the myth of military intelligence and media literacy

I find it utterly deplorable when I see army recruiters at cons. They're always talking to teenagers who are impressionable and feel bullied. I always walk by and tell the teens to not die for someone else's stock portfolios
- I'm from the UK and when I was at school, we went out on a day trip to an army base. It was cool to see all the vehicles and weapons but I remember some British army guys trying to get us to join up by letting us play call of duty in a tent and telling us that we'd get paid for sitting around all day doing nothing.
  I didn't realise it at the time but now I know they were just plain lying to try and sell army life to a bunch of teenage boys.
  
  I remember something very similar. If they did that to my kid now I will be very angry about it because it's ridiculous. At least back in the 90s when this happened to me there wasn't really any ongoing conflicts, not like now where you're basically guaranteed to have to go fight somewhere.
- Bruh I took the asvab after getting picked up off the street and being bought tacos.
  
  I was living in my car and a recruiter would drop off no perishable care packages until I said fuck it 😂
- The only military recruitment I've interacted with is ads and I'm already weirded out by those. The US really is on a different level.
- okay but when I was a young innocent healthy teenager, I did join the army of my own volition and now they are taking care of me for the rest of my life. Some people want to join the Army. Let people do whatever they want.
  
  Good thing we fund the military instead of public healthcare that would take care of everyone.
  
  and now they are taking care of me for the rest of my life
  
  They fuck up your society so they can entice you into joining in order to get benefits other societies get for free.
  
  Glad it worked out for you. Let's not force people to risk death, dismemberment, and permanent brain damage just to live an okay life.
  
  So what you're saying is the country has no vested interest in supporting its citizens unless they are willing to die for it in which case the scraps thrown to you were sufficient enough to keep you out of abject poverty.
  What a system.
  I'm also a vet and I didn't get shit.
  
  Having schools forward the contact info of low-income, low-performing students to recruiters at the age of 14 so those recruiters can start talking to kids without anyone else's knowledge and having kindergartners do worksheets with recruiters where they talk about what branch of the service they would join if they could isn't letting people do whatever they want, it's grooming children to die for the aristocrats.
  
  Semper Fi, mother fucker!! Hoo ah!
- It's not like the army forces you to the job that they want you to do. No one finds themselves in a combat role by surprise. Besides, most military jobs are support based, like logistics or IT. I'd maybe recommend it to someone who doesn't have money for college but has an interest in something like computer science. But even then, the GI isn't as big of an incentive as it used to be since a college education doesn't really guarantee you a comfortable living anymore. I'd probably recommend most people don't join the military but it can be a good life decision as long as you know what you're getting yourself into
  
  It's not like the army forces you
  No, it just preys on vulnerable people who are easy to coerce into something they wouldn't necessarily have chosen for themselves independently. Sound voluntary to you? Or does it sound like cult programming?
  No one finds themselves in a combat role by surprise
  Maybe not, but you're aware that "do whatever your superiors want you to do up to and including killing people" is kinda the main thing in military culture. And religious cults.
  Besides, most military jobs are support based, like logistics or IT.
  So you're only coerced into HELPING people kill people? That's alright then!
  I'd maybe recommend it to someone who doesn't have money for college
  Yeah, economic coercion is a thing too. If everyone's telling you that you need college to make a good life for yourself and you can't afford it, you're much more likely to be coerced with promises of free college to do something you'd otherwise never do.
  the GI isn't as big of an incentive as it used to be since a college education doesn't really guarantee you a comfortable living anymore
  Yeah, it's a stick instead of a carrot now: used to be that a college education all but guaranteed you a high paying job. Now that you can't get any except the lowest paying jobs without a degree most places, free college is even MORE of an incentive than back when you could get a middle of the road salary regardless of college.
  I'd probably recommend most people don't join the military
  I'd recommend no people join. At the very least, their recruiters preying on the vulnerable like they are needs to be illegal.
  as long as you know what you're getting yourself into
  Which is far from always the case and even when you know, you can still be coerced into it against your will.
  
  No one finds themselves in a combat role by surprise.
  This is false. Many people found themselves in combat roles by surprise in Iraq and I would assume other conflicts are the same because war never changes. My unit was an artillery unit that ended up kicking in doors like infantry. I knew supply clerks and admin assistants who ended up assigned to QRF. All soldiers and marines are combat personnel first and foremost. It's the whole reason every soldier and marine has to pass a rifle qualification in basic training/boot camp.
  
  You don't find yourself in the Infantry by surprise, but just about every time I've found myself in a combat role it was by surprise. And the other side doesn't care what your paperwork says.
  
  You have any fucking clue how much lying goes on at MEPs when you pick your MOS?

- Nothing can top this comment. Thank you.
- How long did this take you wtf

The Navy meanwhile had a Shinji and Kaworu cosplayer making out with each other. Know your audience
- It's not gay if it's underway!
  
  What's gay to civilians is brotherhood in the Army. What's gay to the Army is brotherhood in the Navy. What's gay to the Navy is illegal.
- Wow that’s horrible. Where was this, exactly, and is it a regular occurrence?
  
  So you can avoid it, right? Because it’s so horrible? Where exactly so you can stay far away.

Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, one of the creative minds behind the original Gundam series felt the need to create the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin manga because too many kids thought the War is Hell story to be War is Cool and felt the need to make it more clear.
Also, stack copyright infringement on top of the other crimes by the US military. Pretty sure Anno and the rest of Gainax wouldn't be happy about this.
- There a a saying that it's impossible to make an anti-war movie, because they always end up glorifying war.
  
  It's actually quite easy. Just focus on the victims rather than the killers. Come and see, Grave of the Fireflies, Catch-22, All quiet on the Western Front, …
  
  You just need to embrace the glorifying war aspect like how Starship Troopers does it, and just be so ridiculously over the top that it's blatantly obvious how over the top it is.
  
