[flagged]
I assume you don’t know what The Onion is. I suppose I can hardly blame you as the Onion struggles to write satire as absurd as reality these days.
Or possibly the downvoters don't know what The Onion is..
Military branches restore flu shot requirement after virus swept through base
51–60 of 179 posts
Re: Military branches restore flu shot requirement after virus swept through base
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community
> The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, c…
I'm still waiting to hear that soliloquy in a movie.
Re: Military branches restore flu shot requirement after virus swept through base
#53It turns out eventually you have to deal with reality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community
> 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality‘
The American reality of stepping on rake after rake after rake. A gag that meanders repeatedly between funny and sad.
Re: Military branches restore flu shot requirement after virus swept through base
#54I have a close friend who is an officer nearing twenty years. He has not had a tendency to criticize his job. However, he has been adamant that vaccines are incredibly important for the military and the policy changes have really angered him, specifically because of the damage it does to readiness.
> However, he has been adamant that vaccines are incredibly important for the military ... https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/smallpox-inoculation-revolu... > During the 1700s, smallpox raged through the American colonies and the Continental Army. Smallpox impacted the Continental Army severely during the Revolutionary War, so much so that George Washington mandated inoculation for all Continental soldiers in 1777. Jus…
If I remember correctly, the Battle of Agincourt, where the Welsh archers destroyed the French knights, was fought by archers with their pants around their ankles.
Apparently, there was a dysentery outbreak. They didn’t retreat, because they couldn’t. Maybe that was the thinking behind this edict.
Re: Military branches restore flu shot requirement after virus swept through base
#55It turns out eventually you have to deal with reality.
Hot take but we should let reality deal the blow. There's so many things that people think is redundant and unnecessary but actually have an army of people and machination that are working tirelessly to curb it. Only to called bloat and the deep state. Vaccines should not be given automatically, because that causes people to not think about why they need it. They think that it is something is imposed on them. But if…
If millions more people are obese than were obese 50 years ago, clearly something has changed systemically that has made people more sedentary and eating more. People 50 years ago were not paying more conscious attention to their health than people today, but the background environment of available food and sedentary jobs/entertainment were different.
The personal responsibility model of obesity works for individuals (including myself), but falls flat when discussing how to lower the weight of millions.
Re: Military branches restore flu shot requirement after virus swept through base
#56In a sane administration, the complete and total lack of judgement that allowed vaccine mandates to go away should have led to an instant loss of confidence in sec def and anyone in the chain that didn't raise concerns about that decision. Anyone that studies even the slightest amount of military history knows that disease used to kill more people in war than bullets until -very- recently. The fact that potentially the single most effective combat enabler is not taken seriously shows the complete and utter lack of qualifications the people this administration puts into positions of power.
Re: Military branches restore flu shot requirement after virus swept through base
#57"Under President [Donald J.] Trump, the War Department continues to take decisive action to once again restore freedom and strength to our joint force. We're seizing this moment to discard any absurd overreaching mandates that only weaken our warfighting capabilities." - Secretary Hegseth in April 2026
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
Re: Military branches restore flu shot requirement after virus swept through base
#58In a sane administration, the complete and total lack of judgement that allowed vaccine mandates to go away should have led to an instant loss of confidence in sec def and anyone in the chain that didn't raise concerns about that decision. Anyone that studies even the slightest amount of military history knows that disease used to kill more people in war than bullets until -very- recently. The fact that potentially t…
There's a double layer of irony here, where the people criticizing people of the ignorance of "unintended" consequences of vaccine fear will play defense for the unintended consequence of causing that fear by the extremely aggressive pushing of vaccine policies during covid
Re: Military branches restore flu shot requirement after virus swept through base
#59It turns out eventually you have to deal with reality.
> Before writing off the totalitarian world as a nightmare that can't come true, just remember that in 1925 the world of today would have seemed a nightmare that couldn't come true. Against that shifting phantasmagoric world in which black may be white tomorrow and yesterday's weather can be changed by decree, there are in reality only two safeguards. One is that however much you deny the truth, the truth goes on existing, as it were, behind your back, and you consequently can't violate it in ways that impair military efficiency. The other is that so long as some parts of the earth remain unconquered, the liberal tradition can be kept alive. — Orwell
https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwel...
Re: Military branches restore flu shot requirement after virus swept through base
#60Absolutely none of this should have happened. None. The 1918 "Spanish flu" was cultivated in the trenches and spread through military camps and demobilization. Hesgeth should be removed from his position ASAP. Edit: >Around 60% of previously unvaccinated trainees at Lackland initially declined the flu shot during the vaccine requirement’s lapse, according to the defense official. https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/24/po…
Back in 2010 the situation was already extremely grim. Yes, they did test for tuberculosis upon intake and took blood samples for many hepatitis variants and possible a few other things. However, they let severe respiratory viruses run through everyone like wildfire for weeks without the slightest effort to prevent disease. They purposely let people get extremely cold and wet and didn't give a damn if people got sick…
We were all sick as dogs for the first weeks of boot camp with Ricky (that is “recruit”) Flu. Didn’t matter; still did thousand of pushups and ran miles with severe sleep deprivation.
The (tear) gas chamber was a blessing in disguise, because it caused everyone to expel every dram of mucus that’d been stuck in our lungs. It was the first time I could breathe freely through my nose in a month.