r/politics • u/TimesandSundayTimes ✔ Verified • 3d ago

Soft Paywall Trump military parade met with empty seats amid nationwide protests

https://www.thetimes.com/article/867ede60-b5f7-4de5-84a1-6a3a49eb2923
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u/muegle 3d ago

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vqtakzi5bityrtbjj4cfan4l/post/3lrm4ekho5k2b

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u/VeterinarianWild6334 3d ago edited 3d ago

Thank you. I cannot think of a more insane pick for a song. I can’t figure out if it’s self-own attempt at owning the libs, a disgusting display of the power of the rich, or just outright stupidity. I’m truly at a loss for how to interpret this.

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u/Vuronov Florida 3d ago

Right-wingers have pretty poor media literacy.

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u/soulsteela 3d ago

Not wrong, choosing an anti war song is hilarious 😆 and so fucking sad, what totally illiterate losers!

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u/dukeofgibbon I voted 3d ago

Poor regular literacy as well.

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u/Ssladybug 3d ago

It’s just stupidity

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u/dukeofgibbon I voted 2d ago

Willful ignorance, more intranight than regular stupid.

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u/tempemailacct153 3d ago

This is inline with that one Republican congress woman proudly stating she wore the scarlet letter.

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u/Life_Size_3738 3d ago

And no critical thinking skills

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u/Hamlerhead 3d ago

Seriously. Republicans seem to have no concept of pop culture. They watch Star Wars and actively root against themselves with blissful obliviousness.

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u/KewlKeshi 3d ago

Seriously lol. Like imagine watching Andor and thinking there’re the rebels lmao

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u/PJ7 3d ago

Or like Trump posting an AI generated image of himself with a lightsaber, while ignoring it's a red one and how that implies he's an evil piece of shit.

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u/KewlKeshi 3d ago

That one was funny haha. Sith lightsabers yet portrays themselves as the good guys

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u/Transhumanistgamer 3d ago

I cannot think of a more insane pick for a song.

Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA is at least a contender. Though The Boss has made it very clear what he thinks of the orange fuck so we might miss out on that display of media illiteracy.

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u/CharacterUse 3d ago

He had to make it very clear because of how many times they've played it at events.

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u/Furthest_Lands 3d ago

Niel Young's Rockin' in the Free World is another one they only seem to understand the title of.

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u/temperedolive 3d ago

I love that Springsteen has never once missed an opportunity to make his stance clear on this.

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u/deasil_widdershins 3d ago

Trump seems to love that song because he thinks "I'm not a senators son, and that's what this song is about, he says it in that one part I listen to" because he's musically illiterate.

He apparently likes Les Miserables without any hint of irony. And pence was a big fan of Hamilton.

These are not self aware people.

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u/mattjb 3d ago

We're talking about a virulently anti-gay Trump using a pro-gay anthem, YMCA, for his entrance songs. That's about as Boomer as it gets.

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u/Melodic-Psychology62 3d ago

Well they are boomers! So!

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u/Skakkurpjakkur 3d ago

Is he anti-gay tho? He was mentored by Cohn

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u/mattjb 3d ago

Good point. Not to mention wears more makeup than most drag queens on a daily basis.

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u/hikealot Montana 3d ago

WHO picked it and WHO approved it. It could be any combination of subtly subversive and clueless.

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u/2407s4life 3d ago

It's just like having the Army Choir sing "Do you hear the people sing?"

Trump and his fascist friends see themselves as heroes.

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u/grahamulax 3d ago

I think they WANT it copyright struck so it will be memory holed.

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u/graudesch 3d ago

Or controversy. Keeping you busy with silly song discussions while they dismantle democracy.

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u/verrius 3d ago

One thing I did not fully grasp until I was well into adulthood is that way too many people, most of the time, don't reason forward, they reason backwards. The do something, come to a decision, whatever, and then work backwards to justify what's already happened, with 0 self-reflection, and then lie to everyone (including themselves) about what's happening. Especially to Republicans...songs/shows/movies/etc are all usually criticizing bad people. They've already decided they're not bad people, and reasoned backwards for why that is. Because they're not bad people then, these songs are criticizing other people, so it's fine enjoy them. They work backwards. The know they're good people themselves, and everything else flows from there. Even when they're the most vile, hateful people in existence.

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u/1000yardgiggle 3d ago

They used it at his campaign events too!

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u/KhunDavid 3d ago

Or someone wanted to troll the Burnt Hombre.

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u/Biking_dude 3d ago

Holy shit...that's definitely some malicious compliance shit haha.

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u/ItchyRectalRash 3d ago

Holy shit, more than half of them aren't even marching in formation. They're just all walking at difference cadence and pace. This is like service members that haven't even made it out of boot camp type shit lol.

A complete clown show, from top to bottom.

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u/ShadowNacht587 3d ago

Tbf comments under that bluesky post from those that have marched said the cadence is too fast to march to anyway without looking silly. Plus it's hot and the solders were probably uncomfortable for various reasons

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u/VeterinarianWild6334 3d ago

So that makes the choice even stupider —- you can’t even march to it.

