And no, I don't believe in aliens and other dumb shit (that some of you seem to be implying or taking my commentary as pertaining to, but then most of you have been wildly ignorant for most of your lives so not surprised that you only know of probably any of this other than from dumbass conspiracy idiots) that many people that believe conspiracy shit go to. In fact, the recent "disclosures" that alien weirdos acted like was a big deal is just the exact type of people I'm talking about (average dipshit that ended up in the military/military adjacent shit, and then had the alarmingly high number of whackos that are in those communities feed them stories that they then tried to pass off as evidence with zero proof; it was barely above the former co-worker of mine that told me a story where the alien turned out to be that giant hairy...thing from the Bugs Bunny cartoons) that also just happened to stumble upon some of this shit via alien shit (podcats and the like). The alien stuff is part of the propaganda (although most of that was actually the Soviet Union who was spending I think a billion dollars a year back in like the 50s and 60s to spread such propaganda and unfortunately, Americans are really really really prone to falling for it, almost as if they've been trained from birth to...).
Tell me you've never been in the military without saying so.
Retired Army here. You're full of shit.
Yep, the military sure values you. Guess that's why the VA is so well known for their world renowned, absolute 1st class healthcare?
I'm not even sure what part of my post set you and the other person acting like its conspiracy shit off, as its not even disputed by anyone that knows like any American history in the 1900s, let alone how authoritarianism and militarism are intrinsically linked. There's no dictator that holds power without a military. There's no military that supports a dictator without fervent devotion to either them directly or them as a figurehead of the State.
Do I think the US military is pushing dictatorship? No, but they've definitely pushed authoritarianism, Teddy did, FDR did, JFK did, Eisenhower did, every President did. They just don't demand fealty to themselves specifically because we have this silly act as Americans where we pretend we haven't let a select few rule us. We just demand fealy to the State more than most, whilst we as a society do a dumb song and dance, pretending that we're not just voting for whichever wealthy (and almost always straight white male) person happens to be favorable at the time and also is agreeable to doing our political circus vs just enjoying their wealth.
You are exactly the type of people I'm talking about. You think the military valued you beyond you being a programmable bag of meat. They don't. They never did. Sure your brothers in arms did, but that's because you're human. But that's also deliberately been attempted to be stripped away. After finding out that even soldiers don't like shooting other humans, the military studied and designed training in order to program soldiers to shoot as ordered. Their drilling is psychologically designed to program you. You think its just coincidence that most cults indoctrinate people by putting them through similar grueling "training" that the military does? All the same tactics that get celebrated when the military does it, and called despicable clear malicious brainwashing when others do it. You think G.I. Joe had nothing to do with propagandizing American military to kids? Its the Joe Camel of saturday morning cartoons. If you think the military didn't do the same thing to the general population you either know jack shit about history of the US or you're even more delusional than I thought. The CIA and the military both had active campaigns to do exactly what I'm talking about. There's entire fields of study about American propaganda in the 1900s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird (there's entire colonies of rabbit holes to go in all of that; MK Ultra and plenty of others)
The US military pays Hollywood. They pay sports leagues. They pay for similar locally. All for the express aim at propagandizing themselves.
Why do you think no one protested when the government interred over a hundred thousand Japanese Americans? Why do you think they rolled out the National Guard for Civil Rights protests and even campus protests? Why do you think people rah-rahed giving police armored personnel carriers, and other military weaponry (until the same military wannbe fascist cops started using it against Americans - although I know plenty of people that want them to use it more on Americans)? Why is it that all these right wing assholes showup with "tactical loadouts" after ingesting all this right wing propaganda then get upset because people like you try to claim this isn't exactly the same shit America, via the government and military, had been feeding the American people? Only for it to be easily hijacked by fatshits like Alex Jones or Rush Limbaugh or Turmp. Why is the National Anthem literally romanticizing war?
You've been propagandized your entire life. You are incapable of seeing it
deliberately because it works. That's the intention of it. Some of you seem to be stuck forever wanting to remain ignorant. Which considering how some of you just in like the last 10 years became aware of the blatant racism, bigotry, and intentionally designed discrimination of most American institutions, I'm not surprised that you are incapable of seeing, let alone breaking out of, the fact that more than any entity, we've been preached at and programmed to worship and admire the military in America.
Hell, your particular version, where you demand that only those that served in the military should get to say anything but bow down and worship at your feet, is frankly an even more pathetic, sillier version of "my team" shit, where because you went through stress with a group of people then they're only good. Its the exact same shit you hear from people that are members of a team, be it Michael Jordan justifying his tyrannical behavior, or even just the generalized "us vs them" mindset that fuels tech companies. And cults. You're basically 2 steps from being a Turmp supporter. I've had like 50 dude that I've had to be around (either pseudo friends from high school, or friends of friends, or co-workers) that act exactly like you, and all of them turned into Turmp supporters. Frankly I think the only reason you didn't is that you were spending a sizable amount of time outside the US. But maybe I have you confused (I seem to remember you being pretty rah-rah military post 9/11, but I also didn't spend any time in this subforum, but you have the generalized mentality that I've seen from most average "alpha" dudes, the types). You sure ingest all the low level right wing grifter dipshits, most of which I'm not even aware of because why would I be, they're worthless shitheels trying to be their little local town Turmp and the like. Which tells me you spend a LOT of time in those waters (aka Facebook political discourse) which means, you know more than most, just how many military people really really like them some Turmp. I'm sure its frustrating that you can see through his obvious bullshit, but somehow an awful lot of others sure seem to buy it. I'm sure that's totally not what I'm talking about at all...
But, thanks for epitomizing exactly what I'm talking about. What's silly is you see it and criticize it when its say, Israel, doing the exact same shit to either their people (or Americans). Or hell, you can even see it when its Republicans now, but even Its all the same shit. You're just ok with it because its your team. But it leads to the stuff that you're finally waking up to seeing. The racism, the bigotry, the institutionalization of white supremacy. What's almost amusing is you going "brah, you didn't even serve brah" like...duh, no shit. That you think you're doing anything other than perfectly proving my point is just...well maybe you'll get there one day. At your age, I doubt it given how long it took you to see the threat that white supremacist shit (that weirdly also just happens to ebb and flow with general sentiment about the military in the US, gee, I'm sure that's just a coincidence...). Meanwhile, those of us that grew up surrounded by military worshipping "patriots" and saw all of this shit for what it is, knows you were never there to defend us. You served in order to maintain the order of the status quo.
One last thing. Why is it, that after having freakouts about how less and less people were signing up for the military, they didn't start talking about conscription, but rather, they started advertising in, and even straight up created video games?
Amid a recruitment struggle, branches are using huge hits like Fortnite as marketing tools. Some veterans see the practice as unethical – especially given the age of the gaming audience. In a small...
pulitzercenter.org
But you're right, the military doesn't prey on people at all. They certainly don't seek out desperate, poor, un/under-educated people (I'm sure that's why we had to take the ASVAB in high school and we had recruiters that actively recruited based on scores and other that the test showed them - wouldn't ya know they didn't put a lot of value in people that scored really well...), they definitely don't target groups that are very impressionable, and they've never ever ever ever tried to get Americans to swear fealty and loyalty to America, say in the form of an object, maybe reciting a pledge of said loyalty. Nah, that's crazy coo-coo conspiracy talk.
www.theguardian.com
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