I've noticed that Bluesky libs are making a big distinction between the cops versus the national guard/military. Many libs are agreeing (or pretending to agree) that LA cops are appalling. And they are reposting leftist livestreaming posts of cops using tear gas, etc. But now that the national guard (and military) are in the news - the libs are standing up for those groups.
NYT columnist Jamelle Bouie seems to have taken posting attacks on the national guard/military personally. And he's snarky about it too.
i sincerely think a lot of you believe that the people who join the service are robotic psychopaths who will mindlessly listen to whoever is in charge, and there is nothing i can say to disabuse you of that frankly delusional belief
https://bsky.app/profile/jamellebouie.net/post/3lr3tjgqzg22y
I'd bet money he has very good friends (if not family members) in the military.
In other news - I just finished looking at a Bluesky account where he called LA cops "racist thugs" but he had good things to say about the national guard. He went on to say he was in the NY national guard plus the army too.
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Ninja edit
LAPD is an armed gang and ICE is made of real true believer racist thugs but the national guard is 95% shockingly normal people. The other 5% are weird. This ratio may vary slightly by state
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Photo caption
Maryland National Guardsmen patrol near downtown office buildings, Tuesday, April 28, 2015, in Baltimore, a day following unrest that occurred after Freddie Gray's funeral. Gray died from spinal injuries about a week after he was arrested and transported in a Baltimore Police Department van. His death has become the latest flashpoint in the nations debate over the police use of force against black men.
More photos of Maryland National Guard on the streets at the article - https://www.militarytimes.com/2017/07/20/maryland-national-guard-troops-deploy-to-baltimore/
classic Jamelle Bouie unfortunately. 50% thoughtful and well-sourced takes, 50% completely not understanding the way capital and imperialism functions on the human psyche.
this is the core of the actual take he has. it is the argument "only robotic psychopaths would follow (to me) obviously fascist orders, and most national guardsmen are not robotic psychopaths, therefore they will not follow fascist orders." and he's just wrong about that first premise, that you have to basically be an insane person to follow directly and confrontationally violent orders. that's a nice thought, but there's basically infinite historical evidence to the contrary. he's essentially positing an opposite position to the "clean Wehrmacht" fascist myth that is a "psycopath Wehrmacht" liberal myth. every single german soldier that did psychopathic and inhuman things to targeted minority groups was ideologically unemotional about it. this is of course wrong, most atrocities are committed by people who largely are not diagnosible cases of antisocial personality disorders.
in fact, Jamelle is proven wrong by the current genocide of Palestinians that is occurring right now. the israeli genocide force consists of conscripts, and at this point also includes national guardsmen. arguably there were some israelis who for whatever selfish or noble reasons chose not to participate in the genocide: they're either in prison (very few) or they simply left the country. by his own definition, that genocide is being committed by "normal" people who are just following orders.