Follow Cammy’s board Cute or offensive? on Pinterest.

Here I have curated some images. It is interesting to think about what we find “cute” and what we find “offensive.” North Korean children dressed up in military garb, riding around in a toy tank, will strike most as offensive and wrong; yet, a white American kid dressed up as a soldier standing by a toy tank for his military-themed birthday party, put on by his parents, will strike many as not only normal, but cute.

What would civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, who have seen their loved ones blown to bits by American tanks, bullets, bombs, drones, and guns, think of the fact that we dress our children up in military attire and decorate their walls with guns and their birthday cakes with grenades? They would think we are cruel, mad, barbaric people.

Looking at some of the photographs in the collection makes me wonder what is happening in this country, how we can be so oblivious to the truth of war, indifferent to the violence it entails, and desensitized to the human suffering it causes.