Saturday, May 31, 2014

The Childish and Cruel Nature of harpercon Attitudes About War

By now, everyone's heard of the corrupt idiot Julian Fantino's non-interaction with Jenifer Migneault, the wife of a Canadian Forces veteran with PTSD. Evidently, Mrs. Migneault has been trying to speak with Fantino (or someone in authority) about how maybe the spouses of veterans with PTSD and other problems, should get training in how to deal with their spouses' problems. She can no longer work as her husband needs 24-hour monitoring because suicidal thoughts are never far from his mind.

I can imagine that the more slobberingly stupid members of the "Blogging Tories" might be speculating that this latest generation of veterans must be of weaker constitutions than their forebears. Something about how feminism and gay-rights has enervated our society so that even manly men in the military end up not being able to cope with the stresses of war. This is of course bullshit. Veterans of the Second World War and the Korean War (not all of them) were traumatized by what they experienced. Some became alcoholics. Some committed suicide. Some were plagued with a lifetime of depression.

I'm writing a story about World War Two because it was an epic tragedy that radically altered the course of world history. I believe that, because of their murderous racism, it was good that the Nazis lost that war. I also believe that had Germany and Japan triumphed, it would have signaled a victory for blatant militarism and, essentially, fascist insanity worldwide. To make a long story short, for all their shortcomings and evils, the better side won that conflict. And I think the same thing about the Cold War. I now think that corporate-capitalist America's victory has infected them with excessive, unchecked hubris and inhumanity. Hopefully they are the last enemy to face before the dawn of a humanistic socialist democracy. But I strive mightily not to make the sections dealing with actual combat into some sort of mindless, childish celebration of action-movie excitement.

But it seems that childishness is the order of the day for the harpercons when it comes to war. These grown men and women actually conjure up images of Canadian "G.I. Joes" fighting with two-fisted fury against the evil forces of C.O.B.R.A. (or Al Qaeda, the Commies, or whatever). It really is brawny he-men marching to victory and handing candies out to the liberated children of wherever it is we're liberating. And then, soldiers either die "gloriously" in combat, or at home, in dignity, after having attended numerous Remembrance Day ceremonies where they say Conservative Party of Canada luminaries honoring both the living and the victorious dead for their noble sacrifices.

Veterans sitting maimed and depressed in hospital wards, or living on the streets as their personal demons and their substance abuses made them unemployable, or screaming at their families, or any of the realities of the response to combat, none of this exists for idiot harpercons.

And then there's the cruelty. Since these people don't exist, they don't matter. Since they don't conform to stephen harper's childish, stupid picture of war and veterans, all they are is a bothersome expense. And, in the end, it seems part of the psychosis of war mongers, that they genuinely don't give a shit about "the troops" (anymore than they do about the people they tell us we're "liberating" or "defending"). stephen harper holds "the troops" in the same contempt that he holds Parliament, which is to say, TOTAL. (Don't ask me why. Just like Newton could not explain gravity, he just discovered it, so I cannot explain this inherent hatred of soldiers on the part of right-wing war mongers.)

Julian Fantino's behaviour is not an aberration. All right-wing scuzzballs would behave the same way. None of his colleagues have come out and criticized his revolting behaviour. They probably masturbate themselves thinking about the grief he's causing and wish they could do it themselves.

ETA:

I meant to mention the transparently stupid excuse Fantino offered for his $4 million on propaganda to insist that, contrary to the perception, the stephen harper regime is providing all sorts of services to veterans in need. Fantino is, I believe, too moronic to grasp how idiotic of a lie this is. The only perception that matters is that of the military community. Indeed, their protests about their shoddy treatment at the hands of the harpercon chickenhawks is the source of the general public's perceptions. It would therefore stand to reason that instead of wasting $4 million on ads for the general public, that the harpercons spend that money reaching out to veterans and their families; either to inform them of the programs that exist, or to finance things like training for PTSD support workers as Jenifer Migneault is asking for.

Fantino, who is himself stewing in his own corruption, is blissfully unaware that the harpercons are mega-corrupt. The billions spent on outside lawyers, advertisers, the separatist-funded SUN News Network, and on mercenaries, security consultants, and political consultants, dwarfs the Liberal "AdScam" scandal by magnitudes.

But that's why there's no money to train the spouses of veterans suffering from PTSD. It's all gone to reward harperccon scumbags and their friends in the corporate-criminal community.

2 comments:

the salamander said...

.. someone came up with the idea to produce the specific recent campaign.. the one with the veteran putting on a civilian suit and going out the door with a young girl.

Two questions at least arise & you've easily identified much of the entire issue.

Q #1 of course, is who came up with the idea to spend 4 million or more plus uncountable in house time. As with all ideas, it would come to one person first. It must be someone who knows there is a ton of money available.

Q#2 is whether the ad agency that developed the campaign and oversaw its production, paid a real veteran or an actor to portray a Canadian veteran in the commercials spots.. and likely related print aspects.

thwap said...

Q1: It was some dip-shit brainiac in the PMO who has the harper's confidence.

Q2: Probably an actor.