The USA realize they have to really double down on controlling the world via military means. As well as the internal situation. It's not difficult to imagine how the 2024 inauguration will look like.
It pisses me off that it's common to wail about basically imaginary homosexual "grooming" in schools, but rarely acceptable to complain about the normalizing of violence. People fuss about their taxes helping pay for abortions--but a huge chunk of our taxes pays for the military, whose explicit purpose in killing people, and that's held up as NOBLE. "Thank you for your service."
Strong young men protecting the elderly, the women and children from attack by outside marauders IS noble.
That's the principle. Whether that applies to that current day US army is debatable at the very least.
It's never noble to interfere in a child's healthy sexual development. We're in a hypersexualised porn saturated world, that's not good for anyone least of all kids. When even authority figures laud more of the same parents get pissed off. It's not imaginary and people are right to call it out. Hetero/homo/trans whatever, there's no bigotry card to play here. Take sex & identity out of kids faces til they're ready for it in their own time.
It blows my mind that opposing this shit has become right coded, and that right wing has become evil coded.
The idea that an army is for defense goes all the way back, and is invariably--now, anyway--the excuse for aggressive wars.
I disagree that schools are involved in sexualizing kids. I blame advertising and "entertainment." But the right wing isn't primarily fussing about sexualization--they're probably more likely than others to enter their daughters in beauty contests. They're fussed up about the normalization of homosexuality--which pretty obviously IS normal, as it's present in every society, even those in which letting it show can get get you killed. The trans phenomenon is another thing in my opinion. I'm annoyed that in left circles, one must introduce oneself with one's preferred pronouns (I refuse, I say I'm from West Virginia instead as that's what I want to know about people). I also object to "healthcare" for trans youth and "trans women" competing with actual women in sports--I'm with the Right on those elements. I acknowledge that many--but not all--gay women have always been butch, many gay men effeminate, but I think that gender is about the body--the clothing, interests, style that a given society assigns to each gender is pretty arbitrary and I have no problem with someone embracing those typically assigned to the other gender. I do object to the notion that a person with a Y chromosome, balls and a penis somehow IS actually female; someone with two X's, a vagina and breasts actually is male. If they "act like" the other gender, fine, but commanding people to believe they ARE what they clearly are not troubles me.
I will say that it's a pretty socially conservative opinion to object to any sexualisation of kids, sexualised content(hetero) in movies etc is frowned upon etc. So I dont really see gay content being especially singled out. I've often thought one of the effects of marriage was to 'invisibleise' sex anyway and that goes for gay marriage too. Let consenting adults do what they want behind closed doors remains a good place to stand, imo.
You're right about entertainment etc but there's evidence of schools getting in on the act of late. Teachers festooned their classrooms with the LGBT flags is not on.
Grooming can also refer to indoctrination into an ideology - that's what they're getting in on.
Ironically, it's not a binary between mindless celebration of all things LGBT and kicking people in the street. Benign acknowledgement then move on, should be the norm in schools.
My kids went to a high school in rural West Virginia, all white. They were not made to join ROTC but they said there were recruiters there every week, and the guidance counselor seemed to have an attitude that there were various career paths open to our students--Army, Marines, Air Force, Navy...
After reading some of the comments, I see that Caitlin let her hatred of various institutions get the best of her ability to be factual. I love her work when she exposes propagandists. This essay, however, is like a primal scream of id-dwelling hates:
She hates the lying, super-liberal, communist, warmongering NY Times;
She hates the child-sniffing Biden groomer man;
She hates Boy Scouts;
She hates Christians;
She hates people who want to protect their country, even though we’ve had shit presidents from W to O, with only four recent years of an Orange Man who started zero wars, before we got this psycho, Biden;
O, btw, was at war with someone for eight years straight, which is a record.
But at least she’s okay with ignorant, indoctrinating teacher pedos and groomers. These teachers teach nothing, but they damage innocent children for life. And they wonder why we want alternative education.
So, this essay was certainly not up to her usual high standards. I come here to learn about Russia and Ukraine, and to advocate for peace.
Looking forward to another missive at some other date where Caitlin returns to her theme that we are all One and we should just love each other, instead of hating on children, religion, and people who want to protect kids from Satanic perverts.
