In the 1960s, there was no shortage of pro-war propaganda in the United States aimed at young men, even in comic books — but not the image above or anything quite so nakedly and revoltingly … political.
“We shall reach our goal, when we have the power to laugh as we destroy, as we smash, whatever was sacred to us as tradition, as education, and as human affection.”—Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propagandist.
“The world is divided by love and hate. To be on firm ground, one must know whom to love and whom to hate. There is only one thing that is objectively incontestable for us: We must win. That must guide us!—Goebbels, September 6, 1942
“(W)e live in a world…that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.”—Neo-Nazi propagandist Stephen Miller, January 5, 2026
I think the real heyday of (soft) war porn was the 1950s into the early 1960s. War movies & war comics were ubiquitous, & there were even military comedies like No Time for Sergeants & Sergeant Bilko, all a sort of hangover from WW II. My father was a doc during the war, & I remember watching Victory at Sea & Air Power documentaries on TV with him & even a comedy (sorry, don't remember the name). Yet my father hated the military & war with an amazing intensity. Now the difference is the war porn is hard & prospective, an innocent childish effort to glorify rather than a displaced effort to understand. For those of us who have, as they used to say, rallied to the colors, no matter how unwillingly, it's thoroughly disgusting.
The only other WWII sitcom from that period with a colonel and sergeant in prominent roles that comes to mind was "Hogan's Heros," but that was more mid-'60s.
It's been said that "Cruelty is the point" of this administration's tactics. No, it's not. It's beyond cruelty. It's sadism. From frog-marching chained, shaven deportees to a foreign hell-hole prison, to gang-accosting and shooting protesters in American cities, to absolute shamelessness at killing Iranian school children. Recall Trump's SOTU in which crime victims' assaults were described in vivid, gory details. Listen to how they talk. Watch the war-porn (apt description, GW) videos. And then there's Hegseth himself with a sadistic streak wider than his Neanderthal brow line. Sickening. I'm reminded of Jan 6. I was watching the mob attack live as it unfolded on TV and also had a social media app open. A friend posted "He's masturbating behind the Resolute Desk." Not "maybe," not "probably," and no confirming evidence, but all too likely true.
As an eight-year-old Cub Scout I went to a public firepower demonstration at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, the home of the U.S. Army’s Field Artillery School. There my Cub Scout pack saw every type of land-based weapon fired, from small arms to 155mm self-propelled howitzer, and finally the coup de grâce, a conflagration of napalm bombs dropped from beneath the wings of five F-105 jets from the nearby Sheppard AFB. We were in awe, not only of the sights and sounds of it all, but also by the heat of the napalm burning a quarter-mile or so in front of us. That was 1963.
In 1972, the photo of a Vietnamese girl running naked down a road, her clothes burned and ripped from her body became the image that finally turned most Americans against the conflict*. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to meet her in person, hear her speak, and ruminate over the propaganda that we are delivered every day via the U.S. government and the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned against as he left office.
Everyone in the U.S. should feel the heat of the napalm and acknowledge the cold sadism of the war machine that we have become. Only then will these senseless actions of our government be reined in.
Kegsbreath is the worst SecDef ever. David Halberstam wrote "The Best and the Brightest" about the very smart people who led us into VietNam. I wonder who will be writing "The Worst and the Dimmest" about the Trumpenfuhrer's people?
I missed the administration’s hysterics too, if there was any. I think it’s the lack of response that’s concerning. They’re expecting it which is disheartening because of the combination of their thirst for more power with a lack of compassion for people living here. Control is the goal.
Control, yes -- and always, always the grift. "Alas, we are in a Military Situation which through no fault of ours has resulted in oil shortages. Alas, further, we must now buy oil from a country which desperately needs money to finance its own Military Situation... Alas! What a world!"
In 1967 I was invited by our government to visit Viet Nam at no cost. I gracelessly declined. My Wife and I went on our own dime (well MANY dimes) and it was the most fantastic place we ever visited. We saw what war can do to a country and the sadness it caused the people who survived.
The only reason I answered in the 5-7 range is because I'm crashing on deadlines for a novel I've written, and that keeps me in a bit of a bubble. I come out of that bubble once or twice a day to catch the news and weekly to write angry screeds to my members of Congress or the newspaper. But really, when I'm paying attention, it's 8-9 on the pain scale. And every day I consider what this is doing to the American psyche in general -- we're feeling enraged, helpless and traumatized (even if we take frequent actions to resist/fight back), or we're too stupid or misled by misinformation to understand what's going on, or we're hiding, hoping it will all go away. I believe the body will keep score: that people will fall prey to more illness because where does all this trauma go? Finally, I found myself saying to someone at my church recently, "Before now, I've never wished anyone dead." And she nodded her head in agreement. And yes, this was at my CHURCH. That's where we are now.
