I hate military Cliches

...because they defame true military members, insult the intelligence of anyone who knows about it, and make us all look stupid.


From the point of view of a vet, someone who has been in the military, its a little upsetting. I have tough skin so it doesnt bother me too much, but military cliches are like sterotypoes and can be very damaging. Its the reason why the defamation league is so against negative type casting of minorities in movies where the black or hispanic guy is often a mugger or rapist.

Even positive stereotypes can be damaging ('all Asians are good at math' sets the civil rights movement back fifty years because it reduces all individual Asians down to 'that guy who is good at math'. Its the old stereotypes that takes individuals and lumps thme all together as a group that is dmaging. Not all Asians are the same, and its the same way in the military.

It would not bother me so much if negative sterotypes would not hinder me from getting hired from a potential employer who thinks he knows everything about former Marines because of what he saw on TV, but some people out there actually ARE that ignorant. Because of movies like Full Metal Jacket and A Few Good Men, some people think that all Marines are squared away jarhead robots who get a hard on from killing and blood.

Maybe its good that some people (like out enemies) are convinced that we will eat their babies (yes, some people overseas actually think that we eat their children, its stupid but true), then maybe a potential enemy may become less likely to attack us or our allies in the future. Unfortunatey, in the meantime, we get singled out by the enemy and our own people alike. (A Marine barracks was blown up in Lebanon and there was a night club in North Carolina that denied Marine visitors because they believed us to be too rowdy. Let me dispel some myths.

1)Not all Marines are infantry.
Despite horrible movies like John Cena's 'Marine' we are not all juiced hyper-steroid supermen who are bullet/fire-proof commandos. There are over three hundred professions in the Corps, ranging from admin clerk to avionics technician(which is what I was). There are only six or maybe seven warfighting MOS's, and thats a very significant ratio. Yes, ALL Marines are riflemen, and yes, we are all heavily instilled with the Corp's old philosophy of killing America's enemies. However, just keep in mind, that we don't all spend every day of the week drinking the blood of brown babies. Even most infantry guys spend most of their time drilling, in classes, in the field training, or out in the track physical training, or cleaning rifles, etc.

2)Not all Marines are crazy. We are not brainwashed zombies, we are not even all homogenized government issued retards, we are individulas with families and friends, and some of us have remarkable reasoning powers and opinions. We may not always get the freedom to voice our opinions, but we still have brains and hearts.

3)We hae not all been overseas, had sex with Phillipine prostitues, and covered with STD sores. Seriously, some of us (unfortunately) have never even been overseas, as much as they might have wanted to (sigh). Some of us have only banged prostitutes on one continent, if any, and are completely free of STD sores(dang).

4)We have not all been in the field for three tours, lost a friend named Charlie, suffering from PTSD, and dress up in utilities on the weekend to impress chicks. Again, even if some do, not all, a stereotype is a sterotype is a sterotype.

5)We do not see red when we get angry and start murdering people senslessly, as much as I might want to, I love you civilians, as much as they completely dont understand what being a Marine even means, I dont.

If you want to know what its like, enlist or get a commission. If not, stop pretending that you know everything about us, cos you DONT. Stop spreading lies, try to keep an open mind. Im not asking you to kiss our ass, if you hate us, fine, we will still defend you when the times comes for it, just dont deny us any freedoms or rights (like being able to go into a bar unharassed) just because of what we do. Please.

And that is the end of my rant