I agree that these programs don't belong in our schools, and most definitely not forced on anyone, but what does this have to do with parents who don't want their very young children exposed to certain information regarding sex, transgender, and LGBT issues? Don't parents have rights anymore? How does this issue translate into, "But sure, pretend the ideology which wants to drag civilization back to the days of the Boy Scouts, the Catholic Church, and fathers reigning supreme over their household (and everyone in it) are the ones protecting us from the rape of children." The Catholic Church and Boy Scouts are always easy targets that can be relied on to offend so called liberals. It's old hat. Better speak of how the military pursues HS students because for many college is not an option, and decades ago Corporate America shipped jobs overseas benefiting from cheap labor, but leaving American youth with fewer options and making service in the military a new and profitable one, and also a means of gaining upward mobility for many, as well as making war a whole lot easier. Covid and its consequences actually have the military complaining they need more recruits, so many open jobs out there. Good
Lets just say too often you can't even have a discourse if it relates to Israel, or the LGBT community. I guess time might create some middle ground, although getting there might be difficult with the extreme positions people take today. I'm a liberal but barely recognize myself in today's world.
I gave up on Bernie when he lost the democratic primary in 2016 to Hilary and then sung the praises of this war monger and threw his full support behind her. I consider myself a liberal. Today's liberals are better described as extremist who perceive all things in black and white terms which is normally considered a cognitive distortion indicative of some form of mental illness. The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, said that the panel's report will be released on Wednesday, Dec. 21. I can hardly wait to hear the BS that comes out of their unconstitutional get together. The democratic party really wants us to believe they can come to an objective conclusion of what happened on January 6th, and Trump's role in it, a president they deemed illegitimate based on lies supplied by them.
>>>But sure, pretend the ideology which wants to drag civilization back to the days of the Boy Scouts, the Catholic Church, and fathers reigning supreme over their household (and everyone in it) are the ones protecting us from the rape of children. << <
1. What does "back to the days of the Boy Scouts" mean?
2. Are you implying that fathers reigning supreme over their households is antithetical to protecting children? If anything, it protects children.
3. You are out of touch with what the average conservative thinks about the role of men, they do not believe in patriarchy anymore; they want men to have the responsibility over the household, but none of the authority.
Enjoyed a quick read of your site. I’m in UK and the parallels with the deindustrialisation since Thatcher and where we are today are uncanny. We’re about to have “freeport” zones across vast swathes of often poorer former industrial areas with the associated deregulation.
Its not conservatives being mindless. There are signs of child sexualisation being normalised everywhere - it's right and proper to call it out. That's the view from my own country - I've nothing to say about US army recruitment tactics.
I will note, however, many vets are proud of their service and feel they gained from it. So those particular parents are unlikely to object. And it's age appropriate- it's high schoolers looking for a path. Otoh, no one whose sexual development was interfered with at a young age looks back with fondness at it.
You're drawing a false equivalence, imo.
Obviously they shouldn't be sneakily adding them without consent from the kids and the parents.
Another thing. There will never be a country without an army. The weak get eaten and that's human nature - animal nature, even - not something a bit of social engineering can tweak out of us.
The US, I know, is more of an Empire seeking comfort for the citizens and riches for the leaders. So not quite a defensive army.
Ha, that's becoming more and more true. I suppose I'm looking back to the time when you had a thriving middle class with prosperity trappings. Not universally of course but more than now
They're mostly small island nations with regional defence pacts, under the protection of larger neighbours who DO have armies, or whose police force take on military duties when required.
So you're technically right, no standing armies, but they do have defensive arrangements that will function as an army if required.
Not to mention the vast fleet of Iranian war canoes, ready at any moment to paddle through the Straits of Hormuz and keep on chugging until they make landfall at New York Harbor.
What do you think, a troop of Boy Scouts ought to cover it?
What a very odd response. I had to read it twice to work out whether you are being ironic. Obviously indoctrination is working just fine over there in the "exceptional nation"
"Our purpose is to Divert students awy from Drugs and Violence " say's one Recruiter. Someone tell these recruiters that the US military IS the drug, gun and violence runners in the world.
All religions have just as much right to make their training mandatory, or even elective, in schools across AMERICA.
You disagree?
So do I.
Religious indoctrination in public schools of our impressionable children is almost as repulsive as military indoctrination.
The one makes soldiers for GOD, Love and Human Compassion.
The other turns one into a killing machine indirectly at a keyboard or directly by incessantly feeding rounds into the breach, and for wars that have nothing to do with genuine patriotism, democracy or defending non-existent borders.
Yes. Reformed theology's authoritarian moral arrogance informed the design of the totalitarian "sovereign" order, and the sooner the former is abolished, the sooner the latter won't be necessary.
Part of the reason they have to recruit so hard--other than wanting a nation of robots--is that they kicked out all of the tough, smart, independent people who didn't want the shot. That's it: get rid of the best people.
