I'm really upset this website doesn't respect veterans.

I'm a US military veteran, I approve of this message. I fucking hate the hero worship crap that rando people throw at me. I'll occasionally ask them what they think I did for them and they answer "muh freedoms". I tell them I was a stupid kid that got suckered into participating in a war crime, and we ruined people's lives who never threatened the peace and liberties you enjoy.

I'll wipe my ass with the flag.

I'll occasionally ask them what they think I did for them and they answer "muh freedoms". I tell them I was a stupid kid that got suckered into participating in a war crime, and we ruined people's lives who never threatened the peace and liberties you enjoy.

you are the only good US veteran in the universe
- What about Mike Prysner tho?
I still struggle with this. Yes I was lied to and suckered in as a child, but the military shaped so much about who I am now. It’s difficult to try to separate myself from it, even if I’ve been out for several years now. It’s a weird dichotomy between the morons who praise me for being in and “serving” and my own personal knowledge of how evil and stupid the military is.

Just venting is all
- I was raised by a shit-tier neonazi. I can't relate to being shaped by the military and being unable to separate oneself from being a veteran but, at least in some ways, I think my experience parallels yours.
  
  In my (armchair expert) opinion, you don't separate yourself from growing up indoctrinated. That's going to be a part of you because we are all products of our history. And it's not about freeing yourself from it either. It's taking what your upbringing gave you and turning that into something positive.
  
  You would have a unique insight into the armed forces and, I'm assuming, an ability to connect with servicepeople and veterans in a way that I will never have access to. When you have the capacity to do it (and not one minute before), you'd be able to peel people away from their military indoctrination and make their own deprogramming journey easier than you had it yourself because you are familiar with the terrain and its hazards. Of course you won't be able to do this instantaneously or with everyone you encounter but there's gotta be those malcontents who are/were in the forces that you'd quickly be able to identify and connect with.
  
  Maybe it will only ever be one or two people. But that doesn't matter. That's still an entire life or two which you could be a role model for and a positive influence on, so that cannot be overstated.
  
  **CW for suicide ahead**
  
  I have a strong suspicion that a significant proportion of the veterans who end up taking their own lives do so because they cannot reconcile the narrative they got fed about glamorous notions serving in the armed forces with the reality of what they actually participated in and that cognitive dissonance, in a self-aware veteran, must eat away at their souls. And it must be a brutally isolating experience too. If my hunch is correct, these are the people who we need to reach out to because they are in the process of deprogramming themselves from their indoctrination and they are probably the best candidates for turning out similar to the way that you have. To lose them would be a tragedy on multiple fronts.
  
  I'm rambling here but I guess I wanted to make sure that you aren't chasing after a mirage. You can unpick all the ways that you have been indoctrinated over time and you can grow beyond that indoctrination, but ultimately I don't think that you ever truly separate yourself from it. You just come to terms with it in time and you find ways to be something of an alchemist, on occasion, by turning that bullshit into gold.
- Yeah, it's shaped mine immensely as well, I've experienced all sorts of material and intangible benefits from it; there were many times I enjoyed and it helped me to grow, and a lot of problems that it's caused for me too. I can't completely separate myself from it either. But the question I always ask is why it takes me risking my life and participating in what resulted in a genocide to be able to get an education and some damn healthcare in what is supposed to be the "greatest nation on earth". I think that was the question that really radicalized me.
  
  If it weren't for me getting introduced to dialectal materialist and Marxist analysis, I wouldn't have been able to live with what I participated in. I wonder if that's a big reason for so many turning to substances and suicide, something in their soul tells them it was wrong. I was able to recognize I'm not the main character (great man of history) and the whole thing didn't hinge on me. Also, that this larger system is going to do these things with or without me, and I was suckered into it because I didn't know better. Now I know better so I do better, and my testimony to the evils of the US government carries more weight than the typical burger amerikan - I am become burger deluxe.
  
  At any rate, have you been able to process this with anyone?

Saying veterans are suckers and losers was one of the only true things Trump ever said

Even better, when he said that he was referring to WWI veterans.

This article is _civility libshit, but has some good quotes from the wet pres. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/

We absolutely respect veterans: fidel-salute pavlichenko anti-thatcher-action john-brown che-smile

I'm really pissed that this website is so anti-vet. Who else is going to take care of sick animals

people talk about joining the us military like it's a poor person's only option before literally dying. like it's kill or die. such infuriating shit, fuck the troops, all my homies hate the imperial murder of the global south

I've always wanted to create a ecommerce site that has a checkout cart with a check box marked:

[ ] Veterans and First Responders

and if you check the box it adds %10 to the total bill.

Adds 10% onto the bill and changes the recipient on the shipping label to "War Criminal".
Maybe not first responders since that includes firefighters and EMTs.
- "first responders" is pigs trying to launder their reputation
- To be honest, i fucking hate getting lumped in with cops for weird discounts & "thank you for your service" shit. Goes to my co-workers heads and they're already chuddy enough. It would be a hilarious bit.

The funny thing is, in times past I think we woulda had a struggle session here, but now everyone is just gearing up for the inevitable wave of lib whining lol

We should get discounts as veterans of the posting wars

The real veterans are the people who have survived veteran struggle sessions.
getting a hat that says moomin war vet
But what about the posters who bought a blue checkmark?
- Imagine being dumb enough to pay money for a big bullseye

Asking for my veterans discount and pointing at my “Class War Veteran” hat

Hell yeah I respect the troops based-department

😔

the troops are war criminals and it's good when they die

Death to America

What about veterans who fought against the Nazis? Surely they deserve respect? Genuinely asking.

Absolutely true, we salute the heroes of the Soviet Union
Sure. And there have been times and places throughout history where the class character of the military is different compared to the modern day US, where our discussions are often focused.
They’re pretty much all dead now.

But in a more serious sense, this isn’t about all troops ever. Some on certain sides have done good. Just in the modern western context of the soldier, that’s very rarely the case.

You don't get it, I volunteered for a government job that gives decent benefits at the cost of my own health and morality, that is paid for by you. I'm your hero

That’s what I say to people when they talk about how great my benefits are. “Yes I love having my physical, mental, and emotional well being destroyed forever while losing and innocence I never knew I had, but yeah I can jump through flaming hoops to maybe get a VA appointment months from now while fighting for at least a year to get a claim for disability that they know people with that job suffers from.”

This says nothing obviously of the victims of the US military, but you know what I’m saying

I support exactly one veteran: dprk-soldier

troop 1 and troop 2, the weight of the world on their shoulders PIGPOOPBALLS

I respect the brave veterans of the viet minh

wojak-nooo : B-but they might be useful in the marxist sense. don't alienate our penitent-turned-leftist-murderinos

Dont discount it over a meme argument. Military turncoats play a useful part in most modern revolutions (on a state level). A militant left in the US wouldn't see themselves as "above" that kind of collaboration, even now.
- No revolution has ever succeeded without the support of major elements of the military.

I respect veterans, love people who fought on /r/ChapoTrapHouse

I respect veterinarians.

I do actually know some IRL veterans of the War on Terror™ who came out of it not overly chudy and regretted what happened. But they speak vaguely of the dark shit they saw and did, and most of them drink and do drugs well above the average human.

Almost nearly all veterans I know fucking suck and talk with pride about their service and they speak about the locals as most people do animals. One guy I know goes back and forth between private military tours in the Middle East and holidaying in SE Asia.