re: #366 Mattand
The main way to show convincing disregard for downdings is to not mention the downdings.
I don’t like guns, I don’t like militarism, but to me there’s nothing really wrong with that image. He is not praying to a rifle, he’s kneeling in respect to an assemblage of a rifle, boots, and helmet, an artifact-assemblage which stands in for a dead soldier. Even the position of the rifle in those displays is non-aggressive, and forlorn. It is without its clip, and the message underneath emphasizes that this is about the soldier giving his life in battle.