And now we know that "sudden death for no reason" has spiked. See Edward Dowd's work. He used to work for BlackRock, and the unexplained deaths as catalogued by Big Insurance are through the roof.
You would think the military would want strong, intelligent, pro-active people. But these days, all they want is shearable sheep.
Yes, the ROTC program has some personal development merits, which personal development returns can just as well be incorporated into any number of non-military programs. However, the military program has one gigantic repulsive objective, to kill people, with a gun or from behind a computer screen. When AMERICA had reason for genuine patriotism, i.e., a decent culture, country and borders to protect, military was a respected choice.
However. the military is now maintained and engaged NOT for God, Country and our way of life, but for the gangs in D.C. and the CORPORATE BOARDROOMS, with their global objectives and control over us.
"Defenders of mandatory JROTC enrollment reportedly cite the need to "divert students away from drugs or violence"! (NY Times)
What bullshit! The Biden administration was handing out crack pipes. And they're promoting mastectomies and castrations so you can hate your own body even more. They want people drugged, poorly educated, poor, sick, fat, and exploited. They're going take every last dollar off of us, and then kill us.
The USA realize they have to really double down on controlling the world via military means. As well as the internal situation. It's not difficult to imagine how the 2024 inauguration will look like.
It pisses me off that it's common to wail about basically imaginary homosexual "grooming" in schools, but rarely acceptable to complain about the normalizing of violence. People fuss about their taxes helping pay for abortions--but a huge chunk of our taxes pays for the military, whose explicit purpose in killing people, and that's held up as NOBLE. "Thank you for your service."
Strong young men protecting the elderly, the women and children from attack by outside marauders IS noble.
That's the principle. Whether that applies to that current day US army is debatable at the very least.
It's never noble to interfere in a child's healthy sexual development. We're in a hypersexualised porn saturated world, that's not good for anyone least of all kids. When even authority figures laud more of the same parents get pissed off. It's not imaginary and people are right to call it out. Hetero/homo/trans whatever, there's no bigotry card to play here. Take sex & identity out of kids faces til they're ready for it in their own time.
It blows my mind that opposing this shit has become right coded, and that right wing has become evil coded.
Surely we can think deeper than this.
The idea that an army is for defense goes all the way back, and is invariably--now, anyway--the excuse for aggressive wars.
I disagree that schools are involved in sexualizing kids. I blame advertising and "entertainment." But the right wing isn't primarily fussing about sexualization--they're probably more likely than others to enter their daughters in beauty contests. They're fussed up about the normalization of homosexuality--which pretty obviously IS normal, as it's present in every society, even those in which letting it show can get get you killed. The trans phenomenon is another thing in my opinion. I'm annoyed that in left circles, one must introduce oneself with one's preferred pronouns (I refuse, I say I'm from West Virginia instead as that's what I want to know about people). I also object to "healthcare" for trans youth and "trans women" competing with actual women in sports--I'm with the Right on those elements. I acknowledge that many--but not all--gay women have always been butch, many gay men effeminate, but I think that gender is about the body--the clothing, interests, style that a given society assigns to each gender is pretty arbitrary and I have no problem with someone embracing those typically assigned to the other gender. I do object to the notion that a person with a Y chromosome, balls and a penis somehow IS actually female; someone with two X's, a vagina and breasts actually is male. If they "act like" the other gender, fine, but commanding people to believe they ARE what they clearly are not troubles me.
With you on pretty much all of that.
I will say that it's a pretty socially conservative opinion to object to any sexualisation of kids, sexualised content(hetero) in movies etc is frowned upon etc. So I dont really see gay content being especially singled out. I've often thought one of the effects of marriage was to 'invisibleise' sex anyway and that goes for gay marriage too. Let consenting adults do what they want behind closed doors remains a good place to stand, imo.
You're right about entertainment etc but there's evidence of schools getting in on the act of late. Teachers festooned their classrooms with the LGBT flags is not on.
Grooming can also refer to indoctrination into an ideology - that's what they're getting in on.
Ironically, it's not a binary between mindless celebration of all things LGBT and kicking people in the street. Benign acknowledgement then move on, should be the norm in schools.
I don’t disagree with you but let’s not pretend there is a shitload of LGBT crap. I was nominally supportive at one time - not anymore
My kids went to a high school in rural West Virginia, all white. They were not made to join ROTC but they said there were recruiters there every week, and the guidance counselor seemed to have an attitude that there were various career paths open to our students--Army, Marines, Air Force, Navy...
