Bigotry and Resistance at the Air Force Academy

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/air-force-academy-on-racial-slurs-at-school-show-respect-or-get-out-2017-9?r=US&IR=T

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Great words. Even better words would be ā€œWe have found the fuckers who did this and they have been booted out.ā€

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Better still would be ā€œthis situation has led us to reconsider the ethics of training our students to drop bombs on brown peopleā€.

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That would get bad reviews from the military complex. $$$$ you know.

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This isnā€™t really ā€œnewā€ at the Air Force Academy, somewhere Iā€™ve got a folder of links on this

Could only find this one from last year

The AFA is well-known to be center of Dominionist intolerance. Iā€™m pleasantly surprised they found such a high-ranking officer to speak out against this instance of racism, but I think he has a lot of work to do:

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The wider military has issues:

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@Wanderfound Mind indulging me a bit and telling me why all your fuss is directed at the US and none at your own country?

Depends: which topic?

If itā€™s militarism, then:

(a) the Australian military contains less people than the USMC reserve. We are not a significant military player. In contrast, the USA has the most oversized and consistently aggressive military in the world.

(b) the Australian military basically functions as a nationalised unit of mercenaries, deployed at the whim of our imperial/hegemonic overlords (UK originally, USA since the fall of Singapore). The primary function of the Oz military is to try and curry diplomatic favour with the USA, in the hopes that the US military will come and save us if weā€™re attacked again.

In the entire history of modern Australia, the only time weā€™ve gone into military conflict primarily for our own direct interest was the recent intervention in East Timor.

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For a bit of Timor-connected military history from my neighbourhood, though:

One of the longer-term consequences of this was the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.

About 1/3 of the Timorese died during the occupation. They were the people whoā€™d sheltered Australian soldiers from the Japanese during the war.

IMG_0824

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Well then, I guess keep it up, reason doesnā€™t seem to deter you so Iā€™ll simply cease.

Cease what? You havenā€™t presented a reasoned argument in this thread.

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BTW: that is the establishment centrist description of the Oz situation.

The moderately-radical left version replaces ā€œin the hopes that the US military will come and save us if weā€™re attacked againā€ with ā€œbecause we know thatā€™s the only way to stop the CIA from fomenting civil war in our country, with US military backing for the right wingā€.

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Were in the ā€œdrums of warā€ thread

BTW, on the subject of anti-communism, since that Indonesia post brought it up.

Iā€™m not a communist; Iā€™m more of your Nordic DemSoc type.

But I think that communism is a predictable and justifiable response to colonialism and imperialism.

Right wing oppression of sufficient intensity will always provoke a socialist reaction. The intensity of the response is determined by the intensity of the oppression.

If theyā€™ve been oppressed a little bit, you get Sweden. If theyā€™ve been oppressed a lot, you get Stalin.

If you want to keep the American Revolution moderate, you need to get it moving before things get too extreme. The clock is ticking.

Perhaps your energies would be most effectively devoted to changing that.

The aspect of American values that you are disparaging was getting better in the 70s, until an Australian propagandist named Rupert starting poisoning our media. A pity progressives in his country didnā€™t do more to reign in his financial power.

A rhetorical question: if you serve the country, and the countryā€™s constitution states that all people are equal, how is racism / bigotry not treason / sedition?

Many of the people youā€™re talking about read ā€œpeopleā€ there as white people, and some read it even more narrowly, as white men.

Yeah, I know. But the perps should be tried for treason.