• You are using the old Black Responsive theme. We have installed a new dark theme for you, called UI.X. This will work better with the new upgrade of our software. You can select it at the bottom of any page.

Jackbooted Thugs

Status
Not open for further replies.
T

thegriz

Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2006
Messages
295
I've heard the term "jackbooted thugs" thrown around quite a bit in the firearms community. Probably most notably, the phrase was used in a fund raising letter from the NRA - in the form of a quotation of a politician- resulting in President George Bush (the first one) terminating his life membership in the NRA.

I've never seen a definition so I found one tonight on the internet. Is is correct? I have no idea but it seems plausible. Here is the link:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE1D81E3AF936A35754C0A963958260

What Exactly Does a Jackbooted Thug Wear?


Published: July 5, 1995

To the Editor:

It is most curious that among the multitude of references to and repetitions of the word jackboot (mainly with regard to the epithet "jackbooted government thugs" by Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association's executive vice president), there has not been a definition of what exactly a jackboot is. An informal survey confirms that the meaning of jackboot is not generally known. Now again, in your June 28 news article about the worldwide spread of skinhead violence, appears this statement: "Cruel history has taught us that we dare not ignore the first sounds of jackboots."

A jackboot is a large, strong leather boot, the top of which covers the knee. Worn especially by cavalry officers as protective armor in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was later adapted as part of the uniform of many military organizations, notably Nazi storm troopers.

Because of its military association, the jackboot came to be used frequently in such phrases as "jackbooted, goose-stepping Nazi storm troopers." Since the 1960's "jackboot" has been used to mean any authoritarian or bullying measure. It is suggested in the Oxford English Dictionary that the sense of "jack" in "jackboot" may be derived from jacket. ROBERT PERLOFF Pittsburgh, June 29, 1995
Click to expand...

Is this accurate? Do you have a better expanation? Or better yet, do you have a more detailed history of the use of this terminology?
 
I am probably wrong and will be corrected but I believe that jackboots were a military style boot that had metal "jacks" in the soles of the boots to make them last longer.

Those jacks made a clacking noise on a hard surface so when you heard them you knew what it was, the military comming in your direction. Pictures of said boots may be found in some of our old "defeat the Hun" posters the government put out.

jj
 
Hence they are now to be known as the Bureau of Unmilitarized Longguns Lagers Spirits Handguns Incendiaries and Tobacco.
Click to expand...

So instead of the BATFE they now have a more truthful acronym, huh?
 
jackboot = hobnail boot

I believe it refers to the spikes on the bottom, regardless of the boot's length.
Click to expand...

Jack booted thugs sounds better than hobnail boot thugs. LOL LOL

jj
 
"Jackboots" goes back way before rep. Dingle used the term. It's a style of military boot that may have hobnails on the soles. The term has come to be used to refer to totalitarian or fascist police-state type tactics. Following the 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared that the democratic rights of the Falkland Islanders had been assaulted, and would not surrender the islands to the Argentine "jackboot".

K
 
It is sad in a way that a mere type of footwear (inanimate object) and a symbol will be forever associated with Nazis and modern-day oppressors.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't get the whole swastika thing. It was a symbol used by other cultures before and after Nazi Germany. A symbol can not hurt you, its the people behind the symbol.

If symbols are banned only criminals will have symbols!
 
Yes, the origins of the term is correct. It is a style of boot forever linked to oppression. And yes, the boots refer to specific people and events--sadly now within the United States.

But like any epithet or adjective, it's becoming just another label. Truth be told, I think even the most hardened, highly trained, SWAT-style section of the BATFE wear a form of high-top tennis or athletic shoes. From day-one the insult was incorrect in a factual nature.

I believe the term has slipped into our lexicon just like the phrases muscle-car, tactical knife, Kleenex, or baggie.

In fact, the entire concept of a jackboot style of behavior is now used in comedy. How many dozens of times have you heard Red Foreman on the 70's Show threaten to stick his foot in someone's azz. Or Paulie Senior on American Chopper threaten someone with his "size twelves."

In fact, when I hear the term JBT, I think of a Barney Fife type of guy, over his head in the job of law enforcement.
 
