Chapotraphouse

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.

: “Heh heh, no poets on the commune!”

: “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!”

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.

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