Those words keep burning in my head now that 45 has doubled down on his dumbfuckery in pushing a transgender ban in the military.
Semper Fidelis. Always faithful. Those words are burned into the soul the moment the eagle, globe, and anchor is pressed into our hands. They adorn the flesh of more than one comrade.
And Trump has cracked, if not shattered them.
If it was simply denying further enlistments, I ~might~ be able to see the logic. Some things, the pogs can't figure out how to do effectively yet.
But that is NOT what has happened here.
This is affecting active, current, serving members of our armed forces.
They have paid every due. They have earned their uniforms, their rank, their awards. They have passed every test and faced every challenge. And their c-in-c has just spit on that and told them they don't rate. Not because of what they failed, but because of who they are.
This isn't the usual postwar bullshittery. This isn't the typical green weenie booting the hard charger and promoting the asskisser.
This is a breaking of faith.
If Semper Fidelis means shit to you, you should be furious.
Because for the first time in known history, someone's attempting to break it.
I don't see Mattis being crass enough for a "fuck you sir" while the cameras are rolling, but he might be passive-aggressive enough to turn in a "they're all deployable" report until we can get a fucking grownup in the room.
Commenters, be advised: If a two-war combat veteran telling you you're wrong isn't enough, I got at least two trans athletes, a practicing clinical psychologist, and an Army medical coder who knows which forms a trans service member would be filling out, all on speed dial. I can ask them all to join in.
Actually, fuck it. Unless you got something supportive to say or have 3 or more combat action ribbons or equivalent, you should probably just shut the fuck up and scroll on. This weekend's been fucked up enough.

Let me begin this by saying that I am no stranger to acting, tactics, the film world, and GA's film industry in particular. Not gonna waste my intro with a greatest hits of my CV, but rest assured that I know of what I speak.


Now, definitions.   


Tactical

(tac-tik-uhl)

1. of or relating to combat tactics: such as

a (1) of or occurring at the battlefront, a tactical defense, a tactical first strike

(2) using or being weapons or forces employed at the battlefront tactical missiles

 
Tactic

(tac-tik)

1. a device for accomplishing an end

2. a method of employing forces in combat


(source: merriam-Webster dot com)

 

I wanted to get the dictionary definitions out of the way, because I see them misued a lot by the film community at large. Someone in film says "tactical," and they imagine a bunch of hardbodies in boots and MOLLE gear; gliding down hallways with weapons at the ready and setting themselves up as a legit threat for the main characters to escape from and/or slaughter.

Which is perfectly cool. Who doesn't love well-done action? Who doesn't want to make a movie that will have battle-hardened veterans nodding at it and saying, "yeah, it's like that."?

Unfortunately, the current cinematic use of the word "tactical" is both too narrow and too broad. End result being that productions don't know what they're asking for, performers don't know what adequate training looks like, and trainers are forming their own definitions as they go.

I say too broad because the dictionary definitions above cover a vast range of techniques that will never see a depiction onscreen. By such definition, the fact that I dusted my crotch with gold bond powder before stepping off on a patrol was a tactical action. I don't care what you put on the soundtrack, hard to make that into the depicted warrior look a production wants.

And I say too narrow because TTP's (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures) change rapidly according to conditions on the ground. While there are some baselines (a combat glide is a combat glide, a buttonhook is a buttonhook), what gets used more effectively can completely alter movement on a battlefield in six months. There is no way to look at movement alone and definitively say, "yeah, this is Iraq, but this has to be Afghanistan."

And that's not even getting into nomenclature differences between agencies (A low ready is a low ready, except when it's an alert. Wait, wtf?)

Which means that an advisor from one agency has an entirely different idea of who's trained and to what level than someone with a different agency background.

Yeah, we can hope said advisor's aware of and accounts for such, but do you want to be the one who risks your reputation on it? Or for that matter, your training budget?

So with all that said, what should be looked for? What skillset needs to be instilled before an actor with tactical whatever listed on their resume walks onto a set?

