this post was submitted on 27 May 2024
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (8 children)

Well, unfortunately, when you’re poor and want to return to school, or change careers, your cheapest option is the military. Everyone stereotypes the military as offering only combat soldier jobs. The military offers more than just one career option. Want to change careers and become a medic to gain training for when you leave the military and can actually afford medical school? There’s the Army for that. Want to learn how to repair airplanes and jets as an aviation mechanic? There’s the Air Force for that. Everyone will just downvote me anyway. Let’s carry on that anti-military sentiment.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Or, hear me out, maybe poor people shouldn't have to turn to the military as the best way to get out of poverty.

Maybe colleges and trade schools should be free instead.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

Maybe colleges and trade schools should be free instead.

They aren't? Oh, it's America thing.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

And lots of people join, get messed up, and then are denied proper healthcare by the underfunded VA system.

But even if the military was great for the people enlisting, it wouldn't change the fact that they are joining one of the most rapacious, lawless, and brutal militaries in the world.

In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. [wikipedia]

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

I certainly wouldn't say the US military is "one of the most rapacious, lawless, and brutal militaries in the world." Never underestimate Russia, China, and North Korea. Then there's the guys in Africa who create child soldiers. Look I know the USM could do better, but that statement is just begging a parade of the world's uglies.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (2 children)

That's pretty specific to the US.

Not exclusive, but.

We do conscription here, and we do it because we live next to Russia. I consider myself a conditional pacifist, but I do hold a rank in the army and would go to defend my country against Russia.

I would want global demilitarisation, but as long as autocrats hold militaries as powerful as Russias, North Korea's and others, it just doesn't seem too practical. Also, I don't trust the US with theirs, but unless the Russian trolls get through enough to bother the election (with their "oh don't vote Biden" bs, yes he's a shit ruler as well but compared to Trump he's not a fucking fascist) and Trump wins, I will be very concerned.

So I don't shit on the military, and support Einstein's take on the subject, but it has to be simultaneous globally or at least start with the scarier armies.

If all "good" countries just voluntarily completely disarm, the shit ones will abuse it to no end.

Just look at Gotland. Sweden basically demilitarised it ~2005 or something in the name of Baltic cooperation and international trust. Russia instantly started spying on the island and even testing how close they can get their bombers.

Now Sweden has rearmed it, AA-guns, a few tanks, several hundred soldiers.

I wish they didn't have to do that, but we can't trust countries with leaders like Putler. Or Trump, for that matter.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Well said. I couldn’t agree with you more.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Thanks. Or "hooah" as I believe the saying is on that side of the pond.

I'm just very nervous about the fact that if a WWIII does break out, the losing countries might utilise their nukes. And as much as I enjoy the Fallout universe, I wouldn't like to live in one.

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." — Albert Einstein

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Isn't NK's military just rebranded China's?

I wish Putin and his oligarchs will be sent to Hauge sooner.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Isn't NK's military just rebranded China's?

I wouldn't trust either one, tbh.

I wish Putin and his oligarchs will be sent to Hauge sooner.

In a more just world

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Isn’t NK’s military just rebranded China’s?

No. They come from two very distinct brands of communist ideological thought and are sharply divided on a host of issues particular to 20th century communist organizing. In fact, its something of a sticking point between the two countries. In the fine leftist tradition of purist infighting, NK leadership and Chinese leadership insist the other side did it wrong.

I wish Putin and his oligarchs will be sent to Hauge sooner.

I'm sure they'll arrive shortly before Netanyahu and some time slightly after Maduro, Assad, and Abdourahamane Tchiani.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

your cheapest option is the military

That was truer 60 years ago, when enlistment promised WW2-era benefits and minimal wealth disparity meant your dollar stretched significantly farther. Today, over 1.2M veterans are on some form of food assistance. Military health benefits have been privatized to the point of comic relief. The old GI Bill and housing benefits have been whittled down to a small recruitment bonus and some tax exemptions. The pay for your first five years of service is well below what you could earn in the private sector and there's virtually no path to advancement outside of the officer's corps.

