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U.S. Military Leaders Plan to Use the Killing of Charlie Kirk to Boost Recruitment. Will It Work? 

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“Charlie has awakened a generation of warriors.”

That is one of the slogans apparently under consideration by US military leaders in a bid to capitalize off of the assasination of Charlie Kirk to help boost recruitment numbers.

As the economy tanks, troops are on the streets, the president threatens to bomb someone weekly, and the ruling class embraces its vision of War Crimes ‘R’ Us, it makes sense that the military would be looking to boost its numbers. How could the late Kirk help? Here’s NBC News:

As part of the potential new campaign, Pentagon leaders are considering using chapters of Kirk’s political organization, Turning Point USA, at schools across the U.S. as military recruitment centers, the officials said. That could include inviting recruiters to be present at events or advertising for the military at the chapters, one of them explained.

According to the New York Times, Turning Point has chapters at over 850 campuses that register students to vote, and Kirk was a frequent advocate for the use of military force, including for the “full military occupation” of numerous American cities once DC was “liberated.” Regardless of Turning Point’s reach and Kirk’s views, however, the fact remains that the military is facing a host of other issues, which won’t simply disappear by piggybacking off of Kirk’s popularity.

Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

Today there are 340 million Americans and 1.3 million active service members, or 0.4 percent of the population—down from two percent in 1955. That’s far too low, fret the empire enthusiasts, for all the “threats” the US faces across the world. Even if the Silicon Valley lords of death are able to successfully roll out some wonder weapons misnomered as unmanned, the military still needs people to use them.

Why is the military struggling to keep up the numbers? After all, the defense budget is now over a trillion dollars. Army Maj. Michael P. Ferguson mentions the following oft-cited reasons:

Unpopular wars in the Middle East, the Pentagon’s “woke” controversies, a widespread obsession with technology that devalues human labor, poor oversight of government housing and the burdens imposed on military families have gotten headlines lately. 

Yes, and add to that the increasing number of military-age people who do not qualify because they score too low on academic testing, or because they are overweight or have other medical conditions—and that’s despite standards being relaxed. Yet Ferguson either omits or dismisses these reasons as “not viable.” The true culprit, he insists, is the so-called “crisis of masculinity.”

That’s why Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, peddler of “trickle-down masculinity,”  was brought in:

Beyond all the push up videos, the administration’s idea of masculinity seems to be encouraging more indiscriminate killing. Hegseth wants an armed forces that are “more aggressive on the battlefield” while being “potentially less hindered by the laws of armed conflict.”

And so the US military’s Africa Command, for example, no longer provides specific details of its strikes, which are being launched in record numbers. That’s because the White House greenlit a policy allowing American commanders to authorize airstrikes and special operation raids outside conventional battlefields, broadening the range of people who can be targeted for death. And they’re overhauling the Judge Advocate General’s corps” (JAG) to make the Pentagon “less restricted by the laws of armed conflict. That means “more aggressive tactics” and a “more lenient approach in charging soldiers with battlefield crimes.”

With the US’ number one “ally” and its Israel Defense Forces as a model, the sky’s really the limit here, I suppose.

Problem is all this purported masculinity is still not really working as far as recruiting goes:

Trump and Hegseth have touted an uptick in recruiting since Trump’s inauguration, though it actually began under President Joe Biden after two years of shortfalls in 2022 and 2023. But that trend could be short-lived, in part because of societal and generational changes that are shrinking the overall number of Americans eligible to serve, and which show no signs of slowing…In a July news briefing, [Pentagon spokesman Sean] Parnell addressed the task force’s work, noting that the Pentagon believes 7% to 11% of Americans see military service as a viable path forward, down from 27% after 9/11.

And part of the uptick is the result of the increased use of waivers, including for drug and alcohol abuse, which is a likely contributor to higher first-term attrition rates.