My personal checklist goes something like:

- Nomenclature & handling of semiautomatic pistols and AR platform rifles

- Room clearing 101 (Combat glide, cross, buttonhook, pieing, stacking)

- Working in 2 and 4-person teams

- Basic CQB/CQC

Institutional differences are what should be known and instructed by the individual project's tactical advisor before filming. I'd personally rather see people hired who know the basics, then spend time working on the nuances (Which agency are they portraying? Here's what's specific to them).

Of course, that's ~my~ criteria. It's anyone's guess what the industry standard will wind up becoming.

*sigh*
Godsdammit, I did not want to have to deal with this. But now it's over on my page.
You know what I have to say about this Paradox of Tolerance?
Horseshit. Complete and total horseshit.
Tolerance isn't about allowing ideas we don't mind.
It's about allowing ideas we find repugnant or disgusting or just plain wrong.
But no, that's not enough for the current incarnation of the left.
They want a permission slip to hate.
They want the rush of endorphins that comes with punching a Nazi.
Because hatred feels good.
Righteousness feels good.
Being a winner feels good.
Defeating an unabashedly evil foe feels good.
But here's the catch:
They don't want to climb down off their moral high horse to get in the mud of violence to do it.
It's dishonest. Instead of growing the fuck up and admitting that there's a time and place where othering people is acceptable, they want to have the cake of tolerance and eat the cake of hatred at the same fucking time.
You want tolerance?
Go to Afghanistan. Deal with one of the tribal elders.
Do you want the Salafist Takfiri asshole that wants everyone not following his flavor of Islam dead or in chains? And is willing to use heavy duty gear to make it happen?
Or do you want the tribal shithead who's raping his 9-year-old chai boy for giggles?
Or do you want the warlord paying his thugs with opium destined for the world's heroin market?
I'll even be nice and give you a scenario where they're not all the same person.
THAT is fucking tolerance.
It's not putting up with shit you don't mind.
It's putting up with shit you despise.
Because sometimes the world doesn't let us just jam a knife in some motherfucker's throat and call it a day.
That's how civilization fucking works, and it should be embarrassing that it takes a barbarian to point that shit out.
Don't fucking tell me you're tolerant and then decide someone else is persona non humanus because you don't have the Sisu to actually look someone that disgusts you in the eyes.
If there's people in the world worth hating that much,
human the fuck up and admit it.
But take this tolerance paradox and shove it someplace delicate, because it has no place among the honest.

I'm saying that when it comes to applied violence, the left is amateur hour.
They've spent so damn long policing the world for harsh language that they can't tell the difference between someone screaming at them to vent their spleen and someone screaming at them as a prelude to an attack.
And that shit's important.
So many are screaming right now that there is no two sides. That there's only one advocating the extermination of entire swaths of humanity.
Which is absolutely true.
But at the same time, it's ignoring the fact that both sides can and will put bullets in heads of those who get in their way.
If you're saying the left isn't lethal yet, I got 8 dead cops in 2 states that will ask where the hell you've been.
What HAS changed for the left is their main targets.
Since Occupy, the proto-antifas have been acting against agents of the state. Acting against wall street, cops in Ferguson and Baltimore, and the energy-industrial complex at Standing Rock. They've gotten to be experts at being as violent and disruptive as possible without being dispersed. They're geniuses at media manipulation.
What they haven't done so far is start shooting, despite the John Brown militia and other offshoots. (The Dallas and Baton Rogue shooters were outliers, and I'm willing to bet the asshole in the Charger was one as well. All three of those attacks went too far too soon for the main body of either movement).
But they're a hair away from it.
Then after the election these Neo-Nazi idiots showed up.
And the antifas started salivating.
NOW they had a real target! Actual villians!
BUT they need, they crave the moral authority inherent in being a responding victim instead of a forcible offender. A trait they share with the alt-right. That's why most of what we see is posturing and goading each other into taking the first swing, then getting into minor scuffles or being pepper-sprayed and breaking up.
It's a C student in a 101 class understanding of self-defense, but it's holding out with minimal casualties so far.

