Lmao do you not remember being 18? They tried to recruit me, same as everyone else. I considered the benefits, decided, "hey, that sounds really cool, but aren't you guys known for lying your ass off?" and steered clear. You're trying to present this as retro framing, but it's not. This isn't a case of "I was so smart, I figured out the US military is evil", it's a case of "at 10 years old everyone who knew how to read knew the US military was evil"

[–] SalamenceFury@piefed.social 0 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

You're literally saying "I am totally immune to propaganda" without a hint of irony. Which ironically means you're just as susceptible if it's presented in a different way.

[–] Scubus@sh.itjust.works 2 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

That's not at all what I'm saying. I gave you a specific example of what I was referring to, and I didn't make any blanket statements. That being said, out of the sample size of 2 in this conversation, I do seem to have above average literacy skills, which does seem like it would be beneficial for resisting propaganda.

Did you really grow up in America without being taught about Vietnam? Our various war crimes? The way we treated Japanese Americans during world war 2? I feel like people explaining away "well they just didn't know the military was evil" are really just saying that they didn't pay attention in school, and I don't excuse ignorance as a reason for commiting or abetting genocide.

[–] SalamenceFury@piefed.social 0 points 22 hours ago

First of all, English is not my first language, so you dunking on me for not being as literate as you sounds extremely fucking racist to me. But anyways, continuing:

Did you really grow up in America without being taught about Vietnam? Our various war crimes? The way we treated Japanese Americans during world war 2

A lot of states/counties will literally gloss over that. Also, indeed, kids sometimes won't pay attention to school. That doesn't mean the result should be them getting thrown into the Middle East to get obliterated by a missile because no one had the thought of talking to them about what recruiters do. They are literal groomers who will build a profile of potential recruits to emotionally manipulate them into joining, including even stalking their grades and other things to drive into their head that the military is their only escape.

I don’t excuse ignorance as a reason for committing or abetting genocide.

I don't either, but assuming literal groomed teenagers are just inherently evil for joining is stupid, and constantly dunking without ever stopping to be serious ONCE to tell people getting harassed by recruits what they actually want means you are not helping. You don't blame a teenager for getting groomed, you give them the tools to recognize when it's happening and exit stage left. That's my problem with this constant "haha dunk on the military and smoke the packs of dead soldiers", because none of you will actually put on the work to get serious for a moment and warn teenagers to not join the military or believe the recruiter's lies.