Beyond just the number of soldiers, the military is facing a series of setbacks across the board. Aside from hardware being nearly useless in Ukraine, humiliated by the Houthis, and expensive and overmatched against Iran, Trump’s June military parade was a reminder of the armed forces decline. As Seth Harp writes in a Harper’s piece that is well worth a full read:

Rather than the authoritarian spectacle that liberals had anticipated, the festivities seemed to be more a demonstration of political fatigue and civic apathy. And if Trump intended the parade to be an advertisement of America’s military strength, it would instead prove to be an inadvertent display of the armed forces’ creeping decrepitude, low morale, shrinking size, obsolescence, and dysfunction.

Kirk’s death isn’t going to help there, but it could prove useful in other areas.

Everyone Wants in on the Grift

It seems fitting that some churches are turning to AI-Charlie to encourage members to “double down on truth…courage…and your faith”—and presumably the offertory giving.

It is also symbolic of the AI plutocracy dressed up as Christian nationalism that the administration and its benefactors in Silicon Valley are trying to push. I like the following the Venn Diagram because it illustrates how the tech accelerationists have weaseled their way into the center of the competing interests of the administration:

And so we see the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, Peter Thiel, Larry Ellison, Palantir, etc. popping up whether it’s the Tik Tok sale, the surveillance and police state, deals with Gulf monarchies, genocide in Palestine, the AI bubble, plans to craft a more Christian and “martial society.” They’re trying to use Kirk’s death to advance their goals—and line their pockets—on many of these fronts.

At Kirk’s memorial service on Sunday, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller framed Kirk’s killing as part of a wider battle between good and evil—with the administration as “good, virtuous, and noble.”

This type of language is not, however, new. At the Peter Thiel-backed National Conservatism Conference last year, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts declared the start of a new American revolution to overthrow “the left”:

You might even say, accounting for the institution building that NatCon is leading, that we’re in the second American revolution: a political, social, and cultural wrestling from the left, all those institutions that have considerable power, that they have steadily co-opted over decades. 

If you’re someone on the left, you might be surprised to hear about all this power wielded by “the left” that he’s talking about.  Well, for Roberts it’s a big bucket that includes all Democrats, identity-focused and neoliberal NGOs, the press, universities as well as economic progressives, communists and the like on the traditional left. Here’s more:

A generation hence, we’re gonna live in a place called the United States. But if the left succeeds, our republic will cease to be a nation at all, and certainly not with self-government. We’ll be ruled from afar, subjects without rights, subservient to a religion without God, in a land without hope.

Whether Roberts, Thiel, Miller, and company really believe all this is an open question, but that’s what they’re selling, and what the administration is pursuing.

Thiel has expressed a fondness—common among the plutocrats— for using the power of the state to punish his enemies and remake the country and world the way he sees fit. Slop philosopher Marc Andreessen enjoys peddling paradise as an AI-powered police state. And they think Kirk’s death can help them get there.

I wouldn’t be so sure. On this particular objective of increasing military recruitment it ignores numerous other challenges the armed forces are up against, not least among them that it is yet another collapsing institution in a country full of them:

Confidence in the American military has fallen to its lowest point in over 20 years, according to Gallup. Public trust in the military has plummeted to 45 percent from 70 percent in 2018, another survey has found.

The precipitous decline is a testament to just how badly the Pentagon has screwed up its only real job: winning wars. There are many reasons why confidence has plummeted, but it all comes back to the broader societal reality that the Pentagon brass are inveterate losers.

And the grift is too far advanced at this stage and accelerating in order to prevent more losses in the near future, especially as conflict with Iran continues to look like a strong possibility. A report last year from the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University titled “How Big Tech and Silicon Valley are Transforming the Military-Industrial Complex” details how the racket is evolving.

