I dunno, it's a pretty huge deal of a change. It's literally historic and a major sign of the times. As others have pointed out, I actually enjoy this less duplicitous name. But the context of the change does not bode well.
So, yes and no - It was the "Department of War" for most of the country's existence. Truman changed it in 1947 when doing a massive overhaul of the military and intel parts of the government. Also, just calling "Department of Defense" hasn't prevented us from getting into a whole mess of wars since then.
I do agree that it's a sign of the times in terms of "everything old is new again" and undoing the 20th century, which is the T47/project 2025 stated goal. Sure as shit, we're making incredible progress towards returning to 1860.
Looking into it, the department of war had removed the navy 150 years before. Arguably the DoD was a new department to encompass the department of the navy and the department of the army(the previous department of war) without the implication that the army was in charge being associated with the war department without the navy for so long. The naming, I could argue, is disrespectful to the US Navy of the late 1790s to the late 1940s.
Well, the overhaul in 1947 was huge, so it made sense to wrap it all up into something that also, in a post-WWII country, didn't make it sound like "OK, we have this amazing military apparatus and now we've consolidated power, and let's see where else to point it at..." I get it.
Personally, I think the "Department of International Violence" sounds more appropriate.
Yeah, Department of Defense always reminded me of 1984:
The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy: they are deliberate exercises in doublethink.
Some alien-believers think humans are a source of energy for an alien race that feeds off negative energy. It's concerning how plausible it's beginning to feel.
Used to have a roommate like this in first year of college. They just stick to this one stupid thing that they think are hyper-masculine (in his case, it was going shooting and owning big guns) and they won't shut up about it. These fuckers are so annoying. Like we get it bro, you're a big manly man, now stfu about it. These are usually the most childish people irl.
OMG lol
We even had some arguments about it. (All things considered, it was s miracle that he'd take our arguments in good faith, and not be bitter about it.) I'm not vegan, but I totally get their point.
did they officially change it from defense? that might be the first honest thing they've done in their miserable lives in pursuit of fascistic grandstanding.
Right now it's an alternate name via executive order. Officially changing the name from Department of Defense to Department of War requires an act of Congress.
My first split-second initial reaction was "oh hey they're being honest for once", but that was very swiftly followed by "oh fuck what are they teeing up here, they're not doing this for no reason"
Trump has been calling himself a war-time president (the war is unspecified) and saying how nice it would be if he could suspend elections and stay in power due to a war. This has been in the making for a while. If he's still alive in 3 years, he'll start a war to stay in power.
I think they are just trying to start some wars so Trump can stay in power. Probably in central america? They did just sink a boat / murdered some people there.
Calling the military "defense" has always been doublespeak. Its literally the opposite of what they do. Department of war is the correct term.
Obviously this administration are all monsters, and they're changing the name because they think they think it sounds intimidating. But the name change is the one good thing this administration has done, clearly in error.
DoD uses to be called DoW, but was changed to give a better image of the country. Reverting back to DoW under this administration, is not the good sign people think it is.
Also, that joke Pete Hegseth can't even do a proper pull up, let alone a chin up. Pathetic.
I was thinking maybe the American public will start to question why we are spending so much on war. It is an insane budget and the doublespeak of it being for defense helped selling the idea to the public. Maybe he accidentally did something will will help reign in our over spending on war....
I can see him stumble into some progressive policies.....He will kill the economy and have enough of an outrage about cutting Medicaid that enough of his supporters will demand trumpcare. He can also start trump bucks, a monthly payout, so that the economy will still be stimulated. Just pitch it to him as something he can take away from US citizens, if they protest against him. He loves his name on shit, so just name the policies after him and he'll probably think it's a good deal.
I was thinking maybe the American public will start to question why we are spending so much on war.
To Keep Us Safe! To Defeat The Foreign Evil! To Bring Godlessness Back To Our Broken World!
It is an insane budget
I would be more comfortable with the US government taking its $1.4T national security budget and throwing it in a big burn pit than I am with our current policy. I'm less concerned with the volume of money than in what it is being spent on.
I'm reminded of when Google took the "Don't Be Evil" motto off their homepage.
Yeah, it was corporate bullshit. Yeah, they've been up to no good for a while. But when you start changing out the "We're just here to do a good job" curtains for the "They're red so the bloodstains are less visible" ones, it can't help but make you a little nervous.
Isn't it interesting? For people who hate "woke" and rally against gender identity transitioning, they sure love transitioning the identity of an entire government department and complaining when people dead name it. Snowflakes, the lot of them.
