Some of us, I assume, are good people

Debating making a Twitter just so I can watch the seething in real time

I mean, I think we need to make a difference between cons here.

This young man seems to take most issue with the reimbursement for his service, he doesnt get dental, he still needs a second job, VA arent helping. But an unpaid hitman wasnt conned into killing someone, they were just conned into doing it for free.

And if they were instead tricked into doing it for some reason of idealism and the way the war was presented to them, you gotta consider when the bubble burst. If it burst while still deployed, did they stick their head in the sand for the sake of avoiding repercussions or securing their own future? That doesnt seem very valuable to a revolution, for example.

Edit: This essay is mainly about the idea of "brainwashing" or other state influence upon the civilian population, but I think a lot can apply to being "brainwashed" or otherwise influenced into military service, particularly the parts about the implicit understanding of personal gain that drives acceptance of propaganda.

Hot take: If we think housing, healthcare and a guaranteed dignified standard of living are human rights then they also apply to veterans of imperialism.

For me that first of all depends on their stance towards the revolution. If you actualy join the correct side and fight alongside us, and I mean real fight not just social posturing like e.g German Nazis that survived the war and then spent their life going on apology tours or something.

Then yeah, we need all the help we can get and if they're willing to put a bullet on a billionaire/capitalist head I will give them a second chance. We need actual people that are willing and capable of fighting whether we like this reality or not.

But as I said my standard is anything less than literally to join the revolutionary army like today and its not worth bothering with them.

Disclaimer: I dont think unrepetant military hogs are worth saving.

Yeah I personally cant hang around here when military comes up. My close friend was in Afghanistan and literally never saw a thing, they just walked around and stayed at forts. He now is a single father with two kids with autism. He's also throughly and unmovably a socialist. We grew up poor, his father was murdered due to gang activity and his mom was selling drugs up until very recently, she's very mentally unstable.

But he should be on the street because some lefty who grew up in the whitest, most safest, lacrosse-team havingest area read a book once.

I get such a major disconnect because it seems like some people don't understand what growing up in some places is like. Selling drugs is not a better alternative to joining the military, being in gangs and that life is scary but also fucking pathetic and miserable. You're a detriment to your family and only incur more trauma to everyone you know.

Like think about it too, somehow we can propagandize a good portion of the nation to believe in capitalist class dynamics, the duopoly and a lot of the other idiotic hog shit but tricking people to fight bad guy is something you have to somehow be above. But I mean why not? I, rich white kid with options knew better, why can't the rest of society?

For a bunch of people who try to explain things materially the veteran criticism always stinks of the inability to put oneself in anothers shoes.

As someone from a global south country that these yankee fucks have destroyed, their homelessness, high suicide rates, and PTSD is literally the only small amount of Justice we have. If a revolution ever does come to the imperial core, youre free to send all your vets and generals here to properly face justice for their countless crimes.