Hasn’t changed much since I’ve been in.
Thank you for risking life and limb, now eat Single Large Bean™️
Sucks to suck
There are so many naive people in this thread. You think if those people didn’t join they wouldn’t just institute the draft again out of nessesity? Y’all sitting on your high horses looking down on regular ass people who join in an effort to improve their lives. The same people doing so your ass can sit there on lemmy and judge them. Be mad at how the Epstein class uses them not at the rank and file members themselves.
Be a draft dodger then and offer to help your neighbor leave, and if you can’t then go to jail over the military. These people aren’t cardboard boxes who have to do what they’re told, they have agency to quit. Improving your life isn’t an excuse to be complicit, unless you will literally be killed or starve otherwise, neither of which is the case here.
^ +1
At least they’re giving peas a chance
And our kids school lunches…and prisons…
Guys, most people in the US military are there because they didn’t really have a choice. It might have been their only chance at an education or they were dirt poor and this was the only career available that didn’t involve dealing drugs.
It’s why the government likes to keep people destitute and keep higher education expensive. Fodder for the military.
Actually, it seems that for most service members joining the military is one of several potential choices, and they simply weighed it as the best one for a handful of top reasons: Opportunity for career advancement, financial stability, having a family member already in the military, student financial support incentives, and moral / patriotic reasons. It’s a popular myth that a large portion service members are there for lack of any practical alternative, in fact very few are. The DoD recruitment budget (Marketing campaign) is over $4 Billion annually last I checked, for the good reason that most recruits have to be convinced.
https://worldmetrics.org/reasons-for-joining-the-military-statistics/#b-7-data-sources
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0095327X251399177
https://docs.opa.mil/opa.mil-production1/reports/futures_surveys/YP60Fall2024PUBLICRELEASEPropensityUpdate_20250623_Briefing.pdfIt might have been their only chance at an education or they were dirt poor and this was the only career available that didn’t involve dealing drugs.
That’s really a myth. Most of the military come from middle and upper middle classes, and those growing up in lower income households are underrepresented compared to the general population.
Unless I’m mistaken, didn’t a significant percentage of military personnel vote for Trump?
The facts don’t support your feelings.
You always really have a choice to join the military or not. When you don’t have a choice at all it’s called a draft.
Sometimes it seems like an easy choice to get out of a bad situation, and it appeals to people who don’t understand that consequences can happen to them.
That’s why it’s often referred to as a “poverty draft”
61% of the military voted for Trump. So this is my idgaf face.
and the 39% who didn’t?
they joined the military. they knew enough about what they were getting into.
if they joined because it was that or starve, well, they’re not starving, so there’s no problem
man, spoiled AF fascist enablers, I would have stabbed a fellow student to death for food this good, where are the ice crystals?
Ironic
Iconic
Those $3M PAC missiles aren’t going to pay for themselves you know.
They volunteered for this. If they don’t want it, they could demand a discharge or strike until the food is better.
No sympathy for killers.
99% of people on a ship are some type of mechanic or tech… they will never hold a gun or kill anyone…
if you think the guy who keeps the drinking water clean is the same thing as gun carrying foot solider, you’re a certifiable crazy person.
If a person willingly signs up to support killers, does that suddenly make them a better person? And don’t say that they didn’t sign up to support killers. War is A Racket was published in 1935. In our lifetimes, people have known since at least 2003 what the government uses the military for. No Blood For Oil - remember that?
I don’t have sympathy for anyone who volunteered. Conscripts, certainly. Not volunteers.
“I was just repairing the gas chamber. Not operating it”
I mean the Nazi soldiers that did train logistics didn’t murder the Jews, right guys? They were good people right? No? Huh funny that.
Do you even know what the Nuremberg trials were about?..
Having watched documentaries about it and studied it in uni, I’ve got an idea or two, yeah. Guess what happened to the guy who claimed he “just organised” the holocaust, planning and spreadsheets and such, but didn’t kill anyone himself. Go on, guess.
People I’ve met who worked in the army describe it as a company who kills people. They know what they’re in and they do it anyway. Conscription is different, even Ukraine is different because its self defence. US soldiers are volunteering to kill people overseas. I’ve got some sympathy for kids who get convinced its the only career for them, but there’s no conflicts going on in or around the US and they didn’t sign up for peacekeeping so…
Having watched documentaries about it and studied it in uni, I’ve got an idea or two, yeah. Guess what happened to the guy who claimed he “just organised” the holocaust, planning and spreadsheets and such, but didn’t kill anyone himself. Go on, guess.
He moved to the United States?
