the_dunk_tank
It's the dunk tank.
This is where you come to post big-brained hot takes by chuds, libs, or even fellow leftists, and tear them to itty-bitty pieces with precision dunkstrikes.
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tbf you do need at least some of them on our side to do a revolution. czechoslovakia famously had communists infiltrate the police from the top down and purge reactionaries and used this for leverage for a quick and painless socialist revolution, though afaik we were the only country that did it that way and the liberal government was extremely weak after ww2. partisans were able to quickly join police departments as the government reformed and had a ton of leverage.
with russia, they formed soldiers councils among sympathetic soldiers and used their experience to train workers in combat. in china vast swathes of the nationalist military defected to the communist cause. at one point, the communists had 10k socialists vs around 3 million soldiers, tables flipped pretty quickly as it went on. russia certainly had an imperialist military, and so did east germany (remnants of imperialists, more like) and their example would be more applicable to america's situation.
The funny thing is, I don't even think that joining the military is morally irredeemable. I just hate this "Look, I'm just as much of a victim as the children I killed" attitude. Mike Prysner is an ex member of the Waffen SS and he's dedicated his life to defeating American Imperialism.
The only good American vets are the ones who acknowledge their sins and seek redemption through actions and not defend their time in the military and don’t get pissy when POC/foreigners are understandably wary of them as if they’re entitled to automatic forgiveness.
There is very little that is irredeemable. Maybe it's my Christian upbringing showing but if you repent whatever you did and commit yourself to the revolution, you should be forgiven. I'm not taking about being opportunistic here like Hans Landa, I'm taking about a genuine change of heart. If you're reading this and you're in the military or the FBI or the police forces, it's never too late to do the right thing. Being a bastard is a role people choose to play, it is not the essence of their being.
Even the last emperor of China had a good life after the revolution. Not everything needs to end in blood and death.
Weren't soldiers conscripts back then in Tsarist Russia? Quite a difference when compared to US volunteers.
a good number were volunteers too, usually like 50-100k at any time. like 2/3rds of american forces were conscripted for vietnam, russian regular army was like 4 mill prior to collapse. do the math i guess
though most conscripts would just be sitting in border outposts in the russian empire and not doing anything crazy. became a big issue during ww1 and the war with japan
1/3, but I doubt they'll do that again because even with a minority being draftees there was a lot of rebellion.