enchantedbyhiddles:

sarahvonkrolock:

boggycreekll:

boggycreekll:

I have never seen an advertising campaign more evil, more insidious than the one for the army currently airing in the UK

“This is belonging”

We’re introduced to a group of earnest young men. they’re white, they’re black. they drink tea. they play practical jokes. they quote popular TV shows. they talk about sports. they face their fears. it’s loving and domestic and all too easy to overlook the guns and camo and helicopters blaring overhead.

make no mistake, these adverts are aimed at the young and disenfranchised. poor people, people of colour, people who have been bullied and abused by society and made to feel like they don’t belong anywhere. Join the army, they’re told, and you can have the love and acceptance you crave but have always been denied. Elsewhere, you might get called racial slurs. you might get called a pansy or a fairy, but not here. You belong with us.

For example: Islamophobia is rampant in the UK. here we have an advert of a Muslim soldier praying while his squadron, armed to the teeth, sits in silence. the message is clear – while the rest of society may despise you, here, you will be respected. this is belonging.

here’s one called ‘expressing my emotions’, featuring a white man in his 40s – practically the posterchild for the UK’s current mental health crisis.

you don’t have to worry about bottling up your feelings in the army. after all, this is belonging.

here’s another one called ‘can I be gay in the army?’. we’re told: “I was really worried about whether I’d be accepted, but within days, I was more than confident in being who I was.” Clearly homophobia is a thing of the past in the army. don’t worry. this is belonging.

and it works. while the response to these adverts from an unfortunately vocal number of people is basically “fuck you, we’re racist and proud of it!” there are young people being taken in by this. I have met gay children, trans children who are determined to join the army because, after being rejected by their parents and peers, they’re now being told “here you will be accepted. here you will be loved.”

fuck that. don’t be groomed; don’t let the vulnerable and desperate people in your life be groomed. we need to fight the root causes of these problems in our society and stamp them out so that wielding a gun and cowering in some blown-out building in a country you helped destroy is no longer seen as some sort of salvation. fight racism. fight homophobia and transphobia. fight the stigmatisation of mental illness. fight the system that prioritises the rich and leaves the rest of us to rot.

don’t be taken in by something that offers easy answers, chews you up and spits you out, destroyed, guilty, with PTSD and nowhere to go. where do you belong when you can’t fight any more? where do you belong when you can no longer be used?

Let me show you some fucked up ads for the german Bundeswehr /Army (they even had been on the gamescon this year, fuckers)

“Who gives you to have faith in yourself?”

– no comment – 

“More Open World is not possible”

“From November on you play outside”

…

“A dislike button is not helping against digital terrorism”

“We don´t look for Gods in White, we look for Heroes in Green”

Their slogan is : Do what really counts

@sarahvonkrolock

You forgot my favourite one: Bundeswehr-Adventure Camp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O16zilBNBsE

In cooperation with the biggest German magazine aimed at young teenagers.

everchanging-flower:

punkbonnibel:

I have one brain cell and it bounces around in my skull like a windows screen saver

When it hits a corner perfect, I’m allowed one (1) good idea.

gneerly:

hey friendly psa/reminder that with the seasons changing right now, a lot of people with mood disorders (and even people without them) can get all messed up and wonky from that so try to go a little easy on yourself if you find yourself spiraling or getting emotional a lot lately okay? youre doin your best. love u