I try hard not to make fun of people’s appearances. It’s not fair to mock them for their weight or their little mustaches or their ill-fitting camo gear.

But….

These are evil people arriving to do evil things. Sometimes ridicule is the only weapon we can use against them, since violence would only bring more of the same.

So I guess it’s fair to say that these fearsome warriors, hot off their recent and decisively clear victory over anorexia, will pour into Chicago, like beef gravy over pizza, and devour their chosen enemy, no matter how much sweat, panting, and snacks it takes...

Unless their enemy is at the top of more than 2 flights of stairs, of course.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 71 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I wouldn't say the NG members are evil people doing evil things. They don't exactly get a choice in the matter about where they're deployed, and I haven't seen any reports of NG members doing anything nefarious.

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 25 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Yeah I thought the guard was mainly responsible for responding to help and rebuild in disaster areas.

[–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Exactly. Most people who sign up for that are actually pretty cool people. Their nobility is being taken advantage of. Now, one could argue that the "I'm just following orders" excuse is no good. On the other hand. I bet a lot of them are going to be doing some malicious compliance, effectively pretending to follow orders by showing up, but just doing nothing the whole time.

[–] titanicx@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

No, they aren't. Many of these people are just people don't want to play soldier on the weekends and collect extra money. A lot of them are starting to become the national right-wing bullshit idiots joining because it's easier to join the national guard than it is to join up in the army.

[–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 days ago

🤷‍♂️ The two national guard members I know are left-leaning and liked the idea of helping people, of course yes for money, but understandably so. But yeah, I guess I can't say "most". I do think that most of the jerks are still more drawn to the actual army though, and that does definitely help the jerk ratio of the national guard.

[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Technically for defense from invasion, traditionally used for relief like what you described, but Bush II set a precedent by deploying a lot of guardsmen and reservists to Iraq.

[–] pugnaciousfarter@literature.cafe 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Also I have heard that the National Guard are basically orange man's provocation technique.

He wants the populace to attack them so that he can instate marshal law over the US.

God Speed to y'all.

[–] slaacaa@lemmy.world 28 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

Same. I used to be overweight (though not as much as they are), and even though I’m fit now, I would never make fun of a random person’s weight - you never know what illness or psych problem they are dealing with.

But in this case I think it’s fair, as 1) soldiers should be fit, and 2) they are here to hurt (or at least intimidate) you, so no reason to be nice to them

[–] Catalyst_A@lemmy.ml 15 points 2 days ago

Their body weight and physical build is very, very relevant. Someone physically unfit for the situation will resort to use of deadly force immediately. So bash away.

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 9 points 2 days ago

Also there are four of them in close proximity which is fucking hilarious following shortly after the drunkass Pete Hegswhatever was just lecturing the military commanders about how he was going to get rid of anyone who didn't meet his physical standards.

[–] Ferrous@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago

Yall would do best to quit the handwringing about when and how body shaming is okay. Body shaming is never okay, period. This is not leftism. This is liberalism. Leftists dont do this. And to what end? Performative schoolyard insults aren't going to stop the descent into fascism. All it does is show you aren't understanding what causes fascism and how it's mitigated. Does the existence of black Nazis give you the right to start dropping N bombs?

"Violence doesn't work against Nazis"

What??? What was WWII about then??

You have two methods to stop fascism: meet people's basic needs, or squash it with guns and bullets. No amount of cutting late night monologues, or epic slams, or incisive think pieces will quell fascism. I'll leave you a quote from Hitler.

And so, I established in 1919 a programme and tendency that was a conscious slap in the face of the democratic-pacifist world. [We knew] it might take five or ten or twenty years, yet gradually an authoritarian state arose within the democratic state, and a nucleus of fanatical devotion and ruthless determination formed in a wretched world that lacked basic convictions.

Only one danger could have jeopardised this development — if our adversaries had understood its principle, established a clear understanding of our ideas, and not offered any resistance. Or, alternatively, if they had from the first day annihilated with the utmost brutality the nucleus of our new movement.

Neither was done. The times were such that our adversaries were no longer capable of accomplishing our annihilation, nor did they have the nerve. Arguably, they furthermore lacked the understanding to assume a wholly appropriate attitude. Instead, they began to tyrannise our young movement by bourgeois means, and, by doing so, they assisted the process of natural selection in a very fortunate manner. From there on, it was only a question of time until the leadership of the nation would fall to our hardened human material.

Emphasis mine.

[–] VirtigoMommy@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 days ago

These last two paragraphs are poetry

[–] fibojoly@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 days ago

Given the usual missions I've seen the National Guard deployed for, I would actually give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they are actually good willed people. Which makes the whole situation all the more deplorable and Trump all the more of an evil cunt. Hopefully he gets hoisted by his own petard.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

These are evil people arriving to do evil things.

They're members of the national guard. The typical enlistment period for the National Guard is 8 years. Many would have joined under Biden, and are probably still required to serve out a number of years. If they don't, then they might have to suddenly pay back the tuition benefits or something. The military, Guard included, isn't normally something you can just quit if you don't like how things are going.

ICE employees? That's another matter. You had to voluntarily join ICE, and many of them have joined in just the last few months. They knew what they were getting into. They're wearing masks to hide their identities, and all the bad incidents I've heard of (people being shot by rubber bullets, being thrown down and injured, etc.) have been ICE not Guard.

[–] Aljernon@lemmy.today 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They have no choice about their lawful orders. These guardsmen were ordered to deploy against America and didn't refuse. Maybe evil is a strong term but it sure sounds like Treason to me.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

These guardsmen were ordered to deploy against America

No, they were ordered to deploy in America, and ordered to protect federal buildings and "maintain order". There's nothing illegal about that order, or treasonous about following it. They've been used that way plenty of times before. Generally when they're deployed following a natural disaster, one of the things they're there fore is to deter looting. The whole "natural disaster" bit seems the main thing that the National Guard does these days. Then there are other times where they're deployed to maintain law and order: the 1992 LA riots, the 1968 riots after the assassination of MLK, etc.

There's nothing treasonous about that. And the orders authorizing those deployments aren't illegal orders. If you were one of the racists who wanted to attack MLK's march from Selma to Montgomery, you might have felt that the national guard preventing you from attacking the marchers were "race traitors" or evil, but history would have shown you were wrong.

In this case, history will probably show that the guard stood around looking tough, maybe made a few arrests. Some of those arrests will historically be seen as violating the first amendment, but some will be seen as normal, boring legitimate arrests. There will probably be some protesters beaten up, but that's almost certainly going to be the cops rather than the national guard.

Maybe, at some point, an order will come down to load live ammunition and start shooting protesters. If that happens the soldiers who follow those orders might be considered "evil", but I imagine many won't follow that order because they'll see that as stepping over the line.

Also, you really need to read up on the actual definition of treason.

[–] Aljernon@lemmy.today 0 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

That was a wild amount of mental gymnastics to lick boot.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 hours ago

Whereas you prefer to avoid any kind of thinking in case it makes your brain warm up slightly.