I'm posting this article because, in another discussion about SUVs and American trucks taking over European roads, I feel like a lot of cultural nuance and marketing savvy was missing from my own...
I'm posting this article because, in another discussion about SUVs and American trucks taking over European roads, I feel like a lot of cultural nuance and marketing savvy was missing from my own analysis of the topic.
I first became interested in this topic in 2019, when I viewed this illustrated essay by Nate Powell about 'normalising the language of force' in the United States. At the time, I was broadly in agreement with many of its points, especially regarding the connections between performative masculinity and vehicle purchasing and modification:
I grew up in the South in the 1980's and 1990's. And it does not escape me that those same folks who regularly decried the blacked-out, tricked-out auto detailing and modifications associated with Southern Black youth at the time - using a law and order argument - now lean hardest into those very same stylistic choices...
As consumers fetishized bigger, more powerful toys, SUV's and trucks adopted higher grilles of military design - pedestrian fatalities have dramatically increased. In a vehicular design context, safety rarely considers those outside the vehicle. Why should that concern a driver whose entire aesthetic is a child's rejection of communication, reciprocity and legal accountability?
There was a very well-written rebuttal to this piece by Sam Duncan, much of which I empathised with. Working in my country's military at the time, which was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, predisposed me to echo this point particularly:
The military appropriation of a “civilian style” is not limited to beards, either. As Powell notes, the Department of Defense has partnered with car manufacturers to design vehicles with interchangeable parts that can mimic civilian models. Powell is 100 percent correct that this move is made possible by an existing relationship, wherein manufacturers deliberately militarize some of their civilian lines. However, by referring to this as a “GI Joe inspired… toy store move,” Powell chooses snark over an honest assessment of the real-world material concerns that motivated special operators to request these vehicles.
Standard military vehicles are easily identifiable. Since we’ve already established that special operators often have to carry out their missions discreetly, a HMMWV is probably not the best choice. Standard issue vehicles are also easy targets, which means a person employing an IED against American soldiers has plenty of time to recognize the vehicle and time an attack. By contrast, a vehicle made to look like a Nissan pickup is just one in a sea of other Nissan pickups. By the time a would-be-attacker might notice that the driver looks like an American, the vehicle has likely passed safely.
However, Duncan ends with:
There are many service members and veterans, myself included, who are uncomfortable with the various ways that civil society has been militarized, from the entanglements between sports and the military to the weapons of war found in American streets. Their voices are important in our discourse because they carry the weight of credibility.
But now it's 2023 - counter-insurgency operations in the ME region have stopped (and, to my mind twenty years too late). There is an argument for maintaining a niche Special Forces capability of armoured, civilian-seeming vehciles for clandestine and covert operations around the world. But the US military is force-structuring for great power conflict, not surviving ambushes, improvised explosive devices, and small-arms fire. This, hopefully should lead to less acquisition of light Protected Mobility Vehicles that flow on the American police departments and, concurrently, influence the stylistic choices of those who 'back the blue'.
I found the article I've linked to a good state-of-play of where twenty years of war and the fetishisation of Special Forces trades has influenced American truck manufacture, design, and cultural cache.
Some pickups and full-size SUVs now approach the dimensions of World War II-era tanks and are advertised accordingly. Ford used the term “military-grade, aluminum-alloy” five times in a single press release for its F-150 pickup. This supersizing, as well as armoring, has had predictable results.
In the United States during 16 months in 2020 and 2021, vehicles rammed into groups of protesters at least 139 times, according to a Boston Globe analysis. Three victims died and at least 100 were injured. Consider that a new level of all-American barbarity, thanks to the growing toxicity of right-wing politics, empowered by its embrace of ever-larger, more menacing vehicles being cranked out by the auto industry.
When I shared the original illustrated essay which linked militarised, SF-cool trucks with the rise of American fascism, my (Australian) colleagues scoffed. Even I found the final line a little hyperbolic. But now, in 2023, I agree with it:
These are the future fascist paramilitary participants and their ushers - take them seriously.
A surprising number of Americans serve in the military, have a job with the government or something related like working for a defense contractor in some capacity. We also see our military all the...
