#anti-military protests

[high-voltage-rat]

Actually I'm still thinking about it. Another interesting way in which RvB is anti-war is the way that the Director fills the role of a villain and antagonist (especially in the Recollections trilogy, where he's a faceless villain we never see but is responsible for everything that happens).

In his memos to the Chairman, the Director emphasizes his sense of duty and obligation to the military- he becomes irate for the first time when he feels that it's being implied that he was derelict in his duty... or that the work he did out of that duty is being criticized for being against the military's interests. He also talks about Allison's death in a way I find... interesting.

"You see; I never had the chance to serve in battle. Nor did fate provide me the opportunity to sacrifice myself for humanity as it did for so many others in the Great War. Someone extremely dear to me was lost very early in my life. My mind has always plagued me with the question: If the choice had been placed in my hands, could I have saved her? [...] But, given the events of these past few weeks, I feel confident that had I been given the chance, I would have made those sacrifices myself... Had I only the chance."

The idea of sacrifice is central to the way he talks about his wife's loss, to the way he talks about the war in general. He talks of sacrifice with a sense of veneration- that it's something he aspires to do, that he longs for. There's a few ways we can interpret "I would have made those sacrifices myself"...

-That in Allison's place, he thinks he would have laid down his life too.

-That if given the chance, he would have given his life to save hers.

But most interestingly...

-That he would have sacrificed Allison's life for the continued survival of humanity, if that was what duty called for.

...And personally, I think all 3 are true.

In most war media, the Director's perspective on sacrifice is very common. Sacrifice is glorious and heroic- to die in battle is an honour- and it's the only way to ensure the group you serve survives. This is a tool of propaganda- nobody wants to go to war just for the sake of it, you have to give them a reason that the risk of dying or being permanently disabled isn't just acceptable, but desirable. Beyond that, most people don't want to do things they think are immoral- you have to convince them it's important, a necessary lesser evil. You teach them to sacrifice their morals, too.

The way they train soldiers to follow orders and to kill, is to convince them that they, and the people around them, and the people they care about, will all die if they don't. It's drilled into your head from day one. It's the way they ensure their commanding officers won't shy away from sending their men off to die. The message is constant- sacrifice is your duty, and duty ensures your people's survival.

In the Director's eyes, the damage Project Freelancer caused was his sacrifice. He never got the opportunity to sacrifice himself during the war- so he sacrificed others, as military brass do. The Freelancers- including his daughter. The countless sim troopers. Any people he considered "collateral damage" on missions. And when the opportunity to do so presented itself, he sacrificed a copy of himself- Alpha- and he sacrificed a copy of Allison- Tex.

The very thing that derailed his life- the loss of his wife- he made it happen again. He put her copy in dangerous situations, let her exist in the position of constant repeated failure, created the circumstances that would eventually lead to her death. He put their daughter in deadly situations that nearly killed her repeatedly, provided her with impossible expectations leading to self-destructive behaviours in the name of duty, implanted her with two AI knowing they could cause her permanent harm. He was confident he "would have made those sacrifices himself" because he did.

The Director is the embodiment of the military war machine. As an antagonist, he is a warning against buying into the glorification of sacrifice. He's a condemnation of the idea that one should be willing to do anything to win a war- that duty to the military is the thing that ensures survival... All the messages that are pushed to ensure recruitment and obedience of soldiers.

He's a reminder that swallowing the propaganda leads to you doing terrible things... and in the end, you're a broken man left mourning the losses that you suffered even as you repeated them, convinced that it was all necessary.

