This means that if another country's military is capable of ending a person's life, the USA must find a way to one-up that somehow. Otherwise both fighting forces are equally lethal.

What does she have planned? Do they have a weapon that can destroy the eternal soul?

  • RNAi [he/him]
    ·
    2 months ago

    a weapon that can destroy the eternal soul?

    https://democrats.org/take-action/work-with-us/

  • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]
    ·
    2 months ago

    I can not understate the level of indoctrination that exists in all facets of the public works government work sector. There is a real chilling effect and group think mentality where the rules of the game exist for the game. Introspection is frowned upon, and deviation is punished. The higher up you are, the more effective the propaganda is until you reach a point where you write the policies.

    At that point the propaganda is both a core belief and a tool you deploy in order to justify anything and everything. To say "war bad" or "what defines a terrorist" will have your career ripped from under you by an endless hoard of people going after the bread.

    I cant emphasize enough that this is an extremely normal belief among so much of the gov dependent population. There is a real belief war is inevitable with zero consideration over what role the US plays in bringing on that war. Once an entity is labeled an enemy, you cannot use words or reason to understand why they're an enemy.

    To the people this quote was meant for, it's a normal Tuesday. Weapons are an undeniable good. Being able to start and end a Holocaust in a days time is considered a virtue.

    Yes I am depressed this week, why do you ask?

    • Roonerino
      ·
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      deleted by creator

      • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]
        ·
        2 months ago

        The US in it's current configuration requires an enemy. An enemy is like food, without one it will starve. So much of what makes the country run requires war. It's a common talking point, the MIC, deeply entrenched into the political system.

        Politically the US is incapable of pivoting it's defense industry towards non defense use. It theoretically could with a fearless political movement, shift defense research into energy, materials, etc but it won't because a large aspect of the industry is the veteran to contractor pipeline and the military attitude carries over. Everything is a mission, a fight, good guys, bad guys, allies, and enemies. It's the backbone of the industry, the GI bill for make-work.

        In order to pivot that deep culture of make-work to civilian use cases, the book would need to be rewritten. The US would suddenly need to be okay with social uses for research, development, and manufacturing. This would mean the gov would be in direct competition with greater industry, which would be a massive contradiction for the political classes and their intermingling with business.

        Currently, the only customer for the massive defense industry is the the military. They're the only ones allowed to buy the product, and their wallets are deep.

        Tl;Dr they can't stop this train. The only way forward for them is war, and war requires an enemy. The train could be stopped, but it no longer has brakes of its own. The ensuing derailment would be catastrophic and politically untenable. To any politician, if they want to make any changes period, they need allies. Without allies they can't make any changes.

        Even the best politicians must operate within their political system and need to make tradeoffs in order to prioritize their goals. Kamala must suck up to the military if she has any hope in implementing the most minor incremental changes.

        • LocalOaf [they/them, ze/hir]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          Spot on

          I wanted to add something but you pretty much nailed it, the only thing I'd add is your last paragraph could be misread to imply Kamala is one of the US's "best politicians," which I guess could be true but is a huge indictment on the country as a whole lmao

          • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]
            ·
            2 months ago

            Yeah that last bit was referring to a platonic ideal of politicians in the States, not necessarily Kamala.

            It's like that example of news papers reporting on their advertisers from manufacturing consent.

            The politician is effectively handcuffed to the policies of the supporters. I get frustrated when I see posts that are like "oh you like Kamala? Well she did xyz villainous act". All I can think is "yeah and? We're in the states and she's one of the two candidates for president in 2024. We're lucky she's not somehow worse.

        • coolusername@lemmy.ml
          ·
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          The issue is that the US can't handle casualties so they have to use other countries as proxies. What need is there for actual people in the military? So they can sail to the red sea and get destroyed by a missile they can't intercept? Or send a ship to spy on Israel and die?

          There was also a rumor that a US sub was attacked by a sonic weapon when it was near China and they were forced to surface.

  • micnd90 [he/him,any]
    ·
    2 months ago

    Israel's genocide in Gaza is making US past 50 years of warcrimes in Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria look weak.

    • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      I saw photos yesterday of a massacre in Iraq in 2005, where US marines killed several families including small children in houses that just happened to be nearby after an IED went off

      It was one of the most horrific things to come out of the US occupation of Iraq, made global headlines, and let to the arrest and investigation of the marines responsible before General Mattis and Trump had them pardoned. It was disgusting.

      It was significantly less horrific than things I’ve seen on nearly a daily fucking basis out of Israel. The most horrific war crimes the US committed that were so bad they actually sparked an investigation were less bad than the IOF’s standard operating procedure.

      Every member, former or current, of the IDF needs to be imprisoned, investigated, and tried for crimes against humanity. I’d argue most, at the very least most who’ve been enlisted since Oct 7 2023, should be fucking hanged. Yes, that’s something like 70% of the adult Israeli population.

  • DragonBallZinn [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    Remember the “STEM or nothing” advice millennials got?

    Mark my words, Gen alpha will be flooded with propaganda telling them to enlist in the military.

      • UlyssesT [he/him]
        ·
        2 months ago

        JUST LIKE IN THE GROSSLY MISUNDERSTOOD SATIRE TREATS! im-doing-my-part

        • DragonBallZinn [he/him]
          ·
          2 months ago

          Calling it part two, they will strategically realign millennials and younger as the “tough” generation and boomers as wimps.

          “Come on kid, you’re not like those loser boomers who had it easy growing up! You dealt with the housing crisis AND jobs crisis without complaint! We need tough guys like you in the army gleefully will put up with tough conditions and expect nothing in return!”

          • UlyssesT [he/him]
            ·
            2 months ago

            Millennials are getting too old to enlist, but for zoomers and younger...

            lathe-of-heaven NOOOOO

    • BodyBySisyphus [he/him]
      ·
      2 months ago

      I mean, I'm a millennial and in my high school we had:

      • Recruiters constantly present in the cafeteria
      • A well funded JROTC program
      • The army bringing portable tents where we skipped gym to play their CoD clone America's Army
      • Similar visits from the army's climbing wall
      • Visits from the Navy's "cover band" where they did that one Green Day song about doing nothing but sitting on the couch and masturbating all day

      So the propaganda flood has been at a high water mark for at least 20 years at this point.

      • DragonBallZinn [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        frothingfash: “Heh heh, no poets on the commune!”

        porky-happy: “Hey kiddo, guess what you get to do? Die to steal oil! We thought about letting the wealth trickle down in the form of jobs, but I thought….nah! We have boomers happily working those pesky jobs for you well into their 80s, and AI takes care of the rest. Come on kiddo, it’ll be like those video games!”

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

        for sure. pre-9/11 it was already a full court press for military recruitment in high school, and probably half the guys I knew did it because they didn't have the scores / grades for a scholarship and their parents were too broke to help.

        back then it was all about getting free college and OK pay with out going to go get your dome rattled by an IED somewhere the thermostat hits 120°F. most I knew from high school got out before the Iraq invasion, said "that sucked" and set about going to school on a full ride, but one younger, late enlisted guy was in his last year when he got sent over. everybody prior to that was like stationed in places like Germany or San Diego and doing nonsense like checking boxes, handing out socks, or guarding a warehouse of toilet parts. the work was described as mind numbing, but they liked the places they got to visit when on leave.

        he went over to iraq kinda dumb and cameback fully dumb but full of confidence and started carrying a handgun literally everywhere. didn't use the GI bill at all, and was pretty much the nail in the coffin for anybody I knew from high school believing the military opened doors anymore.

        • egg1918 [she/her]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          didn't use the GI bill at all,

          What an unbelievable sucker

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

            1000% it's crazy how much that benefit covers. tuition, expenses, housing, food, living. I knew this clown that did 4 in the Chair Force and legit just hung the fuck out in college, like how people dream college years should be. bikeable/walkable housing off campus, plenty of money for restaurants, nice clothes, weed/booze, spring/summer trips, no need to have a job. and he had more money in savings after finishing than when he started. basically, how it should be for anyone.

            my cousin, on the other hand, is one of the dipshits that went "career" and will never use the GI bill. barely literate, new trucks/jet skis all the time, upside down on every asset. the poster child for credit counseling and car title/payday loan strip malls right off base. I went to his second wedding (he was like 26) and it was obvious crazy expensive.

