That prospect does make me sad. Yeah, there are plenty of rabid chuds who just want to kill brown people in the military, but the level of indoctrination going into American youth means plenty of brainwashed young people will have their lives stolen in such an event (that doesn't justify their actions, of course, and I'd definitely feel more sad for the millions more Iranians who would die in that scenario).
The silver-lining to all this being that there was a case of a certain country which suffered egregious military casualties in a pointless war leading up to a revolution :lenin-pogger:
Absolutely. As one of those kids who was at that crossroads in his life at 17ish and worried about loans/life/direction/etc, passing by a recruitment booth at high school stands out as a memory to me. So I sympathize to a degree with people who drank the imperialist koolaid or simply wanted a way out of financial stresses or both.
That said, I wouldn't begrudge someone in Yemen or Iraq if they consider the troops irredeemable scum.
It's not about sympathy as much as about strategy. Changing the United States is fundamentally impossible without allies in the United States military. And there are hundreds of thousands of potential comrades in the armed forces.
I've read Settlers. The number of Hispanic people in the USA (AKA the descendants of indigenous Americans) is increasing year by year. If you write off the USA you are also writing off all of those indigenous descendants, which is racist.
Eh, just because Mestizo Latinos have indigenous blood doesn't mean they can't internalize settler mentality. Pretty much all of Latin American history since the initial conquests are a testament to that, and not all gusanos are white.
But yeah, you're right. I'm not sure how one reads Settlers and comes to the conclusion that, because the US is fundamentally an imperialist settler-colonial system, we shouldn't take advantage of its many contradictions (soldier discontent) and leave the growing number of POC and conscious whites to burn along with it.
TBH most of the ex-soldiers I've met are really cool nice people and they themselves are often dissatisfied and angry at what the leadership is doing. If we just dismiss every member of the American military whole-cloth, we're dismissing thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of potential comrades. A huge swath of the American military/veterans is 18-25-year-olds disillusioned, depressed, and alienated by capitalism and imperialism - AKA potential comrades.
(P.S. The O.G. Kurt Vonnegut was a veteran of WWII who later became an anti-war activist. Also, people are more likely listen to veterans about military stuff. Anti-war veterans are the best people to "sell" the anti-war message, IMO.)
perhaps the only good thing that could come of a US-Iran war
That prospect does make me sad. Yeah, there are plenty of rabid chuds who just want to kill brown people in the military, but the level of indoctrination going into American youth means plenty of brainwashed young people will have their lives stolen in such an event (that doesn't justify their actions, of course, and I'd definitely feel more sad for the millions more Iranians who would die in that scenario).
The silver-lining to all this being that there was a case of a certain country which suffered egregious military casualties in a pointless war leading up to a revolution :lenin-pogger:
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Absolutely. As one of those kids who was at that crossroads in his life at 17ish and worried about loans/life/direction/etc, passing by a recruitment booth at high school stands out as a memory to me. So I sympathize to a degree with people who drank the imperialist koolaid or simply wanted a way out of financial stresses or both.
That said, I wouldn't begrudge someone in Yemen or Iraq if they consider the troops irredeemable scum.
Meh, I don't feel any sympathy toward the young babykillers.
It's not about sympathy as much as about strategy. Changing the United States is fundamentally impossible without allies in the United States military. And there are hundreds of thousands of potential comrades in the armed forces.
Yep. I don’t expect there to be something like the Russian Revolution in the US but having military allies is a massive boon to any movement.
Changing the US is fundamentally impossible because of the amount of brain dead colonists that live here. obligatory read Settlers.
I've read Settlers. The number of Hispanic people in the USA (AKA the descendants of indigenous Americans) is increasing year by year. If you write off the USA you are also writing off all of those indigenous descendants, which is racist.
Eh, just because Mestizo Latinos have indigenous blood doesn't mean they can't internalize settler mentality. Pretty much all of Latin American history since the initial conquests are a testament to that, and not all gusanos are white.
But yeah, you're right. I'm not sure how one reads Settlers and comes to the conclusion that, because the US is fundamentally an imperialist settler-colonial system, we shouldn't take advantage of its many contradictions (soldier discontent) and leave the growing number of POC and conscious whites to burn along with it.
TBH most of the ex-soldiers I've met are really cool nice people and they themselves are often dissatisfied and angry at what the leadership is doing. If we just dismiss every member of the American military whole-cloth, we're dismissing thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of potential comrades. A huge swath of the American military/veterans is 18-25-year-olds disillusioned, depressed, and alienated by capitalism and imperialism - AKA potential comrades.
(P.S. The O.G. Kurt Vonnegut was a veteran of WWII who later became an anti-war activist. Also, people are more likely listen to veterans about military stuff. Anti-war veterans are the best people to "sell" the anti-war message, IMO.)
Sounds about white.
So you falsely assume the person you disagree with is white, to try to win an argument. Brilliant.
I thought this website was for GOOD FAITH discussion???