At its heart, the plan embedded in the trillion-dollar defense budget is to make a lot of people obscenely wealthy and hope that a wonder weapon or two emerges from the bottomless money pit. There’s little reason to believe one will. One need only take another look at that sorry excuse for a parade for evidence. Back to Seth Harp’s parade write up at Harper’s:

On display near the entrance were three Army workhorses, all of which went into service more than forty years ago and have yet to be replaced despite many billions spent on fruitless research and development. I saw an outdated Bradley Fighting Vehicle, scores of which have been destroyed by Russian forces in Ukraine, and an Abrams tank, an equally antiquated vehicle that the Ukrainians have found even less useful, despite receiving at least thirty-one of them for free. Parked in front of the Capitol was a motionless specimen of the Black Hawk helicopter, whose propensity to crash or get shot down has defined so many pivotal events in U.S. military history.

And there are many more examples of weapons, vehicles, and aircraft that got some people fabulously rich while being nothing more than burdens for soldiers at best and death traps at worst.

But hey, a grift is always an opportunity for another one:

And Coinbase was of course just one of many. Here were the others (including not one, but two, sugar companies!):

Speaking with attendees at Trump’s parade, Harp found most “motivated mostly by tired cultural grudges, xenophobic resentment, social-media memes, and civic illiteracy. Few were enthusiastic about defending Trump’s complete capitulation to Israel and the neocons.”

So we can see the appeal of using Kirk in an attempt to “awaken a generation of warriors,” but they might not be enlisting anytime soon, and even if they do, likely won’t make for the warriors Hegseth and his benefactors are banking on. The problem with running a country like one big bust out is the military hardware starts to break down, and few are eager to put their life on the line for such a transparent swindle no matter how catchy the slogans.

In reality, the best the armed forces can hope for is probably that Trump continues to wreck the economy. As RAND notes:

The civilian unemployment rate for 16–24-year-olds has risen slightly since mid-2023, although it remains historically low. Past research indicates that enlistments tend to increase with higher junior enlisted pay, advertising, bonuses, the number of recruiters, and the unemployment rate.

Even then, an army of masculine and religious warriors for global Silicon Valley interests would not appear imminent. The decay of the military might be welcome around the world but bad news on the home front. Judging from recent developments, it seems one of the last suitable functions of the armed forces will be deployments on US soil to bludgeon protesters and go after those with brown skin or the homeless. 

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35 comments

  1. JohnnySacks

    What outcome other than

    ‘the last suitable functions of the armed forces will be deployments on US soil to bludgeon protesters and go after those with brown skin or the homeless’

    could there possibly be from using Charlie Kirk as a recruitment tool?

    Any sane person should see through the obvious ineptitude of wielding that drivel as a recruitment tool, but having been 18 years old a long time ago, who am I to say what a semi formed brain manages to digest.

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  3. Wukchumni

    {Ten Hut!}

    When I get to heaven,

    Saint Peter’s gonna say,

    How’d you earn your living boy?

    How’d you earn your pay?

    I reply with a whole lot of anger,

    Earned my living as a Kirk estranger.

    Livin’ a life of Guts and Danger,

    Blood, Sweat, Guts, and Danger.

    That’s the way, of a Charlie’s Angel

    When I get to hell,

    Satan’s gonna say,

    How’d you earn your living punk?

    How’d you earn your pay?

    And I replied with a boot to his face,

    Earned my livin’ laying souls to waste!

    p.s. USN was recruiting in the theater lobby when I saw Top Gun once upon a time in America

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  4. sfglossolalia

    The military is competing with ICE for “talent”. Will the military match the $50k signing bonus that ICE offers? Plus what’s the appeal of joining the military and living on a base somewhere when you can join ICE, live at home, and have a gun in your hand and be rounding up immigrants within a couple of months?

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    1. Chris N

      Since ICE started providing student loan discharges for signing up, recruitment cannibalization between ICE and military will be a significant problem.

      I know back in the 00s, getting GI bill money was a big motivator for those who were debt averse or couldn’t qualify for student loans for financing their pursuit of higher education, and weren’t exceptional enough to qualify into an officer track career via ROTC.

      The bargain then was: take a few gap years to serve your country at a time it was needed, improve your self disciplined to do well in school, and then have enough money afterwards to focus on studies and not worry about balancing a job and homework. This was how JD Vance set himself up to do well at Ohio State before getting his law degree at Yale, and then subsequent political career.

