Happy Veterans Day to all who have served this great nation.
We owe a great debt to those who have put their lives on the line for this country, and there’s a lot we have left to do to live up to those promises.
But today we simply say, thank you 🇺🇸
Many older people take issue with me referring to war heroes as “gangsters.” But the term gangster is actually a compliment. And it wasn’t popularized as one by Hollywood movies or rap music, as most people assume.
During World War II, Nazi propaganda labeled Allied special operations units, like Paddy Mayne and the SAS — as “gangsters” for their unconventional and highly effective tactics.
American bomber crews were called Luftgangsters, literally “air gangsters” or “gangsters of the sky.”
Eventually, Allied troops embraced the term as a backhanded compliment, much like how U.S. Marines adopted the name “Devil Dogs.”
If the Nazis called you a gangster, it meant you were feared, unconventional, and effective.
15 y/o me: It’s fucking crazy that people left the most advanced civilizations in the world, sailed across an ocean on a wooden ship, then crossed an entire continent in a covered wagon—just to get a homestead and live in a log cabin, miles from the nearest small town, for the rest of their lives.
30 y/o me: Nevermind. I get it.