im-doing-my-part

  • Dull_Juice [he/him]
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    edit-2
    1 year ago

    So this is anecdotal but I was at an event this weekend and walked by the by the army recruitment stand a few times. It was deeply amusing how little interest they were getting. Probably had something to do with their idea of a good time was challenging people to fitness tests.

    There was also someone who flipped off a Blackhawk and then proceeded to get into an argument with people around him.

    • happybadger [he/him]
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      1 year ago

      They always recruit at my university with a pull-up bar. It makes me sad the Jehovah's Witnesses nearby don't do the same tactic. They just have a signboard with pamphlets.

      • Dull_Juice [he/him]
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        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Definitely seemed like an odd decision in 90 degree weather at the event. But I guess they'll just keep pumping money into the E-girls and phoning in the booths.

    • rjs001@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      I remember them being largely ignored when they did it at my high school. Students would sometimes insult them but their stands would largely be ignored

      • Dull_Juice [he/him]
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        1 year ago

        Honestly, I seriously wonder if they couldn't offer college funding how much interest there would be at all in high schools. I'd imagine it would be 0.

        • TillieNeuen [she/her]
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          1 year ago

          I had a bit of an existential crisis in ~2018 when I went back to my majority black high school for a friend's kid's event and saw so. Many. ROTC kids there. It's a very poor, very minority district and it was extremely doomer to see kids who have been systematically impoverished and disenfranchised by the American empire sign up to fight, kill, and die for the same empire as a way out of that very poverty and disenfranchisement. It hit me like a punch in the face, and then a GOP candidate for local office walked up to me while I was still freaking out, and all I could manage was a completely incoherent response. Friends, I was not winning hearts and minds that day.

          • Dull_Juice [he/him]
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            edit-2
            1 year ago

            Yeah I grew up in a smaller town and I know of quite few folks from HS that tried to do something else with their lives and ended up going into the military because it was that or a landscaping job or something. They were all white kids so they aren't nearly as disadvantaged as the individuals your describing. It is still extremely sad how the US military's recruitment does rely on fear of poverty and crushing debt.

            I also don't have too much sympathy for the individuals that joined from my area since they're pretty damn reactionary.

        • rjs001@lemmygrad.ml
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          1 year ago

          My grandfather said the only reason he joined was for college funding and I think that’s a very common thing among people

          • Dull_Juice [he/him]
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            1 year ago

            Yeah I think I know of only two people that joined purely because they explicitly wanted to. Rest I know of were either drafted, or did it for college or something.

            • rjs001@lemmygrad.ml
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              1 year ago

              I don’t know a single person who joined because they agreed with it. I actually know a lot of people who joined and nearly every single one was for college