which is not to say i'm glad he died however many years ago. it was sad. but NASCAR sucks.
i provide that statement in answer to the new conservative shibboleth, as discussed in this essay by jonathan chait.
i really think it's intellectually dishonest -- not to mention just plain morally wrong -- for conservatives to insist that liberals cannot be critical of the iraq war (and the overmilitarization of u.s. society in general) if we haven't served or don't know anyone who has served in the military or any armed conflict. [full disclosure: i know two people personally who have served in iraq, and a third tangentially, but i never bring this fact up when arguing against militarism in general or iraq in particular. my father is also a veteran.]
it should be enough that i'm a tax-paying citizen of this country. i should be able to criticize the military and it's way overbloated budget, without being anti-soldier or anti-american. hell, i should also be able to criticize those soldiers who join the military because they want to kill and be extremely macho. i think it's dumb and it hurts our country.
i know, and it's a very sad fact, that most enlistees join because there is literally no other way to make a life for themselves -- and i'm sorry for them that in such a wealthy country so many people have to choose the military as a way, ironically, to stay alive. it's this conscription-by-economic-necessity that i criticize and think is abhorrent -- not that the soldiers do it, mind you, but that the elite in this country don't see anything wrong with it. then they make decisions to go to war and it's these enlistees who are dying.
so yeah yeah, love the soldier, hate the war. i agree. but it doesn't mean we cannot be critical of those soldiers who do this for sport and out of bloodlust -- nor of an american society in general whose very image is too wrapped up in violent, overly masculine ideas about socio-cultural relations.
i provide that statement in answer to the new conservative shibboleth, as discussed in this essay by jonathan chait.
i really think it's intellectually dishonest -- not to mention just plain morally wrong -- for conservatives to insist that liberals cannot be critical of the iraq war (and the overmilitarization of u.s. society in general) if we haven't served or don't know anyone who has served in the military or any armed conflict. [full disclosure: i know two people personally who have served in iraq, and a third tangentially, but i never bring this fact up when arguing against militarism in general or iraq in particular. my father is also a veteran.]
it should be enough that i'm a tax-paying citizen of this country. i should be able to criticize the military and it's way overbloated budget, without being anti-soldier or anti-american. hell, i should also be able to criticize those soldiers who join the military because they want to kill and be extremely macho. i think it's dumb and it hurts our country.
i know, and it's a very sad fact, that most enlistees join because there is literally no other way to make a life for themselves -- and i'm sorry for them that in such a wealthy country so many people have to choose the military as a way, ironically, to stay alive. it's this conscription-by-economic-necessity that i criticize and think is abhorrent -- not that the soldiers do it, mind you, but that the elite in this country don't see anything wrong with it. then they make decisions to go to war and it's these enlistees who are dying.
so yeah yeah, love the soldier, hate the war. i agree. but it doesn't mean we cannot be critical of those soldiers who do this for sport and out of bloodlust -- nor of an american society in general whose very image is too wrapped up in violent, overly masculine ideas about socio-cultural relations.
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