Such an excellent point, Caitlin. We're being played by both sides with all the kids as pawns. Well maybe not all the kids.
After reading some of the comments, I see that Caitlin let her hatred of various institutions get the best of her ability to be factual. I love her work when she exposes propagandists. This essay, however, is like a primal scream of id-dwelling hates:
She hates the lying, super-liberal, communist, warmongering NY Times;
She hates the child-sniffing Biden groomer man;
She hates Boy Scouts;
She hates Christians;
She hates people who want to protect their country, even though we’ve had shit presidents from W to O, with only four recent years of an Orange Man who started zero wars, before we got this psycho, Biden;
O, btw, was at war with someone for eight years straight, which is a record.
But at least she’s okay with ignorant, indoctrinating teacher pedos and groomers. These teachers teach nothing, but they damage innocent children for life. And they wonder why we want alternative education.
So, this essay was certainly not up to her usual high standards. I come here to learn about Russia and Ukraine, and to advocate for peace.
Looking forward to another missive at some other date where Caitlin returns to her theme that we are all One and we should just love each other, instead of hating on children, religion, and people who want to protect kids from Satanic perverts.
Hates??? I have never read a piece where she expresses hate. Exposing hypocrisy is not hate.
2/10 needs more cowbell and less whining about your precious pieties
I agree that these programs don't belong in our schools, and most definitely not forced on anyone, but what does this have to do with parents who don't want their very young children exposed to certain information regarding sex, transgender, and LGBT issues? Don't parents have rights anymore? How does this issue translate into, "But sure, pretend the ideology which wants to drag civilization back to the days of the Boy Scouts, the Catholic Church, and fathers reigning supreme over their household (and everyone in it) are the ones protecting us from the rape of children." The Catholic Church and Boy Scouts are always easy targets that can be relied on to offend so called liberals. It's old hat. Better speak of how the military pursues HS students because for many college is not an option, and decades ago Corporate America shipped jobs overseas benefiting from cheap labor, but leaving American youth with fewer options and making service in the military a new and profitable one, and also a means of gaining upward mobility for many, as well as making war a whole lot easier. Covid and its consequences actually have the military complaining they need more recruits, so many open jobs out there. Good
Because LGBT is like Jews now. You simply can’t criticize either. Just that simple .
Lets just say too often you can't even have a discourse if it relates to Israel, or the LGBT community. I guess time might create some middle ground, although getting there might be difficult with the extreme positions people take today. I'm a liberal but barely recognize myself in today's world.
Well I’m a “conservative” but laugh at what represents conservatives now.
Hell, I’d have voted Bernie over Jeb Bush any day, even though Bernie is a faker too.
He’s probably on the Council For Foreign Relations.
They’re all corrupt
I gave up on Bernie when he lost the democratic primary in 2016 to Hilary and then sung the praises of this war monger and threw his full support behind her. I consider myself a liberal. Today's liberals are better described as extremist who perceive all things in black and white terms which is normally considered a cognitive distortion indicative of some form of mental illness. The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, said that the panel's report will be released on Wednesday, Dec. 21. I can hardly wait to hear the BS that comes out of their unconstitutional get together. The democratic party really wants us to believe they can come to an objective conclusion of what happened on January 6th, and Trump's role in it, a president they deemed illegitimate based on lies supplied by them.
>>>But sure, pretend the ideology which wants to drag civilization back to the days of the Boy Scouts, the Catholic Church, and fathers reigning supreme over their household (and everyone in it) are the ones protecting us from the rape of children. << <
1. What does "back to the days of the Boy Scouts" mean?
2. Are you implying that fathers reigning supreme over their households is antithetical to protecting children? If anything, it protects children.
3. You are out of touch with what the average conservative thinks about the role of men, they do not believe in patriarchy anymore; they want men to have the responsibility over the household, but none of the authority.
Looks like your feminism is your blindspot Cat.
This is exactly the framing we need - shove their own fascist rhetoric in the faces, while ground truthing their lies.
Add Ashtabula, Ohio to the list, of where the groomers go to grab poor kids:
Ashtabula, Ohio
Exhibit A Of The Neoliberal Nightmare: Disinvestment, Deregulation, And Neglect
http://www.wolfenotes.com/2022/02/infrastructure-scenes-from-northeast-ohio-that-biden-and-media-didnt-depict/
Enjoyed a quick read of your site. I’m in UK and the parallels with the deindustrialisation since Thatcher and where we are today are uncanny. We’re about to have “freeport” zones across vast swathes of often poorer former industrial areas with the associated deregulation.
