Oh, those damned namby-pamby leftists with their weak-ass hashtag slacktivism. If only they knew that what really changes the world is dudes with guns. Thankfully, Marine Todd here will set them straight. With a hashtag sign. Get it? Har har!

Actually, it's not Marine Todd, it's a vet who hawks t-shirts with the military-themed apparel company Ranger Up. (Update: No, it is Marine Todd!) Like Ann Coulter, he's apparently worked up about Michelle Obama's #bringbackourgirls hashtag advocacy, for the girls kidnapped in Nigeria by the Islamist group Boko Haram. He wants to remind Real Murkans™ who really wears the tactical shorts in this jihadi-killing family. Much to the viral glee of Obama-hating conservative blogs like this and this and this.

The obvious stupid question is: Why can't we do both? Why can't we have hashtag activism to get people to give a shit about injustice in the world, while realizing that increased "awareness" by itself is pretty limited in what it can achieve... while having rough and ready warriors to shoot bad people in the face, while realizing that's a pretty terrible last option that's limited in what it can achieve?

The obvious stupid answer is: We do both. More hashtag activists should think about what's required to bring a group like Boko Haram to heel. More trigger-pullers should think about whether the American electorate and its representatives–not just Hussein Obummer–really care to send armed soldiers anywhere these days, for anything. Skepticism about overseas intervention is a pretty popular and very bipartisan sentiment.

But at the end of the day, nobody at this Marine's apparel company gives as much of a shit about finding Boko Haram as they do about selling lots of t-shirts to more people like themselves who, as one illustrious Gawker friend puts it, "thought Affliction shirts were too understated."

But maybe I'm wrong, and Marine Todd has a full understanding of American freedom. In which case he won't mind a little exercise of First Amendment freedom. Here's a shot of him with a blank slate, a la Coulter. Why don't you add your own special message to the shot, for him–and for America?

[h/t Luke O'Neil]