#late nights with ali #ali watches rvb #not video games #rvb #red vs blue #leonard church #the director #director rvb #idk why I'm so fixated on thinking about the anti-war interpretation of rvb right now but I'm apparently going ham #it's just so fucking. wild to me. listening to the director's messages in S6 always has me thinking 'oh man this guy ate the propaganda up' #the OPPORTUNITY to sacrifice yourself??? homedog you sound like the kid in high school who brags he's joining the army as soon as he's 18 #to be clear: a lot of my thoughts on this stem from the fact that I come from a military family. I spend a lot of time with people who... #...bought in to the military propaganda and indoctrination. I see an amplified version of their perspectives reflected in the director. #to the military man sacrifice is the highest calling. sacrifice of your life. sacrifice of your morals. sacrifice of your wellbeing. #the things the director did were all in line with that fucked-up form of sacrifice. #and that they're portrayed for the evil they are is an important protest against the war machine's messaging.

[a-little-beastie-most-foul]

“It just makes you proud to be british, doesn’t it” says my mother as we watch the most totalitarian looking demonstration on tv as a man in a fancy hat rides in a golden carriage over potholes filled with sand that the council cant afford to repair

#i hate this shithole country so much #uk politics #fuck the king #god save the people #anti monarchy #uk #no linda i dont think that military displays whilst people are arrested for peaceful protest is going to make me feel very patriotic

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

No cops at pride

No military at pride

No arms dealers at pride

No banks at pride

#do you see where I'm going with this #pride month #pride parades #anti capitalist #anti military #anti state #pride is meant to be a fucking protest

[dailyanarchistposts]

Yesterday an active-duty Air Force soldier named Aaron Bushnell self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy. His last words were “Free Palestine.” Of the cops responding to the scene, some pointed guns at him while others sought to extinguish the flames; the image of a cop pointing a gun at a man on fire is the most American thing I have ever seen.

On June 11th, 1963, a Buddhist monk named Thích Quảng Đức set himself on fire in Ho Chi Minh City (then Saigon). In South Vietnam, Buddhists were an oppressed majority, ruled by a Catholic minority—the Buddhist flag was banned, Catholics were chosen for all the better jobs, and protesting Buddhists were being murdered in the streets or sent to concentration camps.

So Thích set himself on fire and calmly burned in front of hundreds of spectators on a public street. There’s a film of it, and I’m not big into “watch people die on film,” but some moments in history are worth seeing. He didn’t cry out; he just sat in lotus position, engulfed in flames. Afterwards, the cops tried to take his remains, but thousands of angry protestors took him back, and they re-cremated him for a proper funeral. His heart didn’t burn. It solidified in the fire. Today it is today a sacred relic. I have no explanation for this.

Other monks in Vietnam followed his example. By the end of the year, the CIA led a coup and toppled the Catholic dictator of the country. This isn’t “the US being good,” mind you, they’d been propping the asshole up in the first place. Thích’s sacrifice is often credited as what brought down that regime.

Two years later, the first American set herself on fire in protest of the Vietnam war. Alice Herz was a German Jew, 82 years old. She’d seen some shit. She’d fought for feminism in 1910s Germany, helped bring about the Weimar Republic, fled Germany to France only to end up in a Nazi concentration camp. Survived. Made it to the US. Lived in Detroit and became a Unitarian. Then one day she wrote a letter about how horrible the Vietnam war was, went out to the street, and set herself on fire. She wasn’t the last. In South Vietnam and the US alike, Buddhists and Quakers and Catholics set themselves on fire in service of the same cause.

When a 16 year old Catholic named Ronald Brazee set himself on fire in October 1967, a Catholic Worker named Father Daniel Berrigan wrote a poem for him called “In the Land of Burning Children”

He was still living a month later I was able to gain access to him I smelled the odor Of burning flesh And I understood anew What I had seen in North Vietnam I felt that my senses Had been invaded in a new way I now understood the power of death in the modern world I knew I must speak and act against death because this boy’s death was being multiplied a thousandfold

The Dutch resistance to the Nazi Occupation was characterized by a unique nonviolence, focusing primarily on hiding Jewish people and acts of sabotage. This wasn’t necessarily an ethical or even strategic decision, but one forced onto them by circumstance—according to one resistance fighter, since the Dutch government maintained a firearms registry before the invasion, the Nazis were able to acquire that list and go door-to-door to disarm the Dutch population.

