vaspider:

neoliberalismkills:

opabinia-regalis:

I remember being around 12 and 100% set on being a Marine. I’m not talking like a vague dream that I kinda had in the back of my head. I’m saying watching shit tons of YouTube videos about life in the Corps, about what to expect when applying, basic training, etc. Reading whatever I could to get prepared. Just reading general Marine shit. And thinking absolutely nonstop about it too. I even tried to get into better shape so I could pass the physical examinations.

I daydreamed about arriving on a bus to MCRD San Diego (where they train all recruits from west of the Mississippi) and being given my first orders as a Marine recruit. I daydreamed of acing my physicals, of getting on the good sides of my instructors with my discipline and behavior, of shooting my rifle in the range for the first time. I dreamed of working at a base with guys I’d consider my best buds and that would be my new life. No more social isolation, no more abuse, no more poverty, no more Depression. Just me enjoying the life of a fully trained Marine, protecting the people and forging lifelong friendships with my comrades.

That’s what appealed to me the most. I would escape everything and I wouldn’t be this miserable, worthless poor kid. I’d be a Marine. And even when those specific dreams died away, they were merely replaced with different dreams of joining the military throughout much of my teenage years. I just thought that’s where I could belonging, discipline and a purpose in life.

All I’m saying is it deeply hurts seeing militaries not just in America but around the world capitalize on these feelings to lure desperate and impoverished teens into their ranks. Seeing that British military ad, a few soldiers huddled together with “THIS IS BELONGING” written in the center and knowing that it was deliberately targeted at teenagers stressed out with school

Just

Hurts

when I was 16, I was waiting outside GameStop right before midnight for the release of a new game. a second game was apparently being released at midnight as well – a military game, a black ops or battlefield or wtf ever. right outside the entrance to the GameStop was, and get this –

a military recruitment tent.

in my high school, in the commons area where the students hung out in the morning before class, the military had set up a pull-up bar dead in center of the room with a huge whiteboard keeping score of who had the most pull-ups. next to it, a table to sign up for JROTC.

the military preys on kids, preys on their desire to belong, to accomplish. never forget how fucking insidious the military is to its core.

They’ve been doing it for a long time. My grandfather joined the Navy to get out of the coal mines. It was ‘join the Navy’ or ‘go into the mines’ and family lore says he threatened his dad to get his dad to sign the form so he could go in at 17.

That was 1936.