Army recruiters in your school that somehow use social media to contact you?
Institutionalised creepiness.
Wait until you see “career day” at school.
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We had a recruiter 20 years ago. The kids are smarter these days tho it seems.
I went to college in my 30s and got texts and calls from recruiters for months. I never knowingly gave my contact info to them, so I’m assuming they got it from the school.
Did you sign up for FAFSA?
Yeah. I guess that’s how they got my info.
I don’t know, I’m just speculating, because I only started getting contacted by recruiters around that same time, but it could be from colleges too.
Yep. They’ll tell you if you ask. I got a text and asked the chick, and she said the schools straight up give them the list.
I wish I was asked to join the army, but no. They just send me a letter and then expect me to join. If I don’t, they will drag me there by force. The whole ordeal would be easier if they just did it like this and I could send a meme saying that I don’t want to join.
Nice.
When I was in high school and I replied to the appearance of an army recruiter in my social studies class I objected to his presence there with the phrase, “surely you don’t think it’s appropriate for you to be here recruiting impressionable youth to bomb brown people in the name of fascism?” My teacher made me stand in the hallway and gave me a “0” on the days quiz. There was no fucking quiz.
You’ll probably be shipped off to Africa at some point. America isn’t interested in oil anymore, it’s all about them minerals so we can build them high tech weapons.
Bro everything in our life revolves around oil. Also American ‘energy independence’ is a myth. But yes, minerals are also important.
No, America is energy independent, its allies and trading partners are not, that is why the US cares about global oil availability.
Probably. China is investing heavily in several African countries. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a proxy conflict or “police action” there. However, we’re going to have to extricate ourselves from our China Dependency more first before we engage in conflict. Them squeezing our supply lines wouldn’t go well. That’s what happens when profits overrule national security.
Profits are national security.
May sound hyperbolic but with the way our economy is set up…
To an extent you’re right, and that matches what I’m saying. Those same profits that preventing aggression are the same ones tying our hands behind our backs. When your profit offshores your ability to keep many systems running thanks to things like computer chips, clothing, some food, medications, car parts…it’s a big fucking deal because the country making those things for you has you by the proverbial balls.
But it’s profitable for the oligarchs.
Hell, just the other day, I found out the 120mm cannon on the Abrams is a German design that we bought the rights to manufactured ourselves. We get more than just materials and parts from other countries. And it hamstrings us from involving ourselves in certain conflicts, which seems counterproductive. Especially when China is just as aggressive as we are on the world stage, while peace with them has also been one of our largest assets.
I’m one of those weird people that thinks war history is interesting as hell, but also hates these resource wars and our involvement in them as a country. Fighting back the Germans in order to save the world is one thing. Flying jets over countries that don’t even build jet aircraft, hailing gunfire and bombs down upon people that may not even have internal plumbing in some places, is shameful and greedy. Attempting to convince children to join in that gruesome national passtime should get you labeled as a groomer and ostracized from society. I don’t care how many jobs in the military don’t involve killing poor brown people. It all supports the act, regardless.
And don’t get me started on the horrific amount of SA and murder cover-ups that happen in our military.
Vibranium is where it’s at
Sorry, I’m looking for that Unobtainium.
Vibranium = Gold, Tin, Tantalum and Tungsten which are all essential in microchip manufacturing, but yes.
i went to a high school that had a JROTC program so having a recruiter was extremely expected for me, but forthem to send unsolicited recruitment texts lol? yall go to some sussy ass schools
I remember when the Xbox 360 came out, I was in high school.
The army brought a Ford Excursion that looked fresh off the Pimp my Ride show, with a huge flat screen that flipped down out of the back, 4 huge subs, and the current football game playing.
You could only play the Xbox if you signed up.
I’m surprised they didn’t have America’s Army running there. That used to be a great game.
Wow what the fuck
Man that is creepy. Some “I have candy in my van” vibes.
Literally an idiot trap
The recruiting office near me has a huge portable climbing wall.
What in the actual fuck
School recruiters are basically practicing pedophiles. They disgust me. They:
- hunt for vulnerable children, who might be more prone to complying due to trauma or disability or even just recent social happenings or baseline teenage angst
- try to talk to them one on one so adults won’t interfere
- entice them with treats or games or other such things
- try to convince the kids to agree to do something they don’t yet understand
The SOP of a school recruiter and that of a practicing pedophile are so similar that I wonder how many of the latter are created after someone has been the prior simply due to how the job demands you to operate and consider the kids as just resources… or how often the prior becomes a career path for the latter simply to justifiably increase their access to children.