But what the Dutch resistance lacked in firearms it made up for in mass participation. Roughly a million people were involved in sheltering people, secreting people away, striking, or helping those who were doing such things. The two most active groups were churches and communist organizations.

The Nazis responded with collective punishment. The occupiers cut off food supplies inside the Netherlands, blockading the roads between farms and cities. The entire population of the country went hungry during what’s called the Hunger Winter of 1944-1945. Between 18-22,000 people starved to death. Four-and-a-half million people were living off of something like 600 calories a day each. A whole generation of children born or living at the time suffered lifelong ailments. Audrey Hepburn grew up in Occupied Netherlands (and as a preteen performed ballet to raise money to support the resistance). Her time in the hunger winter left her with lifelong ailments like anemia.

In case the parallel I’m drawing is not obvious, Gaza is currently being starved by the Israeli government.

Quite notably, quite worth understanding in the modern context, the Hunger Winter persisted despite relief efforts until the Allied forces liberated the Netherlands from the fascists in May 1945.

Aaron Bushnell was twenty-five years old when he died. He sent a message to media outlets before his act: “Today, I am planning to engage in an extreme act of protest against the genocide of the Palestinian people.”

He posted on Facebook: “Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.”

His last words, engulfed in flames, were “Free Palestine.”

I know that what stopped US involvement in Vietnam was the military victory of the Vietnamese people against US forces, combined with the direct action action efforts of the American Left that made the war harder to execute. I know what ended the Nazi occupation was the Allied invasion. I know what stopped legal chattel slavery in the US was the deadliest war in our country’s history. I also know that what stopped Jim Crow was… nothing. Nothing has stopped it, not completely. The long, hard, thankless work of a combination of reform and direct action has mitigated its effects somewhat.

I can’t say I think others should follow Aaron’s example. I doubt he wanted anyone to. An act like this needs attention, not imitation. What we can follow is the moral courage. What we need to decide for ourselves is how to act, not whether or not to act. I don’t have any answers for me, and I don’t have any answers for you.

I can say that he shouldn’t be forgotten, that he ought to be remembered when we ask ourselves if we have the courage to act.

I can also say that it takes an incredible number of people doing an incredible variety of work to effect change. That poet, Father Daniel Berrigan, did a lot more than write poetry. He and others in the broader Catholic Left raided draft offices and burned records, directly impacting the US’s ability to send young men off to die in an imperialist war. A group of people who came out of their movement (but were primarily Jewish and/or secular) raided an FBI office and uncovered the spying and disruption that was done of the peace movement under the name COINTELPRO.

A vibrant and militant counterculture sprang up, drawing Americans away from the clutches of conservative propaganda. They built nationwide networks of mutual aid and they helped draft dodgers escape the country.

An awful lot of American soldiers in Vietnam directly defected, enough that “fragging” entered the English language as a verb for throwing a grenade at your commanding officer.

As for the Hunger Winter, it was not ended until the Nazi party was ended through force of arms, but its worst effects were alleviated by the bravery and thankless work of uncountable people who cobbled together meals from nothing or who organized to bring food aid in across German lines.

In the US now we’re seeing a growing movement opposed to our country’s collaboration with the genocidal regime in Israel.

It’s impossible to know if it will be enough. When you pile straw onto the proverbial camel, you never know which straw will be the last. We just keep piling.

And in the meantime, we remember names like Aaron Bushnell, Ronald Brazee, Alice Herz, and Thích Quảng Đức.