The fact that people raised with video games think they show true war confirms how bad our educational system is. The first time I heard Hegseth speak my first thought was that he was acting as if this was a video game. I think both he and trump need to get dropped into the middle of Tehran and get a true taste of war. I’m a boomer whose father fought in WWII. He suffered trauma and never once mentioned the BS that comes out of trump’s mouth. They have no clue what it’s really like in a war from their perch in D. C.
I think if we hit 10 we won’t know it because trump will have used nuclear weapons; you know he has no clue as to what happens when he does, neither does anyone else.
"Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception."
--- Mark Twain, "Chronicle of Young Satan"
Certainly one of the more effective propaganda tools, if not THE most effective at scale in the modern day while it lasted, was embedding journos with the troops. Although chroniclers and observers of war have accompanied the military since antiquity, the Iraq War was the first large-scale and systematic U.S. effort to control the public narrative by providing what is called "soda-straw" views of the battlefield that favored successful, precise military operations over the broader, often chaotic, reality of war. It also conveniently obscured the reasons it was being waged in the first place. It's still a standard military practice but now done on a far smaller scale and has largely been replaced by "press pools" for specific, restricted operations. Truth, as the proverb goes, is the first casualty of war --- and it dies in many ways.
“We shall reach our goal, when we have the power to laugh as we destroy, as we smash, whatever was sacred to us as tradition, as education, and as human affection.”—Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propagandist.
Sounds like Goebbels is mentoring Pete Hegseth and Stephen Miller from beyond the grave👻
… and not for the first time.
“The world is divided by love and hate. To be on firm ground, one must know whom to love and whom to hate. There is only one thing that is objectively incontestable for us: We must win. That must guide us!—Goebbels, September 6, 1942
“(W)e live in a world…that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.”—Neo-Nazi propagandist Stephen Miller, January 5, 2026
Very well done 2 minute hate this morning.
Thought you were going to put us out of your obvious misery asshole.
Fuck off you festering bag of penis boils.
So those English lessons are working out for you eh shit for brains?
I think the real heyday of (soft) war porn was the 1950s into the early 1960s. War movies & war comics were ubiquitous, & there were even military comedies like No Time for Sergeants & Sergeant Bilko, all a sort of hangover from WW II. My father was a doc during the war, & I remember watching Victory at Sea & Air Power documentaries on TV with him & even a comedy (sorry, don't remember the name). Yet my father hated the military & war with an amazing intensity. Now the difference is the war porn is hard & prospective, an innocent childish effort to glorify rather than a displaced effort to understand. For those of us who have, as they used to say, rallied to the colors, no matter how unwillingly, it's thoroughly disgusting.
Thinking possibly of "McHale's Navy" (1962-1966)?
That's one but not the one was thinking of. The one my father liked had a bumbling SGT & COL.
The only other WWII sitcom from that period with a colonel and sergeant in prominent roles that comes to mind was "Hogan's Heros," but that was more mid-'60s.
I remember news stands carrying Soldier Of Fortune magazine in the 80s and beyond. It's moved to website-only now.
Not innocent. Knowing.
Here's a better pain scale: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/02/boyfriend-doesnt-have-ebola-probably.html
Love the chart, thanks.
I love her. This is just hilarious. I can't tell you how many times I shared her story of moving across the country with two dogs (one normal, one highly neurotic). https://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/11/dogs-dont-understand-basic-concepts.html
I was going to point people in that very direction, but you beat me to it.
It's been said that "Cruelty is the point" of this administration's tactics. No, it's not. It's beyond cruelty. It's sadism. From frog-marching chained, shaven deportees to a foreign hell-hole prison, to gang-accosting and shooting protesters in American cities, to absolute shamelessness at killing Iranian school children. Recall Trump's SOTU in which crime victims' assaults were described in vivid, gory details. Listen to how they talk. Watch the war-porn (apt description, GW) videos. And then there's Hegseth himself with a sadistic streak wider than his Neanderthal brow line. Sickening. I'm reminded of Jan 6. I was watching the mob attack live as it unfolded on TV and also had a social media app open. A friend posted "He's masturbating behind the Resolute Desk." Not "maybe," not "probably," and no confirming evidence, but all too likely true.
just remember he needed his tweezers to complete (I know, off topic but any chance I have to make a tiny dick joke I have to go there)
As an eight-year-old Cub Scout I went to a public firepower demonstration at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, the home of the U.S. Army’s Field Artillery School. There my Cub Scout pack saw every type of land-based weapon fired, from small arms to 155mm self-propelled howitzer, and finally the coup de grâce, a conflagration of napalm bombs dropped from beneath the wings of five F-105 jets from the nearby Sheppard AFB. We were in awe, not only of the sights and sounds of it all, but also by the heat of the napalm burning a quarter-mile or so in front of us. That was 1963.
