What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[garbon]

I feel like you can still be critical about the institution of the military, but it is a bad idea to talk crap about the service members unless you are one.

Not that anybody would ever want to say anything bad about the brave men and women who give their lives for our freedom. I mean that would be nuts.

That seems like how it's been during my whole life.

[The Brain]

The nation's obsession with honoring the armed forces these days is getting... more than a tad intense.  It's like things swung from demeaning and the "spitting on soldiers" of the post Vietnam era to total swing in the opposite direction.  Heck, more than a complete swing.  There is almost zero tolerance for any discussion of the military that isn't glorifying it and promoting it in the most jingoistic terms and to do otherwise is political suicide.  I don't think we've quite reached Imperial German levels of worship, but it seems like we're getting there.  It is not an ideal situation in my opinion.

Yeah.  It's not healthy.  It actually comes from the Vietnam thing.  I don't think there were actually occasions where soldiers spit on by protesters, but it became a standard Republican talking point in the 1980's.  The Democrats countered this by trying to be even more pro-military.  The result is almost like an arms race of adoration.

With some exceptions. Dukakis went for comic relief.

[derspiess]

I feel like you can still be critical about the institution of the military, but it is a bad idea to talk crap about the service members unless you are one.

Not that anybody would ever want to say anything bad about the brave men and women who give their lives for our freedom. I mean that would be nuts.

That seems like how it's been during my whole life.

I'm not old enough to remember Vietnam itself, but I can remember there being some cultural stigma attached to Vietnam veterans.  I guess the correction started sometime in the 80s and yeah I agree that it's over-corrected now to some extent and is entrenched in the PC realm.

[Malthus]

One "WTF?" moment, as an outsider, was when the  " Discovery Wings Channel", which we got with our cable package, changed its name first to the "Military Channel" and then a few years ago  to the "American Heroes Channel".

[Valmy]

Did their entire programming schedule consist of G.I. Joe cartoons?

[Malthus]

Did their entire programming schedule consist of G.I. Joe cartoons?

We used to joke it truly was the "Hitler Channel", because it mostly runs WW2 stuff, with a big emphasis on Nazis.    I don't think I've ever seen, say, a program on the Vietnam War on this channel.

I guess they found "Military Channel" too generic, but "American Heroes Channel" sounds absurdly jingoistic (at least, to us dirty foreigners). 

[Valmy]

Generally I find TV documentaries pretty bad at getting good information in general. The fact it was all about WWII is because they are made with the same mentality of any other TV show: to appeal to viewers and get ratings. Which is fine, but rarely creates interesting history content. Even the best History Channel stuff had issues.

I find it hard to believe even the most nationalistic American history buff would really want to see a series of documentaries called 'American Heroes' but I guess it played well to their focus group.

[DGuller]

Wasn't it History Channel that was called the Hitler Channel?  In any case, say what you will about it, but when I was little, it was a very fun way to learn all the historical urban legends.

[Valmy]

Wasn't it History Channel that was called the Hitler Channel?  In any case, say what you will about it, but when I was little, it was a very fun way to learn all the historical urban legends.

Yes. Though they had a couple other shows that I really enjoyed. The Real West, for example (actually the popularity of this show on A&E was the reason the History Channel was created). But it was not great history content. But I guess it was history content as opposed to what they did later.

This was the last major effort to make a cable station based around content of this sort and it just showed me that it doesn't work. You cannot take an interest this niche and make it to both satisfy enthusiasts and entertain a general audience to the extent it can be profitable in this format. But fortunately it doesn't need to anymore.

The great history stuff is being made on Youtube and podcasts.

[Malthus]

Wasn't it History Channel that was called the Hitler Channel?  In any case, say what you will about it, but when I was little, it was a very fun way to learn all the historical urban legends.

This one is like the History Channel used to be, but even moreso.

Lately, the History Channel is all about the Space Aliens. Hitler only gets a mention to the extent he's considered a Space Alien.

[Valmy]

Wasn't it History Channel that was called the Hitler Channel?  In any case, say what you will about it, but when I was little, it was a very fun way to learn all the historical urban legends.

This one is like the History Channel used to be, but even moreso.

Lately, the History Channel is all about the Space Aliens. Hitler only gets a mention to the extent he's considered a Space Alien.

I am not saying that aliens have taken over the History Channel...

[Sophie Scholl]

Yes. Though they had a couple other shows that I really enjoyed. The Real West, for example (actually the popularity of this show on A&E was the reason the History Channel was created). But it was not great history content. But I guess it was history content as opposed to what they did later.

I was a big fan of Civil War Journal as well.  That may have started on A&E though and then migrated to The History Channel.  For anyone who watched it, remember Brian Pohanka?  The guy with the awesome Civil War style goatee who was also in the movie Gettysburg due to his look?  He died in '05 of cancer.  For some reason that really bummed me out when I found out about it.

[Malthus]

Wasn't it History Channel that was called the Hitler Channel?  In any case, say what you will about it, but when I was little, it was a very fun way to learn all the historical urban legends.

This one is like the History Channel used to be, but even moreso.

Lately, the History Channel is all about the Space Aliens. Hitler only gets a mention to the extent he's considered a Space Alien.

I am not saying that aliens have taken over the History Channel...

I found this hilarious blog post by a science writer pissed off at Ancient Aliens mixing aliens with dinosaurs: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-idiocy-fabrications-and-lies-of-ancient-aliens-86294030/?no-ist

[frunk]

I found this hilarious blog post by a science writer pissed off at Ancient Aliens mixing aliens with dinosaurs: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-idiocy-fabrications-and-lies-of-ancient-aliens-86294030/?no-ist

I didn't think Smithsonian's comment section on the article would be quite so stupid, but....sigh.

[Valmy]

I found this hilarious blog post by a science writer pissed off at Ancient Aliens mixing aliens with dinosaurs: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-idiocy-fabrications-and-lies-of-ancient-aliens-86294030/?no-ist

He is not wrong. The History Channel became a channel devoted to making the public misinformed. Everybody in this country is now dumber for having watched their shows. I award them no points and may God have mercy on their soul.