i realize it’s hard but “some people join the military to go to uni/get a job/bc they’re poor??” is a fucked up mentality and must be let go. i realize people think the blame should be on The State and not the individual soldiers “who were trapped and brainwashed” and they think they’re being nuanced and compassionate but please realize what you’re saying; (1) you are implying that the poverty of those soldiers is enough to absolve them of partaking in the literal destabilization of nations – you’d never use this excuse to forgive brown/muslim/foreign soldiers that were invading *your* neighbourhood & killing your fam so how dare you do the opposite? (2) you are (whether you like it or not) validating the decision of other poor people to go and kill brown people (who are also poor lmao) overseas so they can go to University of Arizona or whatever the fuck.
and please realize how insulting it is to poor brown people for you to go around saying “they have no way out!! they have no choice!! they were brainwashed!!” statistically the military has always been rich, white and very educated. anti-military people have always been poor, racialized and subject to the same propaganda as these “brainwashed” soldiers. don’t use us as your talking point to protect foreign invaders of our own countries lmao.
finally: repentant soldiers exist. and they agree with me. so who are you really protecting?
It’s so funny bc all the people writing 7 pages just to say *absolutely nothing at all* cannot answer the initial question this post raises:
If brown, Muslim, foreign soldiers were coming to YOUR neighbourhood, fucking up YOUR life, destabilizing YOUR government, would you look at that situation and say “well. they were poor back home and, no there wasn’t a draft and no nobody forced them to join BUT i can’t blame these individuals bc they wanted to go to college )): the state asked them to do it so they can’t be blamed for shooting my fam )): go ahead, ruin my life guys!!” ?? Would you do that??
we all know what the answer is and that’s why people are having such meltdowns in the notes it’s bc they know once and for all they’re being outed as imperialist sympathizers, racists etc and they just can’t justify it!! ¯_(ツ)_/¯
So I actually wrote my dissertation about this and it’s not just that the Department of Defence (there’s an office in the Pentagon dedicated to liaising with Hollywood productions), but they effectively have a strangle-hold on how Hollywood portrays the US military since the DoD give permission for producers to use military hardware, without that permission the cost of filming sharply goes up and films end up extremely over-budget. So the producers can either drop any critical elements at the DoD’s discretion, or continue with a film which will barely be released at all and will never make its budget back.
Any American film which involves the military, know that the DoD probably signed off on it, or were directly involved with. Films like American Sniper and Zero Dark Thirty had a heavy government influence, the latter to falsely justify the methods the CIA used in finding and killing Osama bin Laden, which included torture.
It’s why the military figures are always the heros and there will never be a Hollywood film which is critical of the US military because of this. Just remember, whenever you see the US military in a Hollywood movie, it’s exactly what the Department of Defence want you to see. It’s not being hyperbolic when these types of films are called propaganda.
Whenever you see the US military in a Hollywood movie, it’s exactly what the Department of Defence want you to see. It’s not being hyperbolic when these types of films are called propaganda.
imagine hating brown people so much that you think your poverty justifies the killing of people (who are probably poorer than you!! Lol!!) overseas??
I’m poor so it’s justified I join what I *know* to be an imperialist force that is destabilizing foreign nations?? For the sake of my own upward mobility I must enable foreign invasion??
would love to see Americans/Canadians/Brits stand up for this logic if it was poor Iraqis or Syrians coming HERE to bomb the shit out of their hometown. ‘It sucks they killed my family but !! They needed college tuition so I totally get it’
there are endless valid reasons to hate the (US) military as an institution, but this argument is kinda missing the point trying to blame the smallest part in the machine.
the kid who joins the army after school to have food & health-care doesn’t decide ‘hey lets go invade other countries for fun’ and a lot of them are POCs. It’s the system of governments/capitalism being best buddies and the decision makers sure as hell aren’t poor.
your comment here is an example of why i made this post in the first place
“i joined the army because im poor” and “i joined the army because i wanted a better life” and “you shouldn’t criticize me for that bc i had no other options, but rather the system” is military propaganda and is apart of the “system”.it justifies theexistence of the military as something we “need” to give poor poc a chance at a safe life (which is false for a number of reasons anyway) and more importantly it mutes criticism of people who are *literally* furthering violent american imperialism and absolves them of their involvement.
and the “blaming poor people” thing?? doesn’t really stick when you realize the people who are speaking out against this ideology come from the same poor, marginalized and highly targeted communities that unrepentant soldiers do.
like. poverty in america does not drive the american military. we know now that majority of enlistees are upperclass, white, educated men who come from historic wealth. anyone who becomes educated on the impact of their actions but still backs it up with “well i was poor so i deserve absolution” is placing their right to a good life over the rights of victims of imperialism and that should be addressed
the us military is evil and no one should aspire to join it
it kills and kills and kills its been killing all my life. since the second ive been born its been murdering forever. it is a machine that does that not stop. it travels where it is told and imposes a state of terror there. foreign planes flying overhead for years on end. people waiting and wondering for years how theyll die from the occupation be it an errant air strike or driving over a roadside bomb meant for americans or a carbomb every time they go buy an enticing target or a suicide bomb while they wait in line for something or getting a magazine emptied into you during a navy seals helicopter night raid, watching them arrest or shoot the rest of your family while you bleed to death because they got the wrong house on purpose when someone gave them a hot tip that turned out to be a retaliatory lie. people wake up everyday and wonder these things and theyve been doing it for almost sixteen years. its collective psychological trauma imposed from two oceans away
this isnt something you look at and think “i want this to succeed” or “i want to be a part of this” or “this is protecting me”
killing the entire extended family of a roadside bomb maker with a drone isnt making me safer. getting blown in half before you turn twenty when your humvee drives over a roadside bomb isnt protecting the country valiantly. its about overland mountain passes and making it safe to loot the mineral wealth of the entire country
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