sigh

[eclectic_boy]

Is this what we're going to be on about for the next week or so? MSNBC's Chris Hayes does a show on Memorial Day weekend about public perception of soldiers, and utters a money quote that manages to appear simultaneously disrespectful of fallen military and intellectually presumptuous (I'll let you google it for yourself; it's the only part of the

Comments

[indecisionwins]

Honestly, just looking at a clip I see online, I don't have any problem at all with what he said. The fact that soldiers are always, unquestioningly considered heroes makes me kind of uncomfortable, too. Obviously, I do have some respect for the fact that they're doing something that I wouldn't want to do...and as Chris Hayes said, there are some individual soldiers who do things that are truly heroic in battle, and they deserve to be commended.

But really, I don't think "our freedom" would truly be in imminent danger without the military campaigns that our country has engaged in. I'm not saying we don't need a military, and I definitely think our huge military has a deterrent effect on people who maybe would actually try to cause harm to our country...but I don't see how our current military campaigns have done much to directly protect freedom. Given that, I actually wonder why more people haven't been willing to say the kind of thing Chris Hayes said about the glorification of the military; maybe it's lingering guilt/social pressure over the excesses of anti-Vietnam protests 40 years ago?

Of course, that being said...the fact that what he said goes against the prevailing social norms about the military probably will lead to howls of the over-the-top protest from the right. But is there anything that DOESN'T lead to howls of over-the-top protest from the right, when someone takes a public position anywhere to the left of Ayn Rand? Of course, the potential negative effect here is that his comments would make some people in the center mad at all liberals, and inspire them to vote Republican...which would be bad...

[sildra]

the potential negative effect here is that his comments would make some people in the center mad at all liberals, and inspire them to vote Republican

It's May. The election's in November. And furthermore, it was a pundit not a politician who said it, so it can't really be thrown in anyone's face in October. No one's going to still remember this by then. Not even people who might actually really care, and certainly not the vast majority of the population that barely listens to this stuff, has their emotional reaction, and then moves on.