Between the Lines: Separate but Equal

Welcome to Between the Lines, my Monday Morning review of the propaganda coming out of the DOD, sifted to the essential truths that many in the military already are well aware of, but the MSM doesn't feel is newsworthy.

I admit I'm personally in a bit of a funk this week. I've had a lot of issues with my paranoia about my relationships already, and now the headlines are making me second guess nearly every relationship decision or disagreement I've had in the last 22 years.

First up, the Army has decided that women are to be protected and given special considerations in the Combat MOS. This is in direct contradiction to the statement that the women will be treated exactly equally that was promised.

The problem is this, to any soldier in that recruit training, the purpose is to build cohesion and camaraderie. Separating out the female recruits starts them off with a severe disadvantage, as far as making connections and truly learning what it is like to live in close proximity with others in a combat zone. The separation interferes with the day to day interactions, and overall just creates a "Separate but equal" situation where the recruits feel that they were never treated equally. I know this experience first hand from the resentment that I received for being an older male, and thus lower standards on the PT test. And this was from guys I had served in a combat zone with. Of course, with all the recent headlines and the fact that in the past military Drill Sergeant have taken advantage of female recruits I'm not surprised to see these types of standards put into place.

Treating female soldiers differently and yet expecting them to succeed in the extremely tight knit military community is ludicrous. The Service needs to take the brakes off completely and acknowledge that soldiers are sexual beings and sex and/or love is a possibility with ANY group of humans in a close situation, and that the proper response is to focus on stopping abuse of power and authority, rather than try to enforce morality. What the Army has chosen to do is a half-measure which will make no-one happy, and merely kick the can of sex discrimination and harassment down the road.

The Army has decided of course that getting rid of Humans is the end goal.

Yep, everybody gets to be a drone operator, even the folks doing their normal duties. I guess the fact that drone operators get PTSD at a high rate is moot. Instead the fact that it will be robots making the actual kill, even if it is a human deciding whether or not to push the button which disturbs me. Drones themselves bother me, but the expansion and celebration of this technology is neither surprising nor morally supportable from my point of view.

And I'd like to see a study on the PTSD recovery rates of Native American Veterans. I was aware of traditional warrior returns, but had no idea that many tribes were still engaging in them. It's an interesting thought that perhaps the best way to heal is the oldest ways. While the article emphasizes the patriotism, the most interesting line comes near the end for me.

“You can’t take away from pride a Native American has for service,” he said. “And, of course, the tough times ... a big percentage of people aren’t happy with the way things are going now, but you can’t take away that pride.”

I am honestly wondering what was omitted in those ellipses. Something tells me that there was a very valid criticism of either the government, the Army or both.

So, Good luck this week, and forgive me if I'm a bit late on responding to comments. My brain hates me right now.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTyMhv7MCCs]

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Alligator Ed's picture

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Centaurea's picture

First, there are other countries where women have been in combat roles for a while, such as the Israel Defense Forces. How do the Israelis handle it? Did the US Army consult with them on this (or would that be asking too much from the American bureaucracy)?

I also wanted to say something about this:

the headlines are making me second guess nearly every relationship decision or disagreement I've had in the last 22 years.

How life feels to me (I mean me, Centaurea) right now: it's like I'm trying to maneuver on a balance beam during an earthquake, in the pitch dark while it's raining, plus I've got amnesia, don't know who I am or why I'm there, and how the heck do you dismount from a balance beam anyway? Plus, everyone else is on balance beams, too, and many of them are freaking out and carrying on.

The old rules are dissolving and we don't have new ones yet. The old ways are dying. If we're going to get from where we are now to where we're going -- vive la revolution -- this is how it has to be. We (collective "we", humanity) have to make our way through this.

The ones who are going to make it, and will help create the post-revolutionary world (and rules) are the ones who can stay awake and aware. For me, the No. 1 thing that means is: question everything.

