Napoleon once said, “All men are enamored of decorations . . . they positively hunger for them.”
So by developing the Napoleonic system - the medal business - the government learned it could get soldiers for less money, because the boys liked to be decorated. Until the Civil War there were no medals. Then the Congressional Medal of Honor was handed out. It made enlistments easier.
After the Civil War no new medals were issued until the Spanish- American War. In the World War, we used propaganda to make the boys accept conscription. They were made to feel ashamed if they didn’t join the army.
So vicious was this war propaganda that even God was brought into it. With few exceptions our clergymen joined in the clamor to kill, kill, kill. To kill the Germans. God is on our side . . . it is His will that the Germans be killed. And in Germany, the good pastors called upon the Germans to kill the allies … to please the same God.
That was a part of the general propaganda, built up to make people war conscious and murder conscious. Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys who were sent out to die. This was the “war to end all wars.” This was the “war to make the world safe for democracy.” No one mentioned to them, as they marched away, that their going and their dying would mean huge war profits.
No one told these American soldiers that they might be shot down by bullets made by their own brothers here. No one told them that the ships on which they were going to cross might be torpedoed by submarines built with United States patents. They were just told it was to be a “glorious adventure.”
What gets me is that nothing about his ribbon rack is intimidating. He’s trying to scream “look at the 20 year-old that can run a mile instead of the doughy 60 year-old in front of you” in the most painfully desperate way he can, but the most war-adjacent thing in his ribbons is the Combat Action Ribbon. That’s a bog standard ribbon given to everyone on a ship that someone shoots at. His reservist ribbon shows 30 years of service so he wasn’t even in the real Navy, let alone the real military. One weekend a month he pretended to be, taking a two week pleasure cruise every year to make sure he knew what a ship looks like in case all the actual sailors die. His air crew badge means he was probably like an aircraft mechanic or electronics guy.
So vicious was this war propaganda that even God was brought into it. With few exceptions our clergymen joined in the clamor to kill, kill, kill. To kill the Germans. God is on our side . . . it is His will that the Germans be killed. And in Germany, the good pastors called upon the Germans to kill the allies … to please the same God.
And people today pray to Jesus to save them from the Mexicans; the same Mexicans who pray to Jesus to protect them in their journey across the border.
(I’m not comparing Mexicans to American Nazis or German Nazis, just pointing out that people are praying to Jesus against people who are supposed to be on their same side)
Mexicans also pray to Padre Toribio and La Virgen de Guadalupe. I wonder if there’s American counterparts - a patron saint of murdering immigrants and another for unifying colonizers lol
i think you will find that Napoleon adopted and modified a medal regime that had begun in the Ancien Regime. ultimately from the late medieval secular ‘knightly orders’ that were used to lube up nobility for cooperation in military campaigns like this one you inducted Charles de Floofypants & he’d feel obliged to go die in a ditch under the Sultan’s steel
Napoleon once said, “All men are enamored of decorations . . . they positively hunger for them.”
So by developing the Napoleonic system - the medal business - the government learned it could get soldiers for less money, because the boys liked to be decorated. Until the Civil War there were no medals. Then the Congressional Medal of Honor was handed out. It made enlistments easier.
After the Civil War no new medals were issued until the Spanish- American War. In the World War, we used propaganda to make the boys accept conscription. They were made to feel ashamed if they didn’t join the army.
So vicious was this war propaganda that even God was brought into it. With few exceptions our clergymen joined in the clamor to kill, kill, kill. To kill the Germans. God is on our side . . . it is His will that the Germans be killed. And in Germany, the good pastors called upon the Germans to kill the allies … to please the same God.
That was a part of the general propaganda, built up to make people war conscious and murder conscious. Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys who were sent out to die. This was the “war to end all wars.” This was the “war to make the world safe for democracy.” No one mentioned to them, as they marched away, that their going and their dying would mean huge war profits.
No one told these American soldiers that they might be shot down by bullets made by their own brothers here. No one told them that the ships on which they were going to cross might be torpedoed by submarines built with United States patents. They were just told it was to be a “glorious adventure.”
Soldiers will fight long and hard for a bit of coloured ribbon - Happybadger, 2024
https://www.reddit.com/r/JustBootThings/comments/18s9zrk/always_first_in_line_at_applebees/kf6miib/
What gets me is that nothing about his ribbon rack is intimidating. He’s trying to scream “look at the 20 year-old that can run a mile instead of the doughy 60 year-old in front of you” in the most painfully desperate way he can, but the most war-adjacent thing in his ribbons is the Combat Action Ribbon. That’s a bog standard ribbon given to everyone on a ship that someone shoots at. His reservist ribbon shows 30 years of service so he wasn’t even in the real Navy, let alone the real military. One weekend a month he pretended to be, taking a two week pleasure cruise every year to make sure he knew what a ship looks like in case all the actual sailors die. His air crew badge means he was probably like an aircraft mechanic or electronics guy.
Litterally participation trophies.
Every single one. If you dressed a dog in a uniform for 30 years and it didn’t get a DUI, it would have the same exact ribbons.
I’d rather see a picture of a dog in a lil sailor suit bahaha
https://i.imgur.com/5AW5Mtg.jpeg
He’s also in the Soviet Navy: https://i.imgur.com/N5ApfbP.jpeg
What a cutie lol
Captain Sasha is such a handsome boy!
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Reservists still die because a broken clock is right twice a day.
It’s surprising how relatively recent these sorts of developments are.
And people today pray to Jesus to save them from the Mexicans; the same Mexicans who pray to Jesus to protect them in their journey across the border.
(I’m not comparing Mexicans to American Nazis or German Nazis, just pointing out that people are praying to Jesus against people who are supposed to be on their same side)
Mexicans also pray to Padre Toribio and La Virgen de Guadalupe. I wonder if there’s American counterparts - a patron saint of murdering immigrants and another for unifying colonizers lol
Chris Kyle
It true i will do disgusting things for a bottle cap with a smiley face super-glued to a safety pin.