How to Wreck the Forced Birth Enthusiasts

I have never written a full post about abortion rights before. This is because it is such entry-level bullshit to be against a woman's right to choose, anyone with two functioning brain cells is pro-choice when it matters to them. This is nothing but a way to bully women. Period. But, is there a republican in power anywhere? If the answer is yes then silly shit like abortion bans, punishments, vigilante violence, and restrictions on the right to privacy will continue. My very first professor in college, English, preemptively banned anyone from writing argumentative or persuasive essays on abortion, because as she put it "that's high school stuff." However tired of arguing over abortion decent people are though, the children of darkness keep agitating against women's rights. I came across YA author and frequent victim of right-wing authoritarian aggression Chris Crutcher's persuasive Facebook post this morning and wanted to back him up.

It’s time to weaponize against the batshit crazy abortion legislation coming out of Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, Missouri, et al. Those self-righteous old men who average five hours a day, three or four days a week, legislating vicious policy that leaves poverty stricken women, rape and incest victims, as well as love-stricken girls who believe their whiney teenage boyfriends’ promises of everlasting love if they’ll just this one time - and a bunch of times after that - have sex with them; those men are the enemy.

In these past few weeks, the American narrative has become stunningly absurd. And it’s partly our fault, because we’ve allowed the debate to become gradually more idiotic since the early seventies when the Roe V Wade decision came down. [emphasis mine]

Now first I have to clarify that I love Mr. Crutcher's books, even though I don't get to read fiction very often. Mrs. Kraken and I even got to have dinner with him (among others) at a conference reception once. He was one of the coolest people I have met, laughed at my lame jokes, listened to all of us, and told great stories, in short a great guy to know and be around. So I am fully on board with all of his ideas here. My one reservation, and unfortunately it is the central thesis, is how? The only thing right wing authoritarians understand is force and fear of punishment. How do we, the majority of non-fundamentalist zealots, punish or force the angry minority and the republicans who laugh at them while stealing their money and votes? The short answer is we can't. Which is why they are so aggressive at defying common sense and the constitution. The best defense of the absurdity of the authoritarian conception of the "sanctity of life" is a good offense.

The only answer is to organize and vote republicans out. Every single one. Whatever tactics are necessary to keep pro-women's rights Americans involved, organized, and voting against republicans is justified. Because, no matter how many times the bans, intravaginal ultrasounds, intimidation of women, and financial hardships they impose on women are struck down by the courts, it doesn't hurt the rednecks out there in the least. It's only their tax money that gets wasted, not the legislator's. So as long as these authoritarian spectacles keep the meatheads energized they will keep at it. Heaping shame upon the rednecks will not work if they can simply tune you out. You have to risk arguments and stop being polite when uncle liberty goes on a rant at family gatherings. They have to be challenged, they have to suffer ostracism and the laughter of others before they will stop openly spouting the nonsense.

We let the debate become about the sanctity of life. We let the debate become about some random time when the sperm-egg union becomes a human life. We let the debate become “what-if” morality banter. (What if the aborted fetus was destined to be a Mozart? Or an Einstein? A Katherine Johnson, or an Alice Walker? Yeah, well what if that fetus was destined to be a Charles Manson, or an Eric Harris? Maybe a Lizzie Bordon. There are a hell of a lot more of THOSE humans trolling the planet than that other kind.)

Let’s get real here. There is nothing sacred human life, in the abstract. Humans lives become sacred when they’re treated that way and when they in-turn treat others that way. How many of you “moral” Christians would leave Adolf Fetus Hitler to grow and nurture in the womb if you knew the shitstorm HE would eventually kick into play? You think if Nancy Lanza had had access to a time machine, she wouldn’t have whipped back twenty years and nine months and sucked that murderous little shit Adam out of her womb before he could blow her away, then drive to Sandy Hook Elementary to slaughter 20 five and six-year-olds along with six adults who were trying to protect them?

And again, Mr. Righteous Christian Politician, before you decide you want to give any doctor who performs an abortion, 99 years, you might want to consider that the entity YOU sometimes “worship” for up to an hour or so a week - whom you believe to be a HE (understandably) and IN WHOSE IMAGE YOU CLAIM TO BE CREATED – happens to be, among other things, the most prolific abortionist on the planet. And HE takes babies at random; wanted and unwanted.

