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When were they heroes at all? After the Revolutionary War, literally every conflict has been an unnecessary result of US belligerence at least in part.

Hitler was a significant threat to the world in WWII. It was the last war that was primarily driven to preserve our freedom. While there were corrupt reasons involved (there always is in all wars), such as Bush's connections to German banks, a bad outcome and we would all be speaking German now in the continental US. Since then, Eisenhower has warned in his "cross of iron" speech that a "military industrial complex" was rising. We've conveniently forgotten and now we live with this reality.

I'm old enough to have seen the changes in the USA over the last several decades. I don't need to read about it in the history books because I've lived it. The zeitgeist of the times is significantly different now from what it was when I was a child.

WW2 was a consequence of WW1, which ended in injustice following US involvement, and created an environment where rabid nationalists like Hitler could claim to offer a solution. Hitler was bad, but his existence didn't arise out of nowhere. Further, there is no way his fascist economy could have fueled a long-term war, much less led to "everyone speaking German." The first half of the 20th century is clouded by propaganda and patriotic bullshit too.

Patriotic BS in every era, but the times were different then. It's very different these days. Total and absolute corruption now. Cops get away with everything. VR makes it so anything can be faked and evidence erased. This wasn't the case when I was a child. Many cops refused to wear guns. Much more respect and decency and cops that did step out of line were prosecuted because police unions weren't as strong back then. Also a lot less ego. Unless you were alive to experience it, you will not really understand.

Have you read War is a Racket by Marine General Smedley Butler? It has always been the same BS.

If by "VR," you mean CGI, only to an extent. And there was plenty of manual image alteration and staged scenes since the invention of photography.

We see the past through rose-colored glasses, but you are talking about the era of Jim Crow and prohibition. There may have been more Andy Griffiths in the past, but there have always been Barney Fifes as well. Police have always done what they could get away with doing.

Police have always done what they could get away with doing.

Statism has cycles. We have heroes today don't we? People like Larken Rose, Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, Jeff Berwick, Satoshi Nakamoto, etc. Then minarchism rears its ugly head. Eventually "essential services" seek to justify their existence as government and they increasingly expand into a blood sucking parasite. It will happen again if the byzantine generals problem isn't properly solved for decentralization.