# Military birthday parades **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 5, 2025, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905 "2025-05-05T14:02:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/1 "2025-05-05T14:02:47Z")
I am reading William Shirer’s “The Nightmare Years, 1930-1940”. I was surprised to learn that Germany held a military parade on Hitler’s 50th birthday in 1939. I would think that every leader in the world would decide that having a military parade on your birthday was a Very Bad Idea. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/2 "2025-05-05T14:08:59Z")
If you surround yourself with people who tell you how great you are then there are no bad ideas. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/3 "2025-05-05T14:17:08Z")
1939 was only 20 years after Germany had a monarch. For millennia, a monarch’s birthday was the biggest state celebration of the year. Also, (you may have missed this) Hitler was an egomaniac. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/4 "2025-05-05T14:25:58Z")
Another case for having a “Like” button. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/5 "2025-05-05T16:05:25Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I would think that every leader in the world would decide that having a military parade on your birthday was a Very Bad Idea. You left out a key word there. Try this amendment plus addition: > I would think that every **Good** leader in the world would decide that having a military parade on your birthday was a Very **Bad** Idea. > > Conversely, every **Bad** leader in the world would decide that having a military parade on your birthday was a Very **Good** Idea. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/6 "2025-05-05T16:21:22Z")
On the one hand: Yes, it’s a Very Bad Idea. On the other: unlike most of Trump’s Very Bad Ideas, this one doesn’t actually _hurt_ anybody, and will probably keep him in a good mood for a little while, and given that he tends to get more angry / paranoid / vindictive when he’s in a bad mood, well… (I _hate_ that this is the calculation I’m making, but it is a consideration.) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/7 "2025-05-05T16:28:11Z")
I’d like to see a large group of protestors block the parade route. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/8 "2025-05-05T16:37:07Z")
Will he have them “shot in the legs”? A parade will provide employment for people to repair the streets after tank treads chew them up, although I believe the army has rubber cleats that attach to treads for that reason. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/9 "2025-05-05T16:42:25Z")
Reprising a moldy oldie from Laurence Britt’s [**“14 Characteristics of Fascism”**](https://secularhumanism.org/2003/03/fascism-anyone/). This is #4: > **The supremacy of the military/ avid militarism** > > Ruling elites always identified closely with the military and the industrial infrastructure that supported it. A disproportionate share of national resources was allocated to the military, even when domestic needs were acute. The military was seen as an expression of nationalism, and was used whenever possible to assert national goals, intimidate other nations, and increase the power and prestige of the ruling elite. And a reminder … Britt wrote this paper in the Spring of 2003, when most of us had barely even heard of Donald Trump. This isn’t Monday Morning Quarterbacking and making the evidence fit a preordained conclusion. It’s based on his in-depth analysis of “the following regimes: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Franco’s Spain, Salazar’s Portugal, Papadopoulos’s Greece, Pinochet’s Chile, and Suharto’s Indonesia.” We’re in stellar company, aren’t we? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/10 "2025-05-05T17:09:24Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > We’re in stellar company, aren’t we? The point of my post. I hadn’t studied much about pre WWII until “The Nightmare Years”. That book and Britt’s list is certainly frightening when one compares them to the current administration. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/11 "2025-05-05T23:51:40Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > It’s based on his in-depth analysis of “the following regimes: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Franco’s Spain, Salazar’s Portugal, Papadopoulos’s Greece, Pinochet’s Chile, and Suharto’s Indonesia.” > > We’re in stellar company, aren’t we? You are mentioning a lot of Trump’s heroes. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/12 "2025-05-06T00:44:28Z")
Here is almost another one: [The King’s Birthday Parade](https://kbp.army.mod.uk/kingsbirthdayparade/) > [@](#): > > Number 7 Company Coldstream Guards will Troop their Colour in the presence of His Majesty The King on Saturday 14th June 2025. Taking part will be over 1350 soldiers of the Household Division and King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, including over 300 musicians from the Massed Bands. > > Trooping the Colour reviewed by His Majesty The King also includes 250 soldiers from the Foot Guards who will line the processional route along The Mall. The parade, also known as Trooping the Colour, is always in June, and thus has no correlation with when the king or queen was actually born. And there are no tanks.. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/13 "2025-05-06T01:29:09Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I’d like to see a large group of protestors block the parade route. Googling, this already is being discussed. Please no. Best case is long jail sentences. Medium case, Kent State. Worst case, Tiananmen Square. If a loved one proposes this, I will offer to go with them to any other protest location except the parade route. ---
**Author:** ![StringsandHammers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stringsandhammers/32/17933_2.png) [@StringsandHammers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StringsandHammers)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/14 "2025-05-06T02:17:15Z")
I think what doesn’t get said enough when this issue comes up is how much it absolutely SUCKS to be part of a military parade from the point of view of the rank and file soldier You spend hours days before the parade making sure your uniform is meticulously order… Then there’s usually a lot of marching practice around practice before the parade just to make sure everyone still remembers how to do it.. Then there’s quite often an inspection a day or two before the parade so your supervisors can check your uniform.. Then on the day of the parade you wake up at the buttcrack of dawn to meet at the predesignated staging areas and you spend the whole day marching in the blazing sun under several layers of clothing… The whole deal just sucks, if you want to make the rank and file soldier truly happy on veteran’s and memorial day then just let them stay home with their families instead of going through all that B.S. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/15 "2025-05-06T02:43:52Z")
> [@StringsandHammers](#): > > if you want to make the rank and file soldier truly happy I’m pretty sure this president gives zero shits about the happiness or well-being of anyone in uniform. Especially since the strongest form of dominance assertion is the power to inflict pain, misery , or discomfort with impunity. The cruelty is the point. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/16 "2025-05-06T03:05:44Z")
Since I didn’t see any actual links to at least one of the prompts for what’s being discussed: > **[Nearly 7,000 troops, tanks and parachute jumps: Army confirms military parade...](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/7000-troops-tanks-parachute-jumps-military-parade-coinciding/story?id=121410722)** > > The Army is planning a historic parade through the streets of Washington on June 14 that will coincide with and be part of the Army's long-planned 250th celebration. Just in case for those wandering into the thread and missing context. Otherwise, yes, I agree that the optics and the historical parallels are absolutely disturbing to any casual student of history’s lows when it comes to autocratic/fascist regimes. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/17 "2025-05-06T06:52:19Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > the historical parallels are absolutely disturbing I just had an idea…the news stations should broadcast the parade with a split screen . Show the parade live on one side, and on the other side, show historical footage from Berlin 1939. Yeah, it would be horribly unprofessional journalism. But it would get ratings. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/18 "2025-05-06T08:14:36Z")
Just following the steps of Liutenant General **[Scheisskopf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheisskopf)**. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/19 "2025-05-06T10:34:10Z")
Bad journalism, maybe, but a GREAT idea for a YouTube video. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905/20 "2025-05-06T12:26:26Z")
Yeah, it’s major suckage for sure. We had to march in a much smaller parade in Santa Monica one year. No idea what it was for. All I remember is that we were in dress uniforms, which meant wearing those horrible dress shoes and having to deal with the blisters afterward. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/military-birthday-parades/1017905.md?page=2)