No I didn’t. Because I don’t think that has been a significant source of recruits for… probably closer to two decades than not now. Kids know the military is a joke. They know they are going to be deployed to fight Wars For Oil ™. NOBODY believes we did any meaningful good in Iraq/Afghanistan (which is actually a much more complicated discussion but…).
So the kids who genuinely think they can change their lives with a college degree? They aren’t the kids spending years of their lives killing other kids for a chance. If they are “smart” enough to think that then they are “smart” enough to realize all the consequences and how likely it is that the recruiter is going to lie to them.
“I joined the military to go to college” is very much a Desert Storm and MAYBE early 2000s “trope”. As we continued what was closer to a two decade forever war than not, the vast majority of people who would have come down on that thought process realized why it was a bad one.
Which gets back to “I joined the military so I can learn to be a mechanic” and all the implications of that. Or “the army made my father the man he is today” and so forth.
That said: I have worked with a few “skilled workers” who went the military route. And one or two of them are genuinely geniuses. They are also fucking terrifying the moment topics get even slightly “political” and it is very clear they fell into category 1 and 2 if you catch my drift.
I joined to get out of a shit living situation, about 1/3 of the people i served with did the same. Everything from parents disowning them to wanting to get out of gang territory.
I don’t think he’s right. Personally, his comments rub me the wrong way. They remind me of the annoying, confidently incorrect comments I’ve see on Reddit so many times.
Granted, I’m also fairly biased because I used to be in the army, and don’t appreciate the kind of assumptions/generalizations people make about people in the US military. I bash the military all the time personally in my private life, but it’s different when I see people who clearly don’t know shit do it.
I respect you for admitting there are things you might not know though.
No I didn’t. Because I don’t think that has been a significant source of recruits for… probably closer to two decades than not now. Kids know the military is a joke. They know they are going to be deployed to fight Wars For Oil ™. NOBODY believes we did any meaningful good in Iraq/Afghanistan (which is actually a much more complicated discussion but…).
So the kids who genuinely think they can change their lives with a college degree? They aren’t the kids spending years of their lives killing other kids for a chance. If they are “smart” enough to think that then they are “smart” enough to realize all the consequences and how likely it is that the recruiter is going to lie to them.
“I joined the military to go to college” is very much a Desert Storm and MAYBE early 2000s “trope”. As we continued what was closer to a two decade forever war than not, the vast majority of people who would have come down on that thought process realized why it was a bad one.
Which gets back to “I joined the military so I can learn to be a mechanic” and all the implications of that. Or “the army made my father the man he is today” and so forth.
That said: I have worked with a few “skilled workers” who went the military route. And one or two of them are genuinely geniuses. They are also fucking terrifying the moment topics get even slightly “political” and it is very clear they fell into category 1 and 2 if you catch my drift.
I joined to get out of a shit living situation, about 1/3 of the people i served with did the same. Everything from parents disowning them to wanting to get out of gang territory.
Yeah, you might be right. I don’t have enough detailed knowledge and your argument makes sense.
I don’t think he’s right. Personally, his comments rub me the wrong way. They remind me of the annoying, confidently incorrect comments I’ve see on Reddit so many times.
Granted, I’m also fairly biased because I used to be in the army, and don’t appreciate the kind of assumptions/generalizations people make about people in the US military. I bash the military all the time personally in my private life, but it’s different when I see people who clearly don’t know shit do it.
I respect you for admitting there are things you might not know though.