      However, as the costs of college education continue to increase, now over double what they were in 2005, and the likelihood of getting a job that benefits from having that degree diminishes, more people feel that getting that diploma isn’t that important. (According to Pew at least)

      So if you’re young, wanting to get ahead, but already saddled with student debt and not doing well because you either didn’t finish your degree or did too poorly in school to benefit from a degree, you’ll join ICE. If you’re young, and didn’t go to college, but still want to get ahead, but don’t want to go to trade school or college later, you’ll join ICE instead of the military.

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  5. TiPi

    Keep a large tranche of Americans poor, preferably needing food banks, ensure real wage growth is miniscule and jobs insecure but boost military wages.

    That should act as a recruiting sergeant.

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  7. voislav

    The main reason military recruitment is down is that military salaries are not competitive. Salaries for soldiers and NCO’s are 30-50K a year (not counting a housing allowance, usually ~20K). As other people mentioned, ICE is offering $50K signing bonus, military $10K. Military wages are now competing with McDonalds, Walmart, etc. So with unemployment hovering in the 4-5% range, there is no incentive to join the military.

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  9. Aurelien

    Not a USian, obviously, but other countries have basically the same problem. Which is odd, really, because the reasons that people join the military, whilst quite varied, are basically stable over time and well known. However, comradeship, adventure, danger, dislike of boring office job, teamwork, preference for structured environments, and in some countries good old patriotism, not to mention a dozen other motivations that make people actually join the military are generally in disrepute these days.

    So governments have tried to do two things. One is to mislead or bribe potential applicants into joining under false pretences (“Nobody told me I’d have to run five miles every day during training!”). The other is to do everything possible to increase the supply of potential recruits, partly by condoning all sorts of health and legal problems, partly by deliberately targeting women, sexual minorities etc. But counter-intuitively, most countries now have more trouble recruiting than they did when the recruiting pool was actually smaller.

    It’s even worse with officers. Apart from all the above, would you want to spend an entire career in an organisation that didn’t’t really know what it was supposed to be doing?

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    1. OIFVet

      It was my experience in the aughts that the officer corps was full of dangerously unqualified eejiots all the way from company grade through general grade. The NCO corps had that issue to a far lesser extent, though I’ve run across some memorably incompetent NCO and officer pairings. So perhaps the organization is at least partly a reflection of its officer corps?

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      1. Glen

        I got out of the USN after the USSR collapsed, and then watched almost in horror with what happen to our military under W. I saw people just a bit younger than me go back in after 9/11, and younger (I’d say kids, but they’re not) family relatives, friend’s sons and daughters. Many went because our country had been attacked, but those endless wars, and so many tours. It broke the military, and so many vets. We’re coming up on the anniversary of our nephew’s passing. He did two tours, and never really came back.

        I don’t see how Kirk’s death can be used to boost recruitment because it’s not another 9/11. I would suggest maybe not lying America into stupid endless wars with way too many deployments for those who have joined up as a better long term means for a boost. I am a strong supporter of the draft, but only if America is really “at war” as declared by Congress, no more of this AUMF crap or call them all terrorists, and blow them sky high.

        I see the DOD (or DOW now?) as way overdue for serious reform. Get rid of all the contractors and have the soldiers/sailors/marines doing the work again. Get the insane cost/ underwhelming performance issues in the MIC under control. I once got suckered into representing my command at a weapons upgrade program performance review (I was there for training) and got dressed down by the admiral – I believe it was “I would give this upgrade program to the Soviet navy to do because it would be one tenth the cost and on schedule instead of over budget and late!” Ah, well, if he could see us now…

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        1. ilsm

          I entered active duty USAF in 1972. I saw the devastation from that decades long Saigon boondoggle it was scarcely better when I left active service in 1982. I served in the reserve and our units were good as or better than active units.

