I’ll go first. Mine is that I can’t stand the Deadpool movies. They are self aware and self referential to an obnoxious degree. It’s like being continually reminded that I am in a movie. I swear the success of that movie has directly lead to every blockbuster having to have a joke every 30 seconds
All militarists know that war is horror - they relish the horror of it.
That’s why they love movies like Saving Private Ryan (which justifies the horror by ascribing justification to it) while disliking movies such as The Thin Red Line or Catch 22 (which strips any kind of justification away from it).
Ah, I see your point. I didn’t relish the horror. I didn’t even understand the horror. When I was growing up, I was taught in a way that minimized or disregarded suffering. SPR did not do that. It showcased it and in a horrendous way. While some may relish in that, I didn’t and it made me reconsider my childhood support of any armed conflict as justified. I didn’t understand the costs involved. While I’m sure the movie didn’t capture everything, what it showed was horrendous.
Idk about your point of justification. It’s been a while and I don’t remember that.
Weaponized masculinity portrays the horrors of war as some kind of “test” of masculinity - you’ll see this in a lot of fascist propaganda. It’s literally what fascists mean when they spew their “blood and soil” bullcrap. It’s pretty sick - I grew up in Apartheid-era South Africa, and they brainwashed us like that.
The problem I have with movies like Saving Private Ryan is that they don’t address the central conceit of the vast majority of “war media” - ie, that war is an activity primarily waged by armed combatants against other armed combatants. This is absolutely not the truth - wars are primarily waged by armed combatants against unarmed non-combatants. This is especially true when we discuss colonialist warfare - it is being literally demonstrated right now in Gaza.
You remember Tom Hank’s little line about “earning it?” The more you think about it, the sillier it becomes.