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Bill Ackman, who runs a private equity fund, put up a Memorial Day post at Twitter. It has an image of a woman stretched out on the ground over her husband's grave at a military cemetery, with the words:
Let’s make sure to remember and honor the fallen on Monday. Many of us, myself included, enjoy the long weekend with our families without giving sufficient consideration to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice so that we can leave free. We owe them everything. Let’s never forget.
An entirely appropriate post for Memorial Day, wouldn't you think? But of the 270 comments to the post, a significant portion of them are worrying and depressing to read:
***Some of them are anti-Israel. ("Never forget these men died for Israel because American politicians are blackmailed by Epstein tapes," for example.)
***Some are unable to comprehend that wars might be motivated by something other than the financial interests of corporations. ("Why exactly should I thank them for their service? I'm not an oil company.")
***Some use the post to take a shot at Jews. ("Jews don’t serve in the American forces. They just send them to fight their wars")
***Some claim that we don't have any freedom, anyhow. (Vaccine mandates, social media censorship, etc.)
***Several make it about Trump. ("Makes no sense that you want to honor the fallen, those who made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve our representative Democracy yet support a man who came dangerously close to killing it")
***Many clearly resent Ackman's personal financial success (and I believe that an upsurge in bitterness and envy in a society is highly correlated with the growth of anti-Semitism in that society).
***At least one says that we should also remember the 13 'pro-Palestine' students were barred from graduating for their involvement in campus protests, as if these 'freedom fighters' were analogous to those Americans killed in combat.
Now, not all of these people are Americans; but a high proportion of them appear to be.
The majority of comments to Ackman's post are reasonable and appropriate, but there are a disturbing number along the lines sketched out above.
Discussion (18)
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There are just people who simply can't pass up any opportunity to attack the U.S., even if it means desecrating the memories of those who fought to preserve this free country. Sad.
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And there are also people who cannot pass up any opportunity to make everything about their personal obsessions.
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I abhor the nature of the comments you've singled out. However, I find the intimate nature of that photo, and its publication, disturbing in itself. I hope the woman so pictured knew she was being photographed and what would be done with the photo. (There are other such photos that have been published over the years, and they always give me a bit of a jolt, and the same feeling. If she didn't know, then I think that's an unforgivable intrusion.
Oh. Apparently the photo is from 2014, and the story is out there:
independent.co.uk
Open link
TBC, I don't know why the article has to make it all about Trump (except that it's The Independent). My objection is non-political and has to do with basic decency.
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From the link quoted in #:
"San Diego Union-Tribune photographer Hayne Palmour IV took the photo of Jenn Budenz in 2014 at Miramar National Cemetery in San Diego, for a Memorial Day story about the long tail of grief felt by families of fallen service members."
I don't mean to be cruel, but Mrs. Budenz allowed the San Diego Union-Tribune to use her image. After an image is out in the world, she can have no expectation of control of its use. There is no privacy in the internet age.
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While I see the logic of the comment of @DoctorRobert I note I was about to use that very image and decided against it when I saw the article about widows objecting to the use of these photos.
Not to try to sound like I am virtue signaling but it does seem extremely invasive of these families’ grief.
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