David Fagin; Becoming A Racist: The Unfortunate Side Effect Of Serving Your Country?

So this little fella, David Fagin, at the Huffington Post writes about how our military service turned us all into racists, because his uncle, a police officer on the mean streets of New York City said racist stuff in his presence, so that means that everyone who puts on a uniform is a racist. In his bio, Fagin says that he’s a “Writer, musician, Trump Resister, food snob”, well, actually, he’s just a snob.

One of the more shocking things to learn about the white nationalists’ rally in Charlottesville this past week, was not that they blame the protestors for the death of Heather Heyer. As stupefying a statement as that is, you expect cowards like that to shift the blame away from themselves whenever possible. After all, the entire white power and neo-Nazi movement is based on blaming someone else for your problems.

In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Vice News’ Elle Reeve mentions that security for the neo-Nazis was not provided by the Charlottesville police, as one might expect, but by veterans of the Iraq/Afghan war.

To hear that these veterans claim they were ‘radicalized’ in Iraq and Afghanistan during their tours of duty is one of the more unfortunate things to come to light regarding the side-effects of serving your country.

By now, we’re all familiar with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and even with proper treatment, the debilitating state it can leave a returning soldier in, sometimes for the rest of their lives.

Yeah, junior, another thing that might shock you is that not all veterans can be shoved into one of your social cubbyholes – we’re not raised on breeding farms and have our heads stuffed with racist propaganda. We come from the same society that produced you – some people come into military service damaged and they come out the other side the same way. And, oh, by the way, if this blog teaches anything, it teaches that just because someone tells a reporter that he’s a veteran, that doesn’t make it so.

But to think that even a small portion of them are returning from duty harboring feelings of such intense anger and disgust toward anyone who isn’t white, leads one to believe the military isn’t doing enough in the area of outreach, post-discharge. After all, not every soldier returns with a desire to protect and defend those with beliefs and convictions that stand in direct contrast to everything our military has fought against, and fights against as we speak. But, however small the percentage is, running security for white supremacists is quite a unique avenue regarding symptoms/display of PTSD, and these individuals obviously need help.

Most of us know someone, either a friend or relative, who’s returned home from the Middle East suffering from PTSD. And, tragically, most of us know someone who’s not been given the help and assistance they deserve from the country they’ve fought to defend.

Here’s another thing that may surprise you, David – PTSD doesn’t make us racist, it just doesn’t. Thousands of people who suffer from PTSD didn’t go to the rally in Charlottesville. It’s pretty likely that anyone with PTSD would avoid a large group of people who are being boisterous, so you’re just being ignorant now.

The utter failure by our so-called Commander-in-Chief to condemn these hate groups has prompted the leaders of our armed forces to do the unthinkable, to step out of rank with the president and speak out against it, themselves. And, while their action is commendable, the military needs to focus their attention on treating this new type of expression of their trauma, as, although returning from battle steadfast in the “Us vs. Them” mentality is nothing new, taking a job as security guard for neo-nazis, is.

There is only one side to this fence, and to think we’re not only welcoming home members of the armed forces whose opinions and beliefs have been shattered and damaged due to their perilous environment, but who find solace in a President willing to condone those twisted beliefs, rather than make it his mission to do everything he can to help them, makes one worry about where the next Charlottesville will be, and who, exactly, we’ll be fighting.

The President did condemn the racists at Charlottesville, you just chose not to hear it, because he included the bad people on the racist side with the bad people on the anti-fa side, and you didn’t like that.

People who serve in the military come out the other side of their service more aware of the concept of inclusion based on superficial things like skin color – they live and work daily, hourly with people who are different than they are, culturally and otherwise. They eat, sleep, work closely with each other because their lives depend on cooperation in a way people in your world would never understand.

And, oh, yeah, by the way, that doesn’t change when they take off their uniforms. Some of my closest friends who I’ve met after I left the military have been Black and Hispanic.

So cram it, food snob.

Category: Dumbass Bullshit