I don’t think anyone is arguing with you on that, friend.
It’s late so my reading comprehension might be off, but it seems like you’re making a lot of arguments to opinions different than what Redarmor has written.
I was talking in general, you weren’t the only person harping on him. To be fair, that is effectively my takeaway from a lot of what you’ve written in this specific conversation. You’ve had other good takes outside of this thread, so we clearly just diverge on this.
Don’t remember if the up their own ass comment was about something you posted. I remember what I was responding to being pointlessly combative for no reason. I get grumpy when I see folks talking past each other.
My interpretation of RedArmor’s posts is that leftists should not blame troops for joining up because they get some material benefit for their “work”
Huh. That’s a completely different takeaway than I got. You might want to consider specifically asking them next time if that’s what they’re communicating. Again, I might have missed that in there.
Why else stress the incentives, unfortunate backgrounds and lack of access to jobs or collage? Why would that matter?
All of those incentives are the bait that gets dangled in front of a kid who has already been steeped in imperialist propaganda since birth. Propaganda that downplays and lies about what the military actually does. Background matters because most rich kids go straight to college. Enlisting is presented as another option if your parents can’t or won’t pay for it.
It explains why a stupid fucking kid might make a deal with the devil. It does not absolve them for anything they might do after that. Not everyone enlists and it’s good most don’t. Most Americans don’t even understand what imperialism is, including those who enlist.
If we want to dismantle the imperialist machine, it helps to understand how it pulls in more bodies.
I admit that my articulation can be strung out a bit because there are a lot of points to bring up regarding this topic. Plus I’ve been getting Harped on for the last day about this and it gets exhausting at a point.
Regardless, in hindsight, I think it was a stupid thing for me to try and argue. It is obviously true that veterans should be welcome on the left and that we should understand the material conditions that effect people’s decisions to enlist without making personal responsibility arguments in the same way we don’t treat criminality or drug abuse as an issue of personal responsibility.
This is the takeaway I am trying to get people to understand. That’s it’s a complicated issue that is larger than “I want to kill people” for many who enlist.
I don’t think anyone is arguing with you on that, friend.
It’s late so my reading comprehension might be off, but it seems like you’re making a lot of arguments to opinions different than what Redarmor has written.
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I was talking in general, you weren’t the only person harping on him. To be fair, that is effectively my takeaway from a lot of what you’ve written in this specific conversation. You’ve had other good takes outside of this thread, so we clearly just diverge on this.
Don’t remember if the up their own ass comment was about something you posted. I remember what I was responding to being pointlessly combative for no reason. I get grumpy when I see folks talking past each other.
Huh. That’s a completely different takeaway than I got. You might want to consider specifically asking them next time if that’s what they’re communicating. Again, I might have missed that in there.
All of those incentives are the bait that gets dangled in front of a kid who has already been steeped in imperialist propaganda since birth. Propaganda that downplays and lies about what the military actually does. Background matters because most rich kids go straight to college. Enlisting is presented as another option if your parents can’t or won’t pay for it.
It explains why a stupid fucking kid might make a deal with the devil. It does not absolve them for anything they might do after that. Not everyone enlists and it’s good most don’t. Most Americans don’t even understand what imperialism is, including those who enlist.
If we want to dismantle the imperialist machine, it helps to understand how it pulls in more bodies.
deleted by creator
I admit that my articulation can be strung out a bit because there are a lot of points to bring up regarding this topic. Plus I’ve been getting Harped on for the last day about this and it gets exhausting at a point.
This is the takeaway I am trying to get people to understand. That’s it’s a complicated issue that is larger than “I want to kill people” for many who enlist.