#gaza #palestine #aaron bushnell #self immolation #child death #tw #death #military #protest #self harm #margaret killjoy #community building #practical anarchy #practical anarchism #anarchist society #practical #revolution #anarchism #daily posts #communism #anti capitalist #anti capitalism #late stage capitalism #organization #grassroots #grass roots #anarchists #libraries #leftism #social issues

[gringoslur]

gringos salivating over french revolution feels so wrong. they, of course, dont have the same reaction watching similar protests in latinoamerica, where the culture is that the goverment SHOULD be scared of their people. "why arent we france" why arent you many countries, that shit doesnt only happens in france. the whole "surprise" and horniness over those protests is scary. usamerican culture is scary.

#also that thing HAPPENS in your country what do you MEAN. #the anti-protest and glorification of military brainwashes you to think that it doesnt #youre problem is the culture.

[nando161mando]

Two day blockade of Bristol arms fair over genocide links

On 5th and 6th March 2024, campaigners blockaded access to the Bristol arms fair.

#BAE #BristolArmsFair #ElbitSystems #JointMilitaryTrainingSimulationStream #TheFutureIndirectFires

#bae #bristolarmsfair #elbit systems #shut elbit down #JointMilitaryTrainingSimulationStream #TheFutureIndirectFires #bristol #class war #activism #activist #direct action #protest #2024 #antifa #antifascist #antifaschistische aktion #antinazi #antiauthoritarian #anti military #fuck the military #ausgov #politas #auspol #tasgov #taspol #australia #fuck neoliberals #neoliberal capitalism #anthony albanese #albanese government

[davekatzdefensesquad]

Disturbing things related to the Palestine genocide

#news #free palestine #tw suicide #tw self harm #tw self immolation #protesting #current events #mine #anti zionisim #genocide #anti military #tw child death

[ssunvulcan1981]

Αντι-Νετανιάχου

ΟΧΙ!!!!!

Αποχρηματοδότηση του Ισραηλινού Στρατού

Αποχρηματοδοτεί το κόμμα Λικούντ

Προσευχήσου για την Παλαιστίνη

#israel #greece #tel aviv #athens #propaganda #protagonist #benjamin netanyahu #anti netanyahu #anti bibi #bibi #protests #destroy israel #israeli #israeli army #israeli civil war #defund israel #defund the military #pray for palestine #palestine #free palestine #hamas #defend palestine #defend hamas #Ελλάδα #Ισραήλ #ΟΧΙ

[killerchickadee]

The Blue Angels are currently practicing around my neighborhood (which Oscar has firmly decided he Does Not Like) and the thing about very noisy zippy planes is by the time you hear them they're long gone. So I'm by my apartment window (cause that's where I always sit) and I keep hearing them and looking up to see absolutely nothing.

I should be home in time to watch most of the airshow on Saturday, even though, you know, fuck the military and all.

#i must get this from my mom/grandpa #my grandpa was a pilot so he was obviously into planes and that was something he bonded with my mom over #i like seeing them do neat tricks and i like loud noises (sometimes) #the event is totally a recruiting tactic though so there's actually anti-military protests in the city too

[serious2020]

Behind Georgia’s Authoritarian Crackdown on ‘Stop Cop City’ Protests - The Appeal

At least 42 people have been charged with “domestic terrorism” under the state’s wide-ranging statute. Legal experts are calling it a “sloppy” and unprecedented attack on constitutional rights to free speech and protest. — Read on theappeal.org/stop-cop-city-protests-domestic-terrorism-georgia/

View On WordPress

#African/Black experience #Afrikan #Anti-Blackness #apartheid #Atlanta Georgia #corruption #incarceration nation #lynching #militarized police #Military Industrial Complex #murder #music #police brutality #police terrorism #political assassination #Political Prisoners #protest #racial profiling #racism #Stop Cop City #terrorism #violence #War on Afrikans

[rattusn0rvegicus]

If you can't tell the difference between fiction and reality wtf are you even doing in fandom spaces

#blah blah blah [x thing] is military propaganda don't engage with it #Bruh... Someone can like Show With Gun Go Pew Pew AND ALSO be anti-military IRL #You guys have NO problem understanding this when it comes to like... Your favorite horror shows or whatever #Killing people bad right? But you still like Jason Voorhees or Hannibal or whoever #Same thing with literally any other form of media!!! #I say this as someone who fucking hates war movies and cop shows and shit #Who CARES if someone watches b99 or whatever. That same person might be out there protesting police brutality and donating to the ACLU #while you sit on your ass making whiny text posts online ahdhsjhsjggj

[the-penandpaper]

Working on converting all my books to free pdfs on a Google drive that will stay accessible to anyone.

