Hacker News Reader

Comment by antocv | Hacker News Reader

> us techie boys (us because I am one), think that an M1 Abrams tank, a F-15 airplane or a Sig Sauer rifle are, well, cool.

Speak for yourself only.

As a child Ive seen artillery in action, MiGs XX dropping bombs close to basement "us techies" were hiding it, those things are not fucking cool.

It would be so fun one day for you to experience an F15 dropping its load on your village or an M1 Abrams tank, firing its guns towards your house, then lets see if you think those are cool.

In general Americans are far far far from any war, and far far back in history to have any meaningful experience of it. Hollywood takes it lightly, it is entertaiment, for Americans, but "not so much" for lets say Europe.

View on HN

I get what you're saying, but your tone here is pretty hostile here and you don't seem to acknowledge that the point you're making is in perfect agreement with the post you're responding to. You quoted him just before he said, "[This] is, of course, nonsense."

The way Americans treat war and violence as entertainment is disturbing to him, as he has been at the other end of it.

I've read an interview of a war correspondent that after witnessing war can no longer enjoy war entertainment, as it is disgusting to him.

I think hostility towards an attitude that takes inflicting death lightly, for entertainment is justified.

Understood. But that is actually scrrr's point. But scrrr was making it in a way that explains why people who have not experienced war and violence use it as entertainment.

Did he edit his comment after you replied? I totally agree with what he said to GP: "don't include me in your 'we think war machines are cool.'" That's bad form in general, doubly so on this touchy subject.

Is a train cool? A Saturn V rocket? A 3d printer?

I think so.

The same factors that make machines cool remain intact regardless of the application. Furthermore, there's much more kinetic energy involved when you're trying to take something apart quickly than when you're trying to carefully build it, and more still when someone else is trying to keep the thing intact. Is a controlled demolition cool? If not, why do people watch?

Nobody is arguing in favor of violence. The comments here are recognizing some of the reasons why war seems cool, especially to the young and especially to men.

Stating something first and then negating it in the same comment is a pretty weird way to make a point.

Basically an oxymoron. Shakespeare loved them [1]

[1] http://kerbev.hubpages.com/hub/shakespeare-oxymorons

There is a big qualitative difference between the conflicts in Europe and the wars waged by America. Wars in europe are nationalistic, vicious and leave deep scars even decades later on. It's fair to say we still haven't recovered from the scars of the 2 WWs and are still suspicious of each other. The US army is worldwide police. Their soldiers are basically heavily armed "policemen" who execute missions in exotic countries. That's why hollywood sees war as fun, technical an inhuman.

This heavily armed "policemen" line and that they are the "world police" is just the kind of propaganda the world should believe. There is no evidence that any of their wars, were actually fought with some noble goal in mind. In particular they are not some impartial law abiding, benevolent enforcer of rules, but break international law with reckless abandon. They also facilitate crimes of vicious dictatorships with covert and overt support.

American Sniper is the perfect example for how Hollywood presents wars. While some European and American intellectuals and artists doubted that after the Holocaust and WW II that any of that could be depicted without trivialization. Spielberg and others happily just did that.

I'm a US fan myself - I love the culture - but its people are being misled continously by the powers that be (military industrial complex tag-teaming with a handful of media moguls).

As so often the case it's about money and power (e.g. oil). Where was the police during the Rwanda and Dafur genocides? Even the UN kept relatively silent in contrast to how horrible those were.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com