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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhen young men in the military flash the OK sign, it's time to take the trolling 'joke' seriously
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/28/1906908/-When-young-men-in-the-military-flash-the-OK-sign-it-s-time-to-take-the-trolling-joke-seriouslyWhen young men in the military flash the OK sign, it's time to take the trolling 'joke' seriously
David Neiwert for Daily Kos
Daily Kos Staff
Saturday December 28, 2019 · 12:00 PM EST
At some point, both reporters and public officials are going to have to stop playing dumb when young white men pull stunts like publicly flashing the OK sign before television cameras and dressing up at school in Ku Klux Klan uniforms. Of course its deliberately racist, behind transparently phony denials uttered with a cynical nihilism that doesnt disguise itself. The people who are in real position to know better are responding with hapless befuddlement, as though they cant really tell what these young men are up to.
The juvenile irony pose behind which they hide, allowing them a kind of plausible-deniability narrative in which they really are just harmless people trolling in order to make a point of some kind, wore out a long time ago. The distance (including over time) between an ironic racist and a seriously dedicated racist is simply negligible, especially in terms of the toxic effects of their vile contributions, as it were, to public discourse.
Yes, its just an OK sign. But anyone using it today is making clear that they just dont care if theyre mistaken for the serious white-nationalists who flash it, mass murderers like the Christchurch killer. As I explained with the SPLC, its at best a sign of being a troll, who is only a better human being than an express bigot by a small degree.
Cadets certainly have been drummed out of the officers corps for less than the trio who flashed the white-power OK sign at the Army-Navy game earlier this week. Even if any were able to produce evidence of active anti-racism (unlikely as that may be), the harm they inflicted on the institutions they supposedly represent is incalculable.
Because now Americans around the world are wondering: Are we harboring closeted white supremacists in our military, particularly in its highest ranks? Thats not a question any patriotic American wants to be asking. Because of these clowns, we have to.
Particularly not with the news, first reported by Christopher Mathias at HuffPost, that the Senate had excised language intended to screen military enlistees for white nationalism from the annual National Defense Authorization Act.
The Senates version of the House-approved NDAA approved language intended to screen for extremist and gang-related activity that completely omitted the phrase white nationalism, a phrase pointedly inserted in the House after alarming reports in the media about the infiltration of military ranks by far-right white extremists.
There needs to be zero tolerance for this, not least because military training increases the likelihood of competence at terrorist action later, as the Timothy McVeigh example always reminds us. Prioritize screening both recruits and current ranks for this poison. And drum them out without hesitation. Nothing less than our national security is at stake here. Its serious, and needs to be taken seriously.
SWBTATTReg
(21,869 posts)students/enlistees and their superiors for accepting such a ridiculous excuse on their part.
marble falls
(56,381 posts)as a game in less than a week. I was convinced that there would be serious consequences.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,048 posts)Also, how long do we have to clean it up?
marble falls
(56,381 posts)Hekate
(90,206 posts)mahina
(17,506 posts)From the base here
And heard a little girl at a taco truck tell her military Dad and her mother that the Hispanic woman making her food was the wrong color.
All military.
In Hawwai, a very multicultural place.
Its gotten bad. What do we do?
marble falls
(56,381 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,372 posts)And the 'old' leaders who falsely rationalize it as a 'game' excuse.
Girard442
(6,059 posts)...that whatever you think your gesture means, there's a whole hell of a lot of people who think it means "White Power", so knock it the f--- off.
dchill
(38,325 posts)Grasswire2
(13,564 posts)And so they should be out.
LiberalArkie
(15,687 posts)spanone
(135,644 posts)egduj
(805 posts)How can the academies possibly excuse this?
UniteFightBack
(8,231 posts)the people ain't gonna work.
not_the_one
(2,227 posts)Since abolishing the draft, the services can't keep their ranks filled, so we do several things:
We offer service to criminals as an option to not go to jail.
We (either intentionally or unintentionally) recruit neo-nazis and white supremacists who get off on the power trip the service offers, while training them in facilities that push fundamental christianity (Air Force, Colorado).
We offer service as a fast track to citizenship for non-citizens.
What could possibly go wrong?
So now we have gang problems in the military.
We have haters flashing white power signs.
We renege on our offer of citizenship, even deport service members and their family. If they are being deported, then they must have been "illegal" aliens...
Pete's plan for a year or two of civil service (while sorting out what you REALLY want to do with your life, because very few of us have a clue as to what we want to do with our life at age 18) would help solve this situation AND provide breathing room for the next step of life AND help financially support your decision.
What could possibly go RIGHT with THAT plan?
There ARE good men and women who join the services. They join for many honorable reasons.
It is too bad that their reputations are sullied because of the likes of Gallagher (Trump's bad-boy fetish of the hour), Dedolph, Madera-Rodriguez, Maxwell (felony murder, involuntary manslaughter, obstruction of justice, hazing and burglary).
babylonsister
(170,965 posts)service.
I have a few nephews who voluntarily joined the USCG and all are thriving, so doesn't sound like a bad idea.