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Lotta talk about Tom Cotton and his Ranger Tab. Here’s the deal about military culture that doesn’t get talked about enough IMO. I call it the hierarchy of masochism and you learn very early to gauge your self-worth by it. 1/
I remember when I got to basic training at Ft Benning, we arrived the Replacement BN, which holds you and processes to until it’s time ship to your basic training unit. There were guys who had just arrived days earlier and just had their heads shaved, grabbing the hair 2/
of other new guys who just arrived but hadn’t yet had *their* heads shaved. Called them “cherries”. They had 2 days on them but used it to begin the process of socializing them into the hierarchy which is roughly defined as the more shit you go through, the more pain 3/
you endure, the more credibility you have. But also, the more right to your feelings you have. So, Marines make fun of Army who makes fun of Air Force. Infantry makes fun of tankers who make fun of artillery who make fun of support soldiers. 4/
Mech infantry wants to be Leg Infantry, who wants to be Airborne, who wants to be Ranger qualified, who wants to be in the Ranger Regiment, who wants to be SF or Delta. But the fucked up part of that hierarchy is that you’re never really good enough and only those who 5/
have endured the *most* pain have any right to their feelings. That self judgement every time you fee something stays with you even after your service. I went to a VA counselor once after I was out and told her I didn’t feel like I had the right to be there because 6/
so many there had seen and been through so much more than I had. She calmly explained to me that it’s not a contest. It was kind of the first time I allowed myself to measure my feelings and self-worth by something other than the hierarchy. 7/
So when you see all of this sharp-shooting of Cotton and whether or not he was an “actual” Ranger or just “Ranger qualified”, a big part of what we’re seeing is that hierarchy spill into politics. Many making those arguments about “Fobbits” seem to forget that those 8/
support soldiers who were killed on FOBS did indeed *see combat*. The point to this rant is that Cotton’s tab is irrelevant to his performance as a Senator and a distraction from the fact that he’s cool with shredding the Constitution and installing an authoritarian. End.