Back in the late 2000s, I got pulled in to the office in high school because I told the recruiter visiting the school that he was a massive piece of shit and needed to stay away from me and my friends if he knew what was good for him. I said this after he sat down near me and, idk, tried to bond? By calling my female friend that left “a real hottie” and tried poorly to insinuate I could probably seal the deal if I was a hot army boy. Baseline revolting statement from an adult to a child for one, I’m gay for two, she was lesbian for three… so I said what I said and apparently my words were sufficiently hurtful that he ran to the admin to cry about it and I got told off because that kind of language and sentiment is unacceptable towards someone “just doing their job” at the school. They found no issue at the time with his ingratiation technique, though I never saw him again.
Everything about your story is just wow. It’s the exact sort of story you hear in gay bars in the city the rural folk flee to
And yeah I can’t disagree with your points. Recruiters are actively seeking kids out to get them traumatized or killed. Good on you for telling one off
While in my country, some recruitee bribe the recruiter to be able to join…
When i was in high school 2003, my physics class devoted an entire period to a military recruiter… Sufficed to say, only the redneck kids were interested.
That’s mostly what they’re looking for anyways. They don’t want educated people who question the world around them, they want connon fodder.
Yeah they want dumbasses running their nuclear submarines and troubleshooting electronics.
Only like ten percent of the military is infantry.
Those people they just entice with crazy checks and promises of leaving academia
Irrelevant, the original point was that they don’t want people who think, they want cannon fodder. As if people who can’t think would be capable of running a shop or leading technically minded people in workflows and processes that will affect missions weeks away. That’s just at the E-4/5 level, not even close to officers. If you can’t think in the military you’ll forever be bottom of the barrel, because planning and forethought is required for virtually all leadership roles beyond E-3.
90% of the military is in a field that has a direct civilian equivalent and is considered skilled work needing at least average intelligence and in most cases above. Most of the people shitting on the military in this thread couldn’t even hack half of the jobs the military needs people for.
Those guys that run the nuclear subs and electronics are 0.1% and the rest are grunt workers or data entry.
We had literally thousands of people going to school for electronics and various maintenance fields at any given time, it’s not even close to 0.1%. More like 20-30%.
Out of 1.4 million I’ll give ya the thousands in electronics but it ain’t 20%
Thousands in training at any one time, there’s tens of thousands actually in the fleet.
You think over 200000 people are high level tech people in the military? Lol
They don’t want dumbasses there either. Turns out when your war is a silent game of hide and seek where the loser dies you have to be kind of smart.
I know that to be true, but if someone is claiming all enlisted personnel are window lickers the best way to prove them wrong immediately is to focus on the technical skill of the average servicemen.
Yeah infantry tactics aren’t for the stupid, not in modern wars at least. Advanced weapon systems and battlefield strategy require someone of reasonable intellect.
It’s creepy that they’re allowed to text children without their express consent. Assuming that this is a real text exchange and that OOP didn’t wilfully give the recruiter their number earlier.
When I was a senior in high school back in the 2000’s I got multiple cold calls from Army recruiters. I have no doubt that they’ve moved on to texting, and that this is legitimate.
Yep. Cold calls, emails, texts, whatever they could get their hands on all through my senior year in high school and at least my first two years of college. Not to mention their tables in the high school cafeteria, at robotics competitions, my engineering university’s job fairs. Don’t remember how I got them off my back, I might have just aged out of their main target cohort, but my mom likes to talk about how she told them she was pregnant (because she was lol) and they never contacted her again. Do with that information what you will.
So they’re old enough to decide to join the military but not old enough to handle receiving an unsolicited message on social media?
You can join the military before you can drink. This country doesn’t make sense.
At least you can’t get drafted before you’re old enough to vote anymore.
It makes perfect sense when you remember that the worth of human life and ethics aren’t factored in when people decide how the country works.
Sounds like you support actual grooming.
It’s not about “handling” anything. Not sure how you inferred that from my post.
Are you okay with army recruiters having your child’s cell phone number without their express consent?
When I was in high school our home phone number was published in the phone book and military recruiters called it a few times when I was getting close to finishing high school.
I’m not giving my kid a cell phone if I think them having it would endanger them. If unsolicited phone calls endanger them they shouldn’t have a cell phone. They should know what information shouldn’t be given out to strangers over the phone, on a call or via message. They should know how to block numbers and recognize calls that are best left to voicemail, &c.
