Why do we ass kiss soldiers?

[Tekkommo]

On this forum most threads about it pretty much just bring up the U.S and out societal craziness with war/soldiers.

It's just as bad in Britain, well actually maybe not, you americans be more crazy.

[Stir]

Because without them you wouldn't be speaking English.

And that's just silly. What; you think you're speaking English because of soldiers? Nopes. You're speaking English because of colonialism.

[Deleted]

I think Hollywood could make that work if they cast it properly.

A short film: the patriotism of the wendy workers.

[Jayburner]

I always wondered why my brother brought me to a bar when I was 16 and beat the shit out of canadian recruits so many years ago. It all makes sense now that i'm 30 years older now.

[zerocoolhack]

Ass kiss? Absolutely not. Not a single American soldier has died for my rights or anyones rights since the civil war. I had 5 friends all sign up for the military in 2003 ready to go fight for murica because of 9/11. They all stayed in for their contract and they all said joining was the worst decision they ever made. Dont get me started on the whole marine circle jerk oorah bullshit.

[Kaleredar]

It's a kind of proxy support, difficult to explain, but it's mostly subconscious.

People are encouraged to venerate soldiers, both through instinctual hero worship and social conventions. People are hoped to form a sort of emotional solidarity with the soliders, their mission and their country, which inspires patriotism and support for your country. Whoever's leading it is pretty irrelevent.

Just look at how many people in the US, UK and other places, people who don't care for their governments, how many blindly and unconditionally supported the soliders and their country, just because it's their soliders.

The notion is "hate the war, not the soldier."

"Coercing" (or as some might say on this forum as evidenced by posts in this thread, "tricking") people into liking soldiers does not automatically translate to being beholden in cause to wherever the government sends them.

Honestly, such a mindset strikes me as a petty person's attempt at being "anti-establishment." If you perceive that soldiers = the government, and that people that respect them them are all sheeple, then you can say "well I don't like soldiers, take THAT 'the government!'" and feel content without doing anything else because you feel your message has been made.

And then on top of that you could dismiss yourself from caring where soldiers are sent or what soldiers do because you just think they're the "dispensable weapons of the man that only rubes care about." And of course, because people who are anti-establishment by and large don't actually do anything to change the system, they're really just gesticulating in the dark with a perceived message of "anti-establishment" that only exists in their own head, and not in practice in any way. So they just directly feed into the same shit that keeps going on because they're completely silent to the whole thing. The opposite of love isn't hate, it's apathy...

[Denkou]

at this point i'm thinking I should thank vietnam vets than what we got now. Atleast they didn't have technology.

The Vietnam vets are the ones that deserve much, much, much more than they were actually given.

[Kanegasi]

I don't ass-kiss ground pounders. They should kiss mine for being part of the reason the aircraft carrier off-shore is operational.

[Tekkommo]

I couldn't give a damn about Soldiers. The current ones haven't done anything, so why should I? Sure, if we were being attacked and they stopped the attackers, i'd be thankful. But i couldn't give a rats ass what happens in Afghanistan and the like. I'm not even from the US, so i couldn't give a damn about 9/11 either.

Ass kissing soldiers is just as dumb as calling all cops pigs. The vast majority of soldiers are just useless wastes of space like the rest of us. The fact that they hold a gun occasionally doesn't change shit.

At least the police put themselves in danger in your own town/community to keep you safe.

I don't ass kiss police either just fyi, but I would rather ass kiss police than the army.

[Mormolyce]

Its a societal change from when they were called baby killers and spat on after Vietnam

It's hard to find anything objective about the topic since it's so politically charged, but it seems that the prevailing societal image of the spat-on Vietnam veteran is heavily exaggerated.

a U.S. Senate study, based on data collected in August 1971 by Harris Associates, found that 75 percent of Vietnam-era veterans polled disagreed with the statement, 'Those people at home who opposed the Vietnam War often blame veterans for our involvement there' " while "94 percent said their reception by people their own age who had not served in the armed forces was friendly.

http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion..._sirota04.html

[Sliske]

At least the police put themselves in danger in your own town/community to keep you safe.

I don't ass kiss police either just fyi, but I would rather ass kiss police than the army.

Agreed

10char

[Wildtree]

The American glorification of soldiers clearly stems from the Nam times.
The way those people have been treated once they've returned was horrendous. Basically the total opposite of today. That - over time - created the burden of a guilt trip, and things were propagated differently since.

[Tekkommo]

Because without them you wouldn't be speaking English.

No one is saying don't respect the soldiers from the World Wars which they were forced to take part in.

Being forced to do it is a completely different scenario.

[Mormolyce]

The Vietnam vets are the ones that deserve much, much, much more than they were actually given.

You mean like, sympathy for being the ones who actually risked or lost life and limb for a military debacle that served nobody?

[Seegtease]

1) Patroitism
2) They're doing a very, very dangerous job.
3) They're doing a demanding job, both physically and of time.
4) The job they do gives them skills to be future productive members of society.
5) The job they do prevents the rest of us from being randomly drafted/conscripted, since we have plenty of troops.
6) They enlisted knowing the possibility they could have to give their lives in order to allow the rest of us to continue our lives as we have.
7) We know they are soldiers because they have uniforms. Other profession members would get respect too, but we can't outwardly tell what they do/did.

Personally, I would hate hate hate joining any branch of the military. I would defend my country if it came down to it, but it just looks terrible, and from what I hear, is all around terrible. I commend anyone who will do it.

[AlphaandOmega]

soldiers work for the government

the government works for corporations

everyone's on the same page there, right?

Where ever oil flows, blood soon follows.

Follow the money.

[Wildtree]

You mean like, sympathy for being the ones who actually risked or lost life and limb for a military debacle that served nobody?

While being actually drafted.......
Don't forget, back then there was an actual draft. They essentially had to, whether they liked it or not.

[TheGravemind]

Propaganda + indoctrination.

[Alhazrid]

-The warrior "caste" has always been venerated throughout history. Read.... any book about history.
-If you don't like the country you live in, you're free to leave.
-Most of the people on here saying disparaging remarks about soldiers are cowardly people irl who wouldn't pick up arms to defend their own homes against invaders, much less the homes of their neighbors. If we didn't have a military, we wouldn't have a country.
-Before anyone makes the remarks about worthless wars in the middle east, unless you have any real idea of how higher level foreign policy really works, your opinion doesn't mean much.... but you're still entitled to have it.
-I don't think most soldiers go out of their way to gain recognition. Most go to work, and just hope to make it back safely with their friends to see their loved ones. Any real or perceived "hero worship" is the doing of other people.
-If you have never personally done your duty to your country, your critiques are pretty shallow. Some nations make military service mandatory for all citizens... as the cost of BEING a citizen of a nation. The ones who serve in America do so in order for you not to have to. If they didn't step up, we would have mandatory service for males over the age of 18. So your virginal fat-ass should likely be pretty grateful to them

[AlphaandOmega]

1) Patroitism
2) They're doing a very, very dangerous job.
3) They're doing a demanding job, both physically and of time.
4) The job they do gives them skills to be future productive members of society.
5) The job they do prevents the rest of us from being randomly drafted/conscripted, since we have plenty of troops.
6) They enlisted knowing the possibility they could have to give their lives in order to allow the rest of us to continue our lives as we have.
7) We know they are soldiers because they have uniforms. Other profession members would get respect too, but we can't outwardly tell what they do/did.

Personally, I would hate hate hate joining any branch of the military. I would defend my country if it came down to it, but it just looks terrible, and from what I hear, is all around terrible. I commend anyone who will do it.

wow, brain-washed much?