All excellent points. If this was an issue of reason and logic Mr. Crutcher would be taking a well-deserved victory lap. I wish every pro-forced birth meathead had to read this before his car would start or before he could punch in to work.

I say all that only to piss you off and get your attention. You guys need to discover the difference between righteous and self-righteous. TO THE PERSON every one of you assholes who crows and votes “right to life” are anti-abortion right up until your daughter gets pregnant by some laid-back dope-smoking ne’er-do-well - or some guy who isn’t white - and you’re afraid you’ll have to explain to your like-minded friends at a dinner party or political fund-raiser how your control-freaky bullshit didn’t pan out and your little girl turned into such a big disappointment, or a whore. Suddenly, a quick trip to the clinic takes care of your embarrassment and you can go back to being the asshole who believes in “life” right up until it actually happens.

Or maybe you’re just Pennsylvania Congressman Tim Murphy. Oops. 

Burn. Sick Burn.

 So my side is taking back the basic premise; we’re making the debate simple and easy:

Question: In the democracy that is the United States of America, who should decide whether or not to terminate a pregnancy?
Answer: The woman who is pregnant.

Question: At what point does she need to decide?
Answer: Whenever.

Question: What regions in America should be free of abortion clinics?
Answer: Any that are completely underwater or in the immediate path of a wildfire.

Question: What should American men and women who are fiercely against abortion do?
Answer: Don’t get one.

The money shot. Turn it around. Make them convince you. Never let any of their bullshit fallacious assumptions stand unchallenged. And vote. Stop putting effort into convincing these logic-impervious that they are wrong. They simply are wrong. Ignore them or destroy them, but there's no point in wasting time trying to persuade them.

I am sure that professional wordsmith that he is, Mr. Crutcher pounded this message out in one or two deep breaths. Good thing too, as much as we need ammunition to fight the authoritarians, we also need his work writing stories that help young adults deal with life. Very few writers are talented enough to make a difference in someone's life and we are lucky Mr. Crutcher uses all of his gifts in service of the light side.

Is it easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission?

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. once wrote, as he was wont to do, about presidential history in times of crisis. In particular he cited Abraham Lincoln and the extraordinary measures he took during the opening months of the Civil War. That was a real state of emergency, the slave states organized with incredible speed and moved quickly to steal Federal buildings and property. Slave power propagandists in the border states printed wildly seditious stories about the North and the newly elected president. It was not a time for careful deliberation and the slow wheels of government to take action. Schlesinger wrote that it was easier for Lincoln to do what needed to be done and explain his actions later.

Other presidents have taken questionable actions in times of crisis as well, Andrew Jackson's bank war and Indian removal, John Adams' Alien and Sedition Acts, Wilson's roundups and deportations of revolutionary aliens, and so on. In each case, it appeared to much of the public to be a real crisis. Okay, maybe not with Jackson because he was just an asshole, but most of the time action was at least perceived to be necessary. The constitution was bypassed, the crisis resolved and officials took responsibility for their actions, most of the time anyway. It was easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission. This idea isn't limited to presidents, military commanders, police chiefs, businessmen, and even parents who need to take their children to the doctor all occasionally take action and answer for it later. This has also been a core tenet of all the torture porn films and television shows, "do we torture the shit out of the guy with the location of the bomb now and take our chances on punishment later?"

I'm no leader and I hate these kind of hypotheticals but we are rapidly approaching a turning point in American democracy. Another republican president is about to declare an emergency to get some awful thing they want, as has happened at least informally, for the last half century. Let's think about a few. Nixon's operatives went on their merry way bugging opponents, blackmailing and intimidating activists, planting provocateurs in anti-war groups and others, and generally acting above the law until they finally got caught. And even then,they would have walked away laughing had it not been for the courage of democracy's defenders holding their feet to the fire. Reagan's basement conspiracy in Iran-Contra likewise just ran their clandestine operation to sell arms to one enemy so they could supply an army of terrorists in Nicaragua. A few of them got caught and did their time as just the cost of doing business. Most just laughed all the way to the bank though, including the doddering old man himself. The list of authoritarian monstrosities of George W. Bush's administration is incredibly long and would make for many posts and book fodder. Sure, there was a real attack on America, although in hindsight it is fairly clear that it could have been foiled if that band of republican hacks had tried. But the cynical opportunism of denouncing opponents as traitors, and blasting out terror warnings that most likely were exaggerated in the extreme to fearmonger and drown out news of their myriad failures certainly fits this pattern.

