this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2024
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A Boring Dystopia
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You know, there's an aspect to the bond, the camaraderie, the discipline, the fitness that I really appreciate about soldering. Growing up with films like Band of Brothers practically on repeat, having read pretty close to every book that came out from those guys — well, I have admiration. But at the same time as I grew up and became more leftist I of course had many issues with the volatility of our leadership.
If I could've joined Norway, Canada, or German armed forces under the NATO banner, I may very well have done that. After seeing everything transpiring in Ukraine, I often wonder if I'd have the courage to do what those brave people are doing every day. In the right context, under purely defensive conditions, I'd like to think I would've thrived, but who knows...
But second to volatile leadership is quite honestly the type of people the military tends to attract. The desperate, the jar-head conservative types. If life is on the line, I'd rather not be in a foxhole with them if I'm honest.
But there's a lot of talk that finally the culture may be shifting within the US Military — to attract smarter, better educated people. I know a lot of conservatives are retiring early and not joining up because they feel the "culture is changing," which is a good sign to me.
Conservatives are all about making small in-groups and large out-groups. If you're in the out-group, go fuck yourself. If you're in the small in-group, their life goal is to elevate their in-group above all the out-groups.
In a foxhole, conservatives and liberals are pretty much the same. Only the people in the foxhole matter at that moment.
It's when they come home and conservatives can't give a damn about more than a dozen people and can only see six months into their future that is the real problem.
Fair point, and to that I admittedly use this as an explanation for why Ukrainians can fight side-by-side with the likes of more right-wing extremist groups in their military (e.g., Azov). It would be little different if the United States was attacked and I and some dude from the Proud Boys / Oathkeepers / The Base / 3%ers was with me and we were fighting to protect our family.
In that respect, sure. I just couldn't pursue it during domestic peacetime as a career given that and the volatility I mentioned.
The only armed forces worth joining IMO are UN Peacekeepers.
NATO will always struggle with that very leadership issue, it is not representative of humanity and can be used in an offensive.
I just hope more power will go to forces that are actually aimed at curbing any sort of violence on Earth.
That's the only good use of the military.
NATO was founded with Nazi leaders. source.
Edit: Downvote me all you want, some of NATO's senior commanders came from being senior military commanders of German Nazism and very close to Adolf Hitler. Source.
That's really interesting. I'd never considered where Germany would find experienced commanders to support their role in NATO and be the front line with the Soviets. It's obvious in retrospect I suppose.
It's very similar to people like Werner Von Braun that went to the US, were key to the space race, but also key to advancing the technology that went into military missiles etc.
I didn't downvote you. I'll have to delve into this as it seems interesting. Does this have any application to today, though?
Sorry, the edit wasn’t specifically for you. It wasn’t just NATO with Hans Spiedel and Adolf Heusinger. Nazis also served intelligence agencies in America. The CIA facilitated, and Hoover and the FBI allowed it.
“As we say in Germany, if there’s a Nazi at the table and 10 other people sitting there talking to him, you got a table with 11 Nazis.”
Dude the fact that you said 'soldering' made me think this was either a shitpost or a copypasta