Meanwhile, all of us in the military, we wind up brushing shoulders with all the other people who were too much of a disaster to shake it in their hometowns. None of us come IN well-adjusted, and most of us don't get any more well-adjusted from the exposure. You don't see that.
-
Show this thread
-
There's a lot to say about the military but one of the less articulated things is that it is chiefly a way of putting people out of sight, out of mind, and kicking the can down the road.
1 reply 11 retweets 55 likesShow this thread -
Something that surprises people is that my mom's knee-jerk reaction to my announcement that I was going to go on hormones and be myself was to be completely supportive. I hung up the phone with a warm feeling. Then, later, she realized this meant I'd be leaving the military
1 reply 1 retweet 35 likesShow this thread -
Because, see, having a 'son' in the Air Force, doing secret squirrel shit, became her badge of honor. It provided her the social cachet of having at least one child who had "figured it out", while the other two were smoking pot all day, and watching My Little Pony, respectively
3 replies 1 retweet 33 likesShow this thread -
Me not only getting out of the military, but getting out of the military to be a drag queen (because that was what she was picturing)? I was basically nuking her precious validation as a parent from orbit. She called me back a few days later; begged me not to go through with it
2 replies 1 retweet 40 likesShow this thread -
Her argument was, basically, I shouldn't leave the military because I'll never have anything as good, both in terms of the benefits and the social cachet of my position. She wasn't even wrong! Occupationally I've gone from working with radar to waxing lips and mopping up piss
1 reply 1 retweet 34 likesShow this thread -
But, really, it wasn't about that. It was about me jeopardizing her neat little narrative about having at least one child who was "complete", who was "away" and "fully grown". Because as long as she can't see me, that's what she gets to imagine about me, in her mind.
2 replies 2 retweets 42 likesShow this thread -
And, you know, the narrative doesn't stick after you betray it by continuing to be a living, breathing human after your military "ending" ends. I came home after not having been there in six years. _Immediately_ demoted from competent golden child to infantilized problem child
1 reply 1 retweet 41 likesShow this thread -
That's kind of getting off on an unnecessary tangent but it's all to say that the civilians of the American center have a really twisted, fantasyland, unhealthy perception of the military, and what it does to people They think it launders our reputations, sands away our flaws
1 reply 7 retweets 52 likesShow this thread -
And meanwhile, Jeffrey Dahmer doesn't actually stop being Jeffrey Dahmer. It's just that you don't have to deal with him; it's the damaged people there who do And when he gets out... You fucking guessed it, still Jeffrey Dahmer
4 replies 3 retweets 42 likesShow this thread
Yeah and the rapes he committed while in the Army weren't uncovered until many years later because the Army is a pretty bad place to report such things
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.