So it feels like crap, but it sounds like you're questioning. You're looking at things from a different frame of reference. Do you know how many people aren't even willing to look? Who are fighting like hell not to look? It takes courage to look.

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"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi

"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone

detroitmechworks's picture

@Centaurea @Centaurea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_Israel_Defense_Forces

We just don't hear about it because it's been tacitly agreed NOT to be talked about. The abuses of power, etc are present and systemic.

However, instead of dealing with it, Israel also just sweeps it under the rug, kicks it down the road and otherwise pretend it doesn't exist for the powerful.

As far as you second topic.
The problem is that I've been dealing with these issues for YEARS. I thought I had finally gotten to a point where I was absolutely certain that I wasn't a pure scumbag, and the support and love of my SO helped with that immeasurably. I have made mistakes, but can happily say that there are no further ghosts in my past to haunt me, and that I am doing the best I can now in all of my relationships, albeit totally paranoid about consent, as usual.

(Tangent) The problem is that one of my friends recently did the exact same thing, came to the opposite conclusion, and apologized profusely for his behavior. While no charges were ever filed, and nobody felt the need to demand that apology, his apology constituted a violation of "Zero Tolerance" policies and as a result he lost his job, and has been treated like a social pariah by those he cares about because of his public apology. Am I saying he didn't deserve consequences? Hell no. He needed to be able to make the amends for his actions that he perpetrated, NOT what resulted. The fact that society is treating somebody who is making an honest effort to repent and change like the worst kind of criminal, who deserves censure and shunning, without a single charge or due process, is insane.

And if you think "GOOD! He Deserves to be punished and made to feel horrible for all of his crimes that he wasn't charged with!" then you're not looking for justice, you're looking for vengeance. If we cannot forgive those who make the effort to change and repent, then we will lose those people FOREVER. For some it will be suicide, for some it will be complete separation from society, and others will become far, far worse, because there are people who WILL forgive them. However, the people who will forgive them are the outcasts, the pariahs, and the evil. They will forgive because they know that they will gain undying and total loyalty for merely giving that sense of belonging. Yes, I'm referring to cults and fascists.

The path forward must include the hope of redemption, for if it does not, the only people who will follow it will be those who lie. No-one is perfect.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

@detroitmechworks I think all harassers need to make amends where applicable. Reach out to those you believe you may have harmed. If you're not sure then ask, assuming that person is still in your life.

All of the publicity about sexual harassment is a waste of time. "Society" will not fix this problem, only individuals can do that. That's the nature of imbalanced power dynamics. Yes, there should be better mechanisms for victims of harassment to get relief, but at the end of the day nothing changes until individuals own up to their behavior.

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detroitmechworks's picture

@Blueslide as a tool to keep people distracted while they run off with all the money. Again.

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SnappleBC's picture

@Blueslide

Imagine a society in which sexual crimes of all sorts were shunned. So a Weinstein would know that independent of his money and power, people would cringe when they saw him and avoid him like the plague. Society as a whole would turn it's back on him or her.

In the end, I think the only answer is society. In my mind it keeps getting back to that question CantStopTheSignal asked, "Why does society allow this particular form of barbarism and disallows others?"

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

detroitmechworks's picture

@SnappleBC The only people who such stigmas will fall on will be the poor and the powerless.

The rich as always, will be able to buy redemption, whether through settlements, laws or outright force.

For example, I would point out that the largest prosecutor of infidelity is the US Army, and it disproportionately affects the lower ranks.

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Steven D's picture

@detroitmechworks Bill Clinton, for one example.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@SnappleBC Thanks for keeping that question alive :-). However, I bet you money lots of Weinstein's victims didn't shun him at all, but kept on interacting with him like he wasn't a predatory son-of-a-bitch. Appearances maintained, working in the same industry, asshole with power, you know the drill.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

SnappleBC's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

In this particular instance, however, I'm simply arguing that humans are a social species and in the end we respond to social shunning -- if for no other reason that because we must.