  It would probably be easier if you didn't use soldiers as your main characters.
- The military has sovereign immunity from actions regarding copyright.
  
  "We've made a law saying we're exempt from laws"
  Sounds like they took page from congress.

I went to an airshow a few years ago and the F22 raptor demo team was doing their show, which was amazing and the recruiter was working his pitch into the show the whole time. Between the talking points they would play music and the one that stood out the most was BYOB by System of a Down, which is a complete and total 180 to what they were pitching. It was incredible the cognitive disconnect.
- Or the people setting up the show knew exactly what they were doing but their leadership didn't catch it
  
  As a member of the Air Force, I propose a middle ground. They just liked the music or associated it with badassery. They probably didn't think too hard about it.

If right wingers can like Rage against the Machine and be surprised they are not right wing or apolitical, NGE is way too subtle for them.
- If you believed that fish story, I've a bridge you may be interested in.
  
  What exactly is a fish story? US military being in comic and anime cons?
  US soldiers trying to recruit young people posing with a character from NGE blissfully unaware of the irony involved?

Cool, now do a furry convention! (Great way to find IT for military systems!)
- Unless they go undercover to research cat girls with military funds.

You are not immune to propaganda

I'm sorry, is their slogan actually "It's your time"?
Like when death appears and tells you it's your time? It's like they are recruiting for the losing team...
- I don't think that's a valid criticism, I don't see death saying that, it'd be more like "Your time has come" - to contrast it further, wouldn't somebody say "It's your time to shine"?
  
  It's your time to serve democracy*!
  *Democracy being whoever is paying politicians to keep some war or another going for great profits
  
  With someone like that as the mascot, it's my time to come

I have the sudden urge to go and sign up to the US Army
- Ymra eht nioj!

All the military branches had giant booths at the last comic con I was at. It was very odd.
- I've seen the LAN parties they have full of fembois. NonCredibleDefense has running jokes about armies of fembois, but it's more real than I ever imagined.
  
  I guess the enemy will be too confused to react once they see an army of fembois dressed as maids advancing. It works with the goddamn Maidman, after all
- Well, you have to remember which kinds of high school the army sends recruiters to: all of them.

I don't anime. What is she from?
- Misato from Neon Genesis Evangelion
  
  I've heard of it but not seen it. Thank you.

Military intelligence, two words combined that can't make sense.
- Military intelligence is basically just about knowing where the enemy is. The actual espionage and counter espionage stuff done by non military experts. It has to be this way because the military doesn't exactly recruit for brains.
  
  You're having a conversation with song lyrics
- Possibly I've seen too much
- Possibly I've seen too much

Anno would be first to tell you: the con is full of fans who understood it less than the army.

I know Eva has moments of commentary where the idea of child soldiers is criticized, but at least in the OG series, it seemed to work out for humanity in the end. Eva always came across to me as "children are easily manipulable and their feelings don't matter so long as the ends justify the means".
- it seemed to work out for humanity in the end
  Isn't it the one where the kid gathers all the power he needs to stop the invaders from destroying the world, and uses it to destroy the world by himself?
  
  Not sure if you're referencing some other media, or any of the Eva movies that aren't canonically linked to the show, but in the show ::: spoiler spoiler NERV triggers Instrumentality, which, without much explanation, merges all human consciousnesses into 1 hive mind consciousness which may or may not have something to do with Rei being Shinji's mom, and may or may not have to do with Evas being living creatures borne of Lilith, and somehow eliminates the Angel threat. Shinji's abandonment complex is neatly resolved by him realizing that the military people forcing him to fight were right all along and that being in the military is awesome if you aren't afraid to be outgoing. :::
  
  it all works out in the end, no one needs to worry if everyone's dead
  
  That was my understanding of the ending.
- Which ending? The OG show, the movie, or the rebuilds?
  OG show had humanity almost lose multiple times because someone at NERV was being a dick. The ending was about Shinji figuring out how to connect to people, not about the war.
  Movie had SEELE backstab humanity, and humans only survive because Shinji's mother (the only sane character in the show, also coincidentally a civilian) saw the writing on the wall and came up with an absolutely insane plan that worked, at the cost of her life and Shinji's sanity.
  Rebuild is weird even by Evangelion standards, and I think at this point Anno is trolling the 'fans' who want a conventional happy ending with Shinji and Asuka getting married or what not.
  
  Dude was literally going through some shit in his life during the original show, and "retold" the same story with a different outcome for the rebuilds. Mari is an analogue for his wife.
  Let's be honest - who hasn't had an unhealthy obsession with a slightly crazy firecrotch at one point? Hotter than the midday sun does not necessarily equal wife material.

Like an angel with merciless and cruel intent...
...hmm....

Give teenage me Gundam and I'd have done anything you asked me to.
- Give teenage me a Gundam and I'd have done anything you asked me to, including eliminating Treize Khushrenada once and for all.
  Fixed

TBF tho the corrupt insane military officials did manage to delay human extinction for years. Props for that, I guess.
- They then launch a plan to turn humanity into a single heterogeneous blob organism, so that's not a win.
- *glances at the close calls during the cold war.
  More like a few reasonable people kept the nut jobs from nuking the world.

What's with all the hot linked reddit posts lately?
I've been seeing a lot of people doing that.
- Lack of content on lemmy so we go to reddit to find more. Linking to reddit images is easier than hosting them on lemmy by a few clicks and it let's reddit bear the brunt of the server costs without getting any content, comments, engagement, or other data to mine for their trouble.
  Should I not?
  
  Now that you described the benefits of pirate CDN, I'm gonna do it more.