I love the smell of imperialism in the morning

[intertribal]

From Richard Seymour (Lenin's Tomb), "A community of heroes":

Roosevelt et al contended that to save America, a new frontier was needed: by waging wars of expansion, always with the fondest motives, always with civilisation and Christian virtue in mind, Americans would be impressed by their collective power and would "come to see themselves, as they had done in the Civil War, the Indian Wars, and in the colonization of new land, as a community of heroes engaged in a struggle upon which the future of humanity depended." Well, if that isn't American imperialist ideology to a tee. The firefighter, policeman, intrepid reporter, blue-collar bum, incorruptible union activist, brave American soldier - heroism is the supreme imperialist virtue (even if its application is cowardly, corrupt, venal, brutal, and in general as unlikely to inspire admiration as any form of human conduct).

In the comments somebody mentioned "tough trucks (heroic trucks)".  Like so:

Comments

[wendigomountain.livejournal.com]

Those commercials always struck me as a how-to guide: "How to Ruin Your Pickup Truck with Bad Driving and Heavy Objects Falling from the Sky."

There is nothing manly, macho, heroic about driving in the mountains like an idiot. In my experience, that's what adolescent boys with access to 3.2 beer and dad's Chevy do. And it never ends well.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

That article pretty much puts into words something that I have been trying to articulate for ten years.