My Ukrainian grandfather was part of the SS black skull brigade and his call sign was "Jew Slayer" and now you are all telling me he's a fascist? Wow. He fought for YOUR freedom to be free from Putin style fascism and now he's the bad guy. It really hurts.

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[–] GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago

Though we shouldn't have pity parties for troops, it's worth mentioning (in cases where they aren't, like, SS freaks) that some of them are alienated from a healthy understanding of the meaning of what they are doing and that is something that can be reversed and has even happened spontaneously, for example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_Railroad_Massacre#16th_Regiment

There are many reasons for bootcamp being largely a process of traumatizing soldiers into seeing their targets as non-human and orders as unquestionable, and among them is that people have a tendency for compassion that can even emerge spontaneously and lead them to not carry out their job as butchers for the empire.

Just something I had been meaning to mention but didn't have a chance to.