what a surprise

From a 1985 issue of Soldier of Fortune magazine:


The text on the shirt reads "Whatever happened to the America that used to KICK ASS! instead of kiss ass" which is a typical enough bit of PBR-and-pickup-truck jingoism in an era rife with similar sentiments.

It's interesting that the ad ran at a time when Reagan's confrontational foreign policy was at its high water mark, but not particularly surprising. A longstanding cornerstone of reactionary populist ideology has been the notion of persecution manifested as a "majority outsider" status -- even when like-minded folks happen to have their hands on the levers of power. It's easier to keep order in the ranks when one flies the banner of the persecuted underdog, after all. Nothing breeds inertia and dissent like a sense of victory.

Musings on group psychology aside, the real reason I chose to spotlight this particular ad was because of what was written in the italicized copy -- that 75 cents per shirt purchased would be donated to one of the two groups of "freedom fighters" du jour in the Reagan Era: the Nicaraguan Contras and the Afghan rebels.

I'm not going to get into the whole sad, sordid mess of Nicaragua's ongoing political struggles, which proves only that corruption and cynical opportunistic behavior is not limited to either the left or right wing, with the masses getting the shit end of the stick regardless.

The donation of funds to the Afghan rebels (if it was ever carried out), though, had me wondering about something. Given who some of those rebels fighting the Soviets were, there's a very real possibility that the funds donated were used to purchase Kalishnakovs and RPG launchers which would eventually be used against American military personnel decades later.

So the folks who ponied up the $9.25 bought more than a t-shirt, they also picked up a copy of Blowback: The Home Game.

The Flys - Love and a Molotov Cocktail (from a 1978 single; collected on 1-2-3-4 Punk & New Wave: 1976-1979, 1999) - Slightly art-damaged punk occupying a space somewhere between The Jam and Pink Flag-era Wire on the sound spectrum.