The Quiet War of Symbols
The Gist:
The VA didn’t say “faith heals.” They didn’t have to. A baptism photo — quietly captioned, deeply out of place — said it for them.
This isn’t sloppy editing. It’s symbolic strategy. And veterans are the set dressing.
✉️ Subscribe to stay one step ahead.
A folded flag. A bowed head. A courtroom sketch. Some symbols whisper. Others shout. But none of them are neutral — especially when they’re slipped in without a word.
Last time, I looked at a photo buried inside a VA News story — a baptism with no caption, dropped into an article about justice outreach. It wasn’t just lazy editing. It was soft messaging. A signal. One that says: this is what redemption looks like. This is who belongs.
Now zoom out. That wasn’t a mistake. It’s a pattern.
This is the quiet war — not of weapons, but of imagery. Not of laws, but of suggestion. Where meaning is manufactured through repetition, and veterans — our stories, our suffering, our uniforms — get turned into set pieces.
It’s not always overt. That’s the point. When a cross shows up in the background, when the lighting casts the VA in golden hour glow, when the language of healing starts to sound like a sermon — someone made that choice. And they made it for a reason.
🧠 Bonus: Decode This
Photo: A veteran kneeling in prayer under a courthouse seal
Captioned, but out of place
Headline: “Justice Served”
The message? Faith equals order. The state is holy. To be seen as worthy, you better look the part.
“You don’t need a sermon when the image does the preaching.”