Edit: For bonus points, remember that these are the kind of conservative that bitch about LGBTQ people "making it everyone else's business," while they themselves are extremely in-your-face about these changes.
My dad's Facebook bio is "Trans-Millionaire" even though he makes less than 6 figures. I don't think my dad has ever seen a million dollars in his bank account but to him he is just as important as those rich assholes who sit on top and make it harder for the rest to breathe clean air. My dad, as you guessed it, is extremely transphobic and a cunt (they are pretty synonymous)
You can point this out to the average person, they'll still say you're overreacting.
Like between this rename, and the "trump was fbi informant" bs, I'm wondering if I'm in a simulation, cuz this is absolutely insane, literally is amateur tv script, unbelievable, if this aired on TV, it would have worse rating than GoT season 8.
But its the real world unfortunately, it looks so stupid from the outside but I have lost all my friends to MAGA. Tell me how an evil orange clown controls the narrative for more than half the new coverage. He only supports his cronies and gives the middle finger to anyone who makes less than million dollars annually. This our collective timeline, fucking hell.
At least it is accurate. The Americans are a warlike nation founded on a genocide. Orwell wrote extensively on the power of words to change a narrative and the way we feel, it is insidious and very common in the world of politics and business in a way that it is absolutely uncommon in the world of science where only the truth matters. The oil industry convinced us that we ought to soften Global Warming to the more benign Climate Change for no other reason than it makes them look less culpable. Hilarious that trump would choose this thing to tell us the truth. Gotta start someplace I guess.
I mean, climate change is probably a more accurate description of the situation. Sure, globally on average the planet is warming alarmingly quickly, but it doesn’t always feel that way on a local scale, so a lot of people had an easy time ignoring it, but it’s almost impossible to deny, wherever you live, that our climate is changing if one is capable of remembering their childhood. Temperature extremes get more extreme each year, storms get more intense, ocean levels rise, ecosystems vanish and change, etc. All of these things are a result of warming and greenhouse gases, but unless you’ve got a hard science background, you probably wouldn’t intuitively link all of these things together, so I can see a compelling argument for a better umbrella term. All that said, though, we all kept ignoring it regardless, so what the fuck do I know.
As for your point about America, though, I 100% agree. “The Department of Defense” has always been a euphemism, the convenient kind that lets you look pretty and get away with murder. What’s concerning to me, though, is that a Euphemism only dies for one of two reasons. Either everybody realizes what the euphemism actually means and it becomes synonymous with the phrase they were trying to avoid, or (and this is the much more common case) it becomes unneeded because they no longer need to varnish the truth; a mask off moment. And generally? The euphemism dies right before things get much, much worse.
All I can hope, as an American, is that we come out the other side of this fucking ashamed. Ashamed of ourselves, our beliefs, our actions, and our countrymen. Maybe then we can actually build a nation worthy of calling great, but I’m not holding my breath.
Perhaps climate change is a more appropriate description for our lived experience, I'm open to a well reasoned argument. We don't have to go far to see practical examples of the effect of greenhouse gases, with Venus at 500C average surface temperature due to CO2 atmosphere or consider xkcd's temperature timeline with the insanely vertiginous ascent during the last two hundo years. My proposals:
Spicy Climate Change
Sport Utility Environment
Sweaty Ecological Catastrophe
Gucci Sweats Planet
Forgot what we were talking about. Department of war. Listening to Sarah Paine on YT, clearly there have been and still are many Americans trying to do the right thing but that isn't what grabs the headlines. The political landscape in general is getting ugly. Far right populists are emerging in Europe and these incels have been emboldened by the facist turn in America. Convenient for the billionaire class and their stooges.
Sorry I’m late to reply but I agree 100%. It would be reductive to say that no Americans are making or have made an effort to do the right thing - I know plenty personally who act as excellent countervailing evidence, and that’s in fucking Utah - and my primary issue with the American political climate isn’t even the rise of the far right, as you’re spot on that far right populism is on the rise globally; people are suffering under late capitalism and they want a change, any change, and we aren’t unique there. My main gripe is more at the lack of will in the American public (outside of the far right) to actually do anything about it. The 2024 election could not have been more clearly a Rubicon-type moment going into it; Republicans had already given us their entire playbook with Project 2025 and they did not mask the language there. Still, somehow, even a Republican-endorsed book that is essentially “US Authoritarian takeover for Dummies” wasn’t enough to galvanize the American people into actually showing up, so now we find ourselves here. We’ve taken “it’s the economy, stupid” and turned it into “stupidly, it’s the economy” and if we won’t even change our voting priorities for something like the continued existence of our democratic structures, that tells me that we need a fundamental cultural shift about what your civic duties are as a citizen in a democracy. Shame did the trick for Germany (sort of, that’s also kind of reductive but it serves a point), so maybe if we’re lucky we can do the same and find some semblance of a silver lining there.