          I retired from reserve in 2002. Yes from what I hear GWOT left more damage than Vietnam, only the kids paid better.

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    2. urdsama

      It does not appear that Russia or China have such problems. And those are the nations the US really needs to be concerned with…

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      1. Polar Socialist

        Both Russia and China have a form of conscription and neither relies on the NCO corps to either train or look after the troops. There may be something in that, just sayin’.

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        1. jrkrideau

          However, the Russian conscript model is something along the idea of “Grab a few kids, train them a bit, and let them go”. IIRC the entire conscript period is a year. It seems more designed to maintain a trained reserve than have conscripts in the front line. In fact, at the moment having conscripts serve in Ukraine is illegal under the provisions of an SMO.

          Russia (back in the early 2000’s?) essentially went to a regular army model of what it terms “contract” soldiers, just like regulars in the US or UK army.

          I cannot remember who was interviewing Andrei Martyanov a few days ago , but he was saying that the idea that the Russian military do not have NCO’s is total nonsense and that he depended on his. Specialist NCO’s often would be sent on one and two year training courses.

          Given that the Russians often do things differently than the West and the often mind-boggling ignorance of the Western military about Russia, it may be that a) Russian NCO’s do not function exactly as US NCO’s and b) our military geniuses just do not recognize them.

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    3. Mildred Montana

      >…motivations that make people actually join the military are generally in disrepute these days.

      As a Canadian I find it hard to understand the veneration Americans have for their military given its often sordid history. Even a so-called progressive such as Bernie Sanders is reluctant to criticize it. Why anyone would celebrate it, let alone sign up for it, is beyond me.

      Here in Canada things are much different. Our military men and women, first of all, are not omni-present. We citizens don’t usually see them. They don’t show up for football, hockey, or baseball games with bands marching, singing the national anthem, and conducting jet flyovers or paratrooper landings prior to the game.

      Here in Canada a military job is considered by most to be one of last resort. A job for one who can’t fit into normal society. I remember a party I attended many years ago. A young man who didn’t know better made the mistake of showing up in full military dress. He was ridiculed mercilessly. Would that have happened in the USA?

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      1. amfortas

        long ago, when i had all but decided i’d had enough of the cop persecution, and that i would leave my hometown and never return…i went to a party.
        there was a dude there i had been in hight school with, and he had just sectioned 8 out of the marine corps. we weren close, to say the least…he was one of those chest thumping dick measurers.
        but at this party, he ended up crying all over me in the street, drunk as hell, about how they taught him one thing, to Kill…and how now he felt inhuman.
        this really stuck with me.
        coupled with stepdads tales and attitude re war and joining up(disabled vietnam vet, most antiwar person i have ever known)…i detect a pattern,lol.
        of course, some people are natural psychopaths and relish that sort of thing…but those have historically been a tiny minority…altho we may be producing more these days, from a variety of causes(ssri, poisoned process foodstuff, etc).
        point here is…to deploy troops against americans might be a little bit more difficult than in the 60’s.
        my boys’ cohorts contain very little racism, in fact…zero homophobia…and so on.
        not the teen world i grew up in, fo sho.
        when confronted with a kent state order, what will they do…the sense of patriotism in the troops back then was a lot more normal and prevalent than it is, now…as far as i can tell.
        of course my sample size is tiny, and somewhat strange…as ive said on NC for years, we are a n isolated, tight knit community, where people are more or less all related, somehow…and everyone looks after the kids. so, as usual with my observations, they may not scale.

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      2. .human

        He would have been “thanked for his service.”

        One thing I find disgusting is the recruiters flying banners proclaiming “100% Free College Tuition” without acknowledging any disclaimer of the years of required service.

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      3. jrkrideau

        Our military men and women, first of all, are not omni-present. We citizens don’t usually see them.
        Depends on where you live. :) I live in Kingston and the place is infested with them. A fair number have lunch or an after-work drink at my local watering hole. Heck, a few months ago I had to chase down a navel officer who dropped the bow-tie from his mess uniform. The laundry had not shut the bag properly.

