For sure, I just get antsy when peer review doesn’t come from from external sources

Hm, 5 year old journal, with the editor board, funding and half of the authors all from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, but significant hospital contribution. I remain skeptical of the headline but hopeful of the science.

Thanks for understanding and being willing to consider a stranger’s point of view, I appreciate it.

what happened was a logical and known potential outcome and consequence of signing up

It certainly is, but when the burden of responsibility is only placed on the person at the end of the line, it lets the fuckers at the top with the unequal power skirt their responsibility. Perhaps “blame” is too far, but it doss seem like you’ve perhaps disproportionately assigned blame to thus one shouting guy and his kid.

You make it sound as if the choice is binary between starving and joining the military: it’s not.

Not at all, but I do acknowledge that for many, and in increasing amounts, the decision has indeed become very close to that binary. US hegemony relies on people to do the enforcement. That’s obviously dangerous, and thankfully, despite pervasive cultural conditioning, most people aren’t interested in killing others overseas while living in an overcrowded dorm eating slop. So the conditions have been put in place by the ruling class to force people into doing it.

If you’re unlucky enough to be born in Podunk Nowhere, where disaster capitalism has resulted in the only employers being Walmart, mcdonalds or the shady abattoir that “hires” minors, you don’t start with many options. Add in an “education” from a system that has been rotted from within by zealots, complete with in-school army recruiter. Add in a culture that loves guns. Add in a family member in debt from medical accident (probably at the abattoir), or an unplanned pregnancy because of no access to abortion. Maybe they’re also living at home with a parent who is addicted to meth out of desperation to avoid their poverty and misery… and the military starts looking like a very tempting option.

You have the chance of dying and disability in the military, and the likelihood that you’re forced to murder, but also the glimmer of hope of an education, family healthcare and a way out of Podunk’s cycle of poverty. That’s a powerful motivator for someone who doesn’t see any other realistic options. It’s a deliberate funnel into committing murder through economic coercion and military worship culture, and the fault lies with the trap makers, not the trapped.

The only thing that makes the last 80 years different is the efficiency of murder and the new murder weapons they have access to.

And the extent of its reach. A century ago, the US was pretty limited to war on North American soil, and land it claims. When the war is that close, the realities of suffering are hard to conceal from the people whom you need to inflict it. Wars in other continents though can be sanitized by the media, and the people who are caught in the military funnel trap find out after they’ve signed the contract.

Thankfully the prevalence of video tech has allowed us to mitigate some of that media sanitization, but again, putting the burden of responsibility on the 18 year old who has never been taught critical thinking skills allows the 65+ year old networked decision makers at the top to slide off the hook.

Tl;dr I think it’s OK to acknowledge everything on all fronts is fucked for everyone except the ruling class. I also think it’s OK to shout at the ruling class, even in their house, when you were invited to be there.

Blaming the people who need to eat instead of the people creating an economy out of death and misery is counter-productive. US foreign policy and economics have centered around war for at least 80 years, Biden has played a crucial role in facilitating it for a few decades.

And the fact a person has been arrested for shouting at the president in the same location where people literally stormed it and engaged in literal violence and walked away free that day? Amazing.

Biden might be infinitely better than the alternative for most citizens of the US (and likely the entire world) - but the non-US part of the world has been bearing the costs of the US military economy that has provided the privileges US citizens currently enjoy.

But fuck the guy who lost his kid, right? He’s the real problem. /s

Israel Appropriates. Very interesting language.

All the reports Reuters makes on the
Russia war treats land ownership quite differently. When Ukraine takes land they say “Ukraine regains (number)km/ (TownName)”. Russians taking land is either seemingly not reported or phrased as “Russia says its forces have improved positions in / captured (Location)”. Only mentions of Russian gains are phrased to reference killing (forces is a useful homonym). Ukraine gains are phrased as the entire country reclaiming rightful stake (regains implies they were there first, and the region’s history is vastly more complex than that).

Israel headlines though refer to either the entire country “appropriating” space or for the really murderous stuff it specifies the IDF as the perpetrators. The whole country headline versions sound temporary and even morally neutral, while the obviously indefensible genocide can be compartmentalised as only being the military and harsh realities of war. They even get to disconnect the word Israel by only ever saying the initialism IDF.

They’re three different characterisations entirely of the same act by different countries - killing each other to control politically strategic physical space ownership.

I hope one day people can realise we’re all just being used as disposable pawns targeting other humans, who are also just trying to live peacefully in this dystopian civilisation. None of the headlines about suffering ever needed to happen. We all need to stop whatever it is we do that contributes to those who rule us and would have us die for them.

If this surprises people, they’re going to flip when they find that most research is privately funded by people with a vested interest. This is why public science funding is so important, it provides research with an alternate motive. Somewhere in the middle of all the ulterior research motives, public and private, you can find something closer to the truth.