Why is the military the go-to career choice for so many advice-wielding civilians?

Because of the disgusting hero worship in america for the military, and its quasi religious status.
When you become a state employed murderous scumbag soldier, you automatically become some sort of demi-messiah and hero who deserves unquestioning love and devotion from everyone.

@livelaughlove21: “Is this a southern thing, or does it happen all over the US?”

This does not happen here in Massachusetts – at least in middle/upper middle class communities. I have never heard of this.

My father was in the military. He signed up after a girlfriend dumped him and he had no plan for the future. His family was devastated, and considered it a type of suicide. After nearly getting killed in Vietnam, he always stressed that he would never want me in the military.

It is more of Southern and red state-rural thing. It has to do with people who consider those who are still finding their way as needing “direction” and discipline.

f someone who is 19 or 20 can’t figure out what to do, some people figure they should go into a system that does not allow individual thought.

@zenvelo I get it now as a 24-year-old college senior with very clear goals. It’s so frustrating to have people tell me my plans are shit and I should drop everything and join the military, especially when it comes from people who have never served.

The military would chew me up and spit me out. I wouldn’t even make it through basic, and that’s clear from looking at me.

Everyone gets hired and on the whole it is not boring.

@funkdaddy Not everyone gets hired. I know a young man who has been trying for several years to get in.

Over here it’s used as the lowest option available, for those without qualifications & verry little skill sets. Kind of like this, “Well there’s always the army.”

Same as @ucme, it’s a fall back, or it’s for people who truly want to serve, which I respect.
I tried and was rejected due to my poor vision and flat feet..lol

Not to put down the military at all, the British army is the best in the world don’t argue, it just is & there are tons of trades within the armed forces, it’s not all shooty, shooty bang bang.

I just love @ragingloli. (s)he says what I’m thinking so I don’t have to.

The military is an employer that will “hire” people who could never get into college (whether for academic or financial reasons) and give them skills that are allegedly (but rarely actually) useful in the civilian world while giving you free room and board and full medical.

But advice to join is usually given by people who either have no idea about the military, or the rare veteran that made their service worthwhile. The only real use I’ve had for my service is to fill a 5-year blank spot on my employment history.

@jerv They told me, “Join the Navy, and see the world!” I found out the world is flat and covered with water!

I apologize, didn’t qualify my comment. I was just trying to say there’s not a huge interview process involved, if you can check all the boxes, you’re in. My dad didn’t get in due to high frequency deafness in one ear, go figure.

further qualification, I don’t mean you have to physically check any boxes ~

one more, there may be someone who checks those boxes, but it doesn’t have to be you, unless they tell you to, and then you absolutely have to do it ~

I think you should be ashamed for that. But what do I know?

You want to try to find a job these days? It’s free food and a place to live and maybe you’ll learn something. It’s either that or jail for a lot of kids anymore.

@DWW25921 Jail and the military are whose only two options? Not mine, and not anyone with any kind of direction in life.

@livelaughlove21 What of those who live in worse off areas that only see poverty or corruption? How much of a chance do some really have?

@DWW25921 Ask the people that got out of their situation without jail or the military. Those obviously weren’t their only options.

@livelaughlove21 I live in West Virginia. Obama is making life very hard, miners are out of jobs… People are moving away. There is nothing here. Those ARE the only options if you can’t afford to get out…

@DWW25921 Those are your only options when you tell yourself that’s the case.

And anyway, I’m not sure what this has to do with my question. I never said the military was a bad career choice and no one should do it. My point is that it shouldn’t be the default career advice for everyone you come into contact with.

@livelaughlove21 My point is that when it’s the only positive choice in a world of negativity you take it.

@livelaughlove21 Poverty should never be a default choice either, but not all of us lead that sort of charmed life, just as not all who get shot or struck by lightning live to tell of their near-death experience. Choice plays less of a role in real-life than in “thinking makes it so” fantasy land.

@josie – me?

@jerv Poverty is never a choice, first of all. And if poverty truly only gave young people two choices (jail or military), no one would ever make it out any other way. As for my charmed life – excuse my French, but you don’t know jack shit about where I came from.

@livelaughlove21 And you don’t know where I came from. But if insist that everything is a choice, I will choose to call you delusional. You and I were lucky enough to grow up poor in a time/place where there were other options, but not all have the same options we and our families did.

@jerv Everything is a choice, huh? Children choose to be born into poverty?

…and I still don’t get what this inane argument has to do with my question.

Inane arguing should be a category here, i’m sure it would be surprisingly popular.

@ucme Agreed. It seems to be an epidemic.

@livelaughlove21 If you don’t understand then our worldviews are different enough that you, through no fault of your own, cannot understand any answer I can give. It’s human nature to find things that defy one’s preconceived notions to be incomprehensible.

Since you cannot understand how it is that many feel their options limited to jail or enlistment and have refuted that it’s even possible to be in a situation where that is true, then nobody else can answer your question either; you answered it yourself many years ago when you formed your opinions on how the world works.

/thread

@jerv It wasn’t a reflection on your current spat, just a general observation.

@jerv The point is that this was never my question. Did you even read it?

And I suppose that, if we disagree, the only explanation is that you’re right and I’m wrong. After all, perception is reality.

@ucme I know. I’ve made the same observations at other forums and in countless Facebook threads.

@livelaughlove21 I understood the question; you didn’t understand the answer. As for who is right or wrong, neither of us is objective enough to really tell.