Also, Gucci Sweats Planet is a banger. Five stars. If we want a sci-fi edge we could always go with “High Octane Terraforming”. Sounds cool, covers the unprecedentedly rapid change in temperature, contains a reference to gasoline, is future proofed for our inbound nuclear winter(s), and has an apt acronym.
I feel like we need a rap battle to decide this. We already have the name of our first collaborative album: High Octane Terraforming, featuring Gucci Sweats Planet. Eventually there will be beef with accusations about Gucci Sweats Planet's environmental credentials.
Civic duty is tough one when you can barely afford rent but all you see on your IG feed is wealthy people blasting off to space and driving Lambo's, however unrealistic that is. I listened to a pod on voting reform and their thesis was that the US system can be traced back to 1215 and the Magna Carta, when English feudal rule ended and the eventual emergence of first past the post voting. The English exported that shit all over the world.
I believe that switching to a proportional representation system is an essential component of the solution to the current situation. It's completely insane to have the current level of wealth inequality and concentration of power in the hands of so few. We need some way of voicing our dissent other than the way Luigi and whoever offed Kirk have used.
Issue is, when he dies, the people of Seven Mountain Dominion just can continue their work, full force. Whether that will cause the collapse of the dominionist US is a question, and there's also tge question of all the tech corpos.
I hope the old gods and new gods eat each other alive, but they've been collaborating so well* up to now, unfortunately for us.
*It's not all been fun in the sun: the fallout between Trump and Elon, the H1B infighting, and now the Epstein stuff (arguably also popularized by Elon). So yeah, there have been some notable instances of divergence. One can only hope there will be more.
Iraq still going on, Syria still going on, Ukraine was proxy for an american war thats now shifting more to eu's responsibility. Yemen still goin on, US is still helping ethnically cleanse gaza, murdering random boat operators in the caribbean, plus now the occupied cities of LA and DC (where they now have live rounds but no live fire yet). I know you weren't implying that the US is currently peaceful, but just wanted to take this opportunity for myself to list places currently under attack by the states.
I didn't mean to imply that the US was peaceful ... far from it ... I was just commenting that the US is acting aggressive (as if they haven't always acted like that for the past many decades) and wanting to attend a war, some kind of war, any kind of war. They haven't taken part in one officially yet ... which is why I made this comment -> the US has changed the name of 'Defence' to 'War', the only thing they need now, is an actual war they can officially take part in.
Imagine making "I'm the secretary of war of the most well funded military the world has ever known" as your whole personality. Sad, pathetic, get a hobby, get a real job
A couple engagements against Mexico and clobbered the absolute hell out of the geriatric of the Spanish Empire at the turn of the century. I would also go so far as to say European powers did essentially nothing against the Empire of Japan during WW2, but the Chinese fought a nasty decade long war against the Japanese with serious technical and military support from the US. The Pacific theater was essentially the US Naval Department (Navy and Marines) vs the Japanese Naval Department while the bulk of both Armies were preoccupied in different theaters.
Mmm, have to disagree on the European powers not doing anything against Japan. While true that the island hopping campaign of MacArthur was the majority of what was going on, the British forces were heavily engaged in the China Burma India theatre which was a nasty, nasty ground war that helped keep the Nationalist Chinese in the fight by delivering supplies via the Burma road and over the "hump" by air.
I've never wanted to first fight anymore more. Normally I'd say they have a punchable face, but in his case I'm willing to go in personally. Bring it on boot licker.
the thing to do here is to continue referring to it as the DoD. I know that nobody of any consequence will do anything that could be construed as interesting but a person can dream
if there is one, it will look like the one in germany where hitler was voted in very "democratically" with armed guards making sure you vote the right way.
Nah it won't because it wasn't actually changed now. DoD was named by an act of congress and an EO didn't do anything other than let Baby Pete call himself something so woke.
The guy is part of the administration that went after people over the "Gulf of America" name change. He knows there will be consequences if something is missed.
123 Comments
mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de · 142 pts · 345d
I dunno, it's a pretty huge deal of a change. It's literally historic and a major sign of the times. As others have pointed out, I actually enjoy this less duplicitous name. But the context of the change does not bode well.
