@Peacemonger373 #235262
Oh I was speaking more broadly than just the military. America’s economic leverage is a withered shell of its former self as globally we’re all disentangling ourselves from the US and making deals with partners that don’t break contract so readily. Who in their right mind would still shop at a store where the cashier insults you as soon as you walk in, charges way more than what’s listed on all the price tags, pulls a gun and mugs you at the register, and then after trying to snatch your wallet demands you buy a fake Rolex from them at twice the price of a real one if you want to keep shopping with them before finally accusing you of stealing from them on the way out? Also way too chaotic for investment to appear attractive any time soon. The diplomatic side of things is just plain beyond recovery and I don’t think even with my inherent need to over qualify my thoughts I really need to elaborate on WHY that’s the case.
While America still has the greatest stockpile of raw hardware to throw around crucial command structure, the readiness of the nuclear arsenal, intelligence networks, morale, and the operational freedom across borders granted by strong diplomatic agreements and soft power that used to allow America unique capability have all been utterly gutted and the gore splattered carelessly across a filthy floor where nervous rats scavenge the remains all wary of each other and especially the butcher at work as they wonder if he’s favouring them with the scraps or about to stomp on them if they’re noticed. If you’ll excuse the disgusting visual. Despite bloating the already bloated budget the actual funds keep getting blown on parades or buzzing jets over a press conference held by Epstein’s victims or else siphoned right back out from the armed forces in a blatantly identical methodology to how money moves through illegal shell companies and into things like Trump’s garbage bribe jet, into other fronts belonging to Trump associates that make vague promises of things even more vaguely claimed to contribute to national security like expanding the border wall while not delivering so much as a few wooden planks, and of course the never-ending golf trips.
The standards by which individual soldiers are deemed effective and “worthy” are being tweaked by overt white supremacist alcoholic incompetent sex pest ex-FOX employee Pete Hegseth to do as much as possible to exclude non-white soldiers - a near-majority of voluntary enlistees - so he can have posters of a sweaty “Aryan” boy band cosplaying as soldiers to masturbate to and call that a fearsome military. Notably from snippets I’ve come across he’s instituted changes that focus on getting soldiers to slim down and lose weight in superficial aesthetic terms to “improve performance” rather than improving any training that makes note of tangible task completion like obstacle courses, distance running, endurance training, simulated operations, or exercises that test unit cohesion and the like. He looks at trained soldiers the same way he looks at women: They need to be “pretty” essentially, but in a masculine way. Being useful as anything but an office decoration is incidental. The walking fucking beer gut that he is everyone also just looks fat to him unless he’s seeing ribs stickout. And the mental fitness? Well if ICE is anything to go by expect incels with guns basically. Cowards that will run from a fight to go terrorize women and children instead and would sooner shoot their squad in the back over taking the last scone than have their back in a foxhole. So in terms of sheer numbers after purging the women, anyone under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, the “over” educated, and everybody that isn’t a “pureblood” in both the racist sense and the antivax conspiracists deliberately invoking racism sense because that Venn Diagram is a fucking circle in terms of raw numbers the standing army’s pretty much cut in half and what filler is being substituted is a danger to itself as much as anyone else.
But of course the greatest danger is how inexplicably contagious this madness actually is. White supremacy and totalitarian bullshit are spreading despite how rapidly and how publicly on a global stage this fiery shitshow is imploding on itself. The sickening trend of treating empathy as a mental illness is creeping into communities built on acceptance and turning them into paranoid clannish turf wars waiting to explode. Shrugging off or even cheering on misconduct among those entrusted with power and responsibility is becoming more accepted. That’s the rabies I was referring to. And the fact Idi Amin Daddy Issues just keeps on completely unchecked somehow appears a victory in their eyes overshadowing just how much the US has been diminished and sent into a death spiral. Some of my own countrymen actually speak in favour of joining that suicide pact. That’s the most terrifying part of all.