:yea:

  • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
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    2 years ago

    they enlisted while stating that movie as their inspiration

    If a movie about space marines fighting bug monsters was the underlying impetus behind your entire career... idk, man. That sounds like there's another problem buried (shallowly) under the surface.

    That, or someone is just jerking your chain.

    About as plausible as the folks that claim Terminator movies got them into designing ChatGPT.

    • UlyssesT
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      2 months ago

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      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
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        2 years ago

        People can and do sometimes do stupid things because they got the idea or inspiration from their entertainment.

        We're getting dangerously close up "DOOM caused Columbine" levels of discourse.

        Star Trek drove some kids to try to develop hyposprays and communicators, citing the show as their inspiration in adulthood.

        The proximate cause for a marginal improvement to jet sprays is not Star Trek, I'm sorry. No more than the proximate cause to a marginally improved welding torch is Star Wars.

        This is pure clickbait

        • UlyssesT
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          • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
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            2 years ago

            I’ve had coworkers in my past that liked that movie so much that they started “drifting” before parking their cars on the way to work

            Power sliding in the parking garage is certainly dumb. But I'll note they didn't quit their jobs to become professional car thieves.

            Again, proving a negative is a lot harder than my claim that there is some influence, intentional or not, that entertainment has on people.

            Incredible claims require incredible evidence. The relationship between Verhovan films and military enlistment is casual at best

            • UlyssesT
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              • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
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                2 years ago

                You’re willing to believe people power sliding into parking spaces but you’re not willing to believe impressionable young people don’t decide to enlist

                Yes. Because one is an trivial impulse decision and the other is a career choice five years minimum.

                I don’t think my claim is incredible

                I watched Hairy and the Hendersons once and now I think Bigfoot is real.

                • UlyssesT
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                  2 months ago

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                  • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
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                    2 years ago

                    You have seriously never met or been related to someone making bad impulsive decisions with minimal forethought to them that had years of consequences before?

                    There is an abundance of demographic data that predicts which kinds of people are most likely to enlist. Social and economic precarity. History of family enlistment. Access to higher education. Regional geopolitics (ie, 9/11).

                    I've yet to see a successful military recruitment drive that involved repeated screenings of Starship Troopers.

                    That isn’t the same thing

                    Its the same Culture War nonsense I've been seeing my entire life. Starship Troopers turned my daughter into a war criminal! Teletubbies made my son start wearing a purse! Showgirls turned me into a pole dancer!

                    apparently UKIP believes in Bigfoot

                    They are one of the worst-run parties in a country overflowing with dogshit politicians. It would not surprise me even slightly to find out half their leadership bought into some kind of Cryptid hoax.

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    • Nagarjuna [he/him]
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      2 years ago

      It's not that people join the army because of CoD, it's that games like CoD or novels like Starship Troopers make the army a "cool" job. That way when the recruiter is at your high-school and you're picking between that and the meat packing plant, it's the one you go with.

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
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        2 years ago

        games like CoD or novels like Starship Troopers make the army a “cool” job

        I'll spot you CoD. But, again, I can't help notice a negative correlation between hours of CoD played as well as copies sold and per-capita recruitment. Media might be raising the public approval of the military, but it isn't encouraging any significant number of people to actually do military work as a career path.

        when the recruiter is at your high-school and you’re picking between that and the meat packing plant

        You're going where the pay is. And the meat packing plant pays much better.

        • Nagarjuna [he/him]
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          2 years ago

          And the meat packing plant pays much better.

          The meat packing plant will pay my college?

          The fact is both processing and military recruitment are concentrated in the American south. People have both options and are choosing the military.

          • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
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            2 years ago

            You don't need a degree to pack meat. And, unless you're enrolled in a military college (highly competitive and officers-only) assistance is capped at $4500/year.

            People have both options and are choosing the military.

            Military recruitment has been falling continuously since 9/11 and its been nearly a decade since any branch has hit its recruitment targets.