            I legit cannot even imagine what he would do with himself if someone wasn't standing over him telling him which pile of socks to hand out. probably illegally drag racing mustangs on public roads.

    • homhom9000 [she/her]
      ·
      2 months ago

      I've ben seeing more pro join the military propaganda lately, even at anime conventions. Guess the new Top Gun didn't work so they're getting more creative

      • LocalOaf [they/them, ze/hir]
        ·
        2 months ago

        On the one hand, those games are ridiculous imperialist military propaganda overseen by the DoD

        On the other hand, a lot of players never touch the campaigns and the multiplayer from CoD4 to BO2 was really good, so it's impossible to tell if it's bad or not

        spoiler

        I know, they're bad

    • SpiderFarmer [he/him]
      ·
      2 months ago

      As someone with a 'real degree' I want to fist fight everyone who says that. They're just telling on themselves that they've never read a book outside of assigned reading.

    • Justice@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      2 months ago

      The one-handed "mobile infantry made me the man I am today!" guy will be some 45 year old who his nuts blown off in Iraq by a brave resistance fighter around 2005

      Show

  • AmericaDelendaEst [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 months ago

    Do they have a weapon that can destroy the eternal soul

    what do you thinkin they zapped Bernie Sanders with

    • the_post_of_tom_joad [any, any]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      What keeps me awake at night was wondering if he actually changed, or i just got first-hand experience that maybe i had projected my own beliefs on him all along? I didn't look super critically at his history when i was stumping for him. I grabbed on to the best hope i had and i probably got hoodwinked by my own beliefs of who bern was rather than who he really was...

      • MayoPete [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        2 months ago

        That's the thing... young Bernie was great. Dude had the receipts. He just had to soften and try the "inside" game which we should know by now is a game we can't win.

  • TheModerateTankie [any]
    ·
    2 months ago

    Our military can already end all life on the planet if they want. Maybe she's gonna build an even more lethal doomsday device? Cobalt bomb? Or something that even cockroaches couldn't survive, so that life would have to re-evolve from worms?

    • LeZero [he/him]
      ·
      2 months ago

      Maybe some real life planet cracker? Or some grey goo runaway nanotech? You know, to be dead certain life will never flourish again on the planet

      • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        2 months ago

        The US military may as well be a cosmic horror like the Ideon - endlessly gaining power until it's cracking planets and completely destroying the universe, again

  • echognomics [he/him]
    ·
    2 months ago

    Show
    She's just foreshadowing her pick for Secretary of Defence.

      • echognomics [he/him]
        ·
        2 months ago
        the chap who did this

        stomp stomp

        Was making a reference to Overlord: an overworked salaryman from near-future cyberpunk Japan wakes up in a fantasy world as his VRMMO player character (i.e., the skeleton in the pic), and alongside with the evil NPCs created by himself and his former guildmates (they were a guild dedicated to roleplaying evil grotesque monsters) proceed to take over the world using the power of fantasy violence. Because the MC and his NPCs are absurdly over-leveled compared to the fantasy world natives, the casualties are incredibly one-sided and genocidal.

        The show's a bit above average compared with other isekai, as it balances out its shameless powerfantasy with some decent comedy of errors and quite some effort being put into the worldbuilding/power system. It has a fair amount of typical anime horniness though, though I think it's relatively tame compared to the lowest common denominator isekai slop.

  • BodyBySisyphus [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    Clearly the most lethal force is the one capable of destroying both the opposing force and itself. Kamala must be signaling an end to the MAD doctrine and will replace it with Unilaterally Mandated Annihilation: Double Belligerent Removal Obligatory

  • UlyssesT [he/him]
    ·
    2 months ago

    It's that scene from Borat where Borat gets a rodeo audience to cheer to the idea of their president bathing in the blood of children, except as declared election mandate. jokermala