I agree. The society that we live in now doesn't shun such activities which gets to the heart of that question of yours. I really find that intriguing question because in my own misogynist (or at least sexist way), I readily agree that my own [male] life is worth less than a random female's. So to me any sort of assault on a female is actionable -- and twice in my life such action has actually occurred. It boggles my mind that other males obviously do not feel similarly.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

@SnappleBC Humans react better to positive conditioning, not punishment from the masses. The ability of all of us to affect change and be active participants in society is rooted in individual exchanges. I'm not arguing that these people should not be shunned or punished, but doing that alone will not fix anything.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@detroitmechworks We are in an authoritarian society, now. No second chances.

Makes me more and more of a hedonist. Defiance.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

detroitmechworks's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal Yes, I'm quoting a Russian Feminist. I feel like making a few DNC hall monitor's heads explode. Smile

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gMCxCI9IBw]

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@detroitmechworks Do you have a hall pass?

I didn't think so.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Pluto's Republic's picture

@detroitmechworks
@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

Nice work.

It's the hipsters "Stars and Stripes."

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
detroitmechworks's picture

@Pluto's Republic I almost think I need a logo.

Thinking a Hippie in a Army Uniform... Classic Vietnam Protestor look seems appropriate. I may have missed the last big peace movement, but I'm still gonna show up. Smile

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Pluto's Republic's picture

dupe

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
TheOtherMaven's picture

@detroitmechworks

So the "living history reenactment" thing is catching on everywhere.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

detroitmechworks's picture

@TheOtherMaven Course, I wonder if the SCA Kingdoms and whoever their equivalent of the King is (Tsar maybe?)could come to an arrangement about importing Russian troops for important battles...

Just to watch DHS' heads explode.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@detroitmechworks
Besides the SCA proper, there's the Tuchux (Conanesque "barbarians", who discovered Cooper's Lake campground in the first place), Dalriada (Iron Age Celts), the Kingdom of Acre (which was the result of an acrimonious split within the SCA's East Kingdom), Markland (similar game, variant rules, much overlap) and I don't know who else.

Don't see how they could exclude a Russian contingent, if they wanted to come and were willing to pay their way.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Wink's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
I somehow missed this band in the '80s, '90s. Wasn't until 2009 or so, when a fellow DJ asked, "why aren't you playing any Cure?" that she quickly caught me up to speed. Robert Smith very gifted.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Wink Didn't know you were a DJ. Cool!

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Wink's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
and "modern metal," but also sneak in some pop, goth. Bands like Tool and NIN, Disturbed, Jane's Addiction, Counting Crows, sneak in some old Genesis just to keep everyone honest. And only online (and SecondLife) for buds. A lady DJ heard my set and asked why I wasn't playing any Cure, that it would "fit." Well, I had heard of the band, but maybe it was the makeup, but I had never heard the band, thinking they were prolly another KISS wannabe (and I'm no fan of Kiss), so... Long story short I started DJing Second Life clubs by literally knocking on doors, asking if they needed a DJ. After about two weeks of that somebody actually said "yes." Then, a couple weeks later a Jazz club owner hired me, and before I knew it I was DJing 6 nights a week at 3 clubs on S.L. These days I just work Fri. nights at my own club, "Lost Horizon" (which the name was taken from a Syracuse haunt (where anybody who was anybody played during the mid-'70s to mid-'90s). But, yeah, she played Pictures of You and I was hooked. So, I sneak in some Cure. Also some Tegan & Sara, Canadian identical twins who play great alt /pop, who also are of the lesbian persuasion, not that anyone gives a frig. Their "The Con" (song and album) is a good place to start with those guys. If you like "The Con" you'll prolly like a lot more. If not, prolly not.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Thanks for your insight to the inner workings(?) of the U.S. army.

I think discord among the troops is great, bring them all home then go on. Deal with it after stopping the insane wars, first things first.

I support non-violence, but drone fragging does come to mind why wouldn't it? Zeitgeist, fire and fury, etc.. That is where things are headed, equal combat readiness for women doesn't seem like a battle worth fighting. Except everything is connected.

