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> Americans could idealize it as they have forgotten what a real war is(fighting against non developed enemies 8000 miles away is not alike seeing your home in

by wtbob 12y ago

> Americans could idealize it as they have forgotten what a real war is(fighting against non developed enemies 8000 miles away is not alike seeing your home in flames, your daughter raped or your brothers killed). Southerners remember what that was like: 150 years ago Yankees were raping and killing their way across the Confederacy. Young folks nowadays have forgotten, but there are plenty of folks still alive who heard about it from their elders. It really wasn't that long ago.

fapjacks 12y ago
No. Echoes of memories from your great-grandparents' great-grandparents is not even slightly on the same side of the room (or even in the same building) as living through an actual war on your own turf, civil or otherwise. I spent many years in a few different warzones, and you cannot possibly imagine what life is like for those folks. There is nothing in Western civilization that can convey these realities of war -- not even our own brand of tyranny or the relatively brief and cursory exposure of the vast majority our soldiers to foreign warzones. In a way, this attitude is almost offensive -- no offense to you personally -- because there is inherent disregard for the huge number of human beings living in awful shitholes where the human animal reigns.
untog 12y ago
That's not really comparable. My grandfather told me about fighting in World War II, but in no way does that mean I know what it was like to be there.
Terr_ 12y ago
> 150 years ago [...] there are plenty of folks still alive who heard about it from their elders. "Plenty"? Care to flesh out your math, here? I'm working under the assumption that newborn babies make horrible first-hand witnesses and (75 years later) equally horrible second-hand listeners, and that not that many of either are going to live to 75 before talking about their knowledge. It's probably more precise to say: "A lot of people here know a story about it", the same way a lot of Americans know about the Mayflower. > Southerners remember I think you're subtly equivocating here. The "remembering" going on is not at all the same kind as, say, "New Yorkers Remember 9/11".

by wtbob 12y ago

fapjacks 12y ago

No. Echoes of memories from your great-grandparents' great-grandparents is not even slightly on the same side of the room (or even in the same building) as living through an actual war on your own turf, civil or otherwise. I spent many years in a few different warzones, and you cannot possibly imagine what life is like for those folks. There is nothing in Western civilization that can convey these realities of war -- not even our own brand of tyranny or the relatively brief and cursory exposure of the vast majority our soldiers to foreign warzones. In a way, this attitude is almost offensive -- no offense to you personally -- because there is inherent disregard for the huge number of human beings living in awful shitholes where the human animal reigns.

untog 12y ago

That's not really comparable. My grandfather told me about fighting in World War II, but in no way does that mean I know what it was like to be there.

Terr_ 12y ago

> 150 years ago [...] there are plenty of folks still alive who heard about it from their elders. "Plenty"? Care to flesh out your math, here? I'm working under the assumption that newborn babies make horrible first-hand witnesses and (75 years later) equally horrible second-hand listeners, and that not that many of either are going to live to 75 before talking about their knowledge. It's probably more precise to say: "A lot of people here know a story about it", the same way a lot of Americans know about the Mayflower. > Southerners remember I think you're subtly equivocating here. The "remembering" going on is not at all the same kind as, say, "New Yorkers Remember 9/11".