Which neo-soldierspeak is worse: Calling themselves 'warriors' or calling insurgents 'the bad guys?'

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Support the troops, yeah, yeah... but the posturing seriously bugs.

― andy --, Friday, 26 August 2005 18:15 (twenty years ago)

http://www.nesworld.com/com/gijoe.jpg

― and I can walk out into the world, singing with my people (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 26 August 2005 18:20 (twenty years ago)

Teenaged American boys in "vocabulary shaped entirely by television and movies" shocker.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 26 August 2005 18:21 (twenty years ago)

Well, the insurgents are deliberately killing civilians, so I think that characterization is fine even if it sounds asinine on the lips.

"Warriors" is kind of silly when they mean to be restoring peace.

― I'm Hi, Jared Fogle (ex machina), Friday, 26 August 2005 18:21 (twenty years ago)

Legislators use these terms too when they want to sound badass.

― andy --, Friday, 26 August 2005 18:25 (twenty years ago)

It's the legislators (and the pundits that pretend they are them) usage of "bad guys" that I find so frustrating, because it conveniently sort've wipes away all the actual circumstances involving their descent into badhood.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 26 August 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

Just to be contrary, 'warrior' with it's origin in 'war' is an older description of a mindset than 'soldier' with it's origin in money and training. One can be a warrior without necessarily killing or harming people and it implies an interiorized code that soldier doesn't necessarily, so I'll concede that it may not always apply to all of our troops, apparently. 'Bad guys' maybe reductive and childish but using it to desribe obtuse Sunnis and psychopathic Jihadists isn't really wrong.

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 26 August 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

Is this really neo? xpost

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 26 August 2005 18:32 (twenty years ago)

how many local hardcore bands took the name "the Evildoers" in the last 3 years, anyway?

― kingfish 'doublescoop' moose tracks (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 26 August 2005 18:37 (twenty years ago)

The fact that it's an all-volunteer military has brought this about. Do Coast Guard guys talk like this, BTW?

― andy --, Friday, 26 August 2005 18:38 (twenty years ago)

No, because the Coast Guard has never, ever seen any kind of action with anyone who could be described as "bad guys".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 26 August 2005 18:41 (twenty years ago)

Okay, that's unfair to the Coast Guard. Sorry any meritime ass motherfuckers out there!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 26 August 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

It bothers me more when I hear the cops on "COPS" talk about the bad guys than I do with the soldiers.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 26 August 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

No, because the Coast Guard has never, ever seen any kind of action with anyone who could be described as "bad guys".

yeah, aside from those drugrunners and human smugglers and cubans and whatnot.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 26 August 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

They keep blow prices high, those darn Coast Guarders. Leave the coast alone!

― andy --, Friday, 26 August 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

They should call them malefactors or scoundrels, outlaws or vilains. Bad guy is strictly for the pre-teen crowd.

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 26 August 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

nick the coast guard definitely tangles with bad guys

― j blount (papa la bas), Friday, 26 August 2005 18:45 (twenty years ago)

Oh shit yeah, I guess so. I...ignore stuff a lot.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 26 August 2005 18:46 (twenty years ago)

coast guard dress unis = SHARP
coast guard working unis = ASS

― j blount (papa la bas), Friday, 26 August 2005 18:47 (twenty years ago)

So, together = SHARP ASS!!!

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 26 August 2005 18:48 (twenty years ago)

i miss PRIVATEERS.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 26 August 2005 18:50 (twenty years ago)

"Mmmm, I hate freedom!! That is the sole reason I attack Yankee troops! We must stop freedom wherever we find it!!"

(Rubbing palms together maniacally and twisting beard)

― - Ali Al Hatar, Enemies of Freedom Brigade, Friday, 26 August 2005 18:51 (twenty years ago)

They should call them malefactors or scoundrels, outlaws or vilains.
Perhaps "ruffians", "ne'er-do-wells", or merely "ingrates" would fit the bill.

― Sparkle Motion's Rising Force, Friday, 26 August 2005 18:55 (twenty years ago)

Most crime reporters, editors and cops I've encountered have frequently used "Bad Guys" as shorthand for suspects making court appearances.

― Huk-L's Sweet Strawberry, Friday, 26 August 2005 18:56 (twenty years ago)

in conversation, mind you. never "officially" or "on the record"

― Huk-L's Sweet Strawberry, Friday, 26 August 2005 18:59 (twenty years ago)

hawk harrleson calls whomever the white sox plays "bad guys."

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 26 August 2005 19:02 (twenty years ago)

Sometime in the early 90's the phrasing of my local news stopped presuming innocence for those on trial for crimes... excepting rich people.

― I'm Hi, Jared Fogle (ex machina), Friday, 26 August 2005 19:06 (twenty years ago)

http://www.thortrains.net/armymen/mpcowboy1.jpg

Good guys.

http://www.plasticsoldiers.co.uk/photos/C.T.S/DCP05345.JPG

Bad guys.

― andy --, Friday, 26 August 2005 19:06 (twenty years ago)

Well there are good guys and there are bad guys
And there are crooks and criminals
There are doctors and there are lawyers
And there are folks like you and me

So let's get high while the radio's on
Just relax and sing a song
Drive your car up on the lawn
Let me play your guitar

Well, this here verse is for the people in Russia
Though it is a long long ways away
They couldn't hear this song in Russia
But couldn't understand the words anyway

So let's get high while the radio's on
Just relax and sing a song
Drive your car up on the lawn
Let me play your guitar

So just be glad you live in America
Just relax and be yourself
Cuz if you didn't live here in America
You'd probably live somewhere else

So let's get high while the radio's on
Just relax and sing a song
Drive your car up on the lawn
Let me play your guitar

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 26 August 2005 19:10 (twenty years ago)

http://captain-america.us/articles/images/captain-298.jpg

― andy --, Friday, 26 August 2005 19:15 (twenty years ago)

"scofflaws," "brigands," "vagabonds"

― kingfish 'doublescoop' moose tracks (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 26 August 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

"the hun"

― Sparkle Motion's Rising Force, Friday, 26 August 2005 19:32 (twenty years ago)

http://www.rainfall.com/posters/images/WWI/3g02792u.jpg

― Sparkle Motion's Rising Force, Friday, 26 August 2005 19:35 (twenty years ago)

whoa, since when did forest rangers/national park service-types get involved? much less whilst the forest apparently burns around them?

― kingfish 'doublescoop' moose tracks (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 26 August 2005 19:57 (twenty years ago)

Their hat is actually calqued on the military campaign hat in use then. (/NPS Brat)

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 26 August 2005 19:59 (twenty years ago)

"Freedom Fighters"

― Auger.D, Friday, 26 August 2005 20:03 (twenty years ago)

I like the ambiguity of 'freedom fighters'. "We're fighting freedom!"

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 26 August 2005 20:20 (twenty years ago)

FWIW, that first photo has me humming 'Cobra, cobra, cobra, cobra, cobra, commander' to the tune of 'Karma Chameleon'. Later tonight, they will inquire why I am so drunk.

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 26 August 2005 20:23 (twenty years ago)

"He loves Destro. He loves Destro-whoa-oh."

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 26 August 2005 20:25 (twenty years ago)

http://www.wrathoftherunt.com/wotr/Wizardcon03/Destro1.jpg

― Sparkle Motion's Rising Force, Friday, 26 August 2005 20:35 (twenty years ago)

"More boots on the ground" was a favorite of bootlicking imbedded Fox paperboys... those jackass lackeys that bought Banana Repub. "war correspondent" jackets and khaftans... that part of the war is mercifully over.

― andy --, Friday, 26 August 2005 21:26 (twenty years ago)

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