This emotional armor is mirrored in the digital generation. Online, we are conditioned to dissociate. Trolling, flaming, and cyberbullying are the civilian equivalents of the Marines' dark humor. We use "kill" as a metaphor constantly—killing time, killing a file, killing the mood.
There is a grim irony in the act of searching for "Generation Kill download." We are participating in the very culture the work critiques. We want to consume the chaos of the invasion of Iraq from the safety of our laptops. We want to stream the tragedy, binge-watch the incompetence of the chain of command, and close the tab when it becomes too uncomfortable. generation kill download