this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2025
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Veteran here. It's more like: "I'm a fucking idiot, but I could use some healthcare, and that college thing sounds nice."
Plan B was to kill myself, so I don't feel bad about enlisting - I got what I needed from it.
You'd be amazed how few people join because of cliches like patriotism. That said, it'd be way less fucked if people could get things like healthcare and education without needing to agree to blow themselves or others up.
Idk chief I think if I needed those things I'd organize my community to demand them first and not go into the "will I kill a bunch of innocent foreigners" lottery.
Bruh, that ain't gonna feed or house you while you're doing all that.
Unless I'm mistaken, there's still other ways to feed and house yourself that don't involve signing up for the wall street Wehrmacht. Like, I imagine living inside the empire it's normalized as hell but I don't think there's any excuse not to know nowadays.
Statesians having a choice of aiding the big murder machine or having an uphill battle to live in dignity is pretty shitty, but I think that animosity should be directed to the government and not people who think it's still pretty ghoulish to act like there wasn't even a choice. People used to go to jail for dodging the draft and some of y'all act like soldiers are all enlisted at gunpoin bc they offer you college and insurance.
You're missing the point - not everyone has the privilege to consider the cause.
Even now as a civilian in healthcare, which sounds infinitely more benign, I'm stuck working for a different flavor of orphan grinding machine in exchange for a paycheck. ...but does that mean I should personalize the evil shit this industry does, like refuse care if someone's too poor, or do provide care but financially ruin them in the process? I'm a surgical tech, soon-to-be nurse: I can't control any of that shit. Should I quit in protest? Cuz that won't change anything outside of severely reducing the quality of my own life.
Same is true of the military: you milk a living out of a shitty system. Are there other options? Sure, but the vast majority of those are shitty too.