Support our Troops Unless…
RBB experiences even more controversy.
“Support our Troops” in a saying that I personally don’t like. I just am not a big bumper sticker person, though I do have one simple U.S. Army star stuck to my car expressly for the purpose of getting out of the occasional speeding ticket. While I do agree with the sentiment behind “Supporting the Troops,” I think that it is used far too often in common discourse. Just like saying “bless you” is almost reactionary for most people when they witness someone sneeze, people will spout something to the effect of “support our troops” when they see Soldiers, it has become almost mandatory.
I think that because it is overused so much, “support our troops” is losing the sincerity behind the thought. Now normally I base this on my slightly nihilistic and narcissistic worldview but, today I have evidence and my evidence is Rock Beyond Belief.
Recently, FOX News reporter Todd Starnes conducted an interview with FTB’s own Justin Griffith. The issue was that Todd saw an opening for a story in a post Justin made on the Rock Beyond Belief website. To introduce the band Aiden, Justin posted one of their music videos, Hysteria, and called it a kick ass “atheist anthem.” The Fox News reporter had his opening, if that was the type of music going on at RBB then a controversy would erupt, since as we all know Heavy Metal videos are NEVER a controversial art form, EVER. But after conducting the above interview with Justin, Todd on some level must have known that the story was not a homerun. After all the genesis of this event was Justin, a Soldier who we must, of course, support and who is more than a little accustomed to dealing with rules and regulations.
Justin made it absolutely clear that Aiden, like all other performers at the event, would adhere to a standard of family friendly content. But, I guess deadlines are deadlines and Todd ran his story anyway. Soon I watched as people did the ultimate American sin, they shit on Soldiers.
As the story circled around the Clogosphere, the comments became more hateful. The organizers are evil, this was put on by Obama to turn us Soldiers into brownshirts, RBB was nothing more than Soldiers expressing HATE and DISRESPECT for the faithful, it goes on.
Well…I have seen enough. Put the atheist on the future ‘destroy immediately’ lists that we are making for after the revolution. – The Blaze Commentariat
It gave me a flashback to the booing of the gay Soldier during the Republican debate. The second the individual Soldier that people say they support expresses any individuality or turns out to be anythin that you don’t agree with, “Support our Troops” goes out the window.
Now I am not a hero, to date my only claim to fame is ducking behind something thick when my surroundings started to explode. Yet I am friends with many Soldiers who have seen much more of war than myself and are atheists, gay, illegal immigrants, and persons of all faiths. Many have had similar negative experiences when a civilian actually gets to know them. Some people just can’t help themselves when it comes to demeaning Soldiers.
On a recent cross-country flight, I was wearing ACUs and sat next to a nice looking elderly couple. They thanked me for my service and I got to reading my Kindle to relax and occasionally answered their questions about my recent deployment. They seemed to think everyone in Iraq was a terrorist and other such preconceptions and I did my best to politely correct their misconceptions with a bit of reality.
Later, the plane got hot and I removed my ACU jacket, not wanting to sweat out my uniform. My dog tags slipped out, the ones with ATHEIST stamped into the metal. The couple reacted almost immediately, after fifteen or so minutes defending my lack of belief the couple moved to different seats on the other side of plane. As the gentlemen brushed by me, he muttered something under his breath as he left. “People like you are a disgrace to America.”
RBB is going to be little more than a gathering of persons that happen to have a rare worldview, one that is notably different because it is not geographic in its distribution. Speakers like Richard Dawkins will encourage us to self-identify with our worldview because for the first time in history, technology makes the lack of a geographic center irrelevant. We are discovering our voice as atheists and with that voice the ability to form a community. People will surely come out to film the event in the hopes that we spout something uncouth and in the end nothing will be overly controversial, with the evidence posted to YouTube.
But if my dog tags completely destroy any honor I have earned in years of service then let us at least be honest and update your damn bumper stickers.
Support our Troops….unless they don’t believe in your God, are gay, or are illegal immigrants coming over to steal our good infantry jobs, or ….
from Assassin Actual