GreenShimada@lemmy.world · 68 pts · 345d
So, yes and no - It was the "Department of War" for most of the country's existence. Truman changed it in 1947 when doing a massive overhaul of the military and intel parts of the government. Also, just calling "Department of Defense" hasn't prevented us from getting into a whole mess of wars since then.
I do agree that it's a sign of the times in terms of "everything old is new again" and undoing the 20th century, which is the T47/project 2025 stated goal. Sure as shit, we're making incredible progress towards returning to 1860.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 39 pts · 345d
FDR changes name from War to Defense, and Congress hasn't declared War since. They're just special military operations
VitoRobles@lemmy.today · 33 pts · 345d
Pretty much. We bombed Vietnam and killed a bunch of middle eastern people. Just a bunch of special military operations.
BrokenGlepnir@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 345d
Looking into it, the department of war had removed the navy 150 years before. Arguably the DoD was a new department to encompass the department of the navy and the department of the army(the previous department of war) without the implication that the army was in charge being associated with the war department without the navy for so long. The naming, I could argue, is disrespectful to the US Navy of the late 1790s to the late 1940s.
GreenShimada@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 344d
Well, the overhaul in 1947 was huge, so it made sense to wrap it all up into something that also, in a post-WWII country, didn't make it sound like "OK, we have this amazing military apparatus and now we've consolidated power, and let's see where else to point it at..." I get it.
Personally, I think the "Department of International Violence" sounds more appropriate.
postmateDumbass@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 340d
Serinus@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 345d
1860 had vaccine mandates.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 344d
God DAMMIT we are so bad at science now
jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works · 33 pts · 345d
Might as well call it what it is. "The Department of Imperialism".
mrlemmyhimself@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 345d
I thought that was the CIA
kautau@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 345d
That was when we still cared about being part of the UN so we would just quietly do it behind the scenes
too_high_for_this@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 345d
Yeah, Department of Defense always reminded me of 1984:
ramble81@lemmy.zip · 92 pts · 345d
So the orange Cheeto, who is trying to get the Noble Peace Prize… just wrote an EO rename things to the Department of War
God I wish you could turn cognitive dissonance into harnessable energy.
Burninator05@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 345d
He was also an undercover FBI informant in the Democraric hoax that are the Epstein files.
Entertainmeonly@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 13 pts · 345d
Plus the FBI just released an official document setting the record straight; Definitely not a small penis.
SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org · 4 pts · 344d
Straight up Q-Anon bullshit.
Formfiller@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 344d
Deep undercover raping and trafficking kids
ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 344d
Some alien-believers think humans are a source of energy for an alien race that feeds off negative energy. It's concerning how plausible it's beginning to feel.
ThePantser@sh.itjust.works · 69 pts · 345d
Secretary of DUI, Kegseth
SexualPolytope@lemmy.sdf.org · 69 pts · 345d
Used to have a roommate like this in first year of college. They just stick to this one stupid thing that they think are hyper-masculine (in his case, it was going shooting and owning big guns) and they won't shut up about it. These fuckers are so annoying. Like we get it bro, you're a big manly man, now stfu about it. These are usually the most childish people irl.
Gowron_Howard@lemmy.world · 33 pts · 345d
This is what happens when you have no personality.
SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org · 11 pts · 344d
And lots of insecurities.
Aneb@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 344d
Pete small dick hegseth, is my head canon tbh
ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 344d
The insecurities ARE the personality, aka Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Soup@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 345d
And I’ll be a ten that he’s complained about “vegans always telling everyone about it”.
SexualPolytope@lemmy.sdf.org · 5 pts · 345d
OMG lol
We even had some arguments about it. (All things considered, it was s miracle that he'd take our arguments in good faith, and not be bitter about it.) I'm not vegan, but I totally get their point.
GreenShimada@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 345d
I hope he found Crossfit, at least then it's expected.
trager_bombs@lemmy.world · 61 pts · 345d
rustydrd@sh.itjust.works · 49 pts · 345d
You mean cirrhosis?
trager_bombs@lemmy.world · 33 pts · 345d
Look, man, I'm doing my best on a motor with no compression here 😔
Revan343@lemmy.ca · 20 pts · 345d
Liver sclerosis would be pretty bad too, if it were a thing
TheBat@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 344d
Fontasia@feddit.nl · 44 pts · 344d
That man yells out his own name during sex
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today · 13 pts · 344d
Dude needs a mirror to masturbate
ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 344d
In his defense, it's also the name of his only sexual partner.
iCy619@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 344d
FTFY
PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk · 44 pts · 345d
Secretary of w-here are the fucking epstein files?
pyre@lemmy.world · 36 pts · 345d
did they officially change it from defense? that might be the first honest thing they've done in their miserable lives in pursuit of fascistic grandstanding.