Doughfacedonny is widely expected to declare a state of national emergency as outlined in an Act passed by Congress after Watergate that was and is supposed to stop the pattern of doing this very thing during his TV time tonight. Why the networks are still falling for his shit is a mystery we will never fully know the answer to. No one in their right mind would give this orange disgrace permission to do anything, or forgive him afterwards. Not that he would care. He already stole the presidency with the help of monsters at home and abroad. He stole two supreme court seats now and blew up the deficit with his corporate welfare tax giveaway. Has he asked for forgiveness for any of those things? No, of course not. He and Mitch McConnell have not asked permission to reopen the damn government that they run and aren't exactly trying very hard to be forgiven for the latest mess they caused.

It has made the rounds, in liberal commentary circles anyway, the idea of a Reichstag Fire moment coming from this crowd of traitors and imbeciles. And as the meme so often points out, "it's no longer whether trump has any decency, but whether we do." Are the networks, "the enemy of the people" as doughfacedonny so often calls them, really going to go along with this? Maybe he will just go out and feebly rant and lie about immigration and walls and other such nonsense. Nothing will come of it and we can all go back to our regularly scheduled resistance. There certainly is a national emergency but it's not on the border with Mexico. It isn't a legitimacy crisis, all the evidence of Russian meddling has rendered the occupant of the Oval Office illegitimate. It isn't an economic crisis either, the stock market is tanking because of the real crisis though. It is that one major political party in the United States is a death cult of human suffering and that about 40% of the electorate supports that cult.

There may come a time when the American people are finally pushed so hard that they must collectively ask whether it is easier to ask forgiveness for destroying the death cult after the fact, or whether we sit back and civilly wait for permission from the Democrats to defeat them. If doughfacedonny does indeed declare a national emergency and fumble around stealing enough money to build the stupid wall, it won't stop there. I suck at predicting the future, I really expected death squads on day one, but this time might prove more dangerous. Donny's back is against the wall, it is no longer a whisper that he should resign and bolt while he still can. The previous crises of Republican malice gave the criminal-in-chief a path out of danger, therefore they left when their time came but will donny? You can almost trace a line in the escalation of authoritarianism in republican governance since the late 1960s, pushing but never quite closing the door on democracy. Tonight the trap might spring shut. Stay tuned.

Donald Doughface

This year has seen the return of open racism and misogyny to American politics. It has come about because of one man, a vulgar talking yam who rode the vicious populist wave, voter suppression, and Russian intervention all the way to the highest office in the republic. While this has huge contemporary repercussions, it has also opened a clear view of the fact that for many people the Civil War never ended. Prior to that conflict there was a term for a Northern man with Southern sympathies, doughface, and it is time to reintroduce that name to a man who fits the definition so well, Donald J. Trump. The true battle line of the Civil War that preceded and succeeded the military campaigns of 1861-65 was between the democratic vision of America and the aristocratic one. Doughface donny lied his way into the presidency by appealing to the worst aspects of aristocratic America, not by promising the republican working class voters a better life but by promising to stomp on nonwhite and liberal America and all that it stands for without any restraint.

Two days before election day a little article was posted on the History News Network by the Presidential Distinguished Professor and Chair of the History Department at Weber State University, Susan J. Matt that flew under the radar during that chaotic time. Titled This is What Liberals are missing about Trump's appeal Professor Matt presents a very detailed and in depth look at the pre-industrial concept of personal honor and shame that dominated Southern life even after the Civil War. Now that the industrial way of life has receded in so much of the United States this primitive lifestyle has experienced a revival unnoticed by all of us "elitists" in the city. What this looks like is described as:

Southern white men worried incessantly about how others perceived them. Any insult to their reputations needed to be quickly parried lest they lose face. Historian Keith Thomas noted that among English elites, the concern with honor “generated extreme touchiness, and hypersensitivity to any form of slight. As a result, honour was invoked as justification for almost any kind of self-aggrandizement.”

