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Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

chrisseaton.com

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Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#471

Post by ethbr0 »

watwut wrote: post #265
ethbr0 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Being subordinate didn't work for the Nuremberg It didn't work for those convicted in the Nuremberg trials because the Nazis lost . Had the Third Reich persisted with a truce, do you really think they would have been charged, convicted, and sentenced? Legal liability gets pretty hazy when applying it in a non-sovereign arenas (i.e. international matters). Yes, there are treaties [0], but what are treaties without e…

> Had the Third Reich persisted with a truce, do you really think they would have been charged, convicted, and sentenced? Pre Nuremberg expectations on soldiers were blind obedience nazi or not. Nuremberg set the expectation on soldiers from then on. WWII changed that. It could not happen due to their own ideology. It did not allowed for lasting compromise which everyone else knew. Third Reich would not prosecuted th…

> WWII changed that

Bullshit. Who was prosecuted for the firebombing of Dresden or Tokyo?

How many of the German rocketry experts scooped up during Paperclip were convicted?

How many US military members have been delivered to the ICJ?

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#472

Post by actuallyalys »

YATA1 wrote: post #454
relaxing wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Upper class starts at $65k/yr” is peak Heritage Foundation.

> “Upper class starts at $65k/yr” is peak Heritage Foundation. Yes, peak facts that don't care about your feelings. $65k is where the richest quantile for neighborhood median household income starts, by census tract [0]. The linked report was compiled by Dr. Shanea Watkins, a policy analyst specializing in empirical studies. Unless you have sources that claim otherwise, my original claim stands. [0] http://s3.amazona…

There might be good reasons to use that breakdown, but I still think referring to people with a household income of $65K as "upper class" is misleading.

There's also something a bit strange with this breakdown. The top 20 percent of households made more than $91,705 [0][1] in 2007. $65K appears to be the top 20 percent of census tracts. That doesn't seem right, though, because you wouldn't expect 20 percent of the population to come from 20 percent of the tracts, unless they're exactly the same size (which tracts are not), so maybe I made a mistake in interpretation.

[0] https://www.visualizingeconomics.com/blog/2006/11/05/2005-us...

[1] https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-p...

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#473

Post by JabavuAdams »

pmoriarty wrote: post #278
everforward wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But his actions are morally considered whereas I think the question is morally thoughtless. I would disagree with this. Agreeing to fight an as-of-yet undefined enemy is abdicating any moral decisions based on who the enemy is, or how the war is fought. It is delegating personal moral decisions to the masses. > He therefore believes he can fight on its behalf based on what the democratic leadership determine. This…

"The soldier doesn't get to decide that it's immoral to carpet bomb El Salvador; they've already agreed to kill whoever their leadership tells them to." People always have a choice. They can refuse.

Not sure why this is getting down-voted. One of the greatest stories of courage and principled behaviour I have heard of is of the US helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson Jr. who intervened in the My Lai massacre, saving children and civilians. He had to interpose his helicopter between the murdering US troops and the civilians. He ordered his crew to shoot US soldiers if they did not stop massacring civilians. His actions were eventually recognized, but at the time he was vilified by US politicians, and many citizens.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Thompson_Jr.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#474

Post by imgabe »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #437
imgabe wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you just have to serve in the military to fulfill your duties as a citizen in order to access them.

I will have to better qualify what a developed country is in the future. Mandatory military service directly contradicts a citizen’s freedom.

Being a part of a society means not only freedoms, but responsibilities. You're responsible for following the law. You're responsible for paying taxes (you know, those things that pay for all the free stuff you're demanding) and sometimes you're responsible for defending the country that guarantees you those freedoms.

The US has a large population and is able to field a military with only volunteers (at the moment. This wasn't always the case, and the draft can be reinstated if necessary). Smaller countries would not be able to have a military at all without mandatory service. Their freedoms would be moot if they were invaded and conquered.

