• CrimsonSage [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Not a surprise really we flooded the region with our military commodities and accoutrements.

      • 6bicycles [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Honestly a baseball hat worn forward isn't exactly great at keeping the sun out so if you're culturally unfamiliar with the concept it doesn't seem that illogical to think of it purely as a fashion item and then that's how you do it.

      • furryanarchy [comrade/them,they/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        It kinda does if you wanna be able to shoot. It gets in the way of aiming. It gets in the way of most things, and doesn't even shade your eyes at all. Forwards or backwards the brim has always been entirely a fashion and not a function thing.

  • SteamedHamberder [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    We are 48 hours from the Taliban Twitter account posting a 30 minute video of a guy yelling about Imaginary Americans from a Ford F-150 in Kabul traffic.

    • LangdonAlger [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Shit that makes sense with the hat, I've had the brim get in the way of shooting lots of times and never made the connection

  • polinoas235 [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    There were similar stories about Hezbollah before with some western observers freaking out about the Spetnaz influence. I imagine most forces will eventually look the same unless China starts exporting masses of unique military equipment.

  • CommieElon [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Considering the special forces were really the only on the ground military people the last few years I wonder if the Taliban ended up having some sort of respect for them lol.

    • KobaCumTribute [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I don't know how to articulate it, but I've got this idea about aesthetics of power and danger and how that sort of spreads culturally. Like in the US think about the people who idolize fantasy villains and their aesthetics and the idea of power that those convey in their minds. Now swap over to someone who's pretty much grown up seeing US special forces walking the streets, maybe storming a building but mostly just being an intimidating presence that everyone's scared of (in terms of what the hypothetical local is actually seeing them do, at least).

      What are the aesthetic trappings that someone who grew up with that is going to try to imitate when they want to look and feel powerful and scary? Like it's probably not even a conscious thing, just "looking like this makes me feel powerful because this is what powerful people look like."

      • CommieElon [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Hm this is an interesting take and There is probably some psychology behind it.

  • Grownbravy [they/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I'm tired, is the joke that they've clearly been trained by US Special forces, or that they are actually US special Forces?