Good on them! Joining up is a scam. You get to trade your life for possibly getting a chance to further your education; that is if you don't die during your service. And then, who's freedom do you end up really fighting for because you end up fighting a foreign war? You end up fighting a war to enrich the billionaires more. Once your service is up, if you are unfortunate enough to have real and tangible mental trauma, you're cast aside like someone who's shelf life has expired. Fuck #Amurica.

i told the recruiter that my student loans were serviced by Sallie Mae. he told me that, for certain, my loans would be paid by the G.I. bill. i was desperate to move out of my parents house.

it wasn't until the day before shipping out, the day that i raised my right hand and swore an oath, that i found out he lied. i went anyway and didn't get my loans paid.

they will say ANYTHING.

In the mid-00s, my junior-year class got pitched a “career test” which basically everyone signed up for, because we were all anxious about starting the college applications process. We show up, and surprise, it’s a bunch of recruiters giving the ASVAB. Middle fingers all around.

Yeah, I'm not generally anti-military, but there are two major problems with our military system that ensure I'll always try to talk young people out of joining.

The first is that we've been inventing/starting proxy wars that we eventually send our own troops into. Our military should only be entering wars when we're attacked.

The second is the rampant sexual-assault/rape problem our military has. As long as the system refuses to weed out and remove offenders, I'll never say it's a good idea for anyone to join.

I'm thankful for my recruiter. He was a disillusioned E-5 in the Navy who hated the bureaucracy and complained about it all the time. He did not lie at all, and, frankly, I think I had a better time when I was in than he did.

But fuck joining. It's a trap and you shouldn't have to do that for a better life as I did.