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  • -6-6-6-@lemmygrad.ml
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    3 days ago

    Yes. Aaron Bushnell was service.

    I’ve met many a soldier who upon leaving service becomes horrified at the realization of what they have done. They can become potent forces for change or just propaganda. Even the most irritating centrist doesn’t scoff at military service; something that us leftists are pretty much unique for. If you don’t see how that has it’s own uses…not really sure what else to say.

    Most people going into service have three options. Be a shithead and drop out in basic. Internalize and consume every piece of propaganda or try their best to maintain their humanity, dignity and morals in an environment designed to break those and mold them into something else. It’s no wonder that until they get out most of them don’t realize what they’ve done. Does this excuse them? No. Most of them are too far gone. However, we have ex-military here on Hexbear and Lemmygrad. Plenty of people have no idea what communism is at 18; conveniently another option to take is either extremely expensive education, wage-slave, or join the service…to which then you are under contract.

    The military recruits poor and hungry as a tactic. Afterwards, a good chunk of them shoot themselves. Most of them are ticking time-bombs ready to go. A lot of analysis of what they’ve done, theory to help understand why and actual emotional appeal can turn them into sympathetic, military-trained comrades. Once again…if you don’t see how that his it’s own uses…

    A lot of the organizing I’ve done has been with ex-military. I’ve heard some horrible fucking shit. I raise a question to you though, what do you think Lenin felt when ex-Whites joined the revolutionary cause? It’s something I’ve asked myself a lot.

    • MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml
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      3 days ago

      I raise a question to you though, what do you think Lenin felt when ex-Whites joined the revolutionary cause?

      It’s hard to think of a successful revolution that didn’t have at least some former members of the group they were fighting against. It’s a political struggle, which means changing people’s minds. You have to have some means of letting people who change their minds into your movement, or your movement will stay perpetually small and never accomplish anything.

      There’s also a major contradiction between the “all amerikkkan troops are irredeemable” thread of leftist thinking and the thread along the lines of “people who commit serious crimes can change, your brain doesn’t even fully develop until your mid 20s.” You can’t on one hand say a guy who did a violent crime at 18 and who sincerely attempts to turn his life around at 25 is reformable, then on the other hand say joining the military at 18 is some indelible sin. Either people who do bad things can change, or they can’t.