I don’t believe that. There are only a few ships with great than 1k crews and anyone who mans a weapon system or steers the ship is striking with a weapon waaaayyy more powerful than a mere gun. Heck even the other folks are equivalent to a sniper spoter. Keeping the weapon in good repair. Now I disagree its their fault for signing up (given the us system allows for few oportunities to adequate pay and benefits) but I do agree they should recognize when they should refuse to be part of what is clearly wrong. They should recognize that they are signing something that says they will kill who they are told to kill. Be it with a gun or by maintaining a powerful weapon system.
I don’t give a shit what you believe. I am telling you from first hand experience (not “belief”) the truth.
You want to do a whole “guilt by association” thing, but you haven’t put ANY thought into what that means. Is the cook a “killer”? Is the IT guy a murder? How about the guy who does fuel maintenance? Yeoman?
What about those serving on ship tenders? They don’t even have weapons, they’re supply ships. Are they all killers by association too?
Why not blame farmers too? I mean, they did give the ship tender food… and that tender did give that food to a destroyer… and that destroyer has a cook, so we know he’s a bloodthirsty baby killer… and that food was eaten by hundreds of people… one of them might clean/maintain a weapon system… and someone else might shoot it… so they’re all murders now too… right? Especially that water guy from before…
Where’s the line? Or maybe, we should just judge the person who pulls the trigger, instead of engaging in blind group punishment?
You cannot separate people from the whole. They are all a part of the war machine. Stop trying to defend individuals.
well your truth would have ships running weapons systems with under 10 people and in some cases less than one. In a tank crew the one firing the gun is not the only one killing people.
Apples and oranges, an amazingly flawed and poorly thought out example.
You’re comparing 100s (sometimes thousands) to a crew of 3-5 people… as if that’s even nearly the same thing.
Plus you’re ignoring the whole motopool behind the tankcrew too, and the supply team with them. The mechanics and logisticians, cooks and even water boys…
And even those two things aren’t comparable. Wheras a “waterboy” in a motopool might have to worry about being directly attacked (and be prepared to defend themselves). Ship maintainers will never have that happen… there’s no scenario where suddenly the ship’s water engineer is picking up a gun to murder people; even in defense…
Pit crew for the murder machine are all still murderers
brain dead edgy teen take. It’s like saying the amazon delivery drivers are equally uber-capitalist oligarchs.
Bless you for giving us someone to argue with! The killers cannot kill without helpers to help them kill. If the helpers all decided that the killers needed to stop killing there would be no killing at all, so the killing happens with the consent and participation of the helpers. Drawing a little line around these and those in the organization is especially meaningless seeing as how in real war all are completely valid targets for the killers on both sides.
When I say don’t believe I mean it does not make logical sense. You are also doubling down without actually taking into what I am saying and pointing out. The main issue is with your 99%. No ship carries thousands. The largest carry over a thousand but just a bit. Most carry hundreds and some carry less than 100. The largest ships with many weapon systems are simply going to need more than 10 people to fire them given they run 24 hours with multiple ships. Similarly the smallest ship cannot have only one sailor who fires weapons. Ship maintainers often are these people. If the ship is not using its weapons they don’t sit around. They do maintenance. Further if you job is to help keep the ship running you are part of the ships killing. If you work in a factory on land making shells for the ship you are. And we as taxpayers are as well. There are degrees but when you sign on to help do the killing that degree is very very close even if you don’t pull triggers.
When the mob is committing crime, RICO treats the whole organization as equally responsible. To dismantle organized crime you MUST also go after the helpers, the ones who assist the murderers and then exclaim that their hands are clean. Nope, you all share the same blood on all of your hands.
I thought the purpose of Rico was to dismantle the mob by getting the ones at the top instead of the lowly peasants of the organization. The uphill guilty by association. I don’t remember Rico being used to finally pin the kid making delivery runs.
RICO goes after everybody in the hopes that the ones at the bottom will continue turning on their leaders until it gets to the top. If the ones at the bottom don’t flip, they are charged with the rest. The kid making the delivery runs will absolutely get charged if he retains solidarity with the organization.
Still sounds like the purpose is to get at the people at the top tho
So parents shouldn’t be held accountable when their kids shoot up a school either?
Are the parents responsible for their kid? Absolutely.
Is the paper pusher in operations responsible for the fighter pilot? no… they’re not.
Who do you think is the one making sure the kill orders are delivered to the right squad, or that the squad has the proper requisition orders for the equipment needed to carry out that kill mission?
The killing doesn’t happen without the whole logistics chain working.
They enlisted.
so, uhh, when does the military turn against dumpy and coup him?
I fear whenever someone who’s somehow worse successfully whips them into a frenzy. Then we spiral into our “Barracks Emperors” era
What would it take to be worse than Trump?
Competence.
My god.
A Banquet brand TV dinner would be more appetizing and filling. And those are the cheapest, absolute worst garbage microwaved food there is.
