Tired Of The Propaganda - "Support The Troops"

a reply to: projectvxn

Content? Why the hell do you think I am writing this? I'm nowhere near being content, nor happy, nor anything resembling those concepts.

You think I like being broke, not even able to buy food because of my idealism? Carry my own weight, what is that, some soldier proverb? I've been carrying my own weight for as long as I have been alive and all I have gotten for it is nothing. I have worked my ass off for people and not gotten paid, or gotten paid anywhere near a living wage. That what you are fighting for, a right to a McDonalds job that won't even pay me enough to exist in this world?

Do you think I like having this attitude? Do you think I purposely try and shut my self out of the real world, all because I have this line of morality I can't cross? Edward Snowden was in a position to do something and he did. I'm not, and can't. It's just that plain and simple.

By fighting wars for a corrupt government you are helping to prop up said corrupt government, and I refuse to support anyone who does that. It's that simple. You can think you are part of the solution. Your opinion is just a point of view, and my position is the other side. We can't meet eye to eye.

a reply to: Bedlam

Ah, I didn't know that was phased out after 'nam. Good to know!

And yeah, it's mostly the Marines who are responsible for the crime at Okinawa. As a result, a lot of Okinawans really have a deep-seated distrust of Americans in general, and especially those in uniform. It's sad.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

I'd still like to know why you condemn all soldiers when not all soldiers engage in combat as part of their military profession. Some have as little to do with combat operations as possible (like my previous example, the Army Corps of Engineers).

What about the people with no other place to go after high school BUT the military? The people who do it to get some direction and discipline in their life? The people that do it so they can pay for the ever increasing price of college?

You are just generalizing our troops so I'm going to generalize you.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

I'll give you a not so PC word of advice that a old wise Sergeant once told me after I screwed up royally. Mind you it's not a personal attack, but rather some sage, but gruff advice.

"You need to pull your head out of your ass and un-# yourself."

It made me think where I was screwing up and correct it.

a reply to: WanderingSage

I would have been with OWS, but golly gee, it DIDN'T HAPPEN HERE!!!!! And since I don't have a dollar to my name how the hell am I going to go anywhere and support myself while protesting?

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Support a corrupt system, BY CHOICE, and I won't support that person. Simple as that. I do as little as I can to support anything government related and have to buy food and essentials from corporations. I'm stuck in a system that is totally corrupted and broken, I have no voice in any of this(except some stupid rant on ATS that's going to do nothing) so yeah, I'll throw ALL of them in the same boat.

It ain't the dark ages, it's the information age nowadays. If a stupid spit like me can figure out that war is a racket then so can anyone else.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

It saddens me deeply to see someone so unhappy with their life. I was nearly in your position several years ago. I was jobless, nearly destitute, and running out of options. I hated my government (and to some extent still do), and was pretty sure it was the system, not me, who was at fault.

I eventually accepted that I'm the only person to blame for my (then) current lot in life. I got government aid, went to back to school, earned a degree eventually while working two jobs, and now I'm in Japan doing something I love doing in a country I always wanted to visit. I'm planning to naturalize here as a Japanese citizen, as well. I'm incredibly happy with my life and I'm glad I worked so hard to get where I am today.

It's not the system's fault that you don't have job. It's not the system's fault that you're alienated. A man is always responsible for their own destiny. Yes, the system sucks a lot of the time, but you've got to learn to work with it, or around it in order to find your own path. Me? I wasn't happy with the U.S. System so I moved to another country. You? Find a path, and walk it, my friend.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

Who's fault is it that you don't have a dollar to your name? I managed to get the money together as a 20 year old. Always going to have an excuse as to why you can't do anything or why you won't do anything. Laziness my friend. A greyhound ticket departing today from Vegas to DC costs $266. Surely you could have come up with that. I'm sure you could have come up with that much 3 years ago, but it'd require hard work.

Also a lot of the people there were starving, but didn't care because they had a cause and heart. You have nothing.

originally posted by: TheSpanishArcher
a reply to: WanderingSage

I would have been with OWS, but golly gee, it DIDN'T HAPPEN HERE!!!!! And since I don't have a dollar to my name how the hell am I going to go anywhere and support myself while protesting?

Now I know your lying.

www.occupylv.org...

It did happen there and it's well documented.

a reply to: TDawgRex

No, I don't. Maybe you should try and rectify your own head-ass syndrome. Mine is firmly planted on my shoulders, nowhere near my ass.

There is not a soldier, anywhere, that is fighting for my rights. If so, they would be on Capitol Hill fighting against those in our government that are, on a daily basis, taking away those so called precious freedoms. You know. the ones that our soldiers are supposedly fighting for in foreign lands that have no nearing on the U.S. at all, unless you consider the millions or billions of dollars that our corporations need to keep up their profit margins.

Remember that line, against all enemies, domestic and foreign. So where are they fighting against the domestic forces that are clearly subjugating the constitution?

Though the OP chose a high profile, inopportune time to express his unpopular opinion, I kind of get what he is saying.

The choices our country makes, the military endeavors, would look quite different if people stopped signing up for what has essentially become a mercenary force serving corporate interests. And, when people attempt to call bull# on that, as the OP has tried (though he could have done it more eloquently), they are shamed and ridiculed. Many of the replies to this thread actually serve as an example of his premise.

While I agree troops are necessary to defend our way of life and our freedoms, there is not much evidence that they have been utilized in that regard since 2003.