zzz711@sh.itjust.works · 18 pts · 344d
Right now it's an alternate name via executive order. Officially changing the name from Department of Defense to Department of War requires an act of Congress.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 344d
Congress is already warming up their hands to make sure the ball fondling pleases Trump.
skisnow@lemmy.ca · 17 pts · 344d
My first split-second initial reaction was "oh hey they're being honest for once", but that was very swiftly followed by "oh fuck what are they teeing up here, they're not doing this for no reason"
kogasa@programming.dev · 12 pts · 344d
Trump has been calling himself a war-time president (the war is unspecified) and saying how nice it would be if he could suspend elections and stay in power due to a war. This has been in the making for a while. If he's still alive in 3 years, he'll start a war to stay in power.
normalexit@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 344d
I think they are just trying to start some wars so Trump can stay in power. Probably in central america? They did just sink a boat / murdered some people there.
hildegarde@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 34 pts · 344d
Calling the military "defense" has always been doublespeak. Its literally the opposite of what they do. Department of war is the correct term.
Obviously this administration are all monsters, and they're changing the name because they think they think it sounds intimidating. But the name change is the one good thing this administration has done, clearly in error.
DNS@discuss.online · 14 pts · 344d
DoD uses to be called DoW, but was changed to give a better image of the country. Reverting back to DoW under this administration, is not the good sign people think it is.
Also, that joke Pete Hegseth can't even do a proper pull up, let alone a chin up. Pathetic.
Notyou@sopuli.xyz · 5 pts · 344d
I was thinking maybe the American public will start to question why we are spending so much on war. It is an insane budget and the doublespeak of it being for defense helped selling the idea to the public. Maybe he accidentally did something will will help reign in our over spending on war....
gabbath@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 344d
I hate that my Q family will believe exactly this: that he did it with the goal of waking people up.
Notyou@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 343d
I can see him stumble into some progressive policies.....He will kill the economy and have enough of an outrage about cutting Medicaid that enough of his supporters will demand trumpcare. He can also start trump bucks, a monthly payout, so that the economy will still be stimulated. Just pitch it to him as something he can take away from US citizens, if they protest against him. He loves his name on shit, so just name the policies after him and he'll probably think it's a good deal.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 343d
To Keep Us Safe! To Defeat The Foreign Evil! To Bring Godlessness Back To Our Broken World!
I would be more comfortable with the US government taking its $1.4T national security budget and throwing it in a big burn pit than I am with our current policy. I'm less concerned with the volume of money than in what it is being spent on.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 343d
I'm reminded of when Google took the "Don't Be Evil" motto off their homepage.
Yeah, it was corporate bullshit. Yeah, they've been up to no good for a while. But when you start changing out the "We're just here to do a good job" curtains for the "They're red so the bloodstains are less visible" ones, it can't help but make you a little nervous.
pivot_root@lemmy.world · 34 pts · 345d
Isn't it interesting? For people who hate "woke" and rally against gender identity transitioning, they sure love transitioning the identity of an entire government department and complaining when people dead name it. Snowflakes, the lot of them.
Edit: For bonus points, remember that these are the kind of conservative that bitch about LGBTQ people "making it everyone else's business," while they themselves are extremely in-your-face about these changes.
MajorasTerribleFate@lemmy.zip · 11 pts · 344d
It's the Gulf of MEXICO goddamnit
Aneb@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 344d
My dad's Facebook bio is "Trans-Millionaire" even though he makes less than 6 figures. I don't think my dad has ever seen a million dollars in his bank account but to him he is just as important as those rich assholes who sit on top and make it harder for the rest to breathe clean air. My dad, as you guessed it, is extremely transphobic and a cunt (they are pretty synonymous)
Typotyper@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 344d
In your face about god too,
ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 344d
And their weird sexual hang ups. What they think should be allowed, what shouldn't, etc.
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works · 31 pts · 345d
You can point this out to the average person, they'll still say you're overreacting.
Like between this rename, and the "trump was fbi informant" bs, I'm wondering if I'm in a simulation, cuz this is absolutely insane, literally is amateur tv script, unbelievable, if this aired on TV, it would have worse rating than GoT season 8.
Aneb@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 344d
But its the real world unfortunately, it looks so stupid from the outside but I have lost all my friends to MAGA. Tell me how an evil orange clown controls the narrative for more than half the new coverage. He only supports his cronies and gives the middle finger to anyone who makes less than million dollars annually. This our collective timeline, fucking hell.
bstix@feddit.dk · 23 pts · 344d
JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 22 pts · 345d
Secretary of binge drinking
Valmond@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 345d
So Donald or anyone in his family are going to do their service now then?
