Military recruitment on gaming sites

[AmrasCalmacil]

I haven't seen any of those. Probably because I'm in the UK and considering joining the British Army, so no yankee ads will win me over with their fancy digital camo and M4s.

 

[Brutal Peanut]

Pub club here, I haven't seen an ad in awhile. But meh, it's basically a paid ad just like all the others I ignore all over the interwebs. It's not like it's a requirement to join. They also don't advertise that it's , "just like video games!" And they most certainly could. It would be disgusting and severely untrue, but there isn't really anything stopping them from doing it besides looking like serious assholes and people freaking out at them. But apparently just them advertising anywhere gets some people severely angry. Then again, not 'everyone' gets to join the Army/Marines. Sounds hard to believe, but it's true. Certain things that are considered 'physical impairments' no matter how miniscule they may seem to you - are frowned upon.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

Yep. Exactly the kind of thing I was talking about.

I know, right? It's really inconvenient that some of us read.

How, exactly, are we "crooks"? Yes, the wars in the Middle East might have been ill-advised, but immoral? I don't think so.

If morality were our compass, we'd be declaring all kinds of wars in Africa. But we don't. Because they have fuck-all for money/resources. Probably because the third world owes us (and by "us" I mean IMF/World Bank, which was established entirely by our people with our blessing) all of their money pretty much forever.

No one can give good reason for the war in Iraq because it was economically motivated. Why do you think we're building decidedly non-temporary military installations there? The notion that we'll ever leave that country is fucking hilarious.

And you can't honestly think that our history of imperialism and economic exploitation is the worst one out there. In fact, given the history of every nation on Earth, the U.S. is to be commended on a relative lack of times that it has really screwed anyone over, militarily, economically, or otherwise.

Just because we've dressed it up in the shiny veneer of Wall Street doesn't make it any less destructive. In fact, given our global economy and the exploding population, you could make a very good argument that we're screwing over more people than any superpower in the history of the planet. It's subtle, though. It's not slavery in a traditional sense. It's the coercion of capitalism - the compulsion of consumerism and the promise of the "free market".

In other words: make our shit for pennies on the dollar or we'll move those jobs to the country next door.

You don't get to wield that kind of economic might without pissing everyone off.

It's late, and I'm losing my train of thought (which, admittedly, was already hard to follow). Point is, you are blowing the injustices that the United States has committed way out of porportion. You think that just because we're the popular country to hate, then we must really be the bad guys, and are assuming that all the selfish little things we've done in the past makes us a horrible country. You are so very wrong, and yet your attitude is so very common in the modern world.

Yeah, 95% of the world must be wrong. It's the 50% of this country that keeps voting Republican who truly know what's going on...

We're not Nazi Germany. We're not imperialist England. But is the world supposed to look at past atrocities and say "Hey, these Americans aren't even half that bad! We should thank our lucky stars!" What the hell kind of attitude is that?

Evolutionary brain-teaser: is it even possible to become the biggest, baddest country in the world without being greedy, corrupt, and violent?

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

As opposed to what other country? You singling the US out for a reason, or do you not realise that every country on the planet looks out for themselves?

I single out the US because they're the leading nation in the current destructive paradigm - and because we've got one giant obsession with constantly declaring that we're the greatest nation on earth. It borders on pathological.

Remember those many times FieryTranwreck imposed his set of morals and understanding of present conflicts onto the Escapist?

Rah rah go team yes yes nationalism for the triumph. It's painfully funny coming from a nation so purportedly enamored with individualism.

I'll take my "stream of consciousness" ball and go home now.

 

[remedyX]

As opposed to what other country? You singling the US out for a reason, or do you not realise that every country on the planet looks out for themselves?

I single out the US because they're the leading nation in the current destructive paradigm - and because we've got one giant obsession with constantly declaring that we're the greatest nation on earth. It borders on pathological.

Remember those many times FieryTranwreck imposed his set of morals and understanding of present conflicts onto the Escapist?

Rah rah go team yes yes nationalism for the triumph. It's painfully funny coming from a nation so purportedly enamored with individualism.

I'll take my "stream of consciousness" ball and go home now.

Do I have to respond in haiku?

You stated your reasons
They don't fit...
I'm not American

/In retrospect I'm no poet and I regret that.

 

[JackWestJr]

Remember how many people ran out and enlisted after they saw this?


Really? Huh, it was all over the news. In fact, it's the only precedent in existence that provides conclusive evidence of people being led to believe by the media that the military is a powertrip of murder and invincibility (before the government-funded interactive propaganda tools such as Call of Duty or Battlefield hit the scene). When most people watch movies like this (with the obvious exception of this one example), they go "that looks like fun, but I should really keep in mind that this is, after all, just a movie, and therefore unlikely to be an accurate representation of a potential career choice".

Gamers, however, are a feeble-minded and unrealistic breed. When they play Call of Duty, the fact that the gun on the screen fires every time they pull the controller's trigger completely overrides their discretion, and instead of saying "the military probably isn't like this video game at all", or "hey, I just realized that I probably don't operate a rifle with a thumbstick", they immediately conclude "HOLY FUCKING SHIT DID YOU SEE ME SHOOT THAT GUY IN THE HEAD, WHY ISN'T SEAL TEAM SIX HERE WITH A GROUP OF SUPERMODELS AND OZZY OSBOURNE TO RECRUIT MY AWESOMENESS INTO THE CORPS OF WANTON MURDER AND UNSPECIALIZED DESTRUCTION". This sad phenomenon leaves gamers especially susceptible to advertisements from the armed forces, and is effectively predatory marketing by deliberately exploiting the stupidity of your average gamer.

Thus, it is utterly disgusting that the armed forces would dare to attempt passive recruiting on a gaming site where nobody is cognizant enough to know the difference between reality... and games where bullets only kill you if enough of them hit you within a small frame of time, unfired bullets warp from ejected magazines and appear in the magazines yet to be utilized, and your friends cannot die until a particularly dramatic moment even if you shoot them yourself.

You wouldn't happen to be American would you

It would just explain how assholey and ignorