I want to be clear about something before anyone interprets this as me defending Trump: I am not a Trump supporter. I consider him one of the worst presidents in U.S. history, and I have very little interest in defending either him or his political agenda.
That is precisely why I have a problem with memes like this being presented as factual arguments.
The USS Abraham Lincoln really did return to port after an extraordinarily long deployment. The photograph is real, and the ship genuinely looks rough after spending months at sea. But using that photograph as evidence that Trump somehow left the U.S. military looking like this is misleading. The Lincoln had just completed a 286 day deployment, including roughly 208 consecutive days at sea and about 200 days in a combat zone. That is actually a far more legitimate thing to criticize. Keeping a carrier and its crew deployed for that length of time raises serious questions about operational tempo, maintenance, readiness, crew fatigue, and the strain being placed on the Navy. Those are substantive criticisms that deserve discussion.
Instead, we get this stupid little meme that takes a completely legitimate photograph, strips away all of its context, and presents it as though it is evidence of something it does not actually demonstrate. That is intentionally misleading the people who see it, and then encouraging them to repeat the misinformation because it supports an agenda.
That’s the problem I keep seeing on Lemmy: a legitimate political point gets wrapped in misinformation because the misinformation makes the meme more effective. People then repeat it because it supports a conclusion they already agree with.
I don’t think that’s acceptable simply because the target is Trump.
One of the things that infuriates me about Trump and his political movement is their willingness to manipulate facts, exploit outrage, selectively present information, and construct narratives that are technically based on something real while being fundamentally misleading. We shouldn’t respond to that by adopting the same tactics.
If we believe our position is actually stronger, then we should be able to make the argument honestly.
You can criticize Trump’s claims about “rebuilding the military.” You can criticize defense spending, procurement failures, maintenance problems, military readiness, the defense industrial complex, or the extraordinary deployment demands being placed on the Navy. There are plenty of legitimate arguments to make.
We don’t need to manufacture evidence to make those arguments.
If our standard becomes “misinformation is acceptable when it hurts the people we dislike,” then we’ve abandoned the very standard we’re supposedly defending. Worse, we’ve made ourselves vulnerable to exactly the same rhetorical tactics when they’re used against us.
Being better than Trump and his political movement means more than disagreeing with them. It means refusing to become comfortable with the methods we condemn when they’re politically convenient.
Weighted takes are hard, being salty after a meme is much easier.
I don’t know. If Trump has taught us anything, it’s that a significant percentage of people struggle with empathy. And despite us being the war hawk, military police of the world, I would guess there are fewer people who understand what it’s like to be deployed that long than folks who are used to landlords slapping a coat of paint on something and pretending they totally rebuilt it, brand new.
Both are enormously disrespectful. Trump doesn’t give two shits about the people, the money, or the equipment he burns on this giant Epstein file distraction.
You make a valid point if this were misinformation. But where’s the misinformation? That’s a picture of the ship. Salt water and steel don’t mix well, we all know this. Long deployments at sea means stretched maintenance schedules. And for what purpose? Nobody really knows. Israel has nukes, why can’t Iran? This war is costing us immensely and for no other purpose than so Israel doesn’t release Donnie’s pedo proof. There’s no misinformation in this meme. The ship looks like shit because it was there for a long ass time, but it does look like shit.
Where are you seeing misinformation in this?
Israel can have nukes because it’s the only democracy of the Middle East /s
The ship is fine. The post is trying to claim otherwise.
The sailors, the pointless war, etc… are valid concerns.
The OmG ShIp Got WuStY… Is undermining the real problems.
Right, I get that. But that’s a reaction to the meme. It is factually rusty. It’s not necessarily a problem yet, but it isn’t misinformation. It’s just kinda small fry shit. Even the claim from trump that he’s rebuilt the military twice is simply eye-rolling in nature. It’s like calling him orange, it’s not important, but it’s true. Therefore it can’t really be called misinformation.
Had to think of this:
I can smell this picture
crusty walls
Lots of seamen.
Seawater is really aggressive. I don’t think this is really a big issue as everyone makes out of this.
wow, maybe the military need more money to fix up their stuff. the only cause of this could be lack of funding, right? right?
Yeah a 1.5 trillion dollar budget just isn’t enough /s
military tend to have some of the most creative accounting so no matter how much it is always not enough even though by all metrics it is more than enough
Probably yes. They need more money to fix the ship.
However there’s for sure enough money in the military.
So the question is, where did it all go?
Did you look under the Pentagon?
Why the fuck didn’t that come to a head the first time they failed audits? America failed us a long time ago.
What does he even think he means (Trump on “rebuilding twice”)?
I think rust is like ablative armor
We would call that “load bearing rust”.
I mean, while she absolutely does not look great, this is also the expected condition for a ship that’s been at sea for 200+ days without even a port call. Saltwater is hell on metal, and paint can only do so much for so long.
The cost to maintain these must be insane. A quick uneducated search gives me about half a billion $ per year. Absolutely bonkers.
I have no idea if that includes crew, food, aircraft, armaments, and everything else. If it does, that’s not all that insane, or I should say I’m not surprised at least.
I believe it does
Even if it is expected and has no effect on the carrier’s performance, the optics are pretty bad regardless. Half of its job is projecting power, and a rusty ship doesn’t hit the same. Looks like soviet tech in western representations, working but barely
The ship shouldn’t have been out that long in the first place. Letting it get this bad is the failure being highlighted here.
Maybe don’t start a war that puts your critical shore support structures at risk if you don’t have a plan.
Or just, you know, don’t start a war, period. I have been informed it’s generally frowned upon.
Trump voters are braindead. Now we have sailers jumping off the boat to their deaths. Whole country is a hopeless cesspool of income inequality, job insecurity, skyrocketing cost of food, while housing costs, education costs, and healthcare costs are wildly unaffordable. Half of the population seems to be in some hated minority group (non Christian, non white, non cis, lgbt, disabled, autistic, or whatever boogeyman) these idiots can hate rather than focus on the real enemies manipulating them.
It’s heartbreaking to see it in your family and neighbors. They voted their country away to own the libs. They don’t give a shit about the kids they sent to die in this stupid war. Or those kids they sent to rot on a boat.
At least they were able to prevent those two trans kids from playing sports I guess.
thailand is expected 5000 sailors to spend time with the red district.
Peacefully blownoff steam
Not the most ragged lookin’ ship I’ve ever seen, but for a representative of the world’s most expensive Navy she’s looking absolutely shabby.
Asked my dad about this, because he was in the navy a long time, and it’s normal, and the ship is sitting high, indicating light load, which makes sense because of the deployment circumstances.
Its sitting completely normally. It’ll be ballasted to that draught.
I just wanna say that is a marvel of engineering. To make something that big and wide sitting on such a small base in water is very impressive. It’s like a reverse iceberg, where 10% is under the surface and 90% above.
That’s speed rust
That must be what freedom looks like
Sponsored by Rust-eze Medicated Bumper Ointment.
Red makes it faster
A shining representation of what the US is like right now. A festering pit.
why send it to battle? they’re disposing it, including the crew
We don’t get to make fun of the Admiral Kuznetsov ever again
This one’s got a long way to go to being Kuznetsov’d, for one you need to weld off unused areas, then make the engine room look like something from Saw, replace the catapult with a cope slope. Oh, and have it spew clouds of black smoke whenever it’s not moved by tugs (which is like 10%), maybe keep it in port for “modernization” for a few years too
have it spew clouds of black smoke
Really its a wonder Trump hasn’t mandated conventionally powered carriers, only his insane ideas with steam catapults.
Part of me wants to see more ships powered by marine gas* turbines, but with aircraft carriers that’s really improbable :/
They’re powered by marine steam turbines. Is that close enough?
Close, but not nearly cool enough
Of course plenty of smaller aircraft/helicopter carriers powered that way, but I’m thinking Trump would want heavy fuel oil, boilers and steam turbines.
We can do both
How to ragebait the right: “look at all those torpedo marks at the water line! They must have some thick hulls, bless.” 100s of comments on Tiktok news channels.
Same channel: “that ship is about to experience chlamydia and herpes, better stock up on penicillin and valtrex” (upon landing on a sex capital of the world)…nothing. zero comments.
All non perishable food will be gone from the city by the time they leave.
Also, how many sailors go AWOL?
