So, as an ACTUAL VETERAN let me tell you what I think about this shit.
I do not appreciate AT ALL you fucking civilian assholes using my service to shit on minorities. I don’t give a fuck about the flag. That is not why I was fighting! I joined up, like most servicemembers, to go to college, and I deployed because they Army was like “Guess where you’re going! Afghanistan!” Patriotism didn’t matter a lot for me, and I never felt like I was “defending” the flag–what, are these poor as fuck Afghani sustenance farmers going to bomb America? (No. No they are not.)
You know what would really help me, as a vet? Not people pretending they care about me by using my service as a way to justify their racist beliefs. I know for a fact that you don’t actually give a shit about me, always-a-lighthouse. You don’t give a shit about my fucked up knee, my poverty, how it took me three years to learn how to be a civilian, two years to get a handle on the blinding rage I felt about literally everything, how I’m still in therapy to deal with the way the Army fucked me up. None of that matters to you because all you want is a convenient excuse to justify your racism. If you actually gave a fuck about me you’d fight to get the VA better funding or expand the GI bill so it actually covers all four years of undergrad. But you don’t. I’m not a person to you, I’m an idea, and even then, only as long as it suits you. As soon as I’m not a convenient way to blame people, I cease to exist. No wonder so many of us feel like we only matter as long as we’re fighting!
Also, I don’t think you understand how protest works. Symbolism is vitally important. When someone walks on the flag, what they’re saying is “This flag, which promises liberty and justice for all, is denying me liberty and justice. In this land of freedom, I am not free. This flag serves people who do not look like me and do not care about me, and I will not rest until all people are equal under this flag.” That’s powerful symbolism.
Don’t like it? A) Fuck you. B) They wouldn’t be desecrating the flag if there was any other way to get what they need. When you deny people justice and equality, than make it impossible for them to get it through conventional means, you guarantee that they up the ante until they find something that works. Do you not understand how people think? You aren’t going to stop the protest over people being murdered by acting like those lives are less valuable than the fucking flag. The flag doesn’t care! It’s an inanimate object! Why the fuck would you care more about a piece of cloth than human lives?!
The next time I hear you fuckboy assholes using my service and the service of the people who came home in coffins as a way to justify your racism, I will track you down and beat your head into the wall until you learn. STOP ACTING LIKE YOU GIVE A SHIT ABOUT US.
germansingergirl
jbbartram-illu
prguitarman
baratheonpilled
janainaart
jacobvanloon
tangentwithtanner
pixelskylines
