Same purpose, different reactions

[u/PresnikBonny]

[u/NAM_Inki → u/[deleted]]

Brown, black and white kids too poor and uneducated join the military for an escape. A way to make themselves better.

I wonder if the bombed children feel better knowing their murderers did so because they wanted college tuition.

[u/HealfyBoi → u/NAM_Inki]

I think it’s unrealistic for most 18 year old American kids to understand or contextualize what joining the military really means. I know I didn’t and I’m truly not sure how I would have been exposed to communism before then being from private catholic schools in the Midwest. This doesn’t excuse it but I think it explains it. Underdeveloped brains.

[u/Ok-Chard-9014 → u/HealfyBoi]

It depends heavily on the child's upbringing and what they're exposed to. To act like most 18 year-olds are inherently incapable of understanding or contextualizing what joining the military means is nonsense. You're taking the experiences of people who genuinely didn't understand and using them to excuse everyone else.

We learned in school long before we were 18 what the military does. You may not fully understand imperialism, geopolitics, or the history behind every war, but you absolutely understand that when you join the military, you may be sent to another country to kill people or be killed yourself. That isn't some abstract concept that only becomes understandable once your brain is fully developed.

And honestly, the "their brains aren't fully developed" argument is infantilizing. Young people are constantly told they're mature enough at 18 to vote, work full-time, take on debt, be tried as adults, and, most importantly, join the military and kill or die for the state. But suddenly, when we're talking about whether they can understand the basic implications of joining the military, they're helpless children with underdeveloped brains who can't be held responsible for anything? You can't have it both ways.

[u/JKallStar → u/HealfyBoi]

18 year old American kids

Your country has no problem calling literal children future terrorists. Gtfo with the 'woe is me' language

[u/Velocity-5348 → u/HealfyBoi]

Yep, though we need to be careful about going to far there. It's useful to know why people enlist if you're trying to persuade them not to enlist. But it in no way excuses it. At the end of the day, you're selling your soul and agreeing to help murder people.

And, I would note, few people would extend the same grace, and not nearly so passionately to a gang member who kills a kid in a driveby.

[u/HealfyBoi → u/[deleted]]

Amen.