It’s all tragic. None of these deaths should have happened.
Because the guys who are getting killed aren’t usually the ones deciding to go to war. They’re people like my brother or my classmates who needed debt relief and joined a program ironically chock full of socialist policies that provided for them.
Then the pedophiles and war hawks in charge of things declare
warpolice action / military defense maneuvers / preemptive deescalation / whatever bullshit term they want, and send our people off to east Jesus nowhere on a whim.We view them as tragic events?
In the sense that a lot of them signed up due to propaganda, lack of options, and being preyed upon by recruiters while they were children, there is an element of tragedy. It’s just less tragic than what they contribute to.
It seems like everyone near me (Missouri) is a bit numb at this point. Like if you directly asked an opinion, sure, they’d say it’s a terrible thing. Especially the elder veterans But no one is really talking about it. I don’t really watch much TV anymore, and this is my only social media; this is the ONLY place I’ve heard about it. I work as a manufacturing engineer and a good number of the operators tend to be right leaning. I think a major factor is that even for these folk, the meddling in the middle east for decades has soured any of the initial “patriotism” behind it. There’s no “Fuck yeah, did you hear we blew up xyz? Check out this video!” Or “That airbase in Iran got bombed. They should just bomb the shit out of em back” Seems like it’s just another day now. Less distress/commentary than getting a flat tire the day before.
I also work in mfg, as a consultant. I try not to talk politics with operators, but yeah what I do hear anymore isn’t excited or even half-hearted. Just kinda resigned.
On the engineering side, the operators are the machine better than I ever will, so their input is critical. Some are a bit reserved around salaried folks, as the koolaide drinkers up front tend to be strictly business and not show much loyalty to the operators. Hearing them out on politics or whatever they want to talk about helps break down that hesitance to tell me what’s really happening. I’m not going to narc on them to management about the shortcuts they’re taking to circumvent a design flaw if it means they TELL me about the flaw, and we can try to resolve it.
Hypocrisy.
I had a high-school friend who got involved with violent criminal activity. He was from a lower income family, but he still had some opportunities, he just never committed to making them work. He decided crime was the best path to what he felt he deserved out of life.
He did some bad shit and died violently at a young age while trying to rob someone. He wasn’t in the right, there was nothing romantic or justified about his criminal career, and I believe that he brought his sad, early end upon himself. His choices made him a bad person in many respects.
It’s still a fucking tragedy that he died so young and I still miss the friend he was when we were in school.
No one should demand you revere these soldiers as martyrs, however, you don’t have to be a die-hard MAGA or even agree with their choice to enlist to feel bad about these people being killed, especially when it’s because of such senseless bullshit. Sympathy and empathy just work like that sometimes.
Patriotism
None of their deaths should have happened. None of them should feel like they need to sign up to kill people to afford a living. None of the civilians they kill should have died.
None of these things should be happening at the whims of a demented pedophile.
Lot of indoctrination from an early age. School children, like north korea, stand, salute the flag, and pledge allegiance to the country
Its america
