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PaperclipPerfector  7d ago (text post)   2418 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.

I think your spot on. And, like all fashion, the user / wearers have to have some level of self-awareness. It's one thing to wear some digital camo pullover with a sports logo over it or something. It's quite another to show up all tactical gear'ed out to go on a cub scout 3 mile hike (ask me if I'm referring to personal experience here :-) ).

Charitably, I think patel probably had decent intent. But he seems like kind of spaz and may be one of those guys who kind of gets military / law enforcement / bro culture but is also not quite adept with it. If he had stopped with "Rest in peace, we have the watch." It comes across as salutary perhaps a little overwrought, but mostly fine. Throwing in "Valhalla" is deciding to unironically wear some of the shirts you see on /r/iamverybadass.

It's on a spectrum, right? Starts as Military, becomes try-hard, moves to normal, then to cosplay. I wore an m65 field jacket from the army navy store through most of boy scouts, and while it was military-coded no one thought I was pretending to have served in Vietnam. A modern camo version would look more like pretending; a WWI era military jacket more like cosplay. Then I suppose a tie has lost all association with Croatian mercenary light cavalry from the thirty years war.

An army-navy surplus store jacket is fine because it's not indicative of going out of your way to find a particular article of clothing. You're an outdoorsy or vaguely military-style-ish kind of guy. Rolling down to your local surplus store happens in the same trip as buying a drill at Loews / Home Depot.

But if you're rocking Crye Precision gear at the local fudd Rod and Hunt club firing range, you're fucking up. Patel didn't go full autist and like, render a salute and call for 'present arms', but his valhall-ing is pretty the same as the guy who shows you his 6.5 creedmoor while saying, "Yeah, it's actually the only round SEAL snipers use now. The rest just don't cut it"

Then I suppose a tie has lost all association with Croatian mercenary light cavalry from the thirty years war.

Do go on!

Do go on!

The word Cravat comes from Croat, and the neck scarf comes from a scarf worn by regiments of Croatian light-cavalry mercenaries during the Thirty Years War, who were famously fierce fighters.

In 1660 a regiment of Croats arrived in France — a part of their singular costume excited the greatest admiration, and was immediately and generally imitated; this was a tour de cou, made (for the private soldiers) of common lace, and of muslin or silk for the officers; the ends were arranged en rosette, or ornamented with a button or tuft, which hung gracefully on the breast. This new arrangement, which confined the throat but very slightly, was at first termed a Croat, since corrupted to Cravat. The Cravats of the officers and people of rank were extremely fine, and the ends were embroidered or trimmed with broad lace; those for the lower classes were subsequently made of cloth or cotton, or at the best of black taffeta, plaited: Which was tied round the neck by two small strings.

-- Le Blanc, H., Esq. (1828). The art of tying the cravat: Demonstrated in sixteen lessons

The Croats were famously fierce fighters, mothers all the way to the early years of the 20th century would supposedly frighten their children with stories about the Croatians depredations at the sack of Magdeburg. Croat regiments for a time became a generic term for light cavalry, comparable to hussars, and many adopted the Croatian costume.

So an elite, famous, fierce military unit shows up in Paris. The fashionable men of Paris immediately cop their style, to imitate the masculine devil-may-care mystique of the mercenary. Soon the Cravat was de rigeur for formal dress. Charles II brought it back from exile on the continent, and it became part of English fashion. From there the cravat evolved into the bow tie and straight tie and I guess the bolo tie of today, and the once military cravat became the faggy ascot that a costume designer puts on a character to inform us that the character is some unspeakable mix of wealthy and homosexual.

I will say, a lightweight scarf is really a pretty functional piece of dress for a life outdoors. I'll occasionally wear one despite the aria di frociaggine if I'm on a long hike or a bike ride. Keeps the sun off your neck, keeps the chill off without too much weight while being easily adjusted. The Croats had it right.

Thank you. This was wonderful.

I will now do my utmost to somehow PsyOp Highly Online Navy SEAL bros into wearing ascots.

some unspeakable mix of wealthy and homosexual.

Perish the thought! The wealthy should be straight as hell or asexual lizard people, the way God intended!

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