Dog happy to see her human companion return after a six-month absence

You speak dog quite fluently.

Kind of funny how I keep seeing these “military people come home” videos everywhere. Television in general, commercials, music videos, viral video morning shows, pumped to Reddit frontpages, etc, etc… — Now here on Boing Boing and on Dangerous Minds too.

I like the dog and I understand it’s a cute video, but the jingoistic creep is getting to be a bit … much. There’s plenty of heartfelt videos like this that don’t involve pulling heart strings for those who choose to fight (knowingly or otherwise) for the 0.01 percent to the detriment of everyone else.

Just getting tired of it and sad to see it creeping into every aspect of media offline and online. I’m sure the intent here isn’t to promote joining the military, but I do hope my post helps bring at least a tinge of self-awareness that maybe you’re only contributing to the problem of getting kids to embrace the military-industrial complex with open arms with feel-good military videos.

I know this won’t be a popular post. Go ahead and tear me apart for bringing this up. I just hope others out there see this happening too and feel uncomfortable like I do seeing this creeping into Boing Boing and Dangerous Minds.

3 Likes

my mom moved out of state with our dog Cafal years ago. after moving them up there it was several years before i visited again. when i finally did, he heard my truck’s engine and demanded to be let out when i was still halfway down the block. damn i miss that dog.

Is it really credible to you that anyone seeing this video would think “shit, I oughta join the Army!”

hearts and minds, dude. that’s the name of the game now. well, that and drones.

Crying. Crying so much now.

You know, people like you, people who can make anything joyous – even a baby’s laughter – and find something negative to yap on about it for paragraph after paragraph … people like you suck. I’m sure you’re a blast at parties, man.

We left our cat in a cat kennel for 2 week while we went on holiday. We also booked him in to be neutered at the same time (the kennels had a resident vet).

When we got him home, he ran straight upstairs, jumped on the middle of our bed, and, holding my gaze, shat on it. Then he jumped out of the window.

Can’t say I blamed him.

(He came back into that house later that afternoon, as if nothing had happened).

2 Likes

And the cat came back…

1 Like

The cat wasn’t stupid. He knew where his food, warmth and personal massage service was located.

Then again, dogs think they’ll never see you again the minute you walk out the door… as George Carlin once said, dogs only understand “forever”.

There is nothing even a little bit jingoistic about this video, or others like it. I think that word does not mean what you think it means.

Your post also makes me sad because I love a few soldiers. All of them retired long ago, but they are still retired pawns of the military-industrial complex. They are also good, kind people who made sacrifices to do what they thought was right, for the sake of others.

Personally I’m grateful we’ve learned to hate the war while honoring the soldiers. No American soldier anywhere ever chose to make war - that power is reserved to the civilian President. In fact, every soldier I’ve ever talked to hates war more passionately than I do. They’ve seen it.

Once upon a time, Americans spit on soldiers retuning from war. I’m glad that was before my time.

2 Likes

I was all ready to tell you about how soldiers being spit on is a myth used to shame anti-war voices, but in this case the video directly contradicts me. Even worse, the spit smells like dog breath…gross!

3 Likes

Could not agree with you more, Cowcide - this is outright propaganda as much as the “soldier surprises kid at school” is. Its inclusion of schlock like this fits right in with the rehashed Reddit content and the slow slide in quality of BB content as it slides into buzzfeed territory.

The sad thing is that people who should be more discerning lose all subjectivity once they see a dog involved. Dogs will act like this is you walk around the block and come back, or if you grab the leash and say “Go for a walk boy???” so people ascribing some sort of higher emotional function is ridiculous. But the people who seem to think dogs and cats are special will anthropomorphize any behavior to justify their “dogs and cats” are special BS…and then we get stupid ideas like no-kill shelters and feral cat colonies!

Expect the next Hitler to make use of emotional dog videos in his campaign…

Uh, officially freaked out here.

“I disagree with your opinion, and rather than scrolling past it and forgetting it, I am going to insult you.” There is a certain type of internet commenter that infects message boards. They just have to throw out a ad hominen attack against someone who has a different view than them. Cowicide’s comment (I disagree with it, by the way) was not a personal attack on you. Accept that you have a different view, and move on.

1 Like

Gosh, this thread got Godwined fast.

1 Like

Why does no one know what an ad-hominen attack actually is anymore? Sigh.

1 Like

Nice attempt at deflection. But since you seem ignorant, let me help you out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

1 Like

Is it really credible to you that anyone seeing this video would think “shit, I oughta join the Army!”

The U.S. military thinks so and I tend to agree with them.

http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/vesp5/i_cant_describe_how_this_made_me_feel/

http://www.reddit.com/r/HailCorporate/search?q=military&restrict_sr=on

http://www.reddit.com/r/HailCorporate/comments/18fyal/surge_in_military_posts/

Now then, you took my words very much out of context so I’m going to steer you back on track:

It’s not as simple as ONE video.

It’s the onslaught of these kinds of videos and imagery that pervade our media offline and online as I already said above in my post.

It’s a concerted effort of doing their damnedest to make dissent against the military-industrial complex seem like one doesn’t “support the troops”. Glamorizing returning troops as untouchable heros by pulling our heart strings with imagery like this is perfect for reinforcing that narrative.

If you don’t think the military-industrial complex is pumping this shit out to the American public en masse, then you’re not paying attention:

http://public-accountability.org/2012/12/operation-fiscal-bluff/