PEACE

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detroitmechworks's picture

@eyo And that the entire structure of the military was redone, so...

I can't say I totally disagree. However, I do see certain places where camaraderie and service are respected, and it seems to be with the Native Americans.

Seems to me that the Tribal governments can read the writing on the wall, and are planning for the day when Uncle Sam decides that old treaty doesn't apply any more.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@eyo It's not that. It's the additional hell they'll go through because of receiving "special treatment."

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

detroitmechworks's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal Add in that women already have the "Get out of Combat Zone Free" card in the current Army and you have a situation where discrimination is practically guaranteed. (Since the Army cannot mandate a woman's reproductive choices, a woman who chooses to go without birth control and becomes pregnant in a combat zone is immediately sent home. No such consideration is given to single fathers.)

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@detroitmechworks This sounds like a pile of, er, fertilizer waiting to explode.

I do understand you can't have a fetus in a combat zone, though.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

The Soviet Union used females as snipers against the Nazis during WWII. It might be interesting to look at how these combat soldiers were organized and integrated into the regular military structure. They were in the midst of combat, were effective, and many were killed in action.

https://www.google.com/search?q=female+soviet+snipers&tbm=isch&tbo=u&sou...

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detroitmechworks's picture

@MrWebster Even when their ideas are better than ours. The ordinance issues alone have filled multiple books.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@MrWebster When a massive army is advancing on your home, it makes everything a bit different.

Also, sadly, for those who didn't see the threat to their homes as sufficient motivation, I believe Stalin had guns aimed at his own troops' backs.

In that instance, Stalin was a horrible bastard who was doing work that absolutely needed to be done. What can my brain make of that?

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

I believe Stalin had guns aimed at his own troops' backs.

In that instance, Stalin was a horrible bastard who was doing work that absolutely needed to be done. What can my brain make of that?

"War is hell and you cannot refine it!" -- General William T. Sherman

"It is good that war is so horrible, lest we become too fond of it."
-- General Robert E. Lee

"War is not healthy for children and other living things!"

"No nation has ever prospered from prolonged warfare." -- Sun Tzu

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@MrWebster Sorry, I think I kinda got off topic with that response...originally I think I was heading toward the idea that when your farm is over the next hill, you damned well will treat the female sniper next to you with respect.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

detroitmechworks's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal I believe that much of the women's involvement in WW2 was a direct result of Lenin's reforms with regards to communist gender equality. Including the concept of the "No-fault Divorce"

Lenin got quite a few things right, IMHO.

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ggersh's picture

https://www.sciencealert.com/chilling-drone-video-shows-a-disturbing-vis...

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=9CO6M2HsoIA]

In the Slaughterbots short, which we've embedded below, swarms of AI-controlled drones carry out strikes on thousands of unprepared victims with targeted precision. What makes the clip so scary is that the scenario is entirely plausible.

The video starts with a spectacular press event where the technology is unveiled for the first time. The miniature drones are able to take out "the bad guys" – whoever they happen to be – without any collateral damage, nuclear weapons, or troops on the ground.

All the drone bots need is a profile: age, sex, fitness, uniform, and ethnicity.

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

detroitmechworks's picture

@ggersh And you know the DOD is itching to get their hands on that stuff.

Of course, The situation described in the video is the DHS dream scenario. Can you imagine how HUGE their budget would get? They'd have to create counter drone drones... checkpoints everywhere, safe zones...

Yes, again, I am that cynical.

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ggersh's picture

@detroitmechworks

Yes, again, I am that cynical.
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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

snoopydawg's picture

@detroitmechworks

if these types of drones come into play. We have already seen what the police have been given the power to do to the protesters who threatened the PTB's businesses or profits. Or protests against them when they use their power.
I believe that we are in an all out war with them. They found a way to get around it being unconstitutional for them to use the military against by giving the police the same equipment to use against us. Add in the 2007 economic crash, the tax cuts and what the FCC is going to do and how can anyone not believe this too? They are making it so that people have no time or money to take to the streets against the government's actions.
If they can't kill us off with their economic policies then they can kill us off with their drones and their police protectors.

