the myth of military intelligence and media literacy

I remember something very similar. If they did that to my kid now I will be very angry about it because it's ridiculous. At least back in the 90s when this happened to me there wasn't really any ongoing conflicts, not like now where you're basically guaranteed to have to go fight somewhere.

I was living in my car and a recruiter would drop off no perishable care packages until I said fuck it 😂

Good thing we fund the military instead of public healthcare that would take care of everyone.

and now they are taking care of me for the rest of my life

They fuck up your society so they can entice you into joining in order to get benefits other societies get for free.

Glad it worked out for you. Let's not force people to risk death, dismemberment, and permanent brain damage just to live an okay life.

So what you're saying is the country has no vested interest in supporting its citizens unless they are willing to die for it in which case the scraps thrown to you were sufficient enough to keep you out of abject poverty.

What a system.

I'm also a vet and I didn't get shit.

Having schools forward the contact info of low-income, low-performing students to recruiters at the age of 14 so those recruiters can start talking to kids without anyone else's knowledge and having kindergartners do worksheets with recruiters where they talk about what branch of the service they would join if they could isn't letting people do whatever they want, it's grooming children to die for the aristocrats.

Semper Fi, mother fucker!! Hoo ah!

It's not like the army forces you

No, it just preys on vulnerable people who are easy to coerce into something they wouldn't necessarily have chosen for themselves independently. Sound voluntary to you? Or does it sound like cult programming?

No one finds themselves in a combat role by surprise

Maybe not, but you're aware that "do whatever your superiors want you to do up to and including killing people" is kinda the main thing in military culture. And religious cults.

Besides, most military jobs are support based, like logistics or IT.

So you're only coerced into HELPING people kill people? That's alright then!

I'd maybe recommend it to someone who doesn't have money for college

Yeah, economic coercion is a thing too. If everyone's telling you that you need college to make a good life for yourself and you can't afford it, you're much more likely to be coerced with promises of free college to do something you'd otherwise never do.

the GI isn't as big of an incentive as it used to be since a college education doesn't really guarantee you a comfortable living anymore

Yeah, it's a stick instead of a carrot now: used to be that a college education all but guaranteed you a high paying job. Now that you can't get any except the lowest paying jobs without a degree most places, free college is even MORE of an incentive than back when you could get a middle of the road salary regardless of college.

I'd probably recommend most people don't join the military

I'd recommend no people join. At the very least, their recruiters preying on the vulnerable like they are needs to be illegal.

as long as you know what you're getting yourself into

Which is far from always the case and even when you know, you can still be coerced into it against your will.

No one finds themselves in a combat role by surprise.

This is false. Many people found themselves in combat roles by surprise in Iraq and I would assume other conflicts are the same because war never changes. My unit was an artillery unit that ended up kicking in doors like infantry. I knew supply clerks and admin assistants who ended up assigned to QRF. All soldiers and marines are combat personnel first and foremost. It's the whole reason every soldier and marine has to pass a rifle qualification in basic training/boot camp.

You don't find yourself in the Infantry by surprise, but just about every time I've found myself in a combat role it was by surprise. And the other side doesn't care what your paperwork says.

You have any fucking clue how much lying goes on at MEPs when you pick your MOS?

What's gay to civilians is brotherhood in the Army. What's gay to the Army is brotherhood in the Navy. What's gay to the Navy is illegal.

So you can avoid it, right? Because it’s so horrible? Where exactly so you can stay far away.

It's actually quite easy. Just focus on the victims rather than the killers. Come and see, Grave of the Fireflies, Catch-22, All quiet on the Western Front, …

You just need to embrace the glorifying war aspect like how Starship Troopers does it, and just be so ridiculously over the top that it's blatantly obvious how over the top it is.

It would probably be easier if you didn't use soldiers as your main characters.

"We've made a law saying we're exempt from laws"

Sounds like they took page from congress.

As a member of the Air Force, I propose a middle ground. They just liked the music or associated it with badassery. They probably didn't think too hard about it.

What exactly is a fish story? US military being in comic and anime cons?

US soldiers trying to recruit young people posing with a character from NGE blissfully unaware of the irony involved?

It's your time to serve democracy*!

*Democracy being whoever is paying politicians to keep some war or another going for great profits

With someone like that as the mascot, it's my time to come

I guess the enemy will be too confused to react once they see an army of fembois dressed as maids advancing. It works with the goddamn Maidman, after all

I've heard of it but not seen it. Thank you.

You're having a conversation with song lyrics

Not sure if you're referencing some other media, or any of the Eva movies that aren't canonically linked to the show, but in the show

spoiler

NERV triggers Instrumentality, which, without much explanation, merges all human consciousnesses into 1 hive mind consciousness which may or may not have something to do with Rei being Shinji's mom, and may or may not have to do with Evas being living creatures borne of Lilith, and somehow eliminates the Angel threat. Shinji's abandonment complex is neatly resolved by him realizing that the military people forcing him to fight were right all along and that being in the military is awesome if you aren't afraid to be outgoing.

That was my understanding of the ending.

it all works out in the end, no one needs to worry if everyone's dead

Dude was literally going through some shit in his life during the original show, and "retold" the same story with a different outcome for the rebuilds. Mari is an analogue for his wife.

Let's be honest - who hasn't had an unhealthy obsession with a slightly crazy firecrotch at one point? Hotter than the midday sun does not necessarily equal wife material.

Now that you described the benefits of pirate CDN, I'm gonna do it more.