#to clarify military membership is always cause for suspicion and caution

[the-stabbiest-dragon]

I mean, in all fairness a lot (far from all! but quite a lot) of US soldiers are impoverished people essentially press-ganged into a dehumanizing abuse engine with the threat of destitution and thus other forms of state violence, because it's drilled into them that they have no financial or education prospects otherwise. I don't think that sort of coercive manufactured consent is anything remotely like signing up to be a cop.

obviously, there are a lot of military members for whom that isn't the case, especially with a lot of "proud" historically military families being functionally identical to police families (right down to the fact that they're fast tracked for officer positions and other stations of relative authority, and thus aren't getting the brunt of the systematic abuse) and those people absolutely should be treated like cops or worse. but it bears keeping in mind that an awful lot of soldiers, especially in the rank-and-file of the army and navy, aren't there because they think it's right or have some sort of pride associated with it, they're there because they've been socially conditioned to fear poverty for themselves and their families more than they fear being used as a disposable piece of meat.

I guess what I'm saying is there's a difference in how you should view someone who's just using a VA card to help cover their meds vs. someone in a "the few and the proud" shirt. a lot of these people are absolutely cops and thus bastards, but the recruitment process is very different and much more predatory so blanket statements like that don't really apply, at least here in the US.

'oppose the military, support the troops' was one of the most insidious propaganda victories of the bush era and it blows my fucking mind that I still see people arguing the position to this day. if you can comprehend acab you should be able to wrap your stupid mind around this one.