What I'm coming too with all of that is: Intolerance is ok.
Being selective of your intolerance by way of personal dislike as opposed to actual threat level is not.
Not only that, it's dangerous.
It's moving beyond the fallacious idea of hate crime and moving into thought crime.
It's normalizing the hatred and calls to silence, threaten, and otherwise attack people for what they believe.
And that is never a good idea.
Right now, the left is knitting in front of the Guillotine because they think it's only going to be used on bad people.
That doesn't end well for anyone.
I'm trying to break it and tell them to fuck off and knit elsewhere. And getting bitched at for it.

On a gut level, I'm all about punching Nazis.
I'd be a lot more comfortable with the calls for such if I thought more than one in ten of those calling knew how to throw a punch in the first place.
Or if I thought more than one in a hundred knew when, when not to, or why.
I don't doubt the cause or enthusiasm. To hell with Nazis.
But the last thing that applied diplomacy needs on the national stage is amateur hour. Exhibit A would be 45 himself, but the punching calls ain't helping.
In the long term, neither is the doxxing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've read the meme. They wanna be Nazis, let 'em be Nazis 24/7. Good to go.
Get 'em fired, get 'em expelled, whatever.
You DO realize you're not banishing them into the wilderness to starve or freeze, right?
They're either dropping to shittier employment or a societal safety net. Only now they've been knocked down there with yet another reason to hate AND time on their hands to do something about it.
Congratulations, you've cleansed this workplace or that campus and foisted the problem off on someone else.
"But... but.." you say, "what do you want us to do? Hug them?"
I dunno.
I do know that I'm personally not up to going around to hunt down and slaughter them all. The logistics alone would be a nightmare.
And I don't see anyone else stepping up to that particular plate yet, thank the Gods, so there NEEDS to be another option out there.
********************
I sat down and watched about fifteen minutes of video, before the big fight and before that shitbird decided to kill a lady with a Dodge charger. Some of the things I'm noticing... (video itself is in the first comment)
... The Alt-Right crew is really, really outnumbered.
... That said, they're ten times as organized. Look at this shit, shield walls, formation commands.
... All these guns and not a single shot fired by anyone the entire weekend. Either the individuals in question have some serious self-restraint, or there's some tight command and control going on. Or both. Or nobody's ~quite~ willing to take that step yet.
... I don't see anyone visibly holding a firearm in the shield wall. And a lot of them seem to be interacting with each other than spread out. I'm wondering how much the whole 3% crowd is in tight with the Alt-Right, or if they're on some sort of loose contractor basis here?
... Oh, FFS, a guillotine on one of the boards? You're not even trying to hide it, are you, Defarge?
... So many crappy shield designs. Somewhere, a herald is crying.
... The big guy in the black vest, looks like me in 20 years? I think I've found command and control.
... The whole mob looks ready to hit back first. But that sums up every clash I've seen so far.
They're ready to hit back first. And they want the world to know they hit back.
*********************************
*sigh*
Look, ever since the election, I've been telling people to back off and calm the fuck down. And nobody seems willing to do that.
I don't want to live in another civil war.
Especially one that I can't get on a plane and leave to go home, because it's right here.
Honestly, if it was just Antifa and the Alt-right? They deserve each other. If those packs of dueling shitstains were just out to kill each other, I'd just lock 'em all in a stadium and let them have at. We could hose the place out later.
But that's not what's going to happen.
We keep going down that road, sooner or later we're looking at a slaughter.
If the alt-right crew I saw in that video had what they saw as legit reason to open fire, the body count would have been in the dozens at bare minimum.
And after that?
It gets smaller, but wider. And a lot more personal.
Because when you can't get to whoever's pissing you off on a screen, you go after the closest "sympathizer" you can find. And if it's a neighbor? A coworker? A family member? Oh well.
Don't believe me?
We've had over fifteen years since the towers fell. How many times have people gone after random Muslims when they couldn't find an Al-Quaeda or a Taliban or even a random Salafist Takfiri to go after?
And if they couldn't find a Muslim to attack, they settled on a Sikh or anyone remotely brown.
Are any of you screaming "there is only one side" listening to yourselves?
If you wanna raise the black flag and can't find a Nazi, what are you gonna do, go find a Republican and convince yourself they're a sympathizer? Or even settle for someone living in a vaguely red state?
And that terrifies me.
I'm scared that I can't stop it.
I'm scared we're too late.