General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Just cancelled my VFW membership [View all]maxrandb
(15,330 posts)We don't give up all our rights when we join, but let's just say we put some on hold.
A couple of things
- The Navy I served in was a microcosm of the United States, with a bit of a larger representation of minorities.
- The enlisted and NCO ranks (E7-E9 for the Navy) are extremely diverse, and in a lot of cases trend to be more progressive or liberal in their political beliefs.
- The Officer ranks tend to skew to the "wingnutty" right side.
That being said; one thing that anyone who has spent anytime in the military knows that it is an Authoritarian Construct. Think Jack Nicholas' famous "we follow orders or we die" line from A Few Good Men.
The other thing that the "Reich" has done a good job of is framing ALL liberals and progressives as "hippies who spit on Vietnam Veterans" despite pretty strong empirical evidence that didn't happen (see below link)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/opinion/myth-spitting-vietnam-protester.html
So, you have folks who are indoctrinated into an authoritarian way of life, are told that "liberals spit on them", and are prone to engage in "group-think". It's the perfect petri dish to grow folks who "love" a bully figure.
Also, the right-wingers in the military have always been the noisiest...drowning out and suppressing liberal and progressive military members from speaking out.
I found that when I voiced my opinion as loudly and consistently as the wingnuts did, my points got through.
That's why I am so aghast at the ignorance or dismissal of Hate Radios impact on our government. Especially when it would be so easy to combat it. Imagine if during the women's march, 10,000 people would have protested outside of the WNIS 790 Norfolk radio studio instead of at the Chrysler Museum?? That's where action needs to take place against Hate Radio...AT THE LOCAL LEVEL..IN THEIR FACE...EVERYDAY!
Examples abound of how good Hate Radio is in forming opinion. They were able to convince veterans that a guy who spent the Vietnam War in a "cushy", hard to get National Guard billet defending the "Flori-Bama Bar", was more "patriotic" than a guy who volunteered to do "back-to-back" tours with a Riverine Squadron in Vietnam and had the wounds and Purple Hearts to prove it.
I'll get off my soapbox now.