A surprising number of Americans serve in the military, have a job with the government or something related like working for a defense contractor in some capacity. We also see our military all the time because we have military bases all over the country, It isn't even unusual to see a few military vehicles while driving on the interstate in the US - Not to mention seeing military fighter jets flying around.
Basically we have a strangely militarized society for a Democracy so vehicles taking on those traits isn't too surprising, What's interesting to me is the people driving them and trying to look like some kind of "special operator" usually weren't in the military or served a non-combat role - which seems to make certain types of people bitter and angry at the world for some reason.
Those people are scary because they have nothing but their beliefs and their beliefs are generally more in line with the Taliban than the average American. What I'm getting at is that they're dangerous no matter what they drive and if they couldn't drive their big trucks they would just use a gun or bomb to murder others because they're fundamentally backwards cowards like all terrorists.
There's another way to look at it, though: a lot of Americans don't really know anyone in the military and don't have a good understanding of what it's like. Seeing the occasional military...
There's another way to look at it, though: a lot of Americans don't really know anyone in the military and don't have a good understanding of what it's like. Seeing the occasional military vehicles hardly counts. There's a lot of "respect for the military" stuff that's performative and a real understanding would be better.
I'm not in favor of further separation and more myth-making.
Yeah you're right most people don't know anything more than the basics, I was mostly just highlighting how common it is to see military members/equipment in the US compared to many countries for...
Yeah you're right most people don't know anything more than the basics, I was mostly just highlighting how common it is to see military members/equipment in the US compared to many countries for people that didn't realize how much of a constant presence it is here.
All this stuff about “supporting the troops” is what I meant by “performative.” The people doing these things mostly don’t have any clue what it’s like, but they’re sure it’s very important. Blind...
All this stuff about “supporting the troops” is what I meant by “performative.” The people doing these things mostly don’t have any clue what it’s like, but they’re sure it’s very important. Blind support serves as a substitute for being well-informed.
This article is pretty old, but here’s some more reading:
This reverent but disengaged attitude toward the military—we love the troops, but we’d rather not think about them—has become so familiar that we assume it is the American norm. But it is not. When Dwight D. Eisenhower, as a five-star general and the supreme commander, led what may have in fact been the finest fighting force in the history of the world, he did not describe it in that puffed-up way. On the eve of the D-Day invasion, he warned his troops, “Your task will not be an easy one,” because “your enemy is well-trained, well-equipped, and battle-hardened.” As president, Eisenhower’s most famous statement about the military was his warning in his farewell address of what could happen if its political influence grew unchecked.
At the end of World War II, nearly 10 percent of the entire U.S. population was on active military duty—which meant most able-bodied men of a certain age (plus the small number of women allowed to serve). Through the decade after World War II, when so many American families had at least one member in uniform, political and journalistic references were admiring but not awestruck. Most Americans were familiar enough with the military to respect it while being sharply aware of its shortcomings, as they were with the school system, their religion, and other important and fallible institutions.
Now the American military is exotic territory to most of the American public. As a comparison: A handful of Americans live on farms, but there are many more of them than serve in all branches of the military. (Well over 4 million people live on the country’s 2.1 million farms. The U.S. military has about 1.4 million people on active duty and another 850,000 in the reserves.) The other 310 million–plus Americans “honor” their stalwart farmers, but generally don’t know them. So too with the military. Many more young Americans will study abroad this year than will enlist in the military—nearly 300,000 students overseas, versus well under 200,000 new recruits. As a country, America has been at war nonstop for the past 13 years. As a public, it has not. A total of about 2.5 million Americans, roughly three-quarters of 1 percent, served in Iraq or Afghanistan at any point in the post-9/11 years, many of them more than once.
It's insecurity at the end of the day. Anecdotally, my friends who love hoarding guns, following "gun" themed pages on social media, bragging about all the stopping power they can concealed...
Basically we have a strangely militarized society for a Democracy so vehicles taking on those traits isn't too surprising, What's interesting to me is the people driving them and trying to look like some kind of "special operator" usually weren't in the military or served a non-combat role - which seems to make certain types of people bitter and angry at the world for some reason.
