There's a remarkably vast propaganda effort in place to keep people from realizing what the military actually does. A lot of people have no idea what they're signing up for.
A lot of it isn't bloodthirsty at all. Tons of commercials focus on helping your community (for the National Guard) or doing humanitarian stuff abroad. Other propaganda doesn't get into details at all -- it's about "service" and "honor" and the good patriotic feelings people get from flag waving and doing flyovers.
Where violence is shown at all -- mostly movies and video games -- it's often a tack-on to an otherwise glamorous story (Top Gun) or presented as a justified response to cartoonishly evil antagonists. There's also a whole swath of PG-13 military cheerleading (all the Transformers movies).
It's not ignorance so much as it's every person in a position of power telling kids that the military is cool and good. It's propaganda, and propaganda works.
or presented as a justified response to cartoonishly evil antagonists.
Yes, that's the bloodthirsty terrifying part. They tell you that you're signing up to go slaughter hordes of evil brown demons with no souls who want nothing more than to kill you first.
Who's saying it's an excuse? It's a mitigating factor, and it's important to understand why people do things if you want to change what they do, but no one's saying this sort of thing absolves someone of all responsibility for their actions.
People treat troops and cops differently because they're different. Both are bad, but they aren't the same.
Troop: Recruiter is in their high school, they sign up when they're years away from being able to drink or rent a car (sometimes when they're minors), they have no experience with the reality of the job because we don't send the military to occupy American towns, and when they do get face to face with the reality of the job they're halfway around the world and will get thrown in prison if they try to quit.
Cop: Generally not recruited at all, most join a few big years later than troops (and often with a degree that makes them more employable), they have some idea of what cops do because they've been in places cops police growing up, and they can quit whenever they want with no consequences.
In short, cops go into the job more intentionally, with more information and maturity, and they have nothing holding them there but money once they're in. And this still isn't excusing troops for participating in the imperial death machine. I've never seen anyone on here suggest that.
Literally the only reason anyone here treats cops and troops differently is because there is a fractional chance that the police might negatively affect them, while the Troops only harass those dumb subhuman foreigners.
Other than those material differences I listed, you mean.
There's a pretty big difference between "this person can just drive home and quit with no consequences" and "this person will get thrown in prison in a foreign country if they try to quit," for starters.
There's a remarkably vast propaganda effort in place to keep people from realizing what the military actually does. A lot of people have no idea what they're signing up for.
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A lot of it isn't bloodthirsty at all. Tons of commercials focus on helping your community (for the National Guard) or doing humanitarian stuff abroad. Other propaganda doesn't get into details at all -- it's about "service" and "honor" and the good patriotic feelings people get from flag waving and doing flyovers.
Where violence is shown at all -- mostly movies and video games -- it's often a tack-on to an otherwise glamorous story (Top Gun) or presented as a justified response to cartoonishly evil antagonists. There's also a whole swath of PG-13 military cheerleading (all the Transformers movies).
It's not ignorance so much as it's every person in a position of power telling kids that the military is cool and good. It's propaganda, and propaganda works.
Yes, that's the bloodthirsty terrifying part. They tell you that you're signing up to go slaughter hordes of evil brown demons with no souls who want nothing more than to kill you first.
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Who's saying it's an excuse? It's a mitigating factor, and it's important to understand why people do things if you want to change what they do, but no one's saying this sort of thing absolves someone of all responsibility for their actions.
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People treat troops and cops differently because they're different. Both are bad, but they aren't the same.
In short, cops go into the job more intentionally, with more information and maturity, and they have nothing holding them there but money once they're in. And this still isn't excusing troops for participating in the imperial death machine. I've never seen anyone on here suggest that.
Literally the only reason anyone here treats cops and troops differently is because there is a fractional chance that the police might negatively affect them, while the Troops only harass those dumb subhuman foreigners.
There is literally nothing else to it.
Other than those material differences I listed, you mean.
There's a pretty big difference between "this person can just drive home and quit with no consequences" and "this person will get thrown in prison in a foreign country if they try to quit," for starters.