Some of that aggrandizement could be based on sexual prowess. Men could boast of their sexual exploits, for lust signaled virility and strength. Reputation also depended on outward carriage, for Brown writes, “honor was a state of grace linking mind, body, blood, hand, voice, head, eyes, and even genitalia.” Consequently, southerners were concerned with their own bodies as well as their ancestors’, for bloodlines and racial purity affected the ability to embody honor.

Those who believed in honor engaged in physical, sometimes violent displays of power to defend it. Historian Elliott Gorn found that to display honor, poor men had vicious brawls, gouging out each others’ eyes, as well as biting off ears and windpipes, while elites relied on duels as a more genteel way to defend reputation. To be honorable required men to take risks, display bravery.

Men were also supposed to risk their pocketbooks, for gambling too was a display of nerve. If men ran up debts, they must repay them, for those they gambled with were presumably honorable gentlemen; however, they need not pay back people below them on the social scale. William Grayson of South Carolina noted, “A gambling debt is a debt of honour, but a debt due a tradesman is not.”

Southern whites who subscribed to this cult of honor lived publicly, and when possible grandly, boasted about their sexual prowess and bravery, focused on outward appearances and reputation, and took forceful, even violent action when that reputation was assailed.

- See more at: http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164299#sthash.t9Y7fcRD.dpuf

This barbaric way of life persists in nearly any American community that is unencumbered by Enlightenment principles or even the industrial installation of bureaucracy or professionalism. The brutes may not be "biting off ears and windpipes" anymore but scratch the surface in any military base or impoverished small town and you will discover hypersensitive man-children endlessly bragging about their sexual conquests, the many slights suffered and punishments or humiliations dealt out, and the intricate web of hierarchy and domination forever being challenged and enforced. This system of honor has jumped the regional boundaries of the old Confederacy in much the same way that the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan after WWI found strength in states such as Indiana and Oklahoma. It has even jumped color lines as African-American gang members on the South Side of Chicago worry endlessly about their "rep" and answer slights from others posted online with physical confrontation and often bullets. The link between this system of honor and white supremacy, however, is the focus of discussing Donald Doughface.

Thus far I have only found one other blog linking trump with the term "doughface" and although poignant it does not go deep enough to understand the causal factors, the driving force that gives so much energy to the republicans who voted against every democratic impulse to make this doughface president. The right wing in America is driven by a primitive honor system, while it may have started in the South before the republic was even founded, today this plague has spread to all points on the American map. Anywhere ruin has been visited on the American proletariat, anywhere average people have been stripped of a decent living by plutocrats in corporate America and Wall Street, the vengeful honor system has flooded in to encourage vulgarity, racism, misogyny, and hypersensitive aggression.

Donald Trump, who will never be normalized on this page nor accorded with the title he and his confederates have stolen for him, is the epitome of of this (dis)honor system. A Northern man with Southern principles, ever ready to strike down anyone who opposes or slights him, ever ready to take anything he wants and react with self-righteous fury anyone or anything that resists, Trump is the violation of everything we Americans are taught in school about what we supposedly value. And yet, his awful values are long-standing, everything that is wrong with America from racism and white supremacy, to misogyny and sexual conquest of women, this is the Civil War that eternally haunts our nation. It is a war that can only end in the complete destruction of those primitive honor-related values. Democratic America has had several chances to deal a death blow to aristocratic America, the military Civil War and the Civil Rights era to name two opportunities, but we can never bring ourselves to strike fully to excise the cancer.

And now that cancer has consumed us. The third strike has finally dealt us a permanent ascendancy of aristocracy. We, the democratic nation of America, are an occupied people. To be continued...

Vietnam, Rick Perlstein, and Ur-Fascism

Searching for truth is a full-time job. A quest that this feeble blog will never complete. The chances of convincing an individual that they are being lied to, manipulated, or played for a fool is approaching statistical insignificance. Nonetheless, many people still commit themselves to learning and trying to pass on their knowledge and wisdom to the larger world. In a classroom this activity is usually met with blank stares and indifference, but in our hyper-polarized political climate it can be downright dangerous.

