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A.P. Murphy's avatar

Interesting piece - your diagnosis of the contemporary sickness is about right I think, the hypermasculine trained killer and the frustrated 'unmasculine' young man are the twin ragin' dangers (small correction though, McVeigh wasn't a "mass shooter" but a bomber).

The absolute apex of all that hypermasculine rage is contained in the recent true crime book The Fort Bragg Cartel by Seth Harp. SOCOM assassins who are also drug traffickers and drug users.

But I'm not really in favour of your portrait of the ideal upbringing of a young man. I've brought up a son and I certainly didn't do it that way, with all this traditional observation of old-fashioned gestures. Respect yes, but not this cornpone deference which invites fakery. Perhaps it'this way is just too American and I'm too Eurotrash...

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Emil Ottoman's avatar

Keep meaning to buy Fort Bragg Cartel but I'm worried there's not much in it I don't know already is the issue.

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A.P. Murphy's avatar

I think if you’re informed about SOCOM and their activities in the War on Terror there isn’t much really new there, though it is contained and condensed in one place. However the true crime story of the particular cartel and their particular atrocities is very new.

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Tom Schecter's avatar

Fuck man. I’ve got a one year old. That whole last stanza hit me fucking hard. 🤘

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Nick Winney's avatar

If America was a story right now, you just wouldn't believe it. Superb, driving prose. The world is falling apart, and the loosest bolts are in the states.

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JLG Noga's avatar

America has always been a story, my friend

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