• Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    Or he was a soldier in war, doing what many soldiers do in battle when trained to do horrible things and unapologetically does horrible things. Comes back with PTSD about the horrible things they did and turns a new leaf with treatment. Sees they did horrible things because of the war machine and capitalism, wants to change the govt so the war machine and capitalism can burn.

    Support those who can change and want change, burn down those who want status quo, status quo gets you Nazis and those on the other side who want strongly worded letters and small steps away from the right.

        • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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          1 day ago

          In a personal letter? In years of therapy to repair his mind of the PTSD? In a video apology?

          Yes? That would at least be something. Right now this whole, “actually, he regrets what he did” thing is just typical liberal fanfiction of projecting what you want to be true onto politicians who don’t deserve it. It’s the same shit with “Kamala is secretly pro-Palestine (despite consistently denying it)” line.

          Wanting something to be true doesn’t make it true.

          Probably the best sign of him being progressive is that he didn’t spend longer in Blackwater* after seeing the private military overcharge the govt for services.

          …What? Is that the problem you have with Blackwater?

          • Ginnie_VaCoincidence@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Have you been to see him in person? Unfortunately I was sick yesterday so a big crowd didn’t seem like a good idea but I have watched most of his town hall videos on YouTube. Have you watched any?

            • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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              1 day ago

              I live over a thousand miles away from Maine, so no, I have not seen him in person. And I haven’t watched his town halls, no.

              If you have a clip where he expresses regret about his time as a mercenary, I’d be happy to watch it.

              • Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca
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                10 hours ago

                https://youtu.be/dyN5B8_MQfA

                I’m not on twitter or whatever platform he is on so here is Kyle of Secular Talk reading his message about how he feels about his time in uniform. It starts at around 4:45 into the video.

                It doesn’t seem specific to the time as a PMC but as military in general. He was an ambassador guard as a PMC so he might not have actually seen any action during that time.

                • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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                  7 hours ago

                  Thanks. I stand somewhat corrected in that there is some basis for saying he’s regretful.

                  Some people (myself included) have extremely negative feelings about the US military, and the people who serve in it. For us, soldiers are worse than cops, and the bar for accepting a former soldier into a leadership position is high, even impossible for some. I see things like “I loved the infantry,” next to “Nothing disgusts me more than my participation in imperial adventures,” and it seems like there’s a bit of ambiguity in that which people might read in different ways.

                  Not living in Maine, I’ll just maintain a position of detached skepticism. That way, everyone can be mad at me.

                  • Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca
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                    3 hours ago

                    It’s probably pretty easy while you are in the army to feel like you love what you are doing. They strip down your individuality during basic and build you up to be part of a team. Your life and your teams lives are in each other’s hands so you love and trust these people, you suffer loss and victory together so you feel a part of something stronger than anything you probably ever experienced.

                    It isn’t until you get out that you can look back and see that every loss and victory was just bodies thrown into a meat grinder and the mixture of “enemies” and “friends” just changes the war sausage that day.