It's insecurity at the end of the day. Anecdotally, my friends who love hoarding guns, following "gun" themed pages on social media, bragging about all the stopping power they can concealed carry...have never served, and never will. But in the ashes of 9/11, all the faux patriotism (really jingoism), I suspect many Americans feel left out of the "support the troops" piece since so few of us actually enlisted and served (or are still serving)
What better way to feel better about it, than to listen to corporate propaganda and buy in? You get your tacticool Oakleys, your blacked our "military grade" Jeep Wrangler (complete with thin blue line punisher skull decal!), your AR-15 buttplug, your MOLLE capable "tactical" vest for...reasons, and so on.
Maybe toss a Multicam backpack on "because it's practical and durable" or whatever it is you tell yourself at night.
Wow I had no Idea that Australia had war crimes going on in the middle east! I knew that you had soldiers there with our other close allies but I didn't know they got caught up in anything like...
Wow I had no Idea that Australia had war crimes going on in the middle east! I knew that you had soldiers there with our other close allies but I didn't know they got caught up in anything like that, The US had quite a few issues with war crimes too and god knows what our mercenaries did - That whole "War" was such a waste of lives.
I think Australia and the US have similar issues because both cultures have a hyper masculine subculture that's been infiltrated by extremists and feels threatened at the same time because of all the social and demographic changes our countries have had this past generation - everything from gay marriage to large amounts of immigrants mixing into traditional white male controlled society has driven some of them crazy.
I actually have an Australian friend and she's mentioned things about the traditional male culture there that sounds eerily similar to the US - lots of "macho" behavior especially outside the cities.
I don't know what it's like in other "military cities," but I live not too far from Virginia Beach and every time I go to the beach, my god, the jets are just insane! Every few minutes another...
Not to mention seeing military fighter jets flying around.
I don't know what it's like in other "military cities," but I live not too far from Virginia Beach and every time I go to the beach, my god, the jets are just insane! Every few minutes another military jet flying by. And this goes on and on all day, every day. I don't know the purpose of these jets flying back and forth, but I can't imagine how much money gets wasted on this exercise. And that's just one city with a heavy military presence. I assume that's happening in other cities with military presence.
I can't speak for other cities but the Norfolk area in particular has so many fighter jets because it's home to the basically the entire Naval fighter force on the East Coast as well as its...
I can't speak for other cities but the Norfolk area in particular has so many fighter jets because it's home to the basically the entire Naval fighter force on the East Coast as well as its associated training program. 300 jets and their many pilots, replacement pilots, and support crew means lots and lots of training sorties to keep everyone fresh.
I like in the upper midwest, most of the military round here is either national gaurd training, or related to the ICBM silos upstate. Never see jets, though I do see the ocassional transport......
I like in the upper midwest, most of the military round here is either national gaurd training, or related to the ICBM silos upstate. Never see jets, though I do see the ocassional transport...
Virgina beach... how close to DC? Im pretty sure that since 9/11 we have jets in the air 24/7 around the capitol, might be what you are seeing.
I'm posting this article because, in another discussion about SUVs and American trucks taking over European roads, I feel like a lot of cultural nuance and marketing savvy was missing from my own analysis of the topic.
I first became interested in this topic in 2019, when I viewed this illustrated essay by Nate Powell about 'normalising the language of force' in the United States. At the time, I was broadly in agreement with many of its points, especially regarding the connections between performative masculinity and vehicle purchasing and modification:
There was a very well-written rebuttal to this piece by Sam Duncan, much of which I empathised with. Working in my country's military at the time, which was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, predisposed me to echo this point particularly:
However, Duncan ends with:
But now it's 2023 - counter-insurgency operations in the ME region have stopped (and, to my mind twenty years too late). There is an argument for maintaining a niche Special Forces capability of armoured, civilian-seeming vehciles for clandestine and covert operations around the world. But the US military is force-structuring for great power conflict, not surviving ambushes, improvised explosive devices, and small-arms fire. This, hopefully should lead to less acquisition of light Protected Mobility Vehicles that flow on the American police departments and, concurrently, influence the stylistic choices of those who 'back the blue'.
I found the article I've linked to a good state-of-play of where twenty years of war and the fetishisation of Special Forces trades has influenced American truck manufacture, design, and cultural cache.
When I shared the original illustrated essay which linked militarised, SF-cool trucks with the rise of American fascism, my (Australian) colleagues scoffed. Even I found the final line a little hyperbolic. But now, in 2023, I agree with it:
It hasn't, we're just using missiles now.