In 1972, the photo of a Vietnamese girl running naked down a road, her clothes burned and ripped from her body became the image that finally turned most Americans against the conflict*. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to meet her in person, hear her speak, and ruminate over the propaganda that we are delivered every day via the U.S. government and the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned against as he left office.
Everyone in the U.S. should feel the heat of the napalm and acknowledge the cold sadism of the war machine that we have become. Only then will these senseless actions of our government be reined in.
*NOT a war.
I gave it a 9, only because I expect it to get worse and I'm saving my 10 until next week.
Kegsbreath is the worst SecDef ever. David Halberstam wrote "The Best and the Brightest" about the very smart people who led us into VietNam. I wonder who will be writing "The Worst and the Dimmest" about the Trumpenfuhrer's people?
"The Worst and the Dimmest": 👍👍👍
What if POTUS is somehow inviting retaliation against the US so that he can “save the day” after stalling or canceling midterm elections?
That's my concern. Two terror events in the US yesterday. Maybe I missed the Administrations hysterics about them?
I missed the administration’s hysterics too, if there was any. I think it’s the lack of response that’s concerning. They’re expecting it which is disheartening because of the combination of their thirst for more power with a lack of compassion for people living here. Control is the goal.
Control, yes -- and always, always the grift. "Alas, we are in a Military Situation which through no fault of ours has resulted in oil shortages. Alas, further, we must now buy oil from a country which desperately needs money to finance its own Military Situation... Alas! What a world!"
Pentagoons. Must remember.
And I thought those decks of cards during the Second Iraq War were crass.
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
— Albert Einstein
I chose 5-7, because things could -- and probably will -- get worse.
In 1967 I was invited by our government to visit Viet Nam at no cost. I gracelessly declined. My Wife and I went on our own dime (well MANY dimes) and it was the most fantastic place we ever visited. We saw what war can do to a country and the sadness it caused the people who survived.
The only reason I answered in the 5-7 range is because I'm crashing on deadlines for a novel I've written, and that keeps me in a bit of a bubble. I come out of that bubble once or twice a day to catch the news and weekly to write angry screeds to my members of Congress or the newspaper. But really, when I'm paying attention, it's 8-9 on the pain scale. And every day I consider what this is doing to the American psyche in general -- we're feeling enraged, helpless and traumatized (even if we take frequent actions to resist/fight back), or we're too stupid or misled by misinformation to understand what's going on, or we're hiding, hoping it will all go away. I believe the body will keep score: that people will fall prey to more illness because where does all this trauma go? Finally, I found myself saying to someone at my church recently, "Before now, I've never wished anyone dead." And she nodded her head in agreement. And yes, this was at my CHURCH. That's where we are now.
The fact that people raised with video games think they show true war confirms how bad our educational system is. The first time I heard Hegseth speak my first thought was that he was acting as if this was a video game. I think both he and trump need to get dropped into the middle of Tehran and get a true taste of war. I’m a boomer whose father fought in WWII. He suffered trauma and never once mentioned the BS that comes out of trump’s mouth. They have no clue what it’s really like in a war from their perch in D. C.
I think if we hit 10 we won’t know it because trump will have used nuclear weapons; you know he has no clue as to what happens when he does, neither does anyone else.
"Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception."
--- Mark Twain, "Chronicle of Young Satan"
Certainly one of the more effective propaganda tools, if not THE most effective at scale in the modern day while it lasted, was embedding journos with the troops. Although chroniclers and observers of war have accompanied the military since antiquity, the Iraq War was the first large-scale and systematic U.S. effort to control the public narrative by providing what is called "soda-straw" views of the battlefield that favored successful, precise military operations over the broader, often chaotic, reality of war. It also conveniently obscured the reasons it was being waged in the first place. It's still a standard military practice but now done on a far smaller scale and has largely been replaced by "press pools" for specific, restricted operations. Truth, as the proverb goes, is the first casualty of war --- and it dies in many ways.