And really all my point is that in an attempt to "not write off troops en masse", so many people here overcorrect and overlook why people joined and how someone who thinks their material conditions justify imperialism is probably not someone we should be eager to recruit without correcting their mindset
someone who thinks their material conditions justify imperialism
What 17- to 18-year-old kid thinks in these terms, though? I'm sure you have some hardcore chuds who are all about American empire, but for the rest there's a well-oiled propaganda machine designed specifically to make the military seem like service to your country, defending freedom, only going after the bad guys, etc. There's a Navy commercial that calls it "a global force for good!"
A lot of kids who join the military see all that, see the money attached to enlistment, see their older siblings stuck in a low-wage job somewhere, and decide to join based on that. Ascribing to these kids not only an awareness of imperialism, but a willingness to commit imperialist atrocities for college tuition, doesn't remotely reflect how most people who join up view the world.
Does this make soldiers free of blame? Of course not. But someone who kills people after getting swindled by a billion-dollar propaganda machine is less culpable than someone who gleefully kills knowing full well what they're getting into. We can't acknowledge that propaganda works and then ignore the logical effects of that. We can't acknowledge in a criminal justice context that human brains aren't fully developed until ~25 and then set that aside when talking about kids deciding to enlist. It's murder vs. manslaughter.
And really all my point is that in an attempt to "not write off troops en masse", so many people here overcorrect and overlook why people joined and how someone who thinks their material conditions justify imperialism is probably not someone we should be eager to recruit without correcting their mindset
What 17- to 18-year-old kid thinks in these terms, though? I'm sure you have some hardcore chuds who are all about American empire, but for the rest there's a well-oiled propaganda machine designed specifically to make the military seem like service to your country, defending freedom, only going after the bad guys, etc. There's a Navy commercial that calls it "a global force for good!"
A lot of kids who join the military see all that, see the money attached to enlistment, see their older siblings stuck in a low-wage job somewhere, and decide to join based on that. Ascribing to these kids not only an awareness of imperialism, but a willingness to commit imperialist atrocities for college tuition, doesn't remotely reflect how most people who join up view the world.
Does this make soldiers free of blame? Of course not. But someone who kills people after getting swindled by a billion-dollar propaganda machine is less culpable than someone who gleefully kills knowing full well what they're getting into. We can't acknowledge that propaganda works and then ignore the logical effects of that. We can't acknowledge in a criminal justice context that human brains aren't fully developed until ~25 and then set that aside when talking about kids deciding to enlist. It's murder vs. manslaughter.