That's fair, I just want to highlight the fact that we are very much there despite many people thinking we aren't in the middle east at all anymore.
A good rule of thumb is, if the US has ever been in a place, it's still there. There are few notable exceptions.
A surprising number of Americans serve in the military, have a job with the government or something related like working for a defense contractor in some capacity. We also see our military all the time because we have military bases all over the country, It isn't even unusual to see a few military vehicles while driving on the interstate in the US - Not to mention seeing military fighter jets flying around.
Basically we have a strangely militarized society for a Democracy so vehicles taking on those traits isn't too surprising, What's interesting to me is the people driving them and trying to look like some kind of "special operator" usually weren't in the military or served a non-combat role - which seems to make certain types of people bitter and angry at the world for some reason.
Those people are scary because they have nothing but their beliefs and their beliefs are generally more in line with the Taliban than the average American. What I'm getting at is that they're dangerous no matter what they drive and if they couldn't drive their big trucks they would just use a gun or bomb to murder others because they're fundamentally backwards cowards like all terrorists.
There's another way to look at it, though: a lot of Americans don't really know anyone in the military and don't have a good understanding of what it's like. Seeing the occasional military vehicles hardly counts. There's a lot of "respect for the military" stuff that's performative and a real understanding would be better.
I'm not in favor of further separation and more myth-making.
Yeah you're right most people don't know anything more than the basics, I was mostly just highlighting how common it is to see military members/equipment in the US compared to many countries for people that didn't realize how much of a constant presence it is here.
All this stuff about “supporting the troops” is what I meant by “performative.” The people doing these things mostly don’t have any clue what it’s like, but they’re sure it’s very important. Blind support serves as a substitute for being well-informed.
This article is pretty old, but here’s some more reading:
The Tragedy of the American Military (James Fallows, 2015)
It's insecurity at the end of the day. Anecdotally, my friends who love hoarding guns, following "gun" themed pages on social media, bragging about all the stopping power they can concealed carry...have never served, and never will. But in the ashes of 9/11, all the faux patriotism (really jingoism), I suspect many Americans feel left out of the "support the troops" piece since so few of us actually enlisted and served (or are still serving)
What better way to feel better about it, than to listen to corporate propaganda and buy in? You get your tacticool Oakleys, your blacked our "military grade" Jeep Wrangler (complete with thin blue line punisher skull decal!), your AR-15 buttplug, your MOLLE capable "tactical" vest for...reasons, and so on.
Maybe toss a Multicam backpack on "because it's practical and durable" or whatever it is you tell yourself at night.
Wow I had no Idea that Australia had war crimes going on in the middle east! I knew that you had soldiers there with our other close allies but I didn't know they got caught up in anything like that, The US had quite a few issues with war crimes too and god knows what our mercenaries did - That whole "War" was such a waste of lives.
I think Australia and the US have similar issues because both cultures have a hyper masculine subculture that's been infiltrated by extremists and feels threatened at the same time because of all the social and demographic changes our countries have had this past generation - everything from gay marriage to large amounts of immigrants mixing into traditional white male controlled society has driven some of them crazy.
I actually have an Australian friend and she's mentioned things about the traditional male culture there that sounds eerily similar to the US - lots of "macho" behavior especially outside the cities.
I don't know what it's like in other "military cities," but I live not too far from Virginia Beach and every time I go to the beach, my god, the jets are just insane! Every few minutes another military jet flying by. And this goes on and on all day, every day. I don't know the purpose of these jets flying back and forth, but I can't imagine how much money gets wasted on this exercise. And that's just one city with a heavy military presence. I assume that's happening in other cities with military presence.
I can't speak for other cities but the Norfolk area in particular has so many fighter jets because it's home to the basically the entire Naval fighter force on the East Coast as well as its associated training program. 300 jets and their many pilots, replacement pilots, and support crew means lots and lots of training sorties to keep everyone fresh.
I like in the upper midwest, most of the military round here is either national gaurd training, or related to the ICBM silos upstate. Never see jets, though I do see the ocassional transport...
Virgina beach... how close to DC? Im pretty sure that since 9/11 we have jets in the air 24/7 around the capitol, might be what you are seeing.