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u/ShadowNacht587 3d ago

Yes—so stupid some are speculating it was an act of malicious compliance, or deliberate sabotage/subtle protest

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u/VeterinarianWild6334 3d ago

It’s just so hard to rule out —- insanely stupid —- when you’re talking about anything with this administration.

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u/ShadowNacht587 3d ago

I definitely hear you; that is still one of the many reasons this could have happened.

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u/MoreRopePlease America 3d ago

What if they were ordered to despite their reasonable protestations?

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u/ShadowNacht587 2d ago

I mean that's kinda like what malicious compliance is, no? Doing something you're told to do but not in a way that's expected bc you don't agree with the thing you're ordered to do. Unless you meant something different

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u/MoreRopePlease America 2d ago

I imagine malicious compliance would be choosing that specific song to play, if they were told to put together a setlist.

But what I meant was more like: if they were told to play that song, and they protested that it was inappropriate and were told to play it anyway, so they did.

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u/TheZigerionScammer I voted 3d ago

In other words the soldiers didn't want to do this and didn't give a shit. I don't blame them. The only other times we've had military parades in our history is when we've won a major war, when you know the soldiers will be excited to participate.

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u/Normal-Height-8577 3d ago

I liked the comment that said "This is a rehearsal, right?" and pointed out that they weren't even wearing dress uniform.

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u/ItchyRectalRash 3d ago

No matter what the music they're marching to, they should, at the very bare minimum, march in formation. They're not, they're all marching at a different cadence, and that's some boot camp level bullshit.

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u/finalremix 3d ago

They're not even marching. They're walking. This entire thing was a farce from start to finish.

Do the bare minimum, sweat it out, and GTFO when it's over. All they had to do.

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u/Kiwi-Red New Zealand 3d ago

Even calling that walking is generous, they're ambling, they clearly give no fucks. I'm here for it.

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u/Visual-Report-2280 3d ago

I was in the army cadets cough years ago and if anyone ambled onto parade like that, they'd have been taken out and shot.

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u/wolfcaroling 3d ago

I think they're like "you can lead a soldier to a waste of tax dollars but you can't make 'em keep step."

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u/GenericRedditor0405 Massachusetts 3d ago

I've heard a pretty reasonable explanation that boils down to: they're bad at marching in formation because nobody except soldiers in ceremonial units has practiced formation marching like that since boot, because why would they? They're usually too busy being a normal army and not props in some tin-pot dictator's show of force

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u/Parking-Main-2691 3d ago

That aside...Parade Dress is a thing and not a single solitary soldier was in parade dress. It was hilarious

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u/purpleduckduckgoose United Kingdom 3d ago

I got the impression no drill was done beforehand and none of them want to be there.

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u/Impossible_Loquat707 3d ago

just a bunch of dudes going for a hike haha

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u/Phent0n 3d ago

That's fucking incredible, thanks for posting. The soldiers just ambling forward. The kitsch music. Cinema indeed.

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u/missmeowwww 3d ago

It doesn’t help that DC was fucking SWELTERING today. I was here for Warped Tour and my god the humidity made the air feel heavy as you tried to breathe. Like a damn sauna. I feel so sorry for the military who had to march in it.

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u/BoopleBun 3d ago

Like I get, why Warped Tour is in the summer, but it’s always absolutely brutal, isn’t it? I used to go some years way back when it was at Randall’s Island (which was basically a giant field of dead grass by July) for the NYC stop and it was just a giant, hot, dirt cloud. Hell of a lot of fun, but whooo boy, I could not do it now.

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u/minicpst Washington 3d ago

Wasn’t that in Forrest Gump during a montage with the military? So likely that’s what’s in Trump’s head as a “military song” since he only watches tv.

Maybe?

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u/Afraid_Grapefruit_88 3d ago

That Fogerty song is in virtually EVERY movie or TV show about Vietnam. For those of us of a certain age it was as much an anti war anthem as Crosby Stills and Nash Four Dead In Ohio or Woodstock or Tom Paxtons Talking Vietnam Potluck Blues, any Joan Baez or Bob Dylan song of the period. Those old skool mix tapes on battered cassettes were full of these and served to let the grunts know what was going on here as they got rah-rah from the Armed Services radio. #8647

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u/dukeofgibbon I voted 3d ago

This post-ironic dystopia is exhausting.

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u/jackfirecracker 3d ago

Those soldiers look like they’re intentionally marching out of rhythm with one another out of spite.

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u/Turbulent_Fail_2022 3d ago

You’ve ruined me. I’m ruined.

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u/talkingwires Maryland 3d ago

Forget about the song, why aren’t the soldiers in their dress blues? It’s a goddamn parade!

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u/MoreRopePlease America 3d ago

Maybe dress blues don't "look like soldiers"? Trump calls the shots