It's really freaky how armies depend on having a lot of really, really young & impressionable soldiers.
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You'd think they'd be looking for "courage" in their soldiers, but actually it's easier to get frightened people to do atrocities for you.
They first take care to make sure the soldiers are fucking *terrified* of everything & everyone, & THEN they send them out.
Certainly seems to be how the Iraq war worked.
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You'd think they'd be looking for "courage" in their soldiers, but actually it's easier to get frightened people to do atrocities for you.
@artemis They're also less likely to question illegal orders.
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They first take care to make sure the soldiers are fucking *terrified* of everything & everyone, & THEN they send them out.
Certainly seems to be how the Iraq war worked.
"Ok, so we're going to teach you to be absolutely petrified of these people whose language you do not speak & whose culture you don't understand & then we're going to send you out in very small groups to go house to house looking for nothing very specific. I'm sure you won't do any murders. Just don't forget that everyone wants to kill you, so you should kill them first."
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"Ok, so we're going to teach you to be absolutely petrified of these people whose language you do not speak & whose culture you don't understand & then we're going to send you out in very small groups to go house to house looking for nothing very specific. I'm sure you won't do any murders. Just don't forget that everyone wants to kill you, so you should kill them first."
Living in terror is not good for the individual soldier, not at all, but it may work out great for the people who are running the war if all their soldiers are fucking terrified.
That's one of the ways you can get them to do atrocities without even having to give the order yourself. Make them fucking terrified & filled with anger, then send them out with weapons drawn & let things just play out.
A scared person with a gun is the most dangerous person you'll ever meet.
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It's really freaky how armies depend on having a lot of really, really young & impressionable soldiers.
They need these 18, 19, 20 year olds. They need easily frightened people who have not yet gotten practice making decisions about their own lives.
And boy, oh boy, are many soldiers easily frightened. It's a big part of what makes them so dangerous. They have to be frightened so that they can only think about killing to survive.
@artemis fascists like impressionable youth. it's harder to convince people who know better.
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Living in terror is not good for the individual soldier, not at all, but it may work out great for the people who are running the war if all their soldiers are fucking terrified.
That's one of the ways you can get them to do atrocities without even having to give the order yourself. Make them fucking terrified & filled with anger, then send them out with weapons drawn & let things just play out.
A scared person with a gun is the most dangerous person you'll ever meet.
@artemis and when they come back disabled, disregard them just as you do all disabled bodies. Pretty much the government's MO.
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R relay@relay.infosec.exchange shared this topic
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Living in terror is not good for the individual soldier, not at all, but it may work out great for the people who are running the war if all their soldiers are fucking terrified.
That's one of the ways you can get them to do atrocities without even having to give the order yourself. Make them fucking terrified & filled with anger, then send them out with weapons drawn & let things just play out.
A scared person with a gun is the most dangerous person you'll ever meet.
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@artemis and when they come back disabled, disregard them just as you do all disabled bodies. Pretty much the government's MO.
@SallyFieldlight
For those that come back in body bags - there's just a thank you for your service PR event.
They don't care about active duty or veteran lives. -
@adusum @artemis could equally be both (or gendarmerie in countries which have one).
Although in UK the youngest armed Police officer is going to be in mid 20s or older due to the training requirements, here its more likely to be excessive force used by public order units ("riot squad") when they have younger, scared officers.
Also seem two occasions where Roads Policing Unit officers have made sketchy manoeuvres on a busy roundabout putting themselves in a vulnerable position and others in potential danger, which seems to be sparked by a mix of fear and insufficient numbers/backup..
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@SallyFieldlight
For those that come back in body bags - there's just a thank you for your service PR event.
They don't care about active duty or veteran lives.@PhoenixSerenity @artemis if you're dead, you're worthy of praise. Come back sick/disabled...a burden.
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@adusum @artemis could equally be both (or gendarmerie in countries which have one).
Although in UK the youngest armed Police officer is going to be in mid 20s or older due to the training requirements, here its more likely to be excessive force used by public order units ("riot squad") when they have younger, scared officers.
Also seem two occasions where Roads Policing Unit officers have made sketchy manoeuvres on a busy roundabout putting themselves in a vulnerable position and others in potential danger, which seems to be sparked by a mix of fear and insufficient numbers/backup..
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that is true in most "Western" nations with volunteer armies and police forces (don't forget though that some countries still have conscription, until recently even in some EU nations a lot of gendarmes were conscripts - although by 90s/00s there was *supposed* to be non-military options for everyone, some countries made that option harder by making you do extra year service or it paid less)
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that is true in most "Western" nations with volunteer armies and police forces (don't forget though that some countries still have conscription, until recently even in some EU nations a lot of gendarmes were conscripts - although by 90s/00s there was *supposed* to be non-military options for everyone, some countries made that option harder by making you do extra year service or it paid less)
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"Ok, so we're going to teach you to be absolutely petrified of these people whose language you do not speak & whose culture you don't understand & then we're going to send you out in very small groups to go house to house looking for nothing very specific. I'm sure you won't do any murders. Just don't forget that everyone wants to kill you, so you should kill them first."
@artemis I know you know this, but for a moment I got distracted and returned to reading this toot flickered through the thought you were talking about the police, because where I live a lot of neighborhoods don't speak English first. Same shit, often same scared boys, different borders.
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Living in terror is not good for the individual soldier, not at all, but it may work out great for the people who are running the war if all their soldiers are fucking terrified.
That's one of the ways you can get them to do atrocities without even having to give the order yourself. Make them fucking terrified & filled with anger, then send them out with weapons drawn & let things just play out.
A scared person with a gun is the most dangerous person you'll ever meet.
@artemis Can I quote you on that?
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@artemis Can I quote you on that?
@drwho
Absolutely. -
@drwho
Absolutely.@artemis Thank you kindly.
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It's really freaky how armies depend on having a lot of really, really young & impressionable soldiers.
They need these 18, 19, 20 year olds. They need easily frightened people who have not yet gotten practice making decisions about their own lives.
And boy, oh boy, are many soldiers easily frightened. It's a big part of what makes them so dangerous. They have to be frightened so that they can only think about killing to survive.
@artemis The UK allows 16-year-olds to join. Bleak.
(In fact applications are allowed from 15-year-olds, presumably ready to join as soon as they turn 16.)
And they market it even younger. "If you're not old enough to join, you can still get involved."
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It's really freaky how armies depend on having a lot of really, really young & impressionable soldiers.
They need these 18, 19, 20 year olds. They need easily frightened people who have not yet gotten practice making decisions about their own lives.
And boy, oh boy, are many soldiers easily frightened. It's a big part of what makes them so dangerous. They have to be frightened so that they can only think about killing to survive.
@artemis it's not just soldiers and cops, although soldiers and cops are by far the most obvious examples: "the West" secretly requires the traumatization of children. The children of "the West" must be broken, as forcibly and painfully as possible, in order for them to function properly in a system which depends upon pain and re-traumatization in order to control adult behavior.
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"Ok, so we're going to teach you to be absolutely petrified of these people whose language you do not speak & whose culture you don't understand & then we're going to send you out in very small groups to go house to house looking for nothing very specific. I'm sure you won't do any murders. Just don't forget that everyone wants to kill you, so you should kill them first."
@artemis and to the extent they can get away with it, they won't just characterize it as a different culture…they will do as much as possible to paint it as an "inferior" one, add in as much racist and misogynistic drivel as they can get away with so they will already be in dehumanization mode.
Scared but "too manly" to admit it, AND filled with hubris about being "superior" "objective" and with an imaginary "one true gawd" on their side.. Thats what any nation needs in its young men (/s).
