this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2024
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Were you ever in the military? Because that really doesn’t align with my experience at all.
Yes, there are some racist in the military but far less since millennials and the Obama administration. Even less in leadership positions. But no hard-core neo Nazies or white supremacists anymore. You can look at the demographics alone of the military and far more women and minorities are enlisted percapita than ever before. I will say misogyny is still very high comparably. But also if you look across economic backgrounds there's no way the military will rise up for the wealthy elites in the conservative party. If there was a civil war is guess somewhere around 20% to 30% would defect to the confederacy, but none of the equipment would fall to their hands.
I hope you’re right (or, better yet, that we never have to find out), but that feels a bit optimistic to me based on my experience.
I mean, conservative voters don't really get that they're supporting wealthy people who hate them.
But in regards to the military, officers have always been more liberal and that's even more of a thing now. A lot of enlisted folks will just do what their CO says, especially if it doesn't involve going on the offensive. And since the liberal side would almost certainly be the defenders, that would further hurt rebel numbers.
My experience in the Army was that lots of racists join, but most of them are cured of their racism before they finish bootcamp.
Different branch, but I remember plenty of folks making it through boot and still being plenty racist. I also remember watching a lot of folks from my time swing way harder right than I had expected or hoped after 2016.
That’s not to say you’re wrong or anything, just thought it was worth sharing my experience since it didn’t really line up with the post upstream. I’m glad you had a different experience.
I went through basic in the 90's, and we certainly weren't as radicalized and polarized then as we are now, so that could have something to do with the different experience. Or maybe it was just because it was a different branch. Also, basic wasn't co-ed when I was in, and men don't tend to form as tight of bonds when women are around, since they compete with each other for the woman's attention instead of banding together to overcome adversity. I saw that happen in AIT, which was co-ed.