"Shut up because I'm a soldier!"

[jaketaz]

Soldiers deserve the respect they get for being willing to do things most people wouldn't consider doing, and being willing to defend our country if called upon.

This says absolute nothing about, and is not relevant to their knowledge in other areas of life. Being a soldier means you are a soldier, and the only way to be right about something is be right about it. Case closed.

 

[Snoozer]

America is pretty strange about their military. How they always are so proud of their soldiers that protect their country (while actually causing more people to become a potential threat to it)
Also in movies, the American military has way to much of a positive reputation.

That's because if a movie depicts the army it has to pass a military board and get approval otherwise it wont be allowed in theaters. If it doesn't present the military in a positive light, it doesn't get approval.

My god! Really? I have no words ... but this explains a lot.

No, he's full of shit. The only thing the military does is loan out its equipment to movies under the condition that they depict the US military positively.

Ahh ok, I think they do sponsor some video games as well. I still don't really like that, but "board approval" would be simple cencorship.

it still is, in a way. without the help of the military most movies simply can not be done..you need advisors, lent weapons, experts..and the only way they are going to get it is if the army gets a say in the making and tone of the film. it can be worked arround, but it's still a fairly effective censorship mechanism.
buffalo soldiers for example was such a case where everything had to be begged, borrowed and substituted, because it was deemed 'unpatriotic' (a word that i find repulsive by itself, especially if used by a military that goes arround the globe conducting illegal invasions in the name of a country that once stood for freedom and progress..the gall..)
biggest source were private collectors and old german tanks that got pieces of colored sheet metal on them to appear as american tanks.

I agree with that. Happy to live in germany, where patriotism is seen as the unreasonable idioty it is and people are critical towards any military intervention. There is not a single reason to blindly love your country, it's only dangerous.

 

[vxicepickxv]

*I'm a soldier** so I can say that

**If Amercorps counts for the man at the draft board, it counts online

And nothin but respect for veterans and active women and men in uniform. Our country needs to treat you better.

It's not even the whole country, it's just a certain group of people up in a certain district that need to calm down a figure out what the hell they're doing.

 

[v3n0mat3]

I live with one such person. He's not family, or anything. He's just living with us. He uses his "I was in the army" excuse to be generally rude to people. For instance: I brought him to a local gaming store. This place has one policy: when kids are around, don't cuss. He does, anyhow, and when asked to stop, he says "oh, I was in the army". Mmhmm. And he's generally rude to me. Not to my brother or father. Me. Why? Because I'm unemployed. So is he, but, since he was in the army... see where I'm going with this? I refuse to invite him to my gaming group, and I barely talk to him. I'm a very polite person, I have a lot of patience, and I can tolerate a lot, but his bullshit towards me... I have been controlling the urge to snap at him.

 

[The Funslinger]

Though, I have promised a friend that if, when I join the Royal Marines I ever call a regular person a "civvy", he's allowed to punch me in the face.

If you make it to the Marines, you can call anyone you like a Civvy, including squaddies.

Why? Because you're a Royal Marine. No one but nobody's going to pick a fight with you...

Speaking of which, one of my school buddies joined the Marines, he came back from Afghanistan with several pieces of Russian calibre metal in his chest (and lived, thankfully).

For God's sake be careful out there man!

I have weird luck, and I've been stabbed before, so I figure I have as good a chance as anyone to come through in one piece.

And yes, they are the most bad ass people ever.

 

[kiwi_poo]

It is my opinion that people who join a military organisation willingly and is an idiot.
1. these people are wasting the public's money so they can kill people who have nothing to do with the country in question (that is the offending, attacking, country).
2. these people go out and get themselves severly scarred, mentally or otherwise, and then act surprised about it. seriously, they could do some research about the how horrible war is before jumping into it headfirst.
3. this one really bugs me, and it seems to happen in america more often than other places: "thanks for fighting for our freedom". now, unless your country is actually bing invaded, your country (the US in this case) is not losing its freedom, and thus fighting for it is not necessary.

the times have changed and war is in my opinion obsolete. it has been changing ever since 1914 and has now, in the day of the internet become redundant. we don't need people being sent to kill other people and then get killed themselves. we need a group of well-educated people who can do two things:
1.care enough about the world and politics -large scale and small scale- to form a reasoned opinion.
2.are able to question things around them and think for themselves, not just taking some idiot with a microphone's opinion (*cough* *cough* fox news *cough*) and calling it their own.