The recession from the economic crash has already weakened so many of us and now they are planning to finish the job. The poor and the elderly are going to take the first hit, but they will keep coming for the next class up.

Get sick and die, starve or freeze to death or by some other way, they don't care as long as we do it.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

detroitmechworks's picture

@snoopydawg Because the faster we find them, the longer we have till the MIC plugs the holes in their strategy.

Also time to speculate about the worst possible ways they could fuck this up, and prepping for it. Right now I'm thinking that portable EMP generators with limited ranges might be a good countermeasure, and pretty cheap too. Something that small can't have too much shielding, as a Faraday cage would increase the size considerably and defeat the entire purpose of having a high speed, tiny drone.

Just spitballing, but it might be a good idea to proof of concept. You'd only need a range of about ten feet to defeat any electronics within that range. It would be a HELL of a lot cheaper of a countermeasure than the weapon it was built to defeat, IMHO. Just need capacitors and coils...

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@detroitmechworks Great idea (and I mean that absolutely sincerely). Let's never discuss this online again. (You know why).

However, trying it out in practice would be great.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

detroitmechworks's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal [video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWDdd5KKhts]

Smile

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Wink's picture

@ggersh
rid of us whiney pants librul bastids. "No, we weren't trying to off the Winkster, we just had the wrong house." right.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

ggersh's picture

@Wink [video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm-q0ELuk1A]

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

The Service needs to take the brakes off completely and acknowledge that soldiers are sexual beings and sex and/or love is a possibility with ANY group of humans in a close situation, and that the proper response is to focus on stopping abuse of power and authority, rather than try to enforce morality.

This is exactly the same point I've been trying to make in regard to society at large. I do have a quibble about the opposition implied between "stopping abuse of power and authority" and "enforce morality," but I think 98% of readers will know what you mean.

I'm with Ursula Le Guin:

"Between a man and a woman there is what they want there to be between them," he said roughly. "Each, and both."

"Then it's really true, you have no morality?" She said it as if she were delighted with the idea.

"I don't know what you mean. To hurt a person there is the same as to hurt a person here."

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

detroitmechworks's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal so as a result, thinking about consent, power dynamics in relationships and everything else that goes along with that is part of my subculture. (At least at its BEST. At worst, it has all the problems of monogamy, X number of partners...)

When I'm talking about enforcing morality, I'm referring to 100% consensual activities.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@detroitmechworks @detroitmechworks OK, if you really want to dive into the potential rabbit hole of my quibble:

I don't acknowledge restrictions on consensual sexuality, unless they relate directly back to asymmetrical power and authority, OR interfere with the ability to perform a vital task, as "morality." There's a whole category of behavior I'd describe as unseemly, but not immoral--like Bill doing it with Monica in the Oval Office, which was made into a big deal at the time. I wish Bill had taken Monica to some hotel or third or fifth vacation home instead of doing it in the Oval Office, which, honestly, didn't belong to him, so it feels, to me, not like having somebody screw their latest hot thing in my bedroom, but more like if they did it in the town hall or the hall where the congregation went for coffee after church. It's not immoral so much as profoundly irritating. What was immoral there was the irresponsibility of choosing a person completely ill-equipped to deal with being the President's mistress, either psychologically or politically.