        It’s always interesting to watch the military on Nov. 11observing long-standing military customs. After impeccable appearances at the various cenotaphs in town, the troops proceed at speed to the various bars downtown and proceed to get shitfaced. It’s the only day of the year you see soldiers in dress uniform reeling about the streets. The rest of the year they reel about in civvies, blending in well with the students

        The thought of them showing up in uniform with a pipe band at a regular football game is ludicrous. And, I’d hate to hear the pipers’ language. They could have been home barbecuing or mowing the lawn.

        And saying “Thank you for your service”? Good lord! I did that once to an Royal Military College cadet but she was cute and doing a bit of summer moonlighting as a server in the restaurant where I was having lunch. Try it on a senior warrant officer as you walk into Canadian Tire and you’re likely to get “What the F#*^% are you talking about?”

        I don’t see it as a job of last resort for the soldiers I know. From an enlisted person’s perspective, it has been a good career option since WWII. If you don’t want to go to university or college, it provides stable employment, usually extremely good vocational training, pretty good pay (with a recent pay raise, especially for the junior ranks), and a chance to see the world. And a chance to be shot at but outside of something like Afghanistan, it’s probably a safer career than many civilian ones: the military take safety very seriously.

        Recently, it looks like recruitment is down everywhere in the Western world and those fairly recent sexual harassment cases are not helping Canadian numbers.

        If you are not in a garrison town, I can see laughing at someone showing up in full military dress. They sound like an idiot. Around here, it would be considered a bit unusual but the assumption would be they had been busy and had not had time to change.

        It’ been quite some time since I’ve spoken to many US officers but most seem to lack a sense of humour. One never hears the type of self-depreciating humour you get from Canadian officers and I went to grad school with serving officers.

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  11. Mildred Montana

    A few months ago CBC radio did a poll of young people asking what careers they would choose. A shocking (to me) 20% of them said they would like to be “influencers”. I doubt that many mentioned a career in the military as an attractive choice. Unless maybe, just maybe, that would be as a military “influencer”. In other words, a nice desk job, preferably paying as much as an online gig. With no boot camp, no reveille, no marching or drilling, no weapons, no getting shot at.

    I wonder if recruiters realize (and as a pacifist I hope they fail in their efforts) that social media have changed everything, not only for the young but more so for us oldsters (military or otherwise). Their advent have made it extremely difficult for us to understand the internet generations. There’s no longer the generation gap from decades ago but today a *chasm*, even a *schism* if you like. I have the impression that a significant cohort of the young prefer to spend their lives online and harbor dreams that they can get rich doing so. And frankly, I don’t get it.

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  12. DJG, Reality Czar

    One of the problems goes directly with the meme: “Charlie has awakened a generation of warriors.”

    My ass. And unfortunately for all of youse, I went to a military high school, so I know what I speak of. “Warrior” is a candy-ass term that has infested the U.S. culture for some twenty or twenty-five years. “Warriors” think that watching the Spartans in 300, prancing around in their black-leather underpants, is tactics.

    It is difficult enough to be a good soldier, which is why the whole discourse is now deflected toward “warriors” and tough guys wandering the mall in camo cargo pants.

    You’re never going to get an army out of a population so deluded. And I won’t even mention the navy and being a sailor and having to go to sea.

    At the very least, the U.S. armed forces should stop cooperating in being looted. They can start by reclaiming their old functions of running their own mess halls, managing their own PXs, making their own uniforms. Getting the enlisted men off daily doses of expensive contractor-supplied Taco Bell lunches will help reduce the paunches.

    And draft women. That’ll shock a tiny bit of sense into everyone.

    And, no, Pete Hegseth isn’t an alpha male. Sheesh.

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    1. OIFVet

      Preach! LARPing as “warriors” no doubt gives these social media incels a chubby, but cracking civilian liberal heads in Chicago and facing even a committed insurgent, much less a hardened professional army, is another story altogether.

