The Combat Threads Weekly Round Up 2.17

Influencers, "Warfighters," Streetwear with Guns, and Puffins

This is a Combat Threads roundup, a series of short thoughts, what I am reading, watching, etc. I hope to make this a more regular series going forward. This week, we have Tactical Streetwear, influencers turn towards civil unrest, and the myth of the “warfighter.”

GQ: Can Gun Culture Help Streetwear Find Its Edge Again?

(Via Qilo)

Last week, my story on Qilo Tactical was published over at GQ. The rise of what I loosely call tactical streetwear had been on my story list for some time, but I always found it a bit hard to nail down. Qilo is not the only brand in the space, but certainly the most successful and evocative of the trend. Partially, it is the story of the changing landscape of gun ownership in the country, streetwear vernacular becoming fully mainstreamed, and the interconnectedness of GORP and military design. From my piece in GQ, Mike Stein :

[Mike]Stein, [Qilo’s founder] describes his target customers as men who “grew up playing Call of Duty. They grew up listening to Wu-Tang Clan. They were into hip-hop, they were into punk, they were into skate. Many of them collected Supreme or were familiar with brands like Stüssy or The Hundreds.” Some of those hypebeast boys grew up and got into midcentury design and matcha; others, evidently, grew up and got into rifles and plate carriers…there was a hole in the market for clothing that matched the quality of expensive ARs that was not simply tactical but had a distinct sense of style. Qilo is for the guy who spends $3,000 on a gun and wants his looks to reflect that sensibility.

Read the rest here.

Loosey: Are Influencers Ready For The Warfare Economy?

I found this to be an interesting read on the emerging trend of TikTok-style influencers hocking civil unrest-ready essentials like gas masks and solar power banks. This is essentially “prepper” influencing at some level as well as a theme we have seen in conservative-coded fear of American cities, with YouTube videos like “How To Escape The City (Urban Evasion While Being Hunted)” and “Silent Weapons For Urban Collapse / Urban Clandestine Warfare.” From Loosey:

It seems as though just about anything can happen. And, suddenly, a troupe of influencers promoting warfare consumer goods makes complete sense. The influencer economy has shifted from promoting unattainable aspirations to zeroing in on our greatest fears. It’s always our insecurities that are the most bankable.

Read the rest here.

War By Other Means: The Myth of the Warfighter

Really enjoyed this piece from War By Other Means on the importance of diverse higher education in the military and the true meaning of the obsession with “lethality.” For the sake of this piece, “warfighter” is interchangeable with “operator,” a topic I continue to go back to. James perfectly sums up the phenomenon:

Over the past few years, there has been an embrace of the cult of the operator within right-wing defense circles.

To simplify the phenomenon, it can best be described as a fairly unsophisticated view that door-kicking wins wars. If it hadn’t been for the decadent political class, inept woke and politicized officers, and perfidious JAGs with their laws of war—then the real warriors could have won in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It’s a fairly uncreative rehash of stab-in-the-back style mythos that are created in the aftermath of other failed wars. If it had not been for (insert whatever abstract scapegoat), then the real fighters would have carried the day. It is no different from Ernst Jünger calling for a politics of the frontline fighter in the 1920’s.

While I have tracked the ‘operator’ as a visual and stylistic trend, I have struggled to fully flesh out its political meaning. James pinning it as our GWOT version of the stab-in-the-back myth clicked for me right away. Absolutely nailed it, and makes the kind of violence and reactionary ‘operator’ media make all the more sense. This is not the main thrust of James’ piece, which goes on:

Everything from the ban on Harvard to the prospective purging of War Colleges is built around sheltering the military from any outside perspectives. It removes the possibility of hearing new viewpoints. It reduces civilian insight and oversight of the DoD. You will have more officers reflexively aligned with the culture of the Pentagon, rather than the public writ large. Hegseth, since his days as a Fox News host, has consistently advocated for a separate set of ethics, norms, political views, and status within society for service members.

Read it all here.

Snap Shots

Afghanistan’s defense ministry unveils new military uniforms for armed forces (It’s a rip on American M81 woodland, of course)

ICE Agents in Colorado are playing Vietnam by leaving “death cards” after abductions

Against the State – A Primer on Terrorism, Insurgency and Protest

Angry Planet: Puffins, Zyn, and ‘Polar War’

Till next time,

C.W.M.

* * *