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  • apprehensivecrab1@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    For many, joining the US military is the only way out of poverty, a path to citizenship, or a way to a higher education. Some others just are victims of propaganda, or just genuinely sadistic, but unfortunately most of the people joining the military are victims of a failed education and social security system designed to bring more troops into the meat grinder.

    EDIT: Holy moly. I do not condone US imperialism at all. I am not saying that people who fall into the poverty draft get a free pass either. What I AM saying is that the US war machine is a fucked system that results in endless atrocities abroad but unfortunately will only to continue unless we dismantle the institutions that blindly draw people to the machine so that these people who would otherwise be vulnerable can wake the fuck up and turn away from it. These systems include capitalism, propaganda, imperialism, jingoism, a failed education system, etc… Chill out friends.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml
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      5 days ago

      Joining the US military means killing innocent men women and children all over the world.

      Is “wanting to escape poverty” a valid excuse to murder children? Bank robbery is a more noble profession than US militant.

      • Grilipper54@sh.itjust.works
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        5 days ago

        Is surviving a reason for doing something bad?

        I’d say yes and anybody that disagrees has probably never been in that situation.

        There is a reason the military recruits the poor.

        • geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml
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          5 days ago

          Surviving is when you go work for or McDonalds or Uber not kill brown children. Such a pathetic excuse for mass murder. As if these people had no other option. In reality becoming a mercenary mass-murderer is just a bit more lucrative than flipping burgers.

          • Fluke@feddit.uk
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            5 days ago

            Spoken like someone who’s never truly known desperation or genuine hunger. ie. One of the bourgeoisie who’d be first against the wall.

              • Fluke@feddit.uk
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                5 days ago

                No, I’m pointing out the hypocrisy in you pretending to know what it is to be desperate, that you can judge others in such a position.

                I ain’t justifying diddly squat.

                Edit: For clarification, watching the fall of the American empire in real time is both amusing and enlightening. Hopefully, it happens fast enough that I get to see the end result.

                • Simon_Shitewood@lemmy.ml
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                  5 days ago

                  I had the option to join the military and chose homelessness. It’s actually really easy to do the right thing even when you’re desperate.

                  • Fluke@feddit.uk
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                    5 days ago

                    Would that choice have been as easy if you had your own children to consider? Would it have been so easy to make your own children and spouse homeless too?

                    The point is everyone is susceptible given the right circumstances. The system is literally designed to create desperation, and to keep ratcheting that up until people relent.

                    By all means try and convince people not to give in. Support them and help them, try to ensure they don’t reach their breaking point. But don’t try and pretend that desperation to escape their given shitshow isn’t what drives a lot of recruitment.

                    Edit: I do deeply respect your strength of conviction in your own choices though, and I want to make that clear. You are an exceptional example, and one to be lauded. 💛

                  • Fluke@feddit.uk
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                    5 days ago

                    I would say none, but the closest to desperation I’ve personally been was scrounging for coal that fell off the train to the docks when we as a family couldn’t afford to buy it. (No coal, no heat, no hot water, etc.)

                    I can imagine though, that watching my own children cry from the cold and hunger. Watching my own flesh and blood get thinner and weaker and being otherwise powerless to help them might make me consider rather strongly the paycheck offered by anyone at all.

                    That you apparently can’t imagine any scenario that would give you personally (and therefore by extension anyone else), cause to consider doing heinous things for money is bizarre.

            • Tomorrow_Farewell@lemmy.ml
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              5 days ago

              If you can join the most expensive military in the world, you are not nearly as desperate as, for example, people who survive in NATO without that.
              Also nowhere near as desperate as the people whose countries NATO keeps invading.

        • whereitsat@lemmy.zip
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          5 days ago

          there are lots of ways to ‘survive.’

          let me ask you question: what’s worse from a moral standpoint: stealing an old ladies purse or killing someone? what about pitching a tent on land that someone else owns? what about parking your RV in a wal-mart parking lot overnight?

          some of those things are crimes and you’ll be looked down upon even if you don’t get caught.

          so, why do we say ‘thank for your service’ and then turn around and see the thief as less than human?

          i’d rather have someone poach on my land than bust into my house and shoot me in the face. i’d think anyone would feel that way.

          • Grilipper54@sh.itjust.works
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            5 days ago

            I don’t thank people for their service. I understand that some people needed to to survive. You’re legally allowed to park in wall mart overnight with an RV at a majority of locations as well.

        • Tomorrow_Farewell@lemmy.ml
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          5 days ago

          You either agree that the people your empire has been invading have a right to defend themselves by eliminating your ss troops, or you think that your ss troops deserve to survive and get higher education.
          Which is it?

        • flandish@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          the reason is capitalism. but it doesn’t excuse those who voluntarily join.

    • Tomorrow_Farewell@lemmy.ml
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      5 days ago

      Would it be okay, then, for me to rob, torture, and kill your family if it was the only way for me to get higher education (i.e. something that is not necessary to live)?
      What about the families these monsters kill that won’t be able to receive higher education on account of being dead or kidnapped?