Look, I’m not one to over-romanticize hope that the U.S. military will choose the right side in upholding their duty to resist unlawful orders. Some will. Some won’t. We’ll see. But, lol, I do suspect there’s malicious compliance. And as I keep seeing pics with military members looked absolutely miserable and sullen in the Orange Toddler’s Big Boy B-Day Parade yesterday, I am cracking up. They were probably supposed to put on a big proud show for Dear Leader, and they didn’t (or did a very bad job - perhaps on purpose). Trump’s abuse of the military in this way is so disrespectful. But, I feel like some in there are really trying to show they aren’t interested in being treated like toys in some draft-dodger’s dipshit propaganda. This one in particular from WaPo got me:
Originally Posted By u/RocketSocket765
At 2025-06-15 02:10:38 PM
| Source
I always forget how young most of the military is. It looks like at least half of those guys are teenagers and most of them can’t drink yet.
Old enough to kill, too young to drink
Half of them are out of step. The first two rows are on a complete opposite step than the following rows. That’s pretty poor for a group that likely practiced for hours.
Yeah, to me it just looked like they were walking, not marching.
Even worse
Oh damn I used to be in this company. A co 4/3 TOG. I was in for three years and dodged having to do an inauguration luckily. I absolutely hated having to do ceremonies for Veterans Day, Memorial Day, and all the other days Americans feel the need to wear American flag shirts and shit.
From the outside it seems this is a public religious sort of thing.
Arguably yes. There’s a name for it https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_religion It would be cool if it worked but there’s no government I fully trust so I’m still non religious
That look says it all.
Washington turning over in his grave intensifies.
Tbf, this is probably what most of the farm lads they’re portraying looked like before Baron Von Steuben started drilling them.
1000%
Wait, this is the parade that McPooh has been on about? And they’re all in cosplay? I had thought, clearly wrongly, that they’d show their “best of the best”, like that other guy’s olive-painted garbage and cement trucks.
I feel sorry for all those kids who had to participate in that show.
Zero sympathy for anyone enlisted from 2016 forward. Their fathers either knew Vietnam or Iraq/Afghanistan. Or theirs mother lost them to those. There has been no noble cause for the US military since WWII and Korea. They do deserve PTSD from the warcrimes they committed, and should carry that fear until they die. I’ve seen what the VA doesn’t provide, and honestly don’t care anymore. The last of the people that remember what the military means, and how it was abused, are going to die before trump in out. The only thing left is some superiority complex missled to kill people that are against the ruling class. Which was foreign but is now overwhelmingly domestic.
The military industrial complex targets and takes advantage of people in vulnerable positions who desperately need to provide for themselves or their families. Many who enlist do not necessarily want to be soldiers, but have few or no other choices given their financial/life situations. I can show sympathy to those people when they’re between a rock and a hard place. Forgoing nuance as you do in your take does not help make progress, but only further neglects the humanity of individuals being abused by the system while struggling to make ends meet.
Got it, I need full sympathy for ever ruzzian,Israeli, and CCP force that is “just following orders”. Fuck off. Nobody is immune to criticism because they “had to”.
You’d be saying Nazis and the rest were just following orders because life so hard. Relish the comfort you have.
this seems like a comically false equivalency