I play games with some childhood friends and we use discord. At the time when everyone went off to college, my cousin joined the military (surprise). He's like a brother to me and he's not a chud, so we're still close. Now our discord is overrun with his military buddies. It was alright at first. I could hold my own against one or two of em. A few are even comrades, but now I'm beset on all sides by bootlickers.
In one of the most insane moments yet, this line of argument was tossed out by one of them last night: "America has only lost wars due to its strict rules of engagement" implying of course, that losses in vietnam or afghanistan, for instance, were only due to our humanitarian willingness to not nuke/carpet bomb the enemy.
I don't even know how to respond to shit like this. I just want to keep in touch with my friends, but at what cost?
"how many millions of people has America killed since they joined forces with nazi industrialists?"
Anyone pulling rules if engagement stuff believes the goal of those wars was imperial conquest or straight up genocide.
And honestly they're not far from the truth, which is why I think the "America loses all its wars" argument is kind of dead in the water unless you're just using it to dunk on the military, in which case it doesn't matter why they lost, they're still losers and suckers.
The wars are bad and we shouldn't be fighting them is the real argument, we could have "won" Vietnam in a day and it still would have been wrong.
Good point. I think I'm struggling because when we get into these debates, they quickly become about the innerworking minutae of.. the imperial japanese government or the political landscape of the weimar republic. Stuff I'm not able to argue about as I lack enough detailed knowledge of history. Im good on broad ideological stuff, but they set the terms in these incredibly narrow parameters. I have to try and set the terms
Always set the terms, debate isn't about being right, it's about forcing the discussion into your framework. Imply they believe something they don't while making your main point, they can only refute one at once.
"strict" rules of engagement
The flamethrowers came in and we burnt the hamlet. Burnt up everything. They had a lot of rice. We opened the bags, just throw it all over the street. Look for tunnels. Killing animals. Killing all the livestock. Guys would carry chemicals that they would put in the well. Poison the water so they couldn’t use it… They killed some more people here. Maybe 12 or 14 or more. Old people and little kids that wouldn’t leave. I guess their grandparents. People that were old in Vietnam couldn’t leave their village.
from https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/07/what-we-did
That's what killed me. Like I "get" the point of the argument. We could have done so much worse with the tools at our disposal. It's incredible propaganda as it downplays the war crimes the US does commit and posits the US as the good guys all in the same breath
Invite the ones you like to a separate server or hang out with them on your own terms. Dont put up with chuddery if theyre making you uncomfortable or bullying you for your beliefs. It sounds like only some of these guys are your friends, so dont worry about the ones that arent (even if they are friends of friends)
That whole social stigma of it being unhealthy to disassociate from chuds in 2016 was such bullshit. In my group of friends, I was the first to act and speak out that some people we hung out with were very problematic. I started asking who would be at social events and backing out accordingly. Soon enough my friends realized I was right, hanging out with only the jerks while everyone fun dips out is lame.
A couple of the bad ones realized they need to snap out of it, others made excuses. The good ones realized that there was nothing wrong with me setting boundaries and grew to respect me more and become closer friends.
I agree to an extent. It's amazing how far telling your friend "your opinion is fucked, man" goes. staying quiet for the sake of civility is impIicit approval. I feel like I've provided a few friends off ramps on the highway to the alt-right.
On the other hand, I dont avoid them altogether. It would be to hard as most of my family are a stones through away from q-anon types. So I've just made a point that if they're going to talk politics, I'll argue, and if they're going to say reprehensible shit, I'm going to call them out. The cowards in the bunch just avoid those topics now, but I feel like it's made a impact on the rest of them
Yeah I did this with my mom, used to argue politics with her, now she avoids it, and will pause/mute whatever chud shit shes watching if I walk by. Was in the car with her and her new boyfriend a couple weeks ago and he starts talking "states rights" bullshit about the confederacy, shut that down real fucking fast now hes probably gonna shut up around me too.
Maybe make your own server and just invite the people you like?
Yeah, I've kicked around the idea. problem is: it's sort of condecing defeat and I can't abide
Lmfao just troll these chuds and bootlickers. You said it urself, what's the cost of accepting these douchebags
The other day I asked if, given their experience in the military, they had any good recipes for boiled leather
I don't think it's conceding defeat to not want a bunch of chuds looking over your shoulder every time you try to talk to your friends.
Interesting idea.. haven't listened to that podcast at all, any good eps you would recommend?
