U.S. Military Service Is the Strongest Predictor of Carrying Out Extremist Violence
U.S. Military Service Is the Strongest Predictor of Carrying Out Extremist Violence
You don’t say!
Oh, i should really introduce him to my sister!
I would suggest that the violence he committed (not counting the suicide obviously) wasn't extremist, it was pretty close to justifiable.
Edit: Sorry, are people really downvoting me for saying that Pyle killing the drill sergeant was close to justifiable? Have you not seen the movie or did you get the wrong message from it?
Related question: what percentage of current police force are former military?
That propublica piece on that guy that infiltrated 3%ers showed militia actively recruiting police and people in power.
While this is true, that didn’t answer @OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world’s question.
From what I was able to find, it seems that about 25 percent of law enforcement is former military according to this source. However, I am not sure if that means people higher up in the ranks or how much of them actually patrol and are out in the field.
Hmm. Better make more cod games and top gun movies about it. That will tamp things down.
Yes, video games are the problem
Jokes aside, yeah top gun is nothing but propaganda lol. COD games are a bit of a stretch, people make these kinds of games all over the world, they don’t do it to trick children into signing for the US army. If cod died today nothing would change.
Jensen and his colleagues found that while military personnel and veterans are not more likely to radicalize to the point of violence than members of the general public, when service members and veterans do become radicalized, “they may be more likely to plan for, or commit, mass casualty crimes, thus having an outsized impact on public safety.”
Well yeah, they are more dangerous than the average person and it’s not like their mental health care is great, like what did you think would happen?
I wonder if military training itself is radicalizing a person? just kidding. I don't wonder. I know it has to. The basic principle pushed behind everything in military indoctrination is that one should be not only ready but happy and excited to risk their life to kill others. Dying for this purpose is virtuous as the halls of military installations are covered with the citations of Medal of Honor recipients, many who received the award posthumously. Basically, they see how individuals that sacrificed their lives for the greater goal of protecting their team and destroying the enemy are celebrated at the utmost honorable. The instilled model holds that fellow service members and countrymen are good and whomever they say is enemy is totally evil and must be killed. There is no transitional program to remove that perspective at the end of service, so it stays there. The veteran knowing that they didn't think that way before service may understand that they have to develop a new model or adjust the military one by watching others. If things get too stirred up in a veteran, then the model might be applied if there aren't others to choose from that may provide a solution to the veteran's issues. If the military model is applied, whomever the veteran has placed in the enemy slot based on what media pushes (which in the past decade or so is that even fellow Americans are enemy), friends say (many using the crap from the media),...whatever input they receive to help understand the world around them...that group is now not only marked as enemy, but can be the target of the veteran's self-understood virtuous sacrifice through violence.
I don't understand how this isn't obvious. People are people. Civilians are people. Enemy are people. Veterans are people. People are people. Training people with intense brainwashing to hate a vague concept so that they deeply believe at their core that killing others for the protection of their team is going to result in someone that thinks that way. What other way could it possibly result in? Veterans can be ticking time bombs if their environment is setup for it. Comparing themselves to others that don't seem to feel the same, many commit suicide to clear their mind and end the turmoil because they can tell others don't even understand what they are thinking and feeling, let alone help them, so there's no respite from what happens in there. The only way to end it is to literally end it. If they're going to kill themselves, might as well follow the exalted examples of the Medal of Honor recipients.
What you think would happen is the hypothesis. This is the result of its being tested.
Funny (/s) that it jumped sharply shortly after troops started coming home from the war with dogshit mental support for what they'd been put through. Almost like traumatizing people and then throwing them away creates bad outcomes.
The USA had lots of problems from having so many Civil War veterans, including lots of violence:
It makes sense. Everyone is angry, but these guys have the know-how and likely the weapons lying around to do real damage.
A lot of wannabe extremists are encouraged to join the military to receive training by other wannabe extremists.
yeah. street gangs do the same. young kid is reticent about killing. get them to join up at 17 and comes back with valueable skills and if a war was happening then all the better as they will get rid of that hesitation they had.
I wonder what the balance is between that killer conditioning & training coming right back to the streets versus an unexpected career that takes the person away from the gang.
That's the problem of the other side, sorry. Leftists should join the military to receive the necessary training. Why - because a knife is not good or bad, it's a tool. If your enemy is buying a knife, you'd better buy a knife too.
Joining the brown children murder brigade for the valuable experience to oppose the brown children murder brigade is a pitch hadn't heard before.
That’s the problem. These guys get out of the military and there are no enemies, so they have to invent them. Your solution just produces more people looking for enemies to stab.
Who knew openly calling for the deaths of fellow Americans on hate radio for decades would lead to this? Oh yeah, pretty everyone who understands the garbage the conservatives peddle.
Conservativism is the real predictor.
Hm, behind "not a paywall", but I wonder if being a cop is any sort of predictor, as well.
And nearly all of those are right wing or religious extremists. So it seems the determinor is vets recruited by extremist organizations.
Signing up to be humiliated and put through bootcamp, given a gun, freedom to kill and voluntarily putting yourself in the line of fire is a predictor of extremist violence? I’m gonna have to disagree with you on this one.
How about add on daily propaganda that tells you that the elite are out to get you, immigrants are invading, trans people are everywhere, communism is taking over and your way of life is disappearing ... as well as messaging constantly telling you that you're poor because of these reasons and if you get hurt or get sick you'll go into debt, if you go to school you'll go into debt, you buy a house you're in debt, you buy a car you're in debt, you eat you're in debt, you breathe you're in debt ... all because of poor people, elites, immigrants, trans people .... constantly droning on and on every single day.
All In a country where anyone can get a prescription to an antipsychotic or antidepressant and have the ability to buy a gun or many guns.
What could go wrong
But enough about the police academy...
I don't think the main violent threat is in people who do take their medicine in time and care about their mental health.
It's like the ex-Soviet countries where people who've never been to a psychiatrist and never allowed thought that something may be off with them are proud of that, cause they are "normal" or something. As if having a condition was something shameful, or even transferring via personal contacts.
I mean, that aside, people with most developed and mature and intelligent personality I've met all didn't ignore their mental health and took medicine and probably had a D or two.
Statistically people with no condition from DSM are just over 4% of the population. That's the absolute minority.
Fun fact, trans people are twice as likely to serve in the military as opposed to the general population (for now)
This, however, is too general.