[vharuck]

The last time I heard about "little green men" (other than ETs) was to describe obviously-but-unofficially Russian soldiers who invaded Crimea in 2014 and claimed to be natives who wanted Russia to annex the region.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_occupation_of_Crimea

I guess it's now being used as pejorative against groups of vaguely military style. Like the DHS agents conducting Metro Surge.

[arduanika]

Hmm. Do you think that kristjansson was using it just to mean state-backed thugs, or were they also claiming some Russia link?

(They haven't responded, and I've been downvoted for even asking the question. I am genuinely confused. I'll admit I don't follow this all very closely, but I want to understand what the phrase means here.)

[kristjansson]

Your original question was a bit of a challenge to accept earnestly. It’s a pretty charged situation; joking about ETs led me to discount it and may have led others to downvote.

That said, I described them as such because I considered the comparison to a masked and armed force of nebulous origin and ambiguous intention apt.

[arduanika]

Okay, understandable under the circumstances. In this case, I really did just want to know more. I did not know about the use of this phrase in the Russia/Ukraine context, so the only touchpoint I had was aliens. It was a confused guess, not a joke.