I have mentioned before that I am a former Army Tanker and a member of a tanker group on Facebook. I am also one of the very few anti-fascists in a sea of wannabe brown shirts. What started as an innocent way to keep in touch with my former brothers in arms has become embarrassing. The only reason I have not unfollowed the group is that it is enlightening to observe right wing memes and comments from some members. In between posting generally nasty memes about liberals or women or Democrats, scantily-clad women or downright terms of service violating nudie pics, or boasting about their guns, or taking pot shots at other branches of the military, there are people posting some outrage or another along with as much personal contact information as they can come up with about the perpetrators  and urging others to "go get 'em." Outrages like standing on the American flag, saying something negative about veterans or guns, generally anyone exercising the freedom of expression that all of these guys claim to defend but when it comes right down to it are hypocrites. So far none of these angry vets have actually attacked any of the targets but every mass shooting that occurs in America further de-stigmatizes the idea of political violence. I feel it is important to try and draw the authoritarian aggression sometimes on display into the open because it is harder to build up the resolve to do something one might regret outside the epistemic self-reinforcing system of closed Facebook groups. The potential for violence is what concerns me. Political or religious violence is the most dangerous road a society can travel.

I don't know anyone who has stood on the flag as an act of protest and find the phenomenon counter-productive, not worthy of comment. Nor do I get ruffled by other idiots flapping their gums about  veterans being dishonorable, or impersonating a soldier. And I could care less about porn put up by anyone. But when the threats start rolling in about someone I do kind of know and respect, it is time to speak up. Rick Perlstein is a fellow historian who has written some great books about the era I study and I have learned a lot from his work. His latest book is The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan and should be considered required reading for everyone interested in contemporary politics and why the reactionary right is as off the spectrum as it is today. But books are for people whose attention spans exceed those of fruit flies.

However, an article Perlstein wrote for the Washington Spectator that attempted to untangle one of the great con jobs of American propaganda in the service of authoritarianism, got the attention of 'wingers all over the place. This is part of a very important and as yet unfolding story of the American "stab in the back" surrounding the Vietnam War. You know the one "if only the damn 'libs had let us nuke Vietnam" and so on. Perlstein's essay is an abridged version of a chapter in his book mentioned above, "a bizarre psychic reversal" as he puts it about the POW-MIA flag and how it has been used to buttress America's victim status and cruelty by the North Vietnamese. And the propaganda symbol value this sympathy provides to American authoritarians. To the right wing authoritarian follower, it is a symbol of solidarity with phantoms that he will never admit do not exist. To the social dominator seeking to lead them, the flag is a cudgel to smear and demonize anyone who does not go along with the mythology. He originally tied this flag to the racist history of the Confederate flag and that is where the trouble started. 

Karoli already wrote up the fauxtrage and pearl clutching on display from Fox and Friends and the reactions from 'wingers. I just wanted to add how violently the so-called defenders of freedom reacted to Perlstein on a personal level. In case anyone actually believes that our brave men and women in uniform "will not obey unconstitutional orders, such as orders to disarm the American people, to conduct warrantless searches, or to detain Americans as “enemy combatants” in violation of their ancient right to jury trial" if ordered to by our tyrannical government. 

From the M1 tankers group [closed] on Facebook:

Timothy G Verkist

This is the civilian shit bag that wrote the POW/MIA story. Feel free to contact him and let him know how u feel. .

[Picture of Rick Perlstein's Facebook page]

• Michael O. Bell Shit Bag!!

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  Gunnar Graham What story?

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  Bryon Terry Fucking scab!! Proof the human body can function without oxygen to the brain

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  Colt Friday Why do these "social justice" types always look incredibly weak?

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  Paul Shigye melt this fuck in a pool of acid.

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  Shawn Malara Typical ploy of the Left. Attach "racism" to something to get public outcry and fuel a Leftist "call to arms". The guy couldn't be more off base. Certainly buying into "any publicity is good publicity". I can't really understand how any news outlet would give this guy and credit or opportunity.

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  Nick Monks Not sure if he reads his messages at all but I identified and loaded sabot ........ON THE WAY!!!!!!
  

  
  

  

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  Erik Fox It's a flag of remembrance for missing brothers, this dirt bag needs to be made to understand that fact.

  19 hrs · Like · 1
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  Anthony Roberts Send this mother fucker to Iraq!!