PS the first part largely doesn't apply to people who ave no option but to join the military due to external pressures, such as financial problems, or your country being invaded.

PPS again: this is my opinion, and although i respect other peoples opinions, mine will likely not be changed

 

[AlloAllo]

Eh. You know, this actually sounds just like a parent going "Speaking as a parent..."

As Ed Byrne said, "Oh, then call the people from the other room! Call everyone! He's speaking as a PARENT now! He was just speaking like an arsehole before, but now he's speaking as a parent! Speak, oh wise one!"

This is to say, yeah, it's not a problem that only soldiers have, and Jesus is it annoying.

 

[maninahat]

snip

I actually have to point out that that isn't how inflation works. Inflation currently is based on the interest rates set and on international trade. Current inflation is not based on the amount of currency in circulation. Also, if Inflation were based on currency in circulation, the inflation amount would have been the same regardless of whether the bailout money went to the people or to the banks like it did. In fact, because of the way lending and banks work, it probably would have caused less inflation had it been payed to the people. Prices would increase, but only because people would be more willing to pay higher prices, the demand curve would shift, it has nothing to do with inflation.

Sorry about that, but misunderstanding inflation really bugs me, it's a peeve. Other than that, i agree with your post. Being a soldier doesn't make you any more right than anyone else.

Does that mean.... I could be a millionaire right now...? But instead we threw a fortune at the people who created the problem in the first place?

More or less. Yeah, life's a *****. Welcome to government for big business.

I don't think that is entirely fair to blame big business for everything. Recessions are largely about consumer confidence, so whilst foolish, selfish bankers might have started the crisis, it was us members of the public who perpetuated it by stuffing the matresses, spending less, and ensuring more businesses would run out of cash. Giving money to businesses and banks and restoring confidence is (unfortunately) the only way to get things moving again.

I didn't blame big business, I blamed the government for putting big business ahead of everything else leading to 40 years of bad economic policies that had absolutely no other logical endpoint than a horrible recession like the one we've been facing for 10 years.

No, that is keynesian economics which is highly suspect and debated. Largely in part because if it worked than we wouldn't be in an recession any more.

Small recessions can be caused by consumer confidence, this one has nothing to do with consumer confidence. It is a result of much deeper problems like low manufacturing, low taxes on the highest tax brackets, too many tax loopholes, and Keynesian economics justified overspending on a completely unsustainable level for a completely unsustainable amount of time, and lastly the controlled inflation that has been perpetrated for the last few decades in order to prevent us from being crushed under that debt at the cost of destroying american savings and devaluing the dollar.

Also, to address something you said specifically, this has nothing to do with stuffing the mattress. The vast vast majority of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck because they can't afford to save money. Prices are rising, wages aren't, and unemployment is skyrocketing. If you include discouraged workers(which you should but the government doesn't in order to look good), then it's absolutely staggering. If you use the method that the government stopped using around 1980, then in June of this year the unemployment rate in the US was over 25%

My understanding was that Keynesian economics was the way out of this, but I concede that you probably know far more on the subject than I do.

 

[Soviet Steve]

It's called appeal to authority, it's a logical fallacy. An argument should be examined on its own merits, not on who makes it.

 

[derelict]

"I'm a soldier and I had three tours in Vietnam and that's not how it works."

Sad thing is, this is correct, even in context. What he's done there is basically explain the following: In an argument between two entities, the one that's unable to finish the argument is the loser. This is how global politics works, if you think about it, and being the guy with the gun for so many years, that's basically what he'd be thinking. You could spend all day giving him points and impressive proof of concept through spreadsheets and what have you, but if he blows your head clean off your shoulders, you'll have difficulty continuing to argue.

On a more serious note, yes, he's dumb, but he's also a headstrong 'Nam vet. If he's interested, he'll figure it out on his own. Else, well, it's certainly not going to hurt you to be smarter than someone else. If that were the case, I'd have terminal cancer by now and major parts of my body would be falling off, given the level of intellect of the average local here.