I am probably wrong and will be corrected but I believe that jackboots were a military style boot that had metal "jacks" in the soles of the boots to make them last longer.

Those jacks made a clacking noise on a hard surface so when you heard them you knew what it was, the military comming in your direction. Pictures of said boots may be found in some of our old "defeat the Hun" posters the government put out.
Click to expand...

Actually jack-boot refers to the manufacturing method of making the boot particularly how the shaft was sewn together and then shaped (jacked).

Hobnails were what was driven into the bottom .

Anyways the term fits the unaccountable waffen BATFEces, America's own Schwarz Corps.
 
Yeah, I don't get the whole swastika thing. It was a symbol used by other cultures before and after Nazi Germany. A symbol can not hurt you, its the people behind the symbol.

If symbols are banned only criminals will have symbols!
Click to expand...

A swastika is different from the original symbol. The Nazis are the ones who rotated diagonally.
 
agent1.jpg


Fixed the pic for you Travis McGee
 
Shooting women who are holding their babies is normal for a Jackbooted thug. Also normal for a thug government to hold no one criminal in the action. Remember Lon??

jj
 
Jackboots are high, typically coming to the knee, hobnailed, and removed with aid of bootjacks. Didn't find any references to how they are made, but that certainly could be part of the reason that "jack" is in the name.

It is possible that "jackboot" is a reversal of bootjack (the device), which is itself named for the boys it replaced, and I have also seen references to the name deriving from "jerkin", the leather armor of the common man.

Here is part of what everything2.com has to say:

A jackboot can be one of these three things:
A sturdy, laceless, leather boot reaching up to or above the knee, popular during the 17th and 18th centuries but recently worn by soldiers in the Nazi regime.
Oppressive, bullying, or authoritarian tactics.
A person or organization that employs such tactics.
The OED has the word around since 1686, appearing in the London Gazette. No etymology for where the word "jack" in jackboot came from seems to be known. Imprecation suggests that
'However--there are bootjacks, devices for removing boots, and OED has this recorded in 1679. Seems a reversal might be likely here, from bootjack to jackboot; jack might also refer to the boys who did the removing, as "jack" was used as a name for the everyman, "every man jack of them." The association could have transferred from device to boy to boot.'
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Truth be told, I think even the most hardened, highly trained, SWAT-style section of the BATFE wear a form of high-top tennis or athletic shoes.
Click to expand...

Yes, but....Converse Shoed Thugs doesn't have the ring to it.
 
Hm. "Just do it." Sounds like a fitting advertisement for jackboots, in both their material and human manifestations. It doesn't evoke the presence of reason guiding the actions they perform, but rather, a simple, violent imposition of one will over another.

The use of violence is not necessarily concurrent with "ought," but is always concurrent with "can."

-Sans Authoritas
 
Neither the Nazis nor any U.S. agency ever wore jackboots (although some German organizations may have worn them as part of a historical costume in parades, etc.). The normal boot worn by the SS, Wehrmacht and other German military/paramilitary organizations was the standard combat boot that had no laces and came only to the top of the calf.

The U.S. military combat boot, versions of which are worn by some police and federal agents comes up only to the lower part of the calf and has laces or a zipper.

A bootjack is needed for boots that have no opening and so are difficult to remove. It is unclear whether the word has any connection with jackboots, although that type of boot would certainly require a bootjack.

The term, as used today, is purely figurative, meant to convey the idea of military rule.

Jim
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

C
  • Locked
PROOF: Antis Look on Message Boards to Use Our Irresponsible Rhetoric Against Us
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Replies
193
Views
9K
Art Eatman
A
D
  • Locked
(PA) Supervisor doesn't want township money going to NRA class
Replies
7
Views
470
Leatherneck
L
J
  • Locked
Some Hunters Disenchanted with the NRA
2
Replies
49
Views
2K
Nightfall
N
C
  • Locked
Beware Antigun AHSA! Guest Host Glenn Beck Show Highlights Them!
Replies
24
Views
2K
gunsmith
G
M
  • Locked
NRA Amicus Brief
Replies
24
Views
976
ilbob
ilbob
Back
Top