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  Gunnar Graham Can someone tell me wtf he wrote!?

  18 hrs · Like
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  Anthony Roberts It does not matter what he wrote he is a liberal communist and send him to Iraq now!!

  18 hrs · Like
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  Russ Chapman He can't even explain why it's racist. he's a fucking worthless

  18 hrs · Like · 1
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  Chris Hieb Not worth my time

  18 hrs · Like
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  Timothy G Verkist Gunnar
  
  Anyone doubts the authenticity, the original source is here
  http://washingtonspectator.org/the-story-of-the-other.../
  

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  The Story of the Other Racist Flag - Washington Spectator

  WASHINGTONSPECTATOR.ORG

  18 hrs · Like · 1
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  Gunnar Graham Thank you Timothy

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  Timothy G Verkist Np bro. Sry that took so long. Was busy w shit.

  17 hrs · Like
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  Nathan Miller
  

  
  

  

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  Don West He got the recognition he was looking for. Prick. Can't make a decent living so he stoops to inventing some BS to get attention.

  15 hrs · Edited · Like
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  Anthony Roberts Good lesson when writing. SAY NO TO CRACK!!!

  15 hrs · Edited · Like
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  Mike Coon He's an ass not worth my time !!!!!

  12 hrs · Like
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  Andre Sanchez Its funny how all these faggots are "self employed" uh huh go lick so more windows you piece of cum guzzling twat monkey

Angry, well-armed, self-righteous, and ready to attack anyone who disagrees with them. This is not what I was taught in the military, apparently things have changed. Having to issue a lengthy apology for presenting a not patriotically correct historical theory based on actual empirical research is something I doubt Rick Perlstein was taught in graduate school either. Having to then make himself scarce on social media due to threats was probably not something he contemplated when he submitted the article. 

Update:

The author of the post in question found my response. As you can guess it was not well-received. After looking at Tim's page briefly I take back what I implied, he is not a fascist, just a vindictive special snowflake. I do not know why Rick Perlstein's article got him so angry. As you can see from the discussion he wasn't the only one, but there is no criticism of why the flag isn't what Perlstein argues it is, a demagogic propaganda symbol designed to cut off and prevent debate, which is exactly what happens in these exchanges. Juvenile character attacks and random, arbitrary name-calling as proxy for argument. As though simply mentioning keywords should trigger a Pavlovian response of aggression. I wonder if the information was presented in a less-antagonistic manner, would this untold story of the POW-MIA flag get a less rigid, knee-jerk, and aggressive response? I took this post down for a few days to edit it, because it was kind of unfair and was written in haste. After initially publishing I did a google search of responses to the original article for comparison, and whoa my findings make the comments I recorded here look civil by comparison. I am not going to link to anything ranting about "hate-filled kike demons" or "Faggot Jews" but you could probably guess where the real fascists would go with language like that. It plays right into the fantasy land of all-powerful liberals and conservative victim hood constructed by the right-wing where a barely noticed opinion piece from a free lance historian somehow equals all liberals calling for and immediately receiving whatever they wish for. The world does not work that way.

In case you read this Tim, I am not a blue falcon or any of the things you accused me of. I could care less if you or anyone else posts pictures of boobies. I have never reported anything to Facebook, nor do I know anyone who did. Facebook does not share my concern about political violence and I do not share their interest in making social media safe for elementary school kids. I do not care about sexy pics or off-color jokes or even the continuous outrage from certain members of that group. A group of which I am no longer a part of, by the way. After some reflection I realized that everything about it is a waste of my time. When I first joined, there was serious discussion between master gunners, interesting stories about our brothers' experiences in the field or on deployment, and general camaraderie. That is pretty rare to find now, and I'm tired of sifting through the garbage to find anything interesting. So thank you for convincing me to move on. I'm too old to find that Friday night grab-assing at the barracks style amusing anymore. And your since-
removed post with screen grabs of my writing just confirmed that I am correct in my concern over the potential for violence.

I have often felt annoyed that my service, in the opinion of people like you, did not count because we disagree on one thing or another. But by all means keep the crusade going. Being in a perpetual state of outraged and self-righteous victim hood is great for your heart and I hear it can even prevent ulcers.