Right?
D_C@sh.itjust.works · 17 pts · 344d
You know when guys buy big trucks to overcompensate their other shortcomings? Well...
medusa@sh.itjust.works · 17 pts · 345d
Just Sec of Pestilence, Famine, and Death now.
Lawyerator@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 345d
RFK Jr. has the pestilence thing covered.
BilboBargains@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 345d
At least it is accurate. The Americans are a warlike nation founded on a genocide. Orwell wrote extensively on the power of words to change a narrative and the way we feel, it is insidious and very common in the world of politics and business in a way that it is absolutely uncommon in the world of science where only the truth matters. The oil industry convinced us that we ought to soften Global Warming to the more benign Climate Change for no other reason than it makes them look less culpable. Hilarious that trump would choose this thing to tell us the truth. Gotta start someplace I guess.
Impound4017@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 345d
I mean, climate change is probably a more accurate description of the situation. Sure, globally on average the planet is warming alarmingly quickly, but it doesn’t always feel that way on a local scale, so a lot of people had an easy time ignoring it, but it’s almost impossible to deny, wherever you live, that our climate is changing if one is capable of remembering their childhood. Temperature extremes get more extreme each year, storms get more intense, ocean levels rise, ecosystems vanish and change, etc. All of these things are a result of warming and greenhouse gases, but unless you’ve got a hard science background, you probably wouldn’t intuitively link all of these things together, so I can see a compelling argument for a better umbrella term. All that said, though, we all kept ignoring it regardless, so what the fuck do I know.
As for your point about America, though, I 100% agree. “The Department of Defense” has always been a euphemism, the convenient kind that lets you look pretty and get away with murder. What’s concerning to me, though, is that a Euphemism only dies for one of two reasons. Either everybody realizes what the euphemism actually means and it becomes synonymous with the phrase they were trying to avoid, or (and this is the much more common case) it becomes unneeded because they no longer need to varnish the truth; a mask off moment. And generally? The euphemism dies right before things get much, much worse.
All I can hope, as an American, is that we come out the other side of this fucking ashamed. Ashamed of ourselves, our beliefs, our actions, and our countrymen. Maybe then we can actually build a nation worthy of calling great, but I’m not holding my breath.
BilboBargains@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 344d
Perhaps climate change is a more appropriate description for our lived experience, I'm open to a well reasoned argument. We don't have to go far to see practical examples of the effect of greenhouse gases, with Venus at 500C average surface temperature due to CO2 atmosphere or consider xkcd's temperature timeline with the insanely vertiginous ascent during the last two hundo years. My proposals:
Forgot what we were talking about. Department of war. Listening to Sarah Paine on YT, clearly there have been and still are many Americans trying to do the right thing but that isn't what grabs the headlines. The political landscape in general is getting ugly. Far right populists are emerging in Europe and these incels have been emboldened by the facist turn in America. Convenient for the billionaire class and their stooges.
Impound4017@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 343d
Sorry I’m late to reply but I agree 100%. It would be reductive to say that no Americans are making or have made an effort to do the right thing - I know plenty personally who act as excellent countervailing evidence, and that’s in fucking Utah - and my primary issue with the American political climate isn’t even the rise of the far right, as you’re spot on that far right populism is on the rise globally; people are suffering under late capitalism and they want a change, any change, and we aren’t unique there. My main gripe is more at the lack of will in the American public (outside of the far right) to actually do anything about it. The 2024 election could not have been more clearly a Rubicon-type moment going into it; Republicans had already given us their entire playbook with Project 2025 and they did not mask the language there. Still, somehow, even a Republican-endorsed book that is essentially “US Authoritarian takeover for Dummies” wasn’t enough to galvanize the American people into actually showing up, so now we find ourselves here. We’ve taken “it’s the economy, stupid” and turned it into “stupidly, it’s the economy” and if we won’t even change our voting priorities for something like the continued existence of our democratic structures, that tells me that we need a fundamental cultural shift about what your civic duties are as a citizen in a democracy. Shame did the trick for Germany (sort of, that’s also kind of reductive but it serves a point), so maybe if we’re lucky we can do the same and find some semblance of a silver lining there.
Also, Gucci Sweats Planet is a banger. Five stars. If we want a sci-fi edge we could always go with “High Octane Terraforming”. Sounds cool, covers the unprecedentedly rapid change in temperature, contains a reference to gasoline, is future proofed for our inbound nuclear winter(s), and has an apt acronym.