Demanding freedom and shirking responsibility is the act of a child.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#475

Post by causasui »

freedomben wrote: post #117
oaxacaoaxaca wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>None of that is true. All of that is true about my Army experience lol. If I could go back and do it again, I'd definitely choose Air Force. I agree that the military can be a positive experience and it's a good idea for some people, but the caveat with my endorsement is that you gotta carefully choose the branch and the job. I almost chose linguistics, but for some silly reason chose mechanic and paratrooper, and w…

> you gotta carefully choose the branch and the job yes absolutely. I'd even say "the job" is the most important part. There are Army jobs that are pretty good, and there are Air Force jobs that are pretty bad.

There's a saying in the Navy I was told from day 1 at the recruiter's office:

Choose your rate, choose your fate.

Your choice can be the difference between getting out after 4-6 years and easily making six figures, or struggling to find employment at $35k. Not to mention your lifestyle while in and other side effects of your service like PTSD.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#476

Post by thehappypm »

oneoff786 wrote: post #401
nradov wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Putting American military boots on the ground in Ukraine would likely escalate to WW3.

Bring it motherfucker Edit: but bravado aside, I think no, it would not. I think Russia would just back down. If they were willing to escalate, I think we would have seen a nuke in kyiv by now Edit edit: and it is worth it to show we are willing to stand up for such things. We cannot afford to roll over to anyone with nukes

No post body was provided.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#477

Post by actuallyalys »

aksss wrote: post #294
losvedir wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a source for that? The nearest I could find was this[0] and it doesn't support your assertion. [0] https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/demographics-us-military

Yes, and that data stops the grouping of household income at $87k and higher, which isn’t really that high of a floor, and is telling in itself. There are no further breakouts, such as 87-100, 100-200, 200+ because it would presumably be insignificant.

The link YATA1's been posting actually does [0]. About 3.46 percent of people enlisting come from households making more than $100K, although those households make up about 8 percent of the population [1]. In general, it looks like it matches the population more than the quintile breakdowns do.

[0]: On page 6: http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf#page... [1]: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2007/demo/cps/hinc-06.htm...

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#478

Post by wolverine876 »

chiph wrote: post #448
wolverine876 wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you claiming that billionaires serve at the same rate as others? Or that there are many billionaires in the military?

They're even more rare in the military than in the general population. Firstly for the obvious reason - they don't need any of the benefits so they don't join. Secondly - someone that becomes that wealthy while serving (via a trust-fund, large inheritance, or winning the lottery) would no longer be a good fit for the military. They usually get offered an Honorable Discharge. However, if they still desire to serve the…

> someone that becomes that wealthy while serving (via a trust-fund, large inheritance, or winning the lottery) would no longer be a good fit for the military. They usually get offered an Honorable Discharge.

That's shocking. Where is this rule? Have you seen it happen? I didn't know wealth defined fitness for service.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#479

Post by wolverine876 »

YATA1 wrote: post #452
wolverine876 wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for providing some citations. The military.com link is to a military recruiting ad, and Heritage's business is generating talking points and 'research' for conservative/Republican policy (look at their front page). Here's a report saying that 79% of US Army recruits come from families with service members. [0] IIRC, the military is overwhelmingly rural and does not recruit in major urban areas - which matches…

>The military.com link is to a military recruiting ad military.com is a news and information website that covers topics such as benefits to military members, veterans, their families and those with military affinity. Even if there are links to recruiting, this does nothing to refute the facts. >Heritage's business is generating talking points and 'research' for conservative/Republican policy Reality has a conservativ…

It's sad to see the discussion turn to an attempt to shut down conversation. I have so many things to do in my day, why would I read that comment?

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#480

Post by wolverine876 »

ramesh31 wrote: post #423
Terr_ wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flip-side is that with mandatory manpower for military adventurism, politicians and the military leaders who advise them have fewer reasons to temper their aspirations. > Part of the problem is the narrow population from which the military recruits. I wonder if this relates to how military service (not civilian-contractor roles) appear to have a bit of an, er, "sign your soul over and hope for the best" mechanic.…

>The flip-side is that with mandatory manpower for military adventurism, politicians and the military leaders who advise them have fewer reasons to temper their aspirations. That's not really true. Open democratic societies that still practice conscription like Israel for instance, have a much higher level of civic engagement and understanding of foreign affairs amongst the average people. The population is ultimatel…

While I hope that's true, and could see how it might be, how do we know it?

Israel uses their military heavily, so I'm not sure it will provide a great example.

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