Furthermore, the fact is, the military incentivizes the hell out of joining and, by the end, just barely gives a damn about service members (VA). It's ridiculous to me that anyone besides the U.S. Govt. would even need to "support the troops". It's a joke. We apparently have billions for new wars that just barely seem justified but little money or desire for taking care of the debts of old wars.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

You think I like being broke, not even able to buy food because of my idealism?

If this is being caused by your "idealism" then change it. You're only punishing yourself here.

Carry my own weight, what is that, some soldier proverb?

Its a rule of thumb for living life man.

I've been carrying my own weight for as long as I have been alive and all I have gotten for it is nothing. I have worked my ass off for people and not gotten paid, or gotten paid anywhere near a living wage. That what you are fighting for, a right to a McDonalds job that won't even pay me enough to exist in this world?

No fate but what you make.

Do you think I like having this attitude? Do you think I purposely try and shut my self out of the real world, all because I have this line of morality I can't cross?

I think you're using your "morality" as a shield and blaming others for your problems.

By fighting wars for a corrupt government you are helping to prop up said corrupt government, and I refuse to support anyone who does that. It's that simple. You can think you are part of the solution. Your opinion is just a point of view, and my position is the other side. We can't meet eye to eye.

You can believe what you wish about what I do and who I am.

But time and time again, in this thread, you have proven to be capricious, unwilling to adapt, and unwilling to accept responsibility for changing your lot in life.

a reply to: WanderingSage

I have my mind, which I dare say is more than you have. I'd rather have that than anything else. At least I can live with myself.

You are also being rather dense thinking I could just get three hundred dollars to go to D.C. and actually be able to live with nowhere to stay, nothing to eat, nothing at all. Yeah, right.

You should check that mote in your eye.

originally posted by: Irishhaf
Thank you for exercising your rights that I've helped protect for the last 17 years.

As a veteran myself I am telling you that in those 17 years you have protected none of our rights. No foreign nation has attacked or tried to invade America. What he said is true you fought for companies not America.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

Many of us here all know that the system is corrupt, but as it stands this system is the best we got. If we take it all away, then your lot in life will GET much worse. There are many things that you take for granted that would evaporate if our government went belly up. Like I said earlier in the thread, go look at Greece or South Africa to get an idea of what life is like when these things go away.

In that sense, you learn to live with the bad while appreciating the good (or you are supposed to). Then you can work within the system to try to change the bad. And don't tell me that that doesn't happen. Marriage equality and marijuana legalization have come a LONG way towards where they should be in this country (100% legal) thanks to working within the system.

Besides, if you happened to be paying attention throughout the rest of the year, the "support our troops" rhetoric wasn't being pounded into our heads all the time. That propaganda has REALLY been winded down since the height of the Iraq war. It is only during THIS week, particularly today, that America has been asking its citizens to support its troops. Is it really so much to ask to honor the people who help secure many of the rights and privileges that you take for granted (one of which, the freedom of speech, you are taking for granted in this very thread) for ONE day/week out of the year?

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

You're preety funny. There is no armed Civil War, nor Revolution going on at the moment. So I fight my percieved domestic enemies with my vote. And I do know I have contributed to the prosperity of my community by doing so. We, the People, have gotten rid of plenty of corrupt politicians in my community by doing so.

What have you done for your community? Probably nothing since you seem to be against it. And why is it that you can't find a job? No skills, such as welding or even pick up trash cans (I believe they call them Sanitation engineers these days and the pay is quite good)

Are you to good for that?

And I never fought for YOUR rights. I fought for every bodies, even if I didn't always agree with the mission.

You really are coming across as selfish and self centered here. Narcissistic even. It's all about you isn't it?

originally posted by: TheSpanishArcher
a reply to: TDawgRex

No, I don't. Maybe you should try and rectify your own head-ass syndrome. Mine is firmly planted on my shoulders, nowhere near my ass.

There is not a soldier, anywhere, that is fighting for my rights. If so, they would be on Capitol Hill fighting against those in our government that are, on a daily basis, taking away those so called precious freedoms. You know. the ones that our soldiers are supposedly fighting for in foreign lands that have no nearing on the U.S. at all, unless you consider the millions or billions of dollars that our corporations need to keep up their profit margins.

Remember that line, against all enemies, domestic and foreign. So where are they fighting against the domestic forces that are clearly subjugating the constitution?

Remember that line, against all enemies, domestic and foreign. So where are they fighting against the domestic forces that are clearly subjugating the constitution?

Predictably, this inevitably comes up. Every time some one like you, usually around Memorial Day or Veteran's Day, authors a thread on how much soldiers are awful people who do awful things and don't deserve your respect, you then call for these same soldiers to go and do the dirty work of changing things for you.

Not only do people expect us to fight wars, they want us to be nice about it. Then when they are faced with the reality that war isn't nice, they condemn us, then when nothing changes, you put the weight of your political goals on our shoulders.

Grow up. Carry your own weight and bleed your own blood. Doesn't look to me like you're so morally opposed to killing when it means sending SOMEONE ELSE, to make changes YOU WANT, at the barrel of a gun.

Its pathetic, self-serving, self-righteous BS.

Last response in this thread. Because once again someone of your ilk has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt how physically and intellectually lazy you are.

a reply to: kosmicjack

Most of those incentives to join are long gone and have been for years. Oh, there are still a few, but not to many. And they don't pay as well as in the past.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

We had permits and camped out in the city food was brought to us and we shared everything. I managed to get the money to go on my own. So you should have been able to do that. Doesn't sound like you have much of a mind anyways. Also like TDawgRex stated OWS was in Vegas too.

My eye is fine thanks.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

KraztSh0t This is off topic, but I love your avatar. I shot water outta my nose when I read that. Thank you for the laugh!