Patrick Reilly wrote at 10/01/2013 08:07 PM:
The vision of triumphantly reducing the decision to put your life in harm's way in order to defend your ideals and liberty and the liberty and welfare of those around you to an economy choice particularly turns my stomach.
FWIW, I agree wholeheartedly. I similarly sense the pinch of the dichotomy between requiring a structured commitment from the soldiers, yet allowing them to retain some autonomy (e.g. http://phys.org/news/2013-03-soldiers-disobey-illegal.html), for all sorts of reasons... not just avoiding criminal prosecution, but to help them preserve their personal identity. Personally, I thought fairly hard about joining the reserves after 9/11. I didn't join the military when I was young largely because my dad (a former drill sergeant, and pretty much a right winger) convinced me that joining was a bad idea, for me anyway. Then when BushCo launched the unjustified invasion of Iraq, I was happy I'd _again_ followed my right wing dad's advice. (His political views changed drastically as he started dying from congestive heart failure... which took about a year. Funny how imminent death changes one's perspective.)
Expanding on this testament of my loathing, I see most right wing drivel as dogmatic cover that exists for the same purpose as most religious and political dogma: to justify unnecessary cruelty.
I agree with your gist, but not your word "cruelty". I think it's really _fear_. Cruelty implies a dispassionate lack of caring. These wingers seem to care quite a bit, to me. They're desperately afraid of the future, of uncertainty, of loss of control. There may be some more aloof, rational, unemotional people like Rove or perhaps the Kochs who are just plain cruel. But most of the tea partiers I've met are plain old ignorant. And that ignorance correlates with fear. And the fear causes their bad behavior. At least that's how I choose to see them ... call me delusional. 8^) -- ⇒⇐ glen e. p. ropella Like it's screwed itself in hell
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