I read a review years ago that said Travis was faking being a veteran. The patches on his field jacket are the wrong combinations for an authentic jacket, so maybe he is not a traumatized combat veteran but in fact someone who bought a jacket, stuck some patches randomly on it and is LARPing as a veteran.
The reviewer even thought the director deliberately made the jacket a fake as an Easter egg twist that made Bickle not a traumatized man who served, then was discarded by an ungrateful country, and is suffering from PTSD. He was in fact what he initially appeared to be, a mentally disturbed misfit.
I haven’t watched the movie closely enough to verify the jacket theory, but it does kind of fit in view of Shrader’s cultural and political views.

Replies: @David In TN, @utu, @Anonymous

I agree with you. Its one thing to hose down a tree line or unload a whole belt into the bush and another to rumble face to face. Even though one may get a momentary flash of the subject's eyes and his last view of the world (and of you before you move on to other tasks) there is that indefinable last look that leaves a lasting impression in the mind of the survivor. Hand to hand is like a struggle between 2 wild dogs. Experienced men are wise to carry some extra pistol clips to avoid the close up, intimate experience.

Given that Travis capped so many bad dudes close up I would say that his character did serve in the Nam and had indulged in the same practice there. This to me seemed to subjectively enhance and support the other props you mentioned.

In any case, the movie was made in 1975 the same year we exited Nam from the roof on the American Embassy. Scorcese with that typical fine Italian hand knew enough to hint at Travis's foundational experience but not pick an open sore ! Later, there was movie after movie depicting Nam vets as deranged psychos. Hollywood flogged this theme quite profitably although the experience of men in SE Asia was no different than those of any other war.

Finally today, New York is again the shit hole it was in the 70's and the state of the City and the mental outlook of most of its inhabitants cannot be ascribed to PTSD and all that shit. The place is like an open air prison and if you dont have a strong mind the City will break you.

Nevertheless, many people love it which goes to show man can survive anywhere and what one might consider a nut house another considers home.

A Viet Cong flag can be seen hanging in the background of his apartment and, in his confrontation with Betsy’s coworker, he is wearing a jacket with military patches.
 

The unnatural selection for the benefit of the few has its price: https://thesaker.is/geopolitical-tendencies-of-the-last-six-years/

it has become completely obvious that each of the three [China, Russia, and Iran] is much more intelligent than any leadership in North America or in Western Europe. One may also say that the three countries use the intelligence of their peoples in a much more coherent manner than Western countries.
 

https://youtu.be/5ydqjqZ_3oc

Look up the downfall of the iconic retailer Sears and see who singlehandedly busted it out to enrich himself and left a carcass while he pocketed billions.

Note: It was not a Scotch Irish.

https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1c33fqdnhf21s/Eddie-Lampert-Shattered-Sears-Sullied-His-Reputation-and-Lost-Billions-of-Dollars-Or-Did-He

Replies: @Bill

Once the businesses’ credit is shot, they burn the place down. Likely for the insurance money. That’s the phase we are entering.
 

The real owners of this country are only good at infiltration, subversion, radical ingratitude, insane hatred, betrayal, scapegoating, denial, projection, destruction and death. But, like the Goodfellas, they've never been good at social management.

That's why they're currently engaged in a Fire Sale where Everything Must Go! and with only one buyer - China. Or, to be more precise, The CCP.

But, there's a snake in this garden too. The CCP does not have a good relationship with its people anymore than its US proxy sellouts, The DNC and The RNC* has with the American people.

All of this has very little to do negroes, their collective IQ and their well documented behavior. Jared is a very admirable and respectable guy. He’s just focused on a problem that legitimately should have been addressed a very long time ago, while never mentioning the real and forbidden source of the destruction.
 

But we've always known this about him. And you're right, he is a good guy. So, better to take from him what one can and leave it at that. Troll shaming people for not addressing the JQ is a waste of time and, in some cases, not a little suspicious.

And you're absoluately right about this not being about blacks. Blacks are all about diverting attention away from the real owners of this country's theft and aforementioned Fire Sale.

*The DNC = Demonic Narcissistic Communists.
The RNC = Really Never Cared (leadership) and Repressed Neo Cucks (base).

"Busting out the Joint" was what that was called in Mob parlance, and yes thats what they really did and probably still do..

It’s for the best. This isn’t getting better anytime soon, and balkanization won’t be clean unless there’s good pockets of White majority areas in the states.
 

then move next to you and vote for Democrats ... to subject you to the same "stuff".

~~

We need an actual separation where sane middle class Americans can live sanely and protect their communities from interlopers.

Replies: @Anonymous

China will enter a fairly steep decline in population within the next 20 or so years and maintaining good human capital is essential during this time, especially considering how the smartest people tend to migrate to cities from the countryside, and after which their cohort’s fertility rate plummets through the floor.
 

This is an interesting point. Japan's whole society is constructed on a clan system, including their weird antique system of family registries. However, almost no Japanese I talk to demonstrate any clannish attitudes.

Too late now. The blacks are gonna have to take the eugenics pill whether they like it or not, since:

1. The West will soon run out of gibs money
2. Everyone has had enough of their shit too

Never understood why White nationalists care so much about the growth of Africa. If you are so worried about Africans moving to Europe, you could simply police your border and stop all immigration. It is so weird to me that you would wish genocide upon an entire continent for the policy decisions of your fellow whites. That level of hatred is mind boggling.

Replies: @Philip Owen

From the Catholic News Agency report:

“I am actually very worried,” Columbia professor Leta Hong Fincher told a panel of China experts via video link at a virtual event by the Center for International and Strategic Studies (CSIS) Nov. 13.

“What caught my eye was that they actually use specific language saying that China needs to ‘upgrade population quality.’ They need to ‘optimize their birth policy.’ They even use a term … which is effectively emphasizing the role of eugenics in population planning in China,” she said.
 

Replies: @Not Raul

Hhahahha i can already see the globohomo peddlers seething, dying en masse from aneurysms when even catching a glimpse of China on the map

And seeing that the chinese own Africa, likely they'll impose an even more extreme version there. Oh boy now that will be interesting to see

Replies: @The Spirit of Enoch Powell, @BenB

The sharp decline in white liberal fertility is pretty interesting imo.

I live in an affluent SWPL area. It's totally common for a 30-something to be childless and unmarried. I know one boomer family with 4 kids - the 3 daughters have 0 kids and are single in their 30s. The son is in his late 20s; he may have some.

White, secular conservatives or general right wingers, tend to be more dysfunctional. More alcohol/drug abuse, more divorce, less tidy yards. And yet they keep having about 1.7 or 1.8 kids each. Move to more rural and religious white people, and the number goes above 2.

There just seems to be something wrong with white liberals, and I believe it's caused by genetics. The white behavioral patterns continue through generations regardless of environment. In 50 years, white liberals will pretty much be extinct.

Unfortunately, their "imports" (remember, liberals are more intelligent and have much more influence on society) are worse than them - they are dying off, and they're trying to bring the rest of us down with them.

and conservatism outbreeds leftism
 

Since political views are heritable
 

Replies: @songbird