Welcome to the Unpopular Opinion community!
How voting works:
Vote the opposite of the norm.
If you agree that the opinion is unpopular give it an arrow up. If it's something that's widely accepted, give it an arrow down.
Guidelines:
Tag your post, if possible (not required)
Rules:
1. NO POLITICS
Politics is everywhere. Let's make this about [general] and [lemmy] - specific topics, and keep politics out of it.
2. Be civil.
Disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally attack others. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Please also refrain from gatekeeping others' opinions.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Shitposts and memes are allowed but...
Only until they prove to be a problem. They can and will be removed at moderator discretion.
5. No trolling.
This shouldn't need an explanation. If your post or comment is made just to get a rise with no real value, it will be removed. You do this too often, you will get a vacation to touch grass, away from this community for 1 or more days. Repeat offenses will result in a perma-ban.
6. Defend your opinion
This is a bit of a mix of rules 4 and 5 to help foster higher quality posts. You are expected to defend your unpopular opinion in the post body. We don't expect a whole manifesto (please, no manifestos), but you should at least provide some details as to why you hold the position you do.
Instance-wide rules always apply. https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
Yes on "no special gratitude for veterans of offensive wars".
No on calling them "mercenaries". Signing up to be paid by your country in their official uniformed military is considerably different than joining a corporation to do violence for whomever pays your employer.
(Also no on the USA's weird solider/sailor/marine/airman distinction.)
Unless they have been forced into the military at gunpoint, fuck the lot of them and let them rot.
I wish you could feel how cringe this is.
Agreed on "fuck them". But they aren't mercenaries.
They are paid to kill.
I think you might be confused about how words work
How is that unpopular? Who's out there simping for mercenaries?
Anyone who says,"Thank you for your service."
I think that is pretty much only used in the US and mostly directed as military service members, not mercenaries.
Yes, that's my point. Service members are mercenaries.
But they aren't, by definition.
A person paid by a government to follow orders and enact violence upon a target or targets chosen by the authorities in that government... Am I describing a member of the military or a contractor for a PMC like Academi? It's a legal distinction without a functional difference, like a corporation vs an LLC. There are limited circumstances where, in a court, they are treated differently but the product that comes from them and the processes by which it is produced are essentially the same.
So here's the answer to your question
Mercenary hired to kill for monetary gain. How's that different than a soldier? Source of payment?