 

[Khada]

Stupidity is stupidity and wrong is wrong. Soldier or no. That said, I would say you're both looking at the problem from the wrong point of view. You see, you're both discussing how to fix an issue using the same system that causes it when the underlying problem is the system itself.

In other (and perhaps more relatable) terms: Sometimes the bug is in the game engine, not the code you wrote for it. It's much harder to fix and you might even have to change to a new engine but it's better to fix the problem properly than to pretend it's somewhere else and let it run rampant.

 

[funguy2121]

snip

Actually thought this was going to be far less thoughtful than it was. It sounds like the (former) soldier in question here also happens to be an old fart. No, his time served in 'Nam and his bravery several decades do not grant him carte blanch to make such statements regarding non-war topics with impunity.

 

[Warforger]

This is going to be a touchy subject since we Americans idolize soldiers as much as we do. So I'm going to establish right off the bat that I respect soldiers for what they done and the sacrifices they've made. This wont stop most of the knee jerk reaction I'm sure this will get but maybe some of it.

I agree with you. The American military is over-idolized, all it is is just the same people you see everyday, there are pedophiles(well not ones CAUGHT anyway) in the military, there are rapists(same) in the military, there are racists in the military, there are gang members in the military, there are people in the military who go back home and become convicted murderers as well as normal every day people. So it's not really a morale or intelligence indicator.

 

[godofallu]

Yeah it's annoying. "Oh I was off in Iraq fighting to protect you!" No see the thing is you weren't fighting for me, I don't even want you there. You did it for whatever reasons, but my opinion certainly wasn't taken into consideration.

 

[ZombieMonkey7]

trolling is still trolling, even if you are a soldier

 

[Felstaff]

Listen, son, I've done three tours of duty of my local Pizza Hut, and sustained two life-threatening injuries serving my country battling the hordes during the seasonal Wal*Mart rush. I know what I'm talking about. You're just an unpatriotic namby-pamby liberal organic latte-sipping tree-humping tea-swilling vegan falafel-muncher who hates America and freedom. You're not a flag-waving all-American American until you've killed someone who's not American for not being American.

But seriously, though. I've known two U.S. soldiers, (and several non-U.S. soldiers, but that's not as relevant) and one of them, bless him, seems to spend his entire life trying to fit his military history into whatever conversation you can possibly have, usually with the most tenuous of links. The other one I have known for several years, and it wasn't until recently that I found out he has done military service, and seen a lot of things that no-one should ever have to see. I respect him all the more for this.

After all, I don't spend my life telling people my opinion automatically invalidates theirs due to my career choice (I'm an underwear model for Sears & Roebuck, specialising in frilly pink lacy numbers) even though, clearly, my history in my profession makes me somewhat of an expert in virtually any subject you care to think of.

 

[DoctorFrankenStein]

If someone tells me that they are/were in the military I usually say the same thing I do if someone tells me they were raised in a strict fundamental household. I.E.
That's terrible! I'm sorry.

Because it means that they were either so poor that they had to join the military because no other jobs were available.
Or because they got tricked by some slick recruiter into signing away most of their rights to go fight in futile jingoistic wars for oil and other resources directed from afar by the 1% of Americans that control most of the money and power.

Either situation is pitiable, and neither of them qualifies an immediate QED in an argument about an unrelated subject.
I love my partner more than anything, and he intentionally washed himself out of the army after a year and a half [before I met him.] He'll never go back if only because I told him I'd leave him if he did. It would break my heart, but he'd be spitting on everything I stand for.
Never again, even if they call for him.

 

[StrixMaxima]

I do not trust the military, of any country, with anything except on how to disassemble fast an assault rifle.

Soldiers are usually barely more than teens given weapons and canned ideology. They suffer unspeakable horrors during a very important time in the development of their character.

The tragedy of a soldier who faces real combat is abhorrent and one of the reasons we should be collectively ashamed. We, the only 'intelligent' beings in this world, cannot solve our problems peacefully. Then, we send other people's sons and daughters to die for __________ (fill the blank).

I pity soldiers. They usually do not deserve what happens to them.