G. I. Joke
Today, a bunch of so-called “well regulated” militias descended on Virginia to protest the state legislatures’ eminent enactment of long overdue sensible gun control measures. I don’t believe that choosing MLK day was a coincidence, or that there were not strong white supremacist overtones to the whole thing. Social media was rife with commentary about the fact that only white men could get away with marching down the street with high-powered weapons and tactical gear without being molested by law enforcement. Racism, sexism and antisemitism were on bold display. But putting that aside for a moment, the substantive point they were trying to make (whatever that was), got lost in the optics of the day.
I have no doubt that the protesters wanted to show how manly and tough they were. They wanted to show that they should be feared and respected. They stood in solidarity against tyranny or something and 2nd Amendment whatever, and don’t tread on me and such and stuff…. blah, blah, blah. In the end, no one cared what they had to say. Because they weren’t there to SAY anything. They were there to show something. And unfortunately for them, what they showed the world and America, is that their movement is pathetic.
Today we saw a loose gaggle of dime-store warriors without a war (and it’s not like there aren’t two raging ones as we speak), dressed to the nines in tactical gear, with no combatants in sight, primed for a battle with nothing to shoot at. It was a walking talking premature ejaculation, where the deed was done just by putting on the “manly” gear because there was nothing else to do. The optics were horrible. Paunchy, scruffy, unattractive, out-of-shape men, wearing cammo and scarves (just in case a sandstorm kicked up in the middle of the Virginia winter), flack jackets and boots so that they could… stand around and look tough.
In the end, the overkill backfired. They revealed themselves to be worthy of ridicule, obviously trying to compensate for very small… hands. They didn’t think it through, because that many guys walking down the street with huge guns was tactically inane. What was the point of that? What were the options? Use the guns. BAD! They’d get hauled off to jail. Don’t use the guns. BAD! They looked like kids in cos-play primping for show and tell. Threaten to use the guns in the future if they don’t get what they want. BAD! Now they’re terrorists. Hug the guns closely to themselves and use them like a blanky. BAD! They look like pathetic wanna-be soldiers. This whole event was a mistake. The minute they brought guns to a conversation, they were no longer interested in “conversation.” At that point, they were just vaguely threatening people, and wandering aimlessly around with big guns and no one to point or shoot them at. That didn’t make their intended audience inclined to listen to what they had to say. It made their audience pity, mock and ridicule them. They did not come off as G.I. Joes. They came off as G.I. Jokes.