• ParabolicMotion@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Well, unfortunately, when you’re poor and want to return to school, or change careers, your cheapest option is the military. Everyone stereotypes the military as offering only combat soldier jobs. The military offers more than just one career option. Want to change careers and become a medic to gain training for when you leave the military and can actually afford medical school? There’s the Army for that. Want to learn how to repair airplanes and jets as an aviation mechanic? There’s the Air Force for that. Everyone will just downvote me anyway. Let’s carry on that anti-military sentiment.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      6 months ago

      Or, hear me out, maybe poor people shouldn’t have to turn to the military as the best way to get out of poverty.

      Maybe colleges and trade schools should be free instead.

      • uis@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        Maybe colleges and trade schools should be free instead.

        They aren’t? Oh, it’s America thing.

      • ParabolicMotion@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        If only it were free, right? Try having a graduate degree in math and become poor/ostracized from the community due to filing for divorce. Suddenly, your only option for a career change is returning to college, or asking the Army to enlist you. Oh, but weighing 125lbs at the time is too fat for the tape test, they don’t like the fact you’ve had an organ removed, and you’re old by that point with kids. Yes, college should be free. It should also be free to change your name and immediately have all your records updated to match that new name, so you can start over in life without any discrimination.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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          6 months ago

          I have no idea what you’re even talking about. You’re saying divorced people with mathematics degrees get ostracized from some sort of mathematics community and thus can’t get jobs? That’s utter nonsense.

          And yes, you have to go back to college to change careers if you want a career that takes an education. What does that have to do with the necessity of joining the military if you’re poor?

          • ParabolicMotion@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            It isn’t just the math community in my local area, it’s the whole community. Everyone is hell bent on looking perfect and maintaining a pristine image. They can’t risk endorsing a colleague, or community member that has filed for divorce.

            • areyouevenreal@lemm.ee
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              6 months ago

              Which country do you live in? This sounds like something that could never happen in the UK or US as divorce is extremely common. I’m pretty sure you would have to have done something bad in order to be ousted here. Like abusing your partner would do it, not just divorcing them.

              Also legally changing your name is fairly easy, I am sure if you talked to your University you could get them to update the records. Chances are though it would show up in a background check.

              • ParabolicMotion@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                I live in the United States.

                My spouse abused me and there are police reports that show the abuse, plus a restraining order against him.

                I already changed my name once, out of tradition, because I wanted to have my husband’s last name after marriage. It was an absolute nightmare to change my last name. Many background reports don’t even show my marriage record. One of them listed me as “German” under the box that said “race”. I’m not even German. I’m mostly Scottish and Irish. You know who is German? My mother-in-law. She was actually born in Germany and changed her last name after marriage, too. Also, my sister-in-law had the same last name after my husband’s dad adopted her. She has criminal records. I now have to worry about my mother-in-law and sister-in-law having their records be mixed up with mine. Thankfully none of the criminal records have ended up on my report by mistake. The major issue is the federal government not linking my married name to my maiden name to fully ahow all of my vital records. It’s annoying. The state, or the feds, are either really slow, or they just slack on record keeping/reporting.

                • areyouevenreal@lemm.ee
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                  6 months ago

                  I’m mostly Scottish and Irish.

                  Were you born in USA? If so I think actual Scottish and Irish people would be annoyed about you calling yourself Scottish and Irish. Also just because some of your distant ancestors were Irish or Scottish doesn’t mean you don’t have German heritage, they could well have descended from German ancestors themselves. In fact it’s pretty pointless trying to resolve race down to countries, especially without DNA evidence, and it’s mostly a social construct anyway.

                  • ParabolicMotion@lemmy.world
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                    6 months ago

                    I have taken several dna tests. Most of my ancestors were Scottish and Irish. I am not German at all. By dna I am mostly Scottish and Irish. I also have an Irish residency card, and have spent time in both Ireland and Scotland.

