why are straight white guys so obsessed with world war 2
like i’ll talk about my interest in history and i’ll have guys be like “yeah i’m a history buff too i love world war 1 and 2″ like cool i was talking about ancient history. like the conversation was literally about ancient egypt.
my fave thing is replying “oh, cool. i just can’t get into it. i like everyday life and religion and art. personally, i find war boring.” and let me tell you it’s a journey to watch them try and understand that killing thousands of people indiscriminately doesn’t hold my attention.
yup it’s always the “oh you’re just not into history” and the response of “yes i am im just into ancient history” and you’re ready to throw 38 greek myths at them just to shut them up about the kinds of bombers the britsh were using in the second world war
except like. they really dont give a single fuck about wwi/ii. they care about the weapons and machinery. do they care about the events and the people? do they care about why wars were actually important? in my experience, very, very rarely.
I think that gets to heart of it: they’re not history buffs in any real sense. What they are is war fanboys. They collect and curate technical information about wars just like any other fanboy collects and curates technical information about the subject of their fandom. It’s basically not real to them; knowing what exact metal the buttons of SS uniforms were made of is of no greater significance to them than knowing the exact height of the captain’s chair on the starship Enterprise – it’s just another shiny technical fact for their collection.
It’s incredibly annoying because WW1 and WW2 are actually really interesting in terms of how politics changed and the like but all people want to talk about is the fighting.
This comic from The Nib is a great analysis of how the cultural obsession with World War II and “the greatest generation” has completely skewed our view of its history and totally fucked us up.
^ definitely definitely read this, especially if you were too young to remember the immediate post-9/11 times.
Baby boomers: why don’t millennials just work 2 jobs?
Minimum wage jobs: ok so we need at least 4 full days of availability, must work holidays, can’t request a set schedule, must work weekends, and you will never know what day or what time you are gonna work until the schedule comes out 🙂
if you genuinely think i’m “dehumanizing” someone by turning them down because of my incapability of any attraction to whatever’s in their pants, then you must confront the fact that you think i’ve dehumanized every cis man who’s ever asked me out. You cannot say “oh turning down this individual b/c you don’t like dick is fine because he belongs to [x] group so it’s not
dehumanizing, but turning down this other individual for the same reason is dehumanizing and inhumane”. That’s not how dehumanization works. You either agree that this is a reasonable way for humans to behave across the board – that it does not injure or disrespect the other person – or you have to admit that there ARE injurious/dehumanizing aspects to the way i treat all people that i turn down based on this principal (which was, last i checked… just cis men) and they must be confronted.
And if you find yourself agreeing with the second point – that behaving like this in general is
injurious/dehumanizing to all recipients of my lack of desire – then you must acknowledge undeniable common ground you have with mainstream homophobic religious groups who think that lesbians dehumanize men, and that they opt to pursue a repulsive lifestyle that prioritizes their own fetishistic sexuality instead of trying to understand the humanity of those they choose not to sleep with.
Big Mean Sweaty Dyke 