Recruiters start working you long before you’re old enough to join.
We usually call that grooming.
Recruiters groom children to kill.
Yup. I graduated high school at 17 and they were after me those last two years, at least. I was told I could have any job I wanted in the Navy due to my test scores. It was flattering and tempting.
We were all told we could have any job because our test scores were high. Come to find out that was a lie and while they might look at what you want to do, they’ll put you where they need you.
Why didn’t you pick like Fleet Admiral and then decommissioned all the ships before promptly quitting?
I guess they probably do now because like 90% of high school grads have or did something that makes them ineligible to join and if they want more recruits they need to get students to not do things that make them ineligible and that might mean reaching out more than six months before they’re old enough to join.
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90% would be ineligible? how come?
The largest reasons are lack of physical fitness or criminal convictions
Also recruiters can’t or don’t want to recruit teens on ADHD or mood meds. If you can’t be an effective fighter without medicine they don’t want to find that out in the middle of a fight.
They did when I was in school and that was like 25 years ago
Not that it matters too much but it looks like Instagram or Facebook direct message
I’m going to college right now and I’ve been getting messages from recruiters lately. They literally text me from their work numbers now.
Back in the early 2000’s I had a recruiter call my house asking for me, creepy AF.
This is Facebook messenger or instagram, either way public profiles
Not really any better. Soliciting (presumably) high school students via their phone or via social media is fucked up.
Point being the text exchange doesn’t require consent, as the profiles are publicly accessible. Nothing to do with whether it’s right/wrong.
The comment you responded to said it was “creepy”, not that it wasn’t allowed. That it’s allowed doesn’t make it any less messed up, and looking to argue semantics in this discussion and divert it onto trivialities just paints you as sympathetic to the practice or actively looking to aid it.
So, exactly what you’re doing right now?
Calling out your bs diversionary response. This one too. And at this point I will stop engaging you and recommend everyone else do so as well, as you have illustrated wonderfully that you’re not interested in actually discussing anything meaningful.
Wait till OP hears about mandatory service in other countries.
Lol that’s what I was going to say.
There’s nothing wrong with mandatory military service if your military doesn’t pick fights with everyone else’s.
There very much is.
For starters, should things actually go south, they’ll send you to war. I don’t want nor plan to partake in this festival of turning people into slabs of bloody meat. I’m an aggressively pacifist civilian, and fuck everybody who tries to turn me into a soldier.
Second, no work should be mandatory. Turning it into a “duty” is essentially stealing my autonomy and forcing me to do things against my will. This is institutionalized slavery.
I mean, the US doesn’t. It just drone strikes them. Picking a fight presumes it’s a fair fight.
Voluntarily discipline style camps sure.
Mandatory would backfires on me. I am happy to help but to command my body around requires my consent and respect for my pacifist boundaries.
I think the US would be a lot better off with a mandatory period of service. Not exclusively military, but an option between that and some kind of civil service. I think it would do a lot to bring the country together.
Yes there is, because forced labor is slavery.
I’m of the opinion that when a democracy forces you into the military there will be no democracy left to defend
Well, depends.
Note that US military history picks me from trusting them in this fashion, but if mandatory military service were: -severely limited term -purely domestic (prepare for defense from active attacks, relief, and rescue) -not used in any vaguely law enforcement capacity.
Then I could see that as possibly reasonable.
Of course I’d be skeptical that a nation would display that sort of restraint, but just saying I could imagine a hypothetical that included that
Have you seen the Nordics? They manage both pretty well.
Do the kids of the ownership classes also have to serve with the rest of the grunts? Or are they sectioned off to champaign units the way George W. Bush did his Coast Guard tour? Or given exception like for Trump’s bone spurs?
If aristocrats are on the front line with the of the enlisted, there might be better regard for vets.
I wonder if those countries also face the same degrees of top-down abuse and sexual assault for which the US Army is reputed.
War is Hell, but the US armed forces have more special hells than Big Trouble in Little China
My school’s recruiter specifically targeted athletes. Like I’m trying to get a college scholorship, not join the ROTC
Our recruiters held pull-up competitions to see who could do the most during lunch. Sad if you think about it…the winners get to be pressured to join the military since they show good athletic ability.
Oh whoops, I suddenly seem unable to do a single pull up, guess I win.
“you need to improve your physical strength, i have just the thing that can help you”
Treat these guys like the scum they are. “Oh cool what does ssg stand for? Sucky sucky guy?”
and they wonder why they’re considered a nation of fuckin rednecks