BilboBargains@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 342d
I feel like we need a rap battle to decide this. We already have the name of our first collaborative album: High Octane Terraforming, featuring Gucci Sweats Planet. Eventually there will be beef with accusations about Gucci Sweats Planet's environmental credentials.
Civic duty is tough one when you can barely afford rent but all you see on your IG feed is wealthy people blasting off to space and driving Lambo's, however unrealistic that is. I listened to a pod on voting reform and their thesis was that the US system can be traced back to 1215 and the Magna Carta, when English feudal rule ended and the eventual emergence of first past the post voting. The English exported that shit all over the world.
I believe that switching to a proportional representation system is an essential component of the solution to the current situation. It's completely insane to have the current level of wealth inequality and concentration of power in the hands of so few. We need some way of voicing our dissent other than the way Luigi and whoever offed Kirk have used.
Katana314@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 345d
“Global Warming” tended to generate doubters each time winter was cold, unfortunately - the bathtub analogy helped a bit.
ObsidianZed@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 345d
W.orthless A.lcoholic R.apists/Racists
Makes sense to me
slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org · 14 pts · 344d
Is it because all the wars they lost? Weird flex.
Tinidril@midwest.social · 4 pts · 344d
When Trump gave his little ramble at the signing, he literally blamed the losses on the country going "wokie" and renaming the war department.
switcheroo@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 344d
Pathetic little man...
Agent641@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 344d
Every single black, brown, and Asian country, and probably Canada too:
SGforce@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 344d
We been looking at you like that since G.W.
frankenswine@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 345d
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
DicJacobus@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 344d
Trump is an old dying man, and he wants to be able to say on his death bed that he made permanent changes to the world , by his will alone.
Changing names of organizations (DOD/DOW)
Changing names of places (Gulf of America)
Creation of organizations (Space Force)
Dissolution of organizations (USAID)
Permanent land acquisitions (Greenland, Panama Canal, Sometimes entire Nation of Canada)
This is the exact same mentality of Putin, Putin wont be around forever, Putin wants to be immortalized in Russian folklore.
This is just Trump's dumb ideas of immortality. fingers of it at least
ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 344d
Issue is, when he dies, the people of Seven Mountain Dominion just can continue their work, full force. Whether that will cause the collapse of the dominionist US is a question, and there's also tge question of all the tech corpos.
gabbath@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 344d
I hope the old gods and new gods eat each other alive, but they've been collaborating so well* up to now, unfortunately for us.
*It's not all been fun in the sun: the fallout between Trump and Elon, the H1B infighting, and now the Epstein stuff (arguably also popularized by Elon). So yeah, there have been some notable instances of divergence. One can only hope there will be more.
la508@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 344d
Don't forget the 15 or (however many) wars he's single-handedly ended and is therefore definitely deserving of a Nobel Peace Prize
WoodScientist@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 344d
Like Brother Dusk in the most recent episode of Foundation.
Trump the Consequential.
QuantumTickle@lemmy.zip · 10 pts · 345d
If Trump does get a peace prize then nothing will mean anything anymore.
Lupus@feddit.org · 18 pts · 345d
Just a reminder that fucking Henry Kissinger got a nobel peace prize.
ininewcrow@lemmy.ca · 10 pts · 345d
They got the name plastered all over the place .... now all they need is an actual war
And no one said that it has to be a war on foreign soil either
brendansimms@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 345d
Iraq still going on, Syria still going on, Ukraine was proxy for an american war thats now shifting more to eu's responsibility. Yemen still goin on, US is still helping ethnically cleanse gaza, murdering random boat operators in the caribbean, plus now the occupied cities of LA and DC (where they now have live rounds but no live fire yet). I know you weren't implying that the US is currently peaceful, but just wanted to take this opportunity for myself to list places currently under attack by the states.
ininewcrow@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 345d
I didn't mean to imply that the US was peaceful ... far from it ... I was just commenting that the US is acting aggressive (as if they haven't always acted like that for the past many decades) and wanting to attend a war, some kind of war, any kind of war. They haven't taken part in one officially yet ... which is why I made this comment -> the US has changed the name of 'Defence' to 'War', the only thing they need now, is an actual war they can officially take part in.
Juice@midwest.social · 10 pts · 345d
Imagine making "I'm the secretary of war of the most well funded military the world has ever known" as your whole personality. Sad, pathetic, get a hobby, get a real job
bitwolf@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 344d
This dudes profile looks like the distillation of all "iamverybadass" memes
resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 345d
He’s not good at keeping secrets.
To be fair, he’s not in charge of intelligence.
Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 345d
Just out of curiosity, how many wars have you people won on your own?
BakerBagel@midwest.social · 15 pts · 345d
A couple engagements against Mexico and clobbered the absolute hell out of the geriatric of the Spanish Empire at the turn of the century. I would also go so far as to say European powers did essentially nothing against the Empire of Japan during WW2, but the Chinese fought a nasty decade long war against the Japanese with serious technical and military support from the US. The Pacific theater was essentially the US Naval Department (Navy and Marines) vs the Japanese Naval Department while the bulk of both Armies were preoccupied in different theaters.
Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 345d
Mmm, have to disagree on the European powers not doing anything against Japan. While true that the island hopping campaign of MacArthur was the majority of what was going on, the British forces were heavily engaged in the China Burma India theatre which was a nasty, nasty ground war that helped keep the Nationalist Chinese in the fight by delivering supplies via the Burma road and over the "hump" by air.
PugJesus@piefed.social · 10 pts · 345d
The Civil War?
onslaught545@lemmy.zip · 14 pts · 345d
Due to not punishing the traitors hard enough, we really only paused it.
CuriousRefugee@discuss.tchncs.de · 10 pts · 345d
Northerners: The American Civil War
Southerners: The War for States' Rights
Deep Southerners: The War of Northern Aggression
Deep Deep Rednecks: North 1, South 0, HALFTIME!
explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 344d
I think this time it would be cheaper to just let them secede and pay relocation expenses for the remaining good people.
piranhaconda@mander.xyz · 1 pts · 345d
I went to college, only about 10 years ago, somewhere where the redneck fraternity chanted "1, 2, 3 Robert E Lee! 3, 2, 1 South Shoulda Won!"
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 7 pts · 345d
The confederates had indirect help from some other countries, but they didn't win so... Yeah.
Valmond@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 345d
Well, they also lost that one.
dellish@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 345d
Really? There was absolutely no French assistance there?
PugJesus@piefed.social · 1 pts · 344d
You're thinking of the Revolutionary War. In the US Civil War, the Second French Empire was friendly towards the Confederates, not the Union.
OrteilGenou@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 345d
Secretary of Whiskey + Automobile = Restraints
RedPandaRaider@feddit.org · 7 pts · 345d
At least they're being honest for once.
I hate how so many countries call it minister and ministry of defence when they only use it for offensive wars, not defending their country.
buddascrayon@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 344d
Me sound tough with the word WAR in me title. Just look at how tough me is with scary word WAR!
Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 345d
He must be a true warrior.
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 345d
Piratemob@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 344d
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 344d
He's a secretary. Some office somewhere probably.
Piratemob@lemmy.zip · 0 pts · 344d
But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 344d
The other day he was going on about how he ended 7 wars (wtf is he talking about?) and how he ran on anti war, but he loves war clearly
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 343d
Those were the Losing Wars that were started by the bad stupid democrats.
He's going to do the Winning Wars that Make America Great Again.
Yuge difference.
boaratio@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 344d
I've never wanted to first fight anymore more. Normally I'd say they have a punchable face, but in his case I'm willing to go in personally. Bring it on boot licker.
philosloppy@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 345d
the thing to do here is to continue referring to it as the DoD. I know that nobody of any consequence will do anything that could be construed as interesting but a person can dream
explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 344d
I think most people who say DoD in real life are doing it for work.
Lucky_777@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 345d
Will be changed when the next dem gets in I'm sure.
kaidenshi@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 345d
I adore your optimism, but sadly I don't share it. There won't be a presidential election in 2028.
Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus · 2 pts · 345d
if there is one, it will look like the one in germany where hitler was voted in very "democratically" with armed guards making sure you vote the right way.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 0 pts · 344d
[They went on to vote Democrat in 2028]
hobovision@mander.xyz · 3 pts · 345d
Nah it won't because it wasn't actually changed now. DoD was named by an act of congress and an EO didn't do anything other than let Baby Pete call himself something so woke.
desmosthenes@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 345d
chihuahuas
myfunnyaccountname@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 344d
Other than the war on US cities and people that are different than him, what war?
zarathustra0@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 345d
Department of Where Are Repstein files?
PugJesus@piefed.social · 4 pts · 345d
They just played Sam and Max one too many times
postmateDumbass@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 340d
Suprised he lets himself be called a 'Secretary'.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 343d
You're either with our square-jawed Fox News dittohead or you're with the Terrorists.
OpenPassageways@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 345d
The guy is part of the administration that went after people over the "Gulf of America" name change. He knows there will be consequences if something is missed.