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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe U.S. Military Has a Boogaloo Problem
(VICE News) The U.S. military appears to have a brewing boogaloo problem. Active-duty military are flocking to online networks frequented by the anti-government movement, known for its meme culture and Hawaiian shirt-clad adherents, who are often called Boogaloo Bois.
Boogaloo is code for civil war, which is the ultimate goal of the movement, and some of its followers trade in memes glorifying violence against federal agents and crack jokes about the impending Boog. Recently theyve become regular fixtures at anti-lockdown and Black Lives Matter protests in states that allow open-carry of military-style firearms.
An analysis of some of the largest private Facebook groups catering to the boogaloo movement found that scores of members self-identified as active-duty military on their personal profiles. Members spanned an array of branches, including the Marine Corps, Army, Navy, and Air Force, and a range of positions, from infantryman, to mechanic, to army bus driver, to medic, to amphibious assault crewman.
Some of the most active online boogaloo communities are on Discord, a platform popular among gamers. There, members have been discussing ways to co-opt protests against racism and police brutality to advance their own agenda. And current or former military have chimed in with their expertise, from the best gas masks to military-grade firearms, according to screenshots provided to VICE News.
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Active-duty service members or veterans have the potential to dramatically escalate the impact of fringe activism, pass on explosives expertise, urban warfare expertise, said Belew, which is why extremist groups have long-sought to radicalize and recruit those individuals.
This is not a problem we should take lightly, said Belew.
(read more) https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xg8g87/the-us-military-has-a-boogaloo-problem
ProfessorGAC
(64,810 posts)Military members with seditionist desires & violent solutions to what they consider ills.
This is not good.
BComplex
(8,017 posts)You got into the minds of our military. That's how you win a war.
Assholes!!
BadgerMom
(2,769 posts)Hoyt
(54,770 posts)erronis
(15,168 posts)by many of the troops to their leaders.
I didn't serve but was painfully aware of the trauma of that war.
Wouldn't take much for an adversary (US-grown or foreign) to do some psyops on the young people in uniform unless they were smart enough to understand the problem.
All-Volunteer means getting a lot of people needing jobs because of the economy (stupid). People that have minimal education and understand the perils of ignoring history are the ones that can be manipulated to repeat history.
Throw some sons/daughters of congress-critters, white house occupiers, lobbyists/capitalists into the mix and maybe we'll see a more egalitarian force and less willingness to throw our "might" around.
AleksS
(1,665 posts) An analysis of some of the largest private Facebook groups catering to the boogaloo movement found that scores of members self-identified as active-duty military on their personal profiles.
Online, everyones a Navy SEAL, doctor, millionaire, pilot, whos also a Fortune 500 CEO. Theyre all married to supermodels, never have bad breath, and used to play pro sports. They build jets in their private workshop, have black belts in several martial arts, and once saved a bus load of nuns, puppies, and babies using just their big toes.
sarisataka
(18,471 posts)It would be interesting to see how many IPs originated on, or even near military bases.
Aristus
(66,274 posts)White supremacists make it clear that they will not work with or trust their fellow soldiers who are people of color. And their adherence to such repellant beliefs creates an atmosphere of hostility which undermines discipline and morale.
One of my good buddies from tanker school was assigned to the same active duty company I was when we were sent to Germany. We were assigned to different sections, but saw each other frequently. His roommate was a 'the South will rise again' redneck who displayed a huge Confederate flag on the wall of their room.
My friend was a Filipino from Hawaii, with a laid-back 'go along to get along' style. But I knew he was hurt by such blatant racism.
Every once in a while, when his roommate was away, I would stick Post-It notes to the guy's slavery flag, warning him that if the South rose again, the North would kick its ass again, that kind of thing. My friend knew it was me, and thanked me for my support; but his roommate never found out who was doing it, and my friend said it drove him to a helpless fury.
It never occurred to me to report the flag to the commanding officer, who no doubt saw the flag during regular room inspections. It may not have done any good anyway; this was the late 1980's; I guess the military culture was sticking with the 'we must not offend the South' gambit.
Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)A stochastic terrorist has signaled again and again in ways that encourage and provoke this kind of activity. He flashes and big, green light to "the fine people on that side" and blows his Fascist dog whistle.
Predator Grump has made our country vulnerable and frightening. He is, demonstrably, a treacherous and treasonous figure stabbing our nation in its vital organs with an aim to total power over all by whatever means are necessary.
A lot can happen prior to the General Election and I expect Grump to try it. His Red Hat Orange shirts are primed and ready to disrupt us in the middle of a grievous, socioeconomic crisis; the kind of crisis that a conniving, shifty and unethical monster tyrant would use to turn America into a dictatorship and the GOP will facilitate it in order for their party to not only survive, but rule in a one-party, Fascist system.
It is on our doorstep and knocking now.
Skittles
(153,104 posts)GET THEM OUT OF THERE
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)We are creating a warrior class in this country. The danger of such is that historically they will tend towards a desire to rule over the rest of the population.
stillcool
(32,626 posts)one would think the feds are up on what's being posted on the various sites....but, that doesn't offer much comfort anymore.
empedocles
(15,751 posts)Baitball Blogger
(46,672 posts)crickets
(25,949 posts)They just don't seem to know what to do about it. Either that, or they just don't want to bother to act. It's disturbing.
Baitball Blogger
(46,672 posts)If it were easier to file civil lawsuit, we could get them were they live.
jpak
(41,756 posts)Just sayin'
ancianita
(35,925 posts)4chan dank memers hijacked the movie, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo to become Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo, a full-on culture theft by the same 4chan that stole a comic book Pepe the Frog and meme marketed it to the alt-right.
DU understood and still preserves the original creators of boogaloo as funk dance and music.
2naSalit
(86,307 posts)since before the OKC attack in the 90s.
(from the article above) When [the Boogaloo Bois] say they want to bring about a civil war, a lot of people laugh that off because it seems like the kind of thing that would never happen, said Belew. But people with those ideas have killed people. Theyve bombed people. Theyve killed scores if not hundreds of bystanders. So we have to take this seriously.
For example, the Oklahoma City bomber who killed 168 people in 1995 was a Gulf War veteran who, like the Boogaloo Bois, was seeking revenge against the federal government for the 1993 Waco siege.
More recently, the military has grappled with hardcore accelerationist neo-Nazis infiltrating their ranks. This week, an American soldier was arrested for allegedly colluding with a satanic neo-Nazi group in a plot to bomb his own unit. Last year, another soldier was arrested for allegedly sharing bomb-making materials online in neo-Nazi forums and plotting to blow up a major news network.
Throck
(2,520 posts)Midnight Writer
(21,692 posts)I wonder if these movements started as daydream fantasies of some twelve year old gamer kid that was picked up on by grown men.
After all, Donald Trump was quite successful in attracting support by acting like a spoiled brat.
ancianita
(35,925 posts)Nazi white supremacist networks on the ground. They are incorrigibly evil.
AllaN01Bear
(17,937 posts)the military and the police . time to clean house .
marble falls
(56,974 posts)bring back a mandatory national service. Military, or some other public service component. We also need the expand the national academies past the military - a civil government academy, a diplomatic academy. We need to make meaningful changes to the election system to add third parties to the system beyond being spoilers as a strategy in our two party system. People need to know they have a voice and a significant opportunity to contribute.
Even morons with bone spurs and boils on their butts can contribute.
DashOneBravo
(2,679 posts)IMO its come along way since the 80s and 90s. Im around troops every other week. Its still a diverse community with interracial marriages. And no one gives a shit what color anyone is.
It seems to break up in two types of groups. Racists and the others. The problem is tracking and getting rid of them through administrative process or taking them out.
Local law enforcement doesnt have a great track record going against military veterans. They were so scared by a Navy Reservist they shut down a state and shot up a truck of grandmothers delivering newspapers.
A US Army Reserve carpenter killed 5 and wounded 11 policemen.
Law enforcement is good at doing things like getting the Oklahoma Bomber(former Army 11B) and the Coast Guard LT who wanted to start a race war.
But when the shooting starts they need to come up with another plan.