But what military recruiters lack in financial incentives, the make up for with bald face lying. You get sold a pack of lies about "job experience" in technology fields, when most of the actual work is menial labor (professional jobs are heavily outsourced to private military contractors). You get promised a package of benefits that are nearly impossible to claim, even assuming you make it all the way through your term of service with an honorable discharge. You're subject to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse for which you have no recourse. And also there's the question of your proximity to a combat zone, which cares a litany of additional perils.

The military is not a cheap option, it is a high stakes gamble. Its possible to come out the other side better off than a peer who worked a trade job or took debt to get through community college. But the tail risks are enormous, and the benefits are increasingly illusionary.

Let’s carry on that anti-military sentiment.

Its a shit job for suckers. Even assuming you're a rah-rah keyboard commando, you've got no interest in actually taking these jobs. That's the whole reason why poor people are targeted. They're not being offered a sweat heart deal. They're simply the most misinformed and desperate group of people and therefore most likely to fall for the bait.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Poor people and teenagers. But there are some options. It's definitely a minefield for anyone though, and you're going to step on one if you just trust a recruiter.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Doesn't your country provide higher education for everyone? Want to be electrical engieneer? Go to university. Want to relair airplanes? Go to technical school.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I have already been through college and the next step for me would be to earn a Ph.D. There aren’t many scholarship opportunities for that. There are many opportunities for people who are beginning college for the first time and earning a bachelor’s degree. I was informed that a person cannot return to earn a second bachelor’s degree to broaden their job opportunities. If you don’t double major, then you can’t return to earn a second bachelor’s. So, if I am now more interested in the medical field, then I cannot return to earn a B.S. to nursing and climb the academic ladder again, from there. I might be able to take courses as a returning alumni and use that to knock out the pre-requisites for programs after that, but I don’t know how that is viewed by the professionals in the medical field.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The answer to their question was ‘no’.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

This person literally always thinks people are talking about them specifically. It's a pattern of delusion that people in her circles are becoming more and more aware of. A lot of her comments are like this.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Totally get that. I was also poor after school so I became a hitman. Just a few easy murders and I was able to pay for college and get enough for a down payment on a starter home. I know some people don't approve of it, but it's important to understand how much of a resource joining the mafia can be for social mobility.

And not everyone has to be a hitman like me. My buddy is a getaway driver and he's never harmed anyone and he's helped me get out of a lot of tight spots. Want to sit in a room messing around with numbers all day? I hear the boss is looking for an accountant. Want to change jobs to patching up bullet wounds after a shootout without going to a hospital to get medical experience? They'll pay for that.

Everyone will downvote me too, let's keep up the anti-mafia sentiment.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

You just said exactly same thing...

Oh, nevermind, you added accountant.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Medical is a horrible example for a couple reasons, first of all they are front line soldiers. They see everything the Infantry sees. Secondly nursing and physician's assistant degrees have some of the best access to scholarships and loan forgiveness. If you wanted to do something highly technical like fly/repair planes/helicopters then the military shines. Also if you get a commission and work as a logistics officer you can pretty much write your ticket with the delivery corporations after your 6 year commitment. There are a vast array of jobs in the military but anyone looking to pick up technical skills should really ask a veteran first. For example, cooks? they boil a lot of stuff in huge vats. Yes some of them go to culinary school. It probably won't be you though. Military Police still have to go through the civilian police training pipeline, and police departments prefer Infantry veterans. (Yeah. We know.) IT isn't teaching you anything you couldn't pay a few hundred dollars for online.

The list goes on, if you want technical training from the military do not trust the recruiter; ask a veteran. They'll know who to ask if they don't know the answer themselves. Obvious alibi for people in poverty who just want that anything going ticket to get out of poverty.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Some military do that. Not all.