Will post link when complete.

#pan africanism #books #anti capitalism #white pathology #white supremacy #anti imperialism #africa #black people #politics #history #western imperialism #america #hegemony #protests #military industrial complex #global south #libary #google doc #pdf #free

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Hundreds of Jewish anti-war demonstrators have been arrested during a Passover seder that doubled as a protest in New York, as they shut down a major thoroughfare to pray for a ceasefire and urge the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, to end US military aid to Israel.

The 300 or so arrests took place on Tuesday night at Grand Army Plaza, on the doorstep of Schumer’s Brooklyn residence, where thousands of mostly Jewish New Yorkers gathered for the seder, a ritual that marked the second night of the holiday celebrated as a festival of freedom by Jews worldwide.

The seder came just before the US Senate resoundingly passed a military package that includes $26bn for Israel.

#JVP #protest #antiwar #GazaGenocide #Chuck Schumer #imperialism #Brooklyn #arrests #repression #NYPD #Israel #FreePalestine #seder #Passover

[alex-dontknow]

The painting held by the protesters is "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso. It was painted in response to an event during the Spanish Civil War in 1937 where the small Basque town was bombed extensively by Nazi German and Italian forces. 1,645 people were killed and a further 889 were injured. The town was defenseless and held no military gain or strategic value to either opposing forces.

A thousand died defenceless at the hands of an unnecessary military raid. This is a war crime condemned by thousands across the globe.

Tens of thousands more are dying today in Palestine due to Israeli "defences", yet the Western world refuses to condemn them for the same war crime, and dozens more at a much more severe rate.

Guernica communicates the same message today as an anti-war painting, however it is not a conflict if one side has the weapons and the other has their prayers.

Israel is not and never will be the victim.

Israel is an Apartheid Terrorist state.

A four day ceasefire will never be enough if Palestinians are given freedom only to be carpet bombed and buried again. They are grouping the masses to wipe them out more efficiently.

It does not stop at a ceasefire. Palestine must be liberated.

#gaza #palestine #free gaza #free palestine #israel is a terrorist state #israel is an apartheid state #gaza genocide #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #israel is a war criminal

[nobody-cared-then-either]

Our leaders are complicit

They'll bomb whole families and kill children and say the blood isn't on their hands because they are doing it in "self-defense."

They'll starve an entire country and bomb humanitarian aid workers to death for trying to bring starving men, women, and children food, and make it look like an "accident."

They'll kill anybody foreign who stands in the way of their Empire and call them "terrorists."

They're not going to be any nicer to me and you just because we're "citizens" of their Empire.

They'll throw any of their own "citizens" who protest what they're doing and dissent to genocide into prisons and hospitals and call them "lunatics" and "drug-addicts."

They'll let us starve and go homeless while they spend every last fictional dollar in the National Treasury on more bombs and more industry.

They'll let us go without healthcare and deprive us of our rights when we are sick or when we are injured. They'll outlaw being disabled and forbid us from mixing with the ableds.

They'll work us to death and kill off as many of us as we can and replace us with machines and call this "progress."

The Empire is going to be the death of us all.

#anti fascism #Empire #fuck imperialism #industrialism #military industrial complex #police state #capitalism #spilled poetry #protest #poets on tumblr #fascist propaganda #propaganda #misinformation #narrative #narratives #we are complicit #us complicity #lemmings