Well, now that I'm thinking it through, I suppose that cheating is immoral, in that it is a form of lying, and the breaking of a promise (both of which I consider immoral). But I'm not sure at all that there were promises between Hillary and Bill that were broken there. It seemed pretty clear that they had an understanding. I have no way of knowing for sure, of course, but I'd bet she knew all about it, and there was neither lying nor the breaking of a promise in that case. But (as my brain churns this stuff around and around) it seems to me that even in cases where lying and promise-breaking is happening, it's not an immorality that affects me or the public at large. There's a level of "It's not my business" for me--it's not for me to say, it's for the person to whom the promise was made to say. I think this is my version of contractual ethics, which most people in the United States have, courtesy of John Locke I guess. If a contract is broken, that's immoral, but my response to that is going to depend on who was involved in the contract. If it's a contract that doesn't affect me, or anybody except the two people involved, then it seems to me that it's none of my business unless/until one of the people involved makes it my business. I just don't get riled about, for instance, Joss Whedon's infidelity. My boyfriend got mad about that, but I don't feel anything about it. I'm not his girlfriend, or his wife.

Abuse is another matter. Abuse calls for the larger community to reach for the big stick. Non-consensual force should be intolerable to the larger society except, I suppose, in defense of its laws (which is why it's so important that the largest possible percentage of the people have a say in what its laws are, how they should be enforced, and how one should punish those who break them).

EDIT: I just realized why non-consensual sex, or sex by force or intimidation, draws in the larger community: it's because it violates the larger contract we are all involved in as a society, to respect each other's basic rights. Raping somebody, beating them up, or killing them threatens the larger social agreement. There must be consequences for these things, punishments of some sort, because otherwise the contract generally will become null and void. That's why the government essentially rescinding the Bill of Rights is, not only a horrible and grievous wrong, but dangerous; they are tearing up the basic social contract. Have torn up, I mean. It's just that it takes things like that a long time to percolate through the whole (very large) society and change it, and even when it does it's gonna take a while for the change to take. Because the basic social contract lives inside the heads of everyone who was born into and indoctrinated into it--that's where culture lives, in the assumptions of the psyche. Eradicating those assumptions takes a while.

Sorry, I seem to be very rambling today.

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detroitmechworks's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal I don't have anything really to add, since you covered this pretty fairly.

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Wink's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
Johnny last night on cable. It just happened to be on, and I really hadn't seen it, so... decided to watch that instead of Walking Dead. What I liked was how the movie's take on dating, and how each step (from getting to first base to hitting the home run) thru the process was negotiated by both players, Frankie and Johnny, both having their own personal issues to deal with as well as issues as a couple (which they weren't yet). A very realistic look at how dating works, and the navigating required to keep the dating thing moving forward. There's at least one scene where everyone will recognise themselves in the scene with a been there, done that. And Michelle didn't look bad neither. The toothbrush scene did it for me. I remember a moment when dating, we were on our 5th or 6th date, but I knew from the 2nd date that this was the girl. I was in college, she was a senior in H.S., 3 years difference, my second "real" gf. We were off to play some pool before heading off to a burger joint (she not yet old enough to drink). During our second game of 8 ball I just started to lose it. I bawled like a baby right there in the pool room (a Yuuuge room), right in front of God and everybody. "Sorry, we have to go... " why are you crying?? That moment when it hits you like a ton of bricks that s/he is the one. And that moment apparently doesn't care where you are. Good movie.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

different standards for females in combat will only create more problems. Hell, even the PT test with it's different standards causes resentment, now they think they're going to be able to set different standards for what happens in the proverbial fox hole? Just, no.

I've known some women when I was in who could most definitely handle both the male standards for PT as well as hauling the same loaded ruck sack so I personally don't believe setting them up as less would "increase unit cohesion..." But hey, does the Army really think about the ramifications of what they do in real life vs "policy?" Sorry, but LMFAO.

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detroitmechworks's picture

@lizzyh7 Officers believe that their orders are going to be followed, and much harsh discipline is handed down for not obeying them. Which of course just increases resentment.

It's the rare low ranked officer who gets it, and they aren't the ones who advance.

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snoopydawg's picture

@lizzyh7

this seems to be a problem with the people who commented on it. They think that the PT should be equal for both groups too. The other comments seem to be not wanting women to serve in combat zones period.

Me? I say bring them all home and only use them to defend this country. Let the corporations hire their own mercenaries. Better yet, make them offer money for their resources instead of taking it by force.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.