Franklin the turtle is a Canadian creation beloved by generations of children, so when U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth turned him into a bazooka-wielding soldier in a social media post Sunday, many people were alarmed.
Hegseth’s post featured a mock cover of a Franklin children’s book titled “Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists.” The image shows a smiling Franklin wearing a military helmet and vest and an American flag on his arm. He’s standing in a helicopter, firing a weapon toward a boat carrying packages and a man holding a gun.
“For your Christmas wish list,” he wrote above the post, an apparent attempt to make light of deadly U.S. military strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Wait, that was real? I only saw the screenshot on Lemmy and assumed it was a shitpost.
Oh, it was a shitpost. Directly from the DoD.
I’m just so tired…
That’s what they want. It’s called “flooding the zone” and they want you so worn out on stupid shit like this, that you won’t bother to protest the really bad stuff still to come.
Quietly stacking courts and gerrymandering in Alabama or Oklahoma isn’t front page news, but will affect the lives of countless people in the future
Big bomb go boom distracts from the machinations. Anyone who still has a shred of respect for their oath of enlistment should put a round through Hegseths forehead as punishment for war crimes.
Kinda underlines what kind of people the current cabinet is. “Fun” people from the TV that have a “wonderful” 4chan mentality to global politics.
And half of the US gobbles this up like Trump did to Bubba.
“Big Beautiful Bill” means something rather different than what anybody expected
blew a HORSE.
trying to be edgy, with gen-z people.
Hegseth got the US flags oriented such that Franklin appears to be retreating.
The next installment is “Franklin is brought up on war crimes”… put it on your Christmas list!
Whatever, a fucking punchable face.
Every new low in casual cruelty sets back the date when America will be trusted on the world stage a decade further out. I’m confident I’ll be dead before an American leader would be held in the same regard as other leaders on the world stage.
My kid is growing up in this reality and distrust will be their generation’s default sentiment.
I don’t think the US will ever be trusted or respected again; they were already really pushing it before the last decade happened.
Coming end of an empire, setting up for collapse.
