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Felt this should be crossposted here
Apr. 20th, 2014 05:44 pmSo there was this photoset somebody posted on Tumblr, and some people were criticizing it. Here are the pictures:
And the criticisms were mostly uber-patriotic propaganda bullshit like "How dare you. You might not approve of some of the military decisions made by anybody, but that does not mean we should not support the people who sacrifice their lives for us on a daily basis. I will always support the troops."
You can read the rest of it by clicking here.
What follows is my addition to the post:
I support the troops, because as they are just more victims of the capitalist war machine; capitalism ruined their lives by making them so poor and making jobs so scarce that joining the military was their only viable option. They are exploited workers just as much as Wal-Mart wage slaves are, if not more so for being forced to kill mostly innocent people abroad, getting shot at or worse, and coming home with amputations/wounds and/or PTSD. But I do not support the military as an organization, which is like hating Wal-Mart but supporting Wal-Mart workers.
I would support the military as an organization if it was defensive only. But 99% of what our modern military does is pick fights in other countries, killing brown people - including women and children - all for oil to fuel the capitalist imperialist hegemony.
When the military budget gets slashed down to half or less of what it is now, and all that extra money put into education and welfare, the military's focus switched solely to defense, and the military actually begins to spend the money to care for both their soldiers and their veterans, then I would support it. (Especially as an important step towards total abolition of governments and militaries worldwide.)
Frankly, anyone who criticizes this picture set has obviously not considered that it is entirely possible to support the troops but not support the military as an organization. The two are not mutually exclusive. Criticizing the military does not necessarily mean you don't support the troops, and thinking otherwise is absurd. The reason they are dying is to protect the greedy capitalist system and the ruling 1% who profit off all the war and destruction as a means toward world domination and resource theft. We haven't had need of the military in a defensive capacity for at least 30 years; the military has been entirely offensive for all that time, fighting wars in other countries over things that would not have impacted the lives of the common people at all if the greedy capitalist pigfuckers in charge hadn't gone off empire-building.
That whole "they're protecting our freedom" thing is now, and has been for decades, entirely propaganda to justify the imperialist warmongering to the common people. And if you've swallowed that load of bullshit, I feel sorry for you.er. The reason they are dying is to protect the greedy capitalist system and the ruling 1% who profit off all the war and destruction as a means toward world domination and resource theft. We haven't had need of the military in a defensive capacity for at least 30 years; the military has been entirely offensive for all that time, fighting wars in other countries over things that would not have impacted the lives of the common people at all if the greedy capitalist pigfuckers in charge hadn't gone off empire-building.
That whole "they're protecting our freedom" thing is now, and has been for decades, entirely propaganda to justify the imperialist warmongering to the common people. And if you've swallowed that load of bullshit, I feel sorry for you.
And the criticisms were mostly uber-patriotic propaganda bullshit like "How dare you. You might not approve of some of the military decisions made by anybody, but that does not mean we should not support the people who sacrifice their lives for us on a daily basis. I will always support the troops."
You can read the rest of it by clicking here.
What follows is my addition to the post:
I support the troops, because as they are just more victims of the capitalist war machine; capitalism ruined their lives by making them so poor and making jobs so scarce that joining the military was their only viable option. They are exploited workers just as much as Wal-Mart wage slaves are, if not more so for being forced to kill mostly innocent people abroad, getting shot at or worse, and coming home with amputations/wounds and/or PTSD. But I do not support the military as an organization, which is like hating Wal-Mart but supporting Wal-Mart workers.
I would support the military as an organization if it was defensive only. But 99% of what our modern military does is pick fights in other countries, killing brown people - including women and children - all for oil to fuel the capitalist imperialist hegemony.
When the military budget gets slashed down to half or less of what it is now, and all that extra money put into education and welfare, the military's focus switched solely to defense, and the military actually begins to spend the money to care for both their soldiers and their veterans, then I would support it. (Especially as an important step towards total abolition of governments and militaries worldwide.)
Frankly, anyone who criticizes this picture set has obviously not considered that it is entirely possible to support the troops but not support the military as an organization. The two are not mutually exclusive. Criticizing the military does not necessarily mean you don't support the troops, and thinking otherwise is absurd. The reason they are dying is to protect the greedy capitalist system and the ruling 1% who profit off all the war and destruction as a means toward world domination and resource theft. We haven't had need of the military in a defensive capacity for at least 30 years; the military has been entirely offensive for all that time, fighting wars in other countries over things that would not have impacted the lives of the common people at all if the greedy capitalist pigfuckers in charge hadn't gone off empire-building.
That whole "they're protecting our freedom" thing is now, and has been for decades, entirely propaganda to justify the imperialist warmongering to the common people. And if you've swallowed that load of bullshit, I feel sorry for you.er. The reason they are dying is to protect the greedy capitalist system and the ruling 1% who profit off all the war and destruction as a means toward world domination and resource theft. We haven't had need of the military in a defensive capacity for at least 30 years; the military has been entirely offensive for all that time, fighting wars in other countries over things that would not have impacted the lives of the common people at all if the greedy capitalist pigfuckers in charge hadn't gone off empire-building.
That whole "they're protecting our freedom" thing is now, and has been for decades, entirely propaganda to justify the imperialist warmongering to the common people. And if you've swallowed that load of bullshit, I feel sorry for you.
