Ok. Well, I don’t think the people at the bottom have the same degree of responsibility of the people at the top, but I do think we are all responsible for our choices of where we work and what we consume - - - for sure at least to the degree that we’re responsible for who we vote for. But, everyone is going to draw their lines and weigh competing interests differently.
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Riding a bus is not feasible in a lot of places. Public transportation is not of the same quality everywhere.
We should rank the posters on this forum in order of how good they are.
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No way at 18 was I ready for that kind of life and death choice and responsibly. I was a moron and complete idiot.
I feel like these particular threads are a good reminder that attempting to change someone’s mind about how they view a certain subject isn’t feasible and that it’s best to just gtfo. And I served and still like Jal
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Good posters draft
Are you just trying to make me post more? Do you not understand what I’m saying?
Ok, no bus, maybe the choice is economy car vs. Escalade. Ok, you haul giant trailers? Maybe you have no choice here but a big diesel truck. That doesn’t mean there aren’t choices you can reasonably make that have effects.
i understand that but it is all about the small decisions too. hopefully none of us have to feel that we have no plausible careers other than working at lockheed developing a launcher for moab, or having your paycheck tied to data collection from parler for the mercers. or perhaps working there but at least in principle telling yourself that you’d at least be a whistle blower if something looked off.
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Of course people who VOLUNTARILY sign up to murder poor brown people overseas bear some of the responsibility. This “I can’t be held responsible for my consumption / employment choices cuz capitalism” takes are what neolibs tell themselves to sleep at night, and this shit isn’t that far removed.
The US military is one of the greatest forces for evil in the world today. Tell the million people dead in Iraq that you were just following orders.
Like, I get it. You were 18 and stupid and a recruiter hoodwinked you. Shame. So maybe instead of working for Northrop or Raytheon whenever your contract expires, you can show some remorse and try to make the world a better place instead of contributing to the military industrial complex that has kneecapped any attempt at progressive policies in this countries in the last 70 years.
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Are people who served in the military culpable for the nation’s foreign policy? Yes, of course. Just as those who don’t serve are. Equally.
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Thread title should be renamed: “Jalfrezi is an asshole: Discuss”
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There was a young man in San Diego who was recruited into a gang, and part of his initiation was to murder a pizza delivery driver. He committed the murder. Afterwards, the father of the victim set up a non-profit geared towards helping other at-risk youth. The victim’s father also reached out to the murderer’s father, asking him to join the project. His reason for doing so was that in his view, “there was a victim at both ends of the gun that day.”
When I think of the typical 18-22 year old who’s signing up to join the US military, I see a victim. Preyed upon, deceived, and manipulated. When that person follows their orders to occupy the land of others, appropriate their resources, and murder–there’s a victim on both ends of that gun.
When a member of the military is recruited, they are lied to. Overt lies, and lies of omission–told by the recruiter, the military, and our society. Of course what each of us would consider to be a lie about the military, and its mission, is impacted by how much propaganda we’ve been exposed to, and how susceptible we were to it.
If someone believes(as many do) that the US Navy is “A global force for good.” like the voice-over says during the TV commercials, that impacts whether they’ll join. Imagine an alternate reality where every commercial break during an NFL game instead had an ad with a voice-over using (USMC retired)Smedley Butler’s words: “I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer; a gangster for capitalism.”
A young person in our society has been raised and educated to misunderstand the world and the institutions that dominate it. “Whenever you have a misunderstanding of reality, year after year, decade after decade. When a false picture of the [world] is painted you can be sure that there is a special interest that is benefiting. A false picture of reality does not happen by nature. It is subsidized.”
How can we as a society accomplish two tasks:
- End the wars
- End the lies, propaganda, and environmental factors that lead people to join in the harming of others.
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How is his question not a valid question with room for discussion? I mean, I get that it might hurt some feelings. But calling people acting like a racist a racist also hurts some feelings, but we’re all cool with that.
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There are ways to have a conversation without being an asshole.
Steps to determining if you’re being an asshole in an internet post:
Step 1: Would you feel badly making the statement to the person’s face?
Step 2: Would you feel badly making the statement to the person’s face in front of other people?
If the answer to either question is yes, you’re being an asshole.
The answer to that question for approximately 95 percent of Jalfrezi’s posts is yes.
Well then most of us on the forum are assholes, I would think.
Some of the time, yes. Some of the time. But not all of the time.
I’m receptive to his question because I’m really sick and tired of the fetishizing of the military in the US. And how “inappropriate” it is to not participate, never mind actually saying something to somebody. Just prior to the pandemic somebody actually threatened to punch me for not standing up at a Bruins game when they trotted out some asshole in a uniform in between periods. (And this was in a luxury box with people I do business with and where I wasn’t looking to cause a scene. But basically was forced to tell this guy to go fuck himself and hope it didn’t escalate.) The country is sick with this shit.
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Maybe we could have found a way to discuss issue this that didn’t lead to a thread that’s dedicated to putting one of the regs on blast?
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Doesn’t seem like he started this thread, did he? (I’m not exactly sure how it started and lack the context of whatever happened in the other thread.)