There are few things more predictably stupid than military personnel that spend their whole "careers" in TRADOC (training and indoctrination).
Its not conservatives being mindless. There are signs of child sexualisation being normalised everywhere - it's right and proper to call it out. That's the view from my own country - I've nothing to say about US army recruitment tactics.
I will note, however, many vets are proud of their service and feel they gained from it. So those particular parents are unlikely to object. And it's age appropriate- it's high schoolers looking for a path. Otoh, no one whose sexual development was interfered with at a young age looks back with fondness at it.
You're drawing a false equivalence, imo.
Obviously they shouldn't be sneakily adding them without consent from the kids and the parents.
Another thing. There will never be a country without an army. The weak get eaten and that's human nature - animal nature, even - not something a bit of social engineering can tweak out of us.
The US, I know, is more of an Empire seeking comfort for the citizens and riches for the leaders. So not quite a defensive army.
Not sure where you got the idea that the US Empire gives a dam about our comfort.
Ha, that's becoming more and more true. I suppose I'm looking back to the time when you had a thriving middle class with prosperity trappings. Not universally of course but more than now
"There will never be a country without an army." Up to 23 of them.
https://www.storypick.com/country-no-army/
They're mostly small island nations with regional defence pacts, under the protection of larger neighbours who DO have armies, or whose police force take on military duties when required.
So you're technically right, no standing armies, but they do have defensive arrangements that will function as an army if required.
So? The US is bordered by Canada and Mexico, neither of which are about to launch a military invasion.
Ah, but you forget Alaska. Look at the Russians amassing there poised to invade. Mostly of "inferior asiatic material" (Shirer quote) to boot.
And Hawaii? So many Japans are itching to assault some harbor any moment now. Not to mention sharks mutilating snorkelers as we speak.
Not to mention the vast fleet of Iranian war canoes, ready at any moment to paddle through the Straits of Hormuz and keep on chugging until they make landfall at New York Harbor.
What do you think, a troop of Boy Scouts ought to cover it?
Not sure as those are the worst - no defense yet invented.
What a very odd response. I had to read it twice to work out whether you are being ironic. Obviously indoctrination is working just fine over there in the "exceptional nation"
? Not sure I follow. I'm not being ironic but maybe I'm not being clear - happy to clarify (no snark just be clear, hard to discern tone in text)
Survival tip: Edgelords have the best marbling.
"Our purpose is to Divert students awy from Drugs and Violence " say's one Recruiter. Someone tell these recruiters that the US military IS the drug, gun and violence runners in the world.
All religions have just as much right to make their training mandatory, or even elective, in schools across AMERICA.
You disagree?
So do I.
Religious indoctrination in public schools of our impressionable children is almost as repulsive as military indoctrination.
The one makes soldiers for GOD, Love and Human Compassion.
The other turns one into a killing machine indirectly at a keyboard or directly by incessantly feeding rounds into the breach, and for wars that have nothing to do with genuine patriotism, democracy or defending non-existent borders.
Yes. Reformed theology's authoritarian moral arrogance informed the design of the totalitarian "sovereign" order, and the sooner the former is abolished, the sooner the latter won't be necessary.
Part of the reason they have to recruit so hard--other than wanting a nation of robots--is that they kicked out all of the tough, smart, independent people who didn't want the shot. That's it: get rid of the best people.
And now we know that "sudden death for no reason" has spiked. See Edward Dowd's work. He used to work for BlackRock, and the unexplained deaths as catalogued by Big Insurance are through the roof.
You would think the military would want strong, intelligent, pro-active people. But these days, all they want is shearable sheep.
Yes, the ROTC program has some personal development merits, which personal development returns can just as well be incorporated into any number of non-military programs. However, the military program has one gigantic repulsive objective, to kill people, with a gun or from behind a computer screen. When AMERICA had reason for genuine patriotism, i.e., a decent culture, country and borders to protect, military was a respected choice.
However. the military is now maintained and engaged NOT for God, Country and our way of life, but for the gangs in D.C. and the CORPORATE BOARDROOMS, with their global objectives and control over us.
"Defenders of mandatory JROTC enrollment reportedly cite the need to "divert students away from drugs or violence"! (NY Times)
What bullshit! The Biden administration was handing out crack pipes. And they're promoting mastectomies and castrations so you can hate your own body even more. They want people drugged, poorly educated, poor, sick, fat, and exploited. They're going take every last dollar off of us, and then kill us.