• came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    7 months ago

    as someone in their mid 40s, there's a reason they target 15+ for recruitment. 30 years ago I bought in to all that bullshit.

    if I was drafted today to fight an unwinnable war for the rich, you're damn right I'm playing it cool until I can get a grenade in the same tent or vehicle as a bunch of flag officers.

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
      ·
      7 months ago

      That's been an idea I've had for a long time but never really confirmed it, that main part of recruiting younger people. My uncle got drafted to go to Vietnam after he was already 30 and he despised it. I've only known two types of veterans: people who knew from birth they wanted to be a soldier, and older people who did it simply as a job or family pressure. That first group I've known have all ended up racist chuds, the second group all hate war now or they simply don't talk about it.

      • Awoo [she/her]
        ·
        edit-2
        7 months ago

        Younger people are consistently the most bright eyed and willing to believe liars. They assume the best of everything, they assume everything is good-faith until proven otherwise. You don't just see this with military but with younger people supporting liberals in europe as well, they believe their bullshit as long as it's presented in an astute and professional-ish way like they're used to from their academic setting.

        Those reaching late thirties and early forties get over the bright-eyed shit through life experience. They've seen how much lying there is.

        • lil_tank@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          7 months ago

          Also I think young people often lack the life experiences to start thinking outside the dominant ideology. I remember being a teen and believing everything pop history told me about communism even if I had a very strong anti-establishment biais and already hated capitalism. It took meeting with maoists during uni to start questioning bourgeois myths

          • Awoo [she/her]
            ·
            7 months ago

            This is true but a lot of people carry this way into even their late twenties. I see younger people getting abused in the workplace the most because they're often naive, believe bosses who are stringing them along and don't realise how much they're getting fucked. They're poor advocates for themselves who often believe just working hard is enough... To their own detriment.

  • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    Holy fuck, I'm having a moment of existential...I guess you would call it "profound historical awareness" that this is what volksturm would have been like with twitter. I absolutely guarantee that some desperate methed up SS officer employed this exact rationale in 1945 Berlin.

  • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
    ·
    7 months ago

    How do you even look at this and conclude anything except "oh this is just pure tragedy"

  • RNAi [he/him]
    ·
    7 months ago

    No-man's-land for Old Men :kelly:

  • FALGSConaut [comrade/them]
    ·
    7 months ago

    Of course he's a former br*tish officer. What're the odds he was some sort of supply officer or other rear echelon support crew? It's always the ones furthest from combat that are the most supportive.

    Then again even if he was in a "combat" unit his combat experience would most likely be riding around in an mrap or heli, shooting some people that he claimed were armed, and heading back to base for boiled hunk of beef.

    Also if they hold their positions to the death they won't be doing fucking anything afterwards, because they'll be facedown in the mud, dead so you can write how the brave slava Ukraini fought to the last from your comfortable London office. Put your money where your mouth is, pick up an ak, and hold that shell hole to the death you ghoul

  • Skeleton_Erisma [they/them, any]
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    Defense industry ghoul watches poor old men being fed to the very war machine he "analyzes" and "consults"

    And he paints it as a "good thing"

    Also from terf island

    how-compelling

    • DragonBallZinn [he/him]
      ·
      7 months ago

      Everybody’s a tough guy when they’re sending someone else to be murdered on their behalf.

  • Deadend [he/him]
    ·
    7 months ago

    An army consisting of 17 year olds and 68 year olds.

    This will fix issues with unemployed youth and wasting money on elder care. A great neoliberal solution.

  • mayo_cider [he/him]
    ·
    7 months ago

    I hate fighting a war against people under 40, it's so frustrating when they outrun my bullets

  • FourteenEyes [he/him]
    ·
    7 months ago

    These men are survivors, meaning they'll frag their commander the moment he orders them to their deaths and surrender over the radio

  • UmbraVivi [he/him, she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    Tell some lib that a Chinese government official said this and watch their outrage