I DONT support the troops

I said it before and I'll say it again. A high schooler working part time as a McDonald's cashier is braver than all the troops
- Yes, after working as a waiter for a bit, I have massive respect for anyone who works in the service industry/fast food/grocery stores, etc. People are a nightmare to deal with, and that's a fucking understatement. Literally braver than all the troops o7.
- I don't entirely agree. I imagine being fucked off to iraq at the age of 18 is an awful experience, especially if they see combat. Also especially if you did it because your other options had dried up - being forced to kill.

- The correct take. Most of the military chuds who wear those cringe grunt style shirts probably had a desk job or a cook. The ones who actually trained in combat or were deployed wither turned into complete hippies or stay quiet about and don’t parade around like their owed something . Identify the ones who are broken and willing to see their mistakes and they’ll fairly likely to see our cause.
  I browse military subreddits and they were opposing the actions in Portland by police and the feds. They’re not all bad.

It's funny how we have no qualms saying ACAB, with some of the common lines being "they're an occupying force in our own country" (true), "the profession attracts bad people" (also true) and "even if not every individual cop is personally bad, the duties inherent of being a police officer necessitates enforcing systems of violence and oppression" (also true as well). But for some leftists, being an occupying force in someone else's country is just A-OK with them! It doesn't matter if they enforced US-Imperialism in the most literal sense possible, we got to get them on our side guise! The people who bomb villages to get a Camero need to be on our side!
You might say that soldiers flipping allegiance turned the tides in the Russian revolution, but those soldiers were in the same positions as the revolutionaries, only they were conscripted into the army, mistreated, underpaid, and pissed off that they were being forced to fight in a pointless war. Modern day troops chose to kill and imperialize for money, most of them are going to be against us. And don't say a god damn thing about "oh they had to do it so they could acheive a good standard of living", because a) it's not their only option, b) valuing your own self interests over the lives of others is the least socialist thing you could do, and c) the economic incentives also apply to cops, even more so in fact. that doesn't excuse what they do.
TLDR: If ACAB, ATAB, and ACAB.

- Ah, a sensible comment. Curious.

"Yeah I signed up for a 2nd tour since there were no good job opportunities in my state, and you got a $20.000 signing bonus."

- Yeah that's fine but if it gets to the point you're deployed as an imperialist tool overseas you have a moral obligation to quit.
- It is important to understand this as you are going to want soldiers on our side if things go bad.
- Not to mention that recruiters lie. They will tell kids, literal 17 year old children, shit like "oh, you won't see combat, most roles are support roles." That, combined with American indoctrination that what we do oversees is good, makes me a little more willing to accept troops as members of the working class.
  It's really easy for leftists to get woke about shit like this instead of thinking materially.
  
  It’s really easy for leftists to get woke about shit like this instead of thinking materially.
  Or we're not American and sick and tired of American aggression in our countries
  
  It’s really easy for leftists to get woke about shit like this instead of thinking materially.
  i'm Arab. I know Iraqis who got injured and fled due to the US invasion. One was only a child when it happened, he didn't deserve to struggle with PTSD for the rest of his life. He didn't deserve all that horror. I heard all the explanations and justifications there is about why lefties should judge your made-for-exports serial killers less harshly.
  They're still bullshit. Like, who lives in a rock and doesn't know the US is invading multiple countries? What are they ignorant of exactly? No, college money or poverty does not make assisting in carnage justifiable. that's not "wokeness".
  the moment you set foot on foreign land with an invading army you lose your right to life and there's no taking that action back.
- What about people who just work in the military supply chain and stuff? I almost signed up because I figured if I don't do the job then someone else will, and that someone else might have plans to progress up the military ranks.
  Also, what about the kids who are blatantly indoctrinated?
  
  working a dead-end job isn't a virtue, it's slow death
- I'm just tired of equally privileged white middle class lefties, blowing off a sizable amount of poor people or middle class people who did join to escape poverty or downward movement for idiotic idealistic purity reasons- rather than showing nuance and understanding for complex problems, which should be something attributable to the left.
  And it's not like poor people don't try to join the military, it's not like poor people are like "Oh hell yeah solidarity fight the power brother, i care about brown people in other countries" they just usually have something like a record that keeps them from joining the military, an injury, maybe they're overweight from poor American 50c Ruffles bags for breakfast diet or flat out-- they're scared of getting hurt/dying/leaving family. There are so many reasons that are not *what lefties want them to be * or why poor people don't join the military.
  The reason why "they were propagandized," usually gets brought up is because Lefties like to paint with broad strokes and condemn all vets, even though there are leftists vets and potentially sympathetic leftist vets. You're already creating problems for yourself and potential movement you're interested in by trying to keep these people out with moronic privileged purity politics.
  And even if they are middle class, white, you can still be propagandized by US propaganda, you can grow up in a right-wing household and you can also come to see see why it's wrong. When these people join, "murdering brown people" is exaggeration and leftist propaganda. I know you can't imagine that but you've been privileged enough to not have right-winger family or the option to see a different political perspective. Why the fuck do you think there are so many liberals in this country, but not leftists, when being left is the logical conclusion to being a liberal? I just find it hard to believe, that if you lived the same life of these people who join the military, you would make any different choices.
  There's nothing special about you personally that makes you a leftist. You are not inherently a better person. You have different lived experiences. That's the big tragedy of Nazism in Germany and Fascism.
  But it happens enough that when these people go overseas feeling already milquetoast about the military, they often see what the military does overseas and their views change drastically. Lefties do the rights job by playing the stupid purity game.
  If an armed conflict ever arrived in the US, I'm guessing the right wingers who aren't gun shy, that supposedly take pride in eating shit, being dirty and don't see problems joining the military are going to be plenty more useful than the plethora of diet restricted, colorful haired, brainy bookworm, gamer redditor leftists.

I mean the flight crew of a B1 are not enlisted men straight out of high school.
- Oviously, it's a meme trying to make a point by using exaggeration

As a troop myself, let me just go ahead and say fuck the troops.

I think this perspective is more of a dialectical analysis. If you propagandize about a job and make it not seem as immoral as it is, and keep poor people from having other options, then inevitably a lot of brainwashed poor people are going to sign up. That's just how it's gonna be. ISIS arose because of local instability that we caused, that doesn't justify their actions, but it does explain how it happened. If you want to lower military recruitment, giving people better alternatives helps immensely. Areas with high minimum wage in this country is exactly where recruiters have a hard time.

- Oviously try radicalise the troops but please have another plan in place as well as there's a large chance the military won't be on your side in the US