I’d have to re-watch it, but I thought the protagonist didn’t so much execute the woman sniper so much as he put her out of her misery. As I recall, she was badly wounded and asking for one of them to shoot her. I don’t have a good take on what that scene is supposed to communicate, but I don’t think the best reading is the protagonist finally becoming a mindless killing machine/“real soldier.”
Dope ass posts by @TransComrade69 that everyone should read:
Sorry to lose your efforts. This place has a lot of promise, but we have to do better by our trans comrades.
:cat-trans:
“be white”
What percentage of vets would you estimate are persuadable?
That’s what I see as the central question here: if a group of people can be convinced to become leftists, we should be working with them regardless of whether it’s difficult. We’re not going anywhere unless we get literally tens of millions of more people on our side, and not all of those people are going to be perfect.
Early contender for Post of the Year
Changing perceptions about socialist states has to come from the bottom up, not the top down.
Look at how Bernie’s entirely truthful, extremely moderate statements on Cuba’s healthcare and education programs was wielded against him. That’s what happens when political leaders try to change the tune about socialist states in a country that’s been strongly anti-communist for most of the last century. We have to have those conversations on the ground first.
He is also associated with expansion of government to act as economic planner and mediator-manager of capital and labor in a wartime situation.
Wilson was arguably the first liberal internationalist
Creating ruling institutions rather than relying on and solidifying one’s personal ruling power is also very different from fascism.
Wishing bad things happen to bad people is OK
This might upset all you libs in here, but when bad things happen to bad people, some might call that justice.
There’s a chance it’s for the better.
In the book, Paul does everything he can to avoid the jihad he sees coming, because jihad = religious fanaticism = bad. A crusade is also religious fanaticism and is also bad, but portraying the term “crusade” as an evil to be avoided could be a good thing for an American audience. Crusades are a part of Christian culture, and if you’re going to write religious criticism there’s less of a risk of it being misinterpreted if you use the audience’s dominant religion as an example. If you criticize religious fanaticism using the religion of the Other, it’s easy to interpret that as nothing more than “Other bad.”
Plus, we’re almost guaranteed to get some Christian chuds throwing a fit over it, especially with the rise of right-wing “crusade” imagery. That’s always good for a laugh.
Spoilers for a book that came out half a century ago, I guess.
Real “I was researching this story for a year and he just…tweeted it out” energy
So the plan is to slice up your country knowing that a civil war is likely in the breakaway state? This is getting better and better.
Of Christian extremists in Alabama??
Occupying territories which do not want to be occupied is imperialism.
Is the U.S. occupying Mississippi and Alabama?
The American South is a region filled with religious extremists, some of whom have already radicalized to the point of committing acts of terrorism. Should we make it its own country and fund their schools to boot? Is that likely to improve the situation or make it worse?
Could China’s approach be done better? Almost certainly. Is it the most humane response to extremism we’ve seen so far? That’s for you to decide.
Probably got amplified whenever Whateverthefuckhisnameis Cuomo compared “Fredo” to the n-word.