      And I agree that the military should be running it’s own services again. However, a small correction: in my time in the desert my extra pounds came from Hardees, MickyD’s, Burger King, Subway, KFC, Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Baskin Robins and even a TGIFriday’s on a short R&R in Kuwait. But for whatever reason, I never saw a Taco Bell. I doubt today’s “warriors” will have access to anything fancier than MRE instant coffee should they suddenly face the ChiComs or Russkies on the field.

      And no, the chow at the KBR-run DFAC wasn’t any healthier.

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      1. motorslug

        I would love to see couch ‘warrior’ rednecks up against born in the hood street rats armed to the teeth! Wonder how long it’ll be before those gangstas realize they are their own army.

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    2. Mildred Montana

      >And draft women. That’ll shock a tiny bit of sense into everyone.

      And draft men over the age of forty. That’ll shock a whole lotta sense into everyone who matters.

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    3. jsn

      When the Soviet Union collapsed it still had well educated cadres in multiple domains who could pick up the pieces, without which Putin’s subsequent career wouldn’t have been possible.

      It’s beginning to look like the Neoliberal Empire has already monetized whatever brains once existed in the Pentagon and Alphabet Agencies. The private sector accomplished this feat in the 80s & 90s, converting brilliant minds to share optimizers and front runners, which is why it seemed like a good idea to offshore military manufacturing, which apparently no one in the Agencies or Pentagon noticed.

      I don’t see where institutionally any of your ideas could take root until the existing ones are entirely disintegrated, which wasn’t the case with the USSR, where there remained functional institutions and educated people who actually knew how to do real things in the world who could be led to positive change. An economy of rent streams and consumption that requires wealth to purchase health can neither produce the kit nor the kids to hope to have an effective military again any time in the next twenty years. Not to mention a society worth fighting for.

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  13. .human

    People have been commenting re the next False Flag event. I believe that this was it. Look how quickly Netanhayu took ownership of The Narrative in light of the recent revelations that Kirk may have actually had second thoughts and change of mind re Israel.

    The time is certainly ripe.

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  14. Geo

    Reminds me a bit of Pat Tillman. Another “martyr” used for propaganda purposes. Similarly both were starting to speak out against the cause before they were killed. Main difference is Tillman put his body where his mouth was. Kirk just ran his mouth.

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    1. Jonathan Holland Becnel

      Facts.

      Before I got kicked out of RASP at Benning, I noticed no one liked to talk about the most famous Ranger….

      🤔

      We join up because we figure it can’t be that bad since our fathers and grandfathers were in it and/or our lives majorly sucked balls thanks to capitalism.

      It really is a comforting thing having figured out what real patriotism means to me (mostly thanks to NC :)

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  15. Grant

    Will it “succeed”? Depends on how you define success. If bribing economically vulnerable people, who you then work to propagandize to hate a large share of humanity and use to beat and kill your political enemies is “success”, then, maybe. Same if your goal is an influx of far right ghouls. It’s also possible that these right wing freaks are massively overplaying their hand and incorrectly think that they can act this way and pay no consequences. When they do, no one outside their bubble will care about their whining, and this may be a short term influx of far right elements into the military and ICE. Personally, I want everyone in ICE and the state that is breaking the law to be prosecuted. Not holding these people accountable going back decades is a huge reason we’re at this moment.

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    1. Michael Fiorillo

      Obama said we needed to “look forward, not backward” when he declined to pursue criminal investigations and indictments against torturers. We’re now living in the “forward” he was referring to.

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  16. Lefty Godot

    “We’ll be ruled from afar [Tel Aviv], subjects without rights [Patriot Act, AUMF, etc.], subservient to a religion without God [Zionism], in a land without hope [they’re working on that!].” Yep, I hear you loud and clear. Will they get a little uptick from Kirk? Probably, but I would bet it will peter out pretty quickly. I mean, who wants to put down their phone or video game console and hit the beach in Venezuela with a big heavy pack strapped to them and drones dropping grenades all around their heads, really?

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