                • uis@lemm.ee
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                  6 months ago

                  You describe it in such way, that when compared to changing name in Russia, in latter changing name looks like calling a taxi.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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              6 months ago

              Sorry… you have a math community in your local area?

              And do you have evidence for this bizarre idea that when someone gets divorced, the entire academic community ostracizes them?

                  • ZMoney@lemmy.world
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                    6 months ago

                    Yeah I think they were trained to be that character. That’s why they give superficial responses that always weave back into the divorce. I mean, if they are a person, they’re stuck in a recursive feedback loop which probably means they are having a psychotic episode of some kind.

    • juicy
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      6 months ago

      And lots of people join, get messed up, and then are denied proper healthcare by the underfunded VA system.

      But even if the military was great for the people enlisting, it wouldn’t change the fact that they are joining one of the most rapacious, lawless, and brutal militaries in the world.

      In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. [wikipedia]

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I certainly wouldn’t say the US military is “one of the most rapacious, lawless, and brutal militaries in the world.” Never underestimate Russia, China, and North Korea. Then there’s the guys in Africa who create child soldiers. Look I know the USM could do better, but that statement is just begging a parade of the world’s uglies.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      your cheapest option is the military

      That was truer 60 years ago, when enlistment promised WW2-era benefits and minimal wealth disparity meant your dollar stretched significantly farther. Today, over 1.2M veterans are on some form of food assistance. Military health benefits have been privatized to the point of comic relief. The old GI Bill and housing benefits have been whittled down to a small recruitment bonus and some tax exemptions. The pay for your first five years of service is well below what you could earn in the private sector and there’s virtually no path to advancement outside of the officer’s corps.

      But what military recruiters lack in financial incentives, the make up for with bald face lying. You get sold a pack of lies about “job experience” in technology fields, when most of the actual work is menial labor (professional jobs are heavily outsourced to private military contractors). You get promised a package of benefits that are nearly impossible to claim, even assuming you make it all the way through your term of service with an honorable discharge. You’re subject to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse for which you have no recourse. And also there’s the question of your proximity to a combat zone, which cares a litany of additional perils.

      The military is not a cheap option, it is a high stakes gamble. Its possible to come out the other side better off than a peer who worked a trade job or took debt to get through community college. But the tail risks are enormous, and the benefits are increasingly illusionary.

      Let’s carry on that anti-military sentiment.

      Its a shit job for suckers. Even assuming you’re a rah-rah keyboard commando, you’ve got no interest in actually taking these jobs. That’s the whole reason why poor people are targeted. They’re not being offered a sweat heart deal. They’re simply the most misinformed and desperate group of people and therefore most likely to fall for the bait.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Poor people and teenagers. But there are some options. It’s definitely a minefield for anyone though, and you’re going to step on one if you just trust a recruiter.

    • Dasus@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      That’s pretty specific to the US.

      Not exclusive, but.

      We do conscription here, and we do it because we live next to Russia. I consider myself a conditional pacifist, but I do hold a rank in the army and would go to defend my country against Russia.

      I would want global demilitarisation, but as long as autocrats hold militaries as powerful as Russias, North Korea’s and others, it just doesn’t seem too practical. Also, I don’t trust the US with theirs, but unless the Russian trolls get through enough to bother the election (with their “oh don’t vote Biden” bs, yes he’s a shit ruler as well but compared to Trump he’s not a fucking fascist) and Trump wins, I will be very concerned.

      So I don’t shit on the military, and support Einstein’s take on the subject, but it has to be simultaneous globally or at least start with the scarier armies.

      If all “good” countries just voluntarily completely disarm, the shit ones will abuse it to no end.

      Just look at Gotland. Sweden basically demilitarised it ~2005 or something in the name of Baltic cooperation and international trust. Russia instantly started spying on the island and even testing how close they can get their bombers.

      Now Sweden has rearmed it, AA-guns, a few tanks, several hundred soldiers.

      I wish they didn’t have to do that, but we can’t trust countries with leaders like Putler. Or Trump, for that matter.

