Who gives a shit what they believe? Who gives a shit if they honestly think they're saving the world from some Marvel supervillain? They're still going and murdering people to serve the interests of the empire. I thought you were the one arguing for the need of material analysis here and cautioning against idealism. Anyone who signs up to kill anyone else (even all of us leftists) is obligated to seek out the fucking truth of the matter. Misinformation is powerful, but reality can still be discovered despite it. "They thought they were fighting the good fight" is perhaps the lamest argument for letting imperial troops off the hook yet.
I think it's borderline a corner case because most troops simply don't give a shit or are horrible chauvinists, but materialism doesn't mean that mental states don't exist, and what you are describing is a failure in personal epistemology, which is a much softer condemnation than most arguments put forward in this thread so long as we don't have this hypothetical marvel kid drafting party positions.
Most people need some degree of re-education, that stupid asshole heartily included. What I am saying is that it's not some deformity of his soul that prevents him from doing pro-social work in the future.
Who gives a shit what they believe? Who gives a shit if they honestly think they're saving the world from some Marvel supervillain? They're still going and murdering people to serve the interests of the empire. I thought you were the one arguing for the need of material analysis here and cautioning against idealism. Anyone who signs up to kill anyone else (even all of us leftists) is obligated to seek out the fucking truth of the matter. Misinformation is powerful, but reality can still be discovered despite it. "They thought they were fighting the good fight" is perhaps the lamest argument for letting imperial troops off the hook yet.
I think it's borderline a corner case because most troops simply don't give a shit or are horrible chauvinists, but materialism doesn't mean that mental states don't exist, and what you are describing is a failure in personal epistemology, which is a much softer condemnation than most arguments put forward in this thread so long as we don't have this hypothetical marvel kid drafting party positions.
Most people need some degree of re-education, that stupid asshole heartily included. What I am saying is that it's not some deformity of his soul that prevents him from doing pro-social work in the future.