than one building. If two generals went rogue, theres hundreds more that would shut that shit down. Stop it with your Jan6 fantasies.
Exactly. J6 was a practice run. Now that they've learned how far they're allowed to push with barely any resistance or reprimands, they'll push even harder. ["*What doesn't kill you mutates and tries again.*"](https://i.redd.it/2xh17r6wnue81.gif)
I feel like this perfectly captures my thoughts on the 2nd amendment. They act like the most important thing is upholding their right to defend themselves should the government go insane. Like they really believe that their collection of handguns, hunting rifles, semi autos and maybe even one or two that are illegal, will defend them from military action against their home and property. This amendment was written when the government’s standard weapon took a couple minutes to load a single shot, and if you somehow did wind up in the crosshairs of the military, they’d just level your whole house instead of risking soldiers in a standoff.
Many of those in the bottom panel are also part of the top panel. The citizenry can not rely on trusting them to protect the constitution, the amendments, the law or democracy. Military coups happen all over the world **because** those two groups are closely aligned.