        • Dasus@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Thanks. Or “hooah” as I believe the saying is on that side of the pond.

          I’m just very nervous about the fact that if a WWIII does break out, the losing countries might utilise their nukes. And as much as I enjoy the Fallout universe, I wouldn’t like to live in one.

          “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” — Albert Einstein

      • uis@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        Isn’t NK’s military just rebranded China’s?

        I wish Putin and his oligarchs will be sent to Hauge sooner.

        • Dasus@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Isn’t NK’s military just rebranded China’s?

          I wouldn’t trust either one, tbh.

          I wish Putin and his oligarchs will be sent to Hauge sooner.

          In a more just world

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Isn’t NK’s military just rebranded China’s?

          No. They come from two very distinct brands of communist ideological thought and are sharply divided on a host of issues particular to 20th century communist organizing. In fact, its something of a sticking point between the two countries. In the fine leftist tradition of purist infighting, NK leadership and Chinese leadership insist the other side did it wrong.

          I wish Putin and his oligarchs will be sent to Hauge sooner.

          I’m sure they’ll arrive shortly before Netanyahu and some time slightly after Maduro, Assad, and Abdourahamane Tchiani.

    • uis@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Doesn’t your country provide higher education for everyone? Want to be electrical engieneer? Go to university. Want to relair airplanes? Go to technical school.

      • ParabolicMotion@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I have already been through college and the next step for me would be to earn a Ph.D. There aren’t many scholarship opportunities for that. There are many opportunities for people who are beginning college for the first time and earning a bachelor’s degree. I was informed that a person cannot return to earn a second bachelor’s degree to broaden their job opportunities. If you don’t double major, then you can’t return to earn a second bachelor’s. So, if I am now more interested in the medical field, then I cannot return to earn a B.S. to nursing and climb the academic ladder again, from there. I might be able to take courses as a returning alumni and use that to knock out the pre-requisites for programs after that, but I don’t know how that is viewed by the professionals in the medical field.

          • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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            6 months ago

            This person literally always thinks people are talking about them specifically. It’s a pattern of delusion that people in her circles are becoming more and more aware of. A lot of her comments are like this.

    • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      Totally get that. I was also poor after school so I became a hitman. Just a few easy murders and I was able to pay for college and get enough for a down payment on a starter home. I know some people don’t approve of it, but it’s important to understand how much of a resource joining the mafia can be for social mobility.

      And not everyone has to be a hitman like me. My buddy is a getaway driver and he’s never harmed anyone and he’s helped me get out of a lot of tight spots. Want to sit in a room messing around with numbers all day? I hear the boss is looking for an accountant. Want to change jobs to patching up bullet wounds after a shootout without going to a hospital to get medical experience? They’ll pay for that.

      Everyone will downvote me too, let’s keep up the anti-mafia sentiment.

      • uis@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        You just said exactly same thing…

        Oh, nevermind, you added accountant.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Medical is a horrible example for a couple reasons, first of all they are front line soldiers. They see everything the Infantry sees. Secondly nursing and physician’s assistant degrees have some of the best access to scholarships and loan forgiveness. If you wanted to do something highly technical like fly/repair planes/helicopters then the military shines. Also if you get a commission and work as a logistics officer you can pretty much write your ticket with the delivery corporations after your 6 year commitment. There are a vast array of jobs in the military but anyone looking to pick up technical skills should really ask a veteran first. For example, cooks? they boil a lot of stuff in huge vats. Yes some of them go to culinary school. It probably won’t be you though. Military Police still have to go through the civilian police training pipeline, and police departments prefer Infantry veterans. (Yeah. We know.) IT isn’t teaching you anything you couldn’t pay a few hundred dollars for online.

      The list goes on, if you want technical training from the military do not trust the recruiter; ask a veteran. They’ll know who to ask if they don’t know the answer themselves. Obvious alibi for people in poverty who just want that anything going ticket to get out of poverty.