Author | Lightnews

Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 2h

Wow, that's beautiful. And I'm still enthralled by the Benu Bennu.

Do I really need my spleen? How much are those selling for these days?

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Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 7h

Not fools. Nazis.

Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 7h

Taking and using the enemy's symbols has never been part of any military doctrine in history. The enemy's symbols are taken to be desecrated or displayed as trophies of the defeated. Someone who uses the enemy's symbols is the enemy. That's literally how you recognize them.

Your brother is a Nazi.

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Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 1d

I don't believe in ironic Nazis. I don't believe in ironic tattoos of possibly the second most notorious Nazi symbol. And I don't believe in ironically navigating Marine Corps service with a Nazi tattoo that can get you cashiered. That took networking with other Nazis. The whole thing makes me ill.

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Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 1d

People need to stop giving fucking Nazis the benefit of the doubt.

Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 1d

The more I think about this, the less I believe he didn't know. The SS-Totenkopf is one of the most well-known and evil Nazi symbols. Worn by every member of the SS, with a second one for concentration camp guards, there's no way a Marine had no idea and never figured it out.

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Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 1d

You know the money is the least offensive part of all this, right? 🧐

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Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 1d

I want to add a new litmus test: if you can't call the Democratic Party by its name instead of the childish shortened version Republicans use, you don't get to be a member. 🧐 It's not that I think "Democrat Party" is an insult, but if you accept Republican framing on one thing, you will on others.

Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 1d

It's worse than just a tank division emblem (though it was also that). The SS-Totenkopf was the emblem of the entire SS, and concentration camp guards wore a second one. It's one of the most infamous Nazi symbols. The military at least used to educate soldiers about this. I think he knew.

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Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 1d

Once upon a time a Marine who got a Nazi tattoo even accidentally and did not have it immediately removed would have been visited in the night by a helpful amateur tattoo removal detail. I know the Marines' Nazi problem isn't new, but I'm old enough that it still feels new and horrible.

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Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 1d

I've been seeing a performative apathy about this today that I find disturbing. The People's House, where presidents live briefly and then, crucially, depart: you don't have to think this country is perfect to see the importance of these symbols, and feel the weight of their destruction.

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Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 1d

I think people who are not psychologists should be careful when tossing out diagnostic terms. Being horrible is not a mental illness, and not every horrible person is a psychopath.

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Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you for adding "if you are able." It's really nice to hear shopping cart theory with that addition. 😁

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Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 2d

Me: It's finally cool enough and not-raining enough to open the windows!

Elsewhere:

a man with a mask on his face is standing in front of a bunch of candles in a dark room .

Alt: Gary Oldman in impressive bat-face makeup from Bram Stoker's Dracula, surrounded by candles, calling out, "Winds! Winds!" as vast winds arise and blow out all the candles and try to knock my blinds off my window.

media.tenor.com

Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you for illustrating my point: redemption requires believing consequences to be irrelevant. The only thing that matters is my decision to choose my own self-definition, any teeth I've broken along the way are just things that happened to other people, and thus unimportant.

Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 2d

Of course not. Never suggested you were. I took your meaning to be that nationalism is bad enough that it's not important (not a gotcha, to use your word) to point out hypocrisy in avowed nationalists, and that's what I was responding to.

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Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 2d

A simple example: hypothetically, say I shove you and you fall and break a tooth. I apologize, I pay for the dental work, I improve myself and dedicate my life to nonviolence and helping others deal peacefully with anger.

Your tooth is still broken. Nothing repaired is ever as it was.

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Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 2d

The only way for the future to be all that defines you, not your previous actions, is for the past to stop defining you. That can't happen. People are the sum of all they have experienced. You can't curate what defines you. You can only try to add to it to improve the final balance.

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Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 2d

First, I never suggested it's a purely Christian concept, I just gave one theological meaning, followed by the etymology of the word to cover secular use.

Second, you said, "The past doesn't go away, but the future can become what defines you, not your previous actions."

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Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 2d

Yes, but pointing out the hypocrisy of hyper-nationalists in preferring people from other countries to their own co-residents is like pointing out the hypocrisy of fully vaccinated anti-vaxxers. It's useful to general understanding of who they are, it doesn't mean you have the disease yourself.

Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 2d

And if your chief expressed "virtue" is based in nationalism, it's actually useful to others' understanding if people point out your hypocrisy in preferring people from another country to those from the place you profess to consider superior.

Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 2d

Nationalism sucks, but if you're governing a country you have a professional obligation to consider the citizens of that country before people from another country. That Republicans governing this country prefer people from other countries to their own constituents is actually bad.

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Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 2d

Theologically (in Christianity) it means erasing sin, etymologically it means to "rebuy," to repurchase a prior state. What you describe, being defined only by future actions, is impossible without erasing past actions. Your future actions add to what defines you, but they can't remove the past.

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Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 2d

There is no such thing as redemption. You can't undo the past, wipe the slate clean. You can become a better person, or seek forgiveness or restoration, but you've done what you've done, and nothing can erase your mistakes or misdeeds. Anyone who says differently is selling something.

Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 6d

Do you have any extremely niche, but serious, ethical stances?

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Kyle D. Long @blatherscribe.bsky.social · 2d

I'm just going to go ahead and blame Elon now and beat the heavy traffic later. Yes, lots of meteorites strike the Earth, but so so lots of Starlink garbage cans. Also I just want there to be at least one (1) consequence. 🧐

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