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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   3146 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for September 12, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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The Charlie Kirk shooting has also given us a truly cringe moment:

Kash Patel: "To my friend Charlie Kirk. Rest now, brother. We have the watch. And I'll see you at Valhalla"

To provide some context, "we have the watch" or "end of watch" is often used in police or military organizations when someone is killed in the line of duty. The "Valhalla" part emerged in some but not all GWOT veteran circles who would invoke that element of Norse mythology after the death of a comrade.

Obviously, the first layer of cringe is that Charlie Kirk was an outspoken Christian who would probably want to be assumed to have gone to a, you know, Christian concept of the afterlife. Second, neither Kirk nor Patel have any military or law enforcement experience, so there's also the cringe multiplier of framing yourself as a kind of very online wannabee badass.

But, Friday's gonna Fun, and Some of the memes are chuckle worthy.

Second, neither Kirk nor Patel have any military or law enforcement experience, so there's also the cringe multiplier of framing yourself as a kind of very online wannabe[] badass.

I wonder to what extent military slang and terminology and such like changes over time as it drifts into public use by non-soldiers. An in-joke starts as a status symbol telling others in the know that you had seen the elephant, then becomes known to the public and becomes a symbol to everyone, then begins to be used by members of the public to signal support, then drifts out of use with soldiers.

Kind of the same way about half of men's fashion starts with elite units in the military, then regular infantry units adopt the look from the elite units, then veterans continue to wear it as a symbol of service, then it just runs into civilian use.

Kind of the same way about half of men's fashion starts with elite units in the military, then regular infantry units adopt the look from the elite units, then veterans continue to wear it as a symbol of service, then it just runs into civilian use.

It is what it is, y'know?

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