The Hoard Potato: Red Shirt Fridays

[athelind]

Apparently, there's a group out there encouraging people to red shirts on Fridays to "support our troops".

Here's a link to their site, which plays really, really cheesy music. You've been warned.)

Yes, let's wear red shirts on Friday to underscore how nameless and expendable our troops are.

I know that not everyone is a Star Trek fan, but even a cursory Google search would have suggested the Unfortunate Implications.

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Comments

[leonard-arlotte.livejournal.com]

Actually the troops wear green and tan.

Those of us wearing red are the expendable ones.

Unless we work in Engineering.

[araquan.livejournal.com]

Sometimes even then.

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

They say they're not political. *sighs* They wear red shirts to underscore how nameless and expendable US troops are but . . . they aren't political.

Wait . . . wait . . . rant . . . coming . . . on . . .

I kind of wish people were political. A big problem with American is nothing is political. Soldiers shot up isn't political. Are they shot up because military bases are in bad neighborhoods . . . well, heck, that'd even be political! But, in general, they're shot because they're in countries full of people who hate their guts because some politician ordered them to go there. How is this not political?!

But, hey, it's America. Nothing is political. Not health care, not war, not business, nothing is political.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

They wear red shirts to underscore how nameless and expendable US troops are...

My words, not theirs.

Cynicism aside, I DON'T think that's their conscious intent. But as paka points out below, that's what most of this "support our troops" rah-rah bullshit boils down to.

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

*shift eyes* Oh, yeah, uh, I got that, really. I didn't read what you read and a little of the home page and make big assumptions or anything. No way. Not me. Some other guy. I'd never do that when a rant came on! ;)

I mean, my point DOES still stand, I think. You can't be non-political and "support the troops" - but paka covered it much better than I did, hehe. He's a good guy! You should keep him. (I was actually writing some of RBM, just now, about the point when you try to cool people out with that kind of nebulous support you actually support the status quo.)

I hate it when I miss the joke, though. D'oh!

[paka.livejournal.com]

You know, I'd be much more with this whole "support our troops" thing if it meant "get our guys the fuck out of there, if Haliburton and KBR want that money they can get their own personnel killed, make sure the VA gets more funding, make sure there's more support for guys with PTSD, make sure there's a better social safety net for the homeless because some of the guys coming back are going to fall through the cracks."

Instead, this "support the troops" bullshit always means smile and nod and go along with this illegal, stupid crap. It's like "pro life" or "Christian," right-wing phraseology barely related to the reality of what's going on out there in the world. I'm really getting sick of this semantic bullshit. Red shirts my ass. My contribution to the war effort sure wasn't honored, why the fuck should I go along with this superficial rightwing crap?

[tombfyre.livejournal.com]

This sounds like a wonderful idea! I'm already being harped upon by fellow geeks for my frequency of wearing Red Shirts during the rest of the week, so I might as well add Fridays to the list and see what happens. :3

At least these days red means command. ;)

[thoughtsdriftby.livejournal.com]

Yes,

Red-shirt(character)slang ..... See Also: Cannon Fodder...

Well, it seems proper to the actual amount of support their effort shows.
(I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixing-to-Die-Rag should be playing in the background)

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Prefer writing members of Congress trying to get the troops home and properly treated myself.