1) You can literally see the switch to the Cool Boys with Cool Toys in real time with Call of Duty 4. Yes, most of the game is you playing as Tier One epic badass SAS, but a solid chunk of the first half of the game is balanced with you playing as a regular ass Marine (yes I know you're technically Force Recon but you don't really do too much recon lol). What does the game do? Oh you just get nuked as regular military so I guess we need to go all in on spec ops. The next two MW games did thankfully strike a balance between the setpiece combined arms shit and the "Bravo-Six going dark" but I think the writing was on the wall. Ever since MW3, every single CoD - the best selling game from my youth to those of today - has centered on badass Tier One JSOC guys going on whoopass missions. No coincidence that this cargo cult exists when the main media has said as much for this long.
2) It is incredible how widespread this is in the weirdest ways. Back when I worked at a local govt agency last year (white collar, well paid desk jockey) I had a guy on my team a few years older than me (frightening as I was 25) who fully bought into this stuff. I'm fairly certain he's in a militia group (even more certain I know exactly which one which hooooooboy) and this dude keeps an armor plate in his backpack. Like, the ones from Warzone. We worked in an office, who the hell is after you. He now has a son and I am terrified of what he will become as this dude spoke at length of how he was going to raise him.
Great piece, this cultural phenomena really needs to be understood to move forward and push back.
I'd argue it's a way way older phenomenon, Soldier of Fortune.
Again, America faced every one of the problems at least since the 1990s, you need to dig into the history, Algeria, Angola, Rhodesia, this is where it all comes from.
Christ almighty did you never meet a World War II vet?
> Man's place in society has always been defined by the arms and armor he carries.
They fought specifically against that bullshit. Man's place in society was defined by his honor and fulfillment of duty. And hey if the ladies pitched in that was swell. They came home, put down their arms, and were the best of fucking men (and women.)
Was it when societies changed from military aristocrats to modern professional armies? It's not like those military aristocrats were the main class to begin with, that's the whole point of an aristocracy. Your small medieval farmer was more concerned about harvests and crop blight than about swords and armor.
Americans will say stuff like this then all their major war stories for the last 4 decades amount to 'We had to hold out under fire from poor farmers cause our laser pointer that summons a GBU ran out of batteries, I now have PTSD'
OK, there are still some rough shit. The American SOF doctrine in Iraq actually has a lot of similar elements with what French parachutists developed in Algeria, the idea is to have extremely high OPTEMPO, you kick down the door of every cell before their organization could react.
But still, Ukraine is where true man comes from. When you mess up you die, no AC-130s for you /s
Excellent post and it correctly documents how mil blogs became deranged in their analysis . They refused to understand valid criticisms and instead became conservative mouthpieces. Their comment sections catered to the especially mentally crippled.
A few things:
1) You can literally see the switch to the Cool Boys with Cool Toys in real time with Call of Duty 4. Yes, most of the game is you playing as Tier One epic badass SAS, but a solid chunk of the first half of the game is balanced with you playing as a regular ass Marine (yes I know you're technically Force Recon but you don't really do too much recon lol). What does the game do? Oh you just get nuked as regular military so I guess we need to go all in on spec ops. The next two MW games did thankfully strike a balance between the setpiece combined arms shit and the "Bravo-Six going dark" but I think the writing was on the wall. Ever since MW3, every single CoD - the best selling game from my youth to those of today - has centered on badass Tier One JSOC guys going on whoopass missions. No coincidence that this cargo cult exists when the main media has said as much for this long.
2) It is incredible how widespread this is in the weirdest ways. Back when I worked at a local govt agency last year (white collar, well paid desk jockey) I had a guy on my team a few years older than me (frightening as I was 25) who fully bought into this stuff. I'm fairly certain he's in a militia group (even more certain I know exactly which one which hooooooboy) and this dude keeps an armor plate in his backpack. Like, the ones from Warzone. We worked in an office, who the hell is after you. He now has a son and I am terrified of what he will become as this dude spoke at length of how he was going to raise him.
Great piece, this cultural phenomena really needs to be understood to move forward and push back.
I'd argue it's a way way older phenomenon, Soldier of Fortune.
Again, America faced every one of the problems at least since the 1990s, you need to dig into the history, Algeria, Angola, Rhodesia, this is where it all comes from.
Man's place in society has always been defined by the arms and armor he carries.
It is only very recently that some people became soft and ignorant enough to pretend otherwise ☝️
For example, in this case the author moronically suggests we need to prioritize gender balance on the FBI Hostage Rescue Team 😆
Christ almighty did you never meet a World War II vet?
> Man's place in society has always been defined by the arms and armor he carries.
They fought specifically against that bullshit. Man's place in society was defined by his honor and fulfillment of duty. And hey if the ladies pitched in that was swell. They came home, put down their arms, and were the best of fucking men (and women.)
Every man in my family served for over a century now, you fool
Sure they did. Keyboard commandos are everywhere....
"Man's place in society has always been defined by the arms and armor he carries."
Why do you say that? When was 'very recently'?
Was it when the US stopped drafting people, assuming by 'society' you mean the US? Even in the depths of world war 2, you're talking about maybe 1% of the population under draft each year. (compare https://demographia.com/db-uspop1900.htm to https://www.sss.gov/history-and-records/induction-statistics/ ) In the 1980s, when you would have had a lot more vets from Vietnam and WW2, the number of veterans overall, not just active members, was still less than one people in five. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/11/08/the-changing-face-of-americas-veteran-population/
Was it when societies changed from military aristocrats to modern professional armies? It's not like those military aristocrats were the main class to begin with, that's the whole point of an aristocracy. Your small medieval farmer was more concerned about harvests and crop blight than about swords and armor.
Was it something else?
Americans will say stuff like this then all their major war stories for the last 4 decades amount to 'We had to hold out under fire from poor farmers cause our laser pointer that summons a GBU ran out of batteries, I now have PTSD'
OK, there are still some rough shit. The American SOF doctrine in Iraq actually has a lot of similar elements with what French parachutists developed in Algeria, the idea is to have extremely high OPTEMPO, you kick down the door of every cell before their organization could react.
But still, Ukraine is where true man comes from. When you mess up you die, no AC-130s for you /s
Ok looking hella forward to reading this.
So weird how it's been a decade you are still this far behind the current Zeit.
The Pinko bugman is truly incredible.
Excellent post and it correctly documents how mil blogs became deranged in their analysis . They refused to understand valid criticisms and instead became conservative mouthpieces. Their comment sections catered to the especially mentally crippled.
https://open.substack.com/pub/candeloro/p/funding-war-in-the-name-of-peace?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=zvhi