PragerU is one of the means by which the industrial elite disseminates the propaganda in service of maintaining their privileged position in society, the propaganda to combat left leaning ideas that pose a threat to the current power hierarchy. They recently published a video called "The Fallen Soldier", and it's so cringeworthy that I feel the need to share it with you and briefly discuss why I think it's so bad.
Image by The National Guard - source: Flickr
Have you seen ads for the military? They always talk about "a life of adventure" and the "honor if serving one's country". They never show what the "job" is actually about; killing people in far away countries on behest of some ill-defined power elite. In America almost every war or small scale armed conflict abroad is advertised as "spreading freedom and democracy", which is a bold faced lie each and every time; the real reason is always to gain some geopolitical advantage for the corporate elites, or to stave off political developments that could limit those elites' access to foreign markets or resources; to stop the rise of socialism or communism, and to stop the rise of leaders who would nationalize their industries for the benefit of their own peoples. Central- and South America, as well as many Middle Eastern countries have suffered for decades under America's urge to spread its particular kind of "freedom and democracy" among brown people in other countries.
The defense of one's own borders is not the military's primary objective, certainly not in a country like America that has never been attacked or invaded. With the Red Scare during the Cold War and the terrorist threat since the 9/11 attacks, the role of the military has shifted from "protecting the borders" to "protecting our way of life", which makes it easier to point at a far away ideologically motivated enemy, rather than at a real material threat at the border. The draft is a thing of the past, so the military is 100% "voluntary" and needs to be advertised to draw in new recruits, one might say. And that's true in a sense, but on the other hand, becoming a soldier is the only way to make a living for many people, young men especially; they don't join because of some higher goal of "serving the country" nor to spread democracy, it's just to put food on the table.
I don't need to point out the power and influence concentrated within the military industrial complex; just look at the amount of military-, soldier and "renegade policeman" adulation present in modern media like television, books and Hollywood films. Needless to say that the far-right propaganda of PragerU conveniently forgets to mention all of this, and makes it even worse by making their love-song for the fallen soldier so unbelievably over-the-top that it becomes really cringe. Even the description is sickening: "Others have made the ultimate sacrifice so that you could be free. Remember them—today, and always. A moving tribute, written and narrated by former Navy SEAL and author Jocko Willink." Arghhh... Please stop romanticizing the nation's killing-machine. Stop elevating the renegade cop (the cop who thinks himself above the law) in your fiction. Yes, the fallen soldier has given his or her life for something that was bigger than themselves, but that doesn't mean their death was more meaningful than any other death. Respect the life of every individual, but don't act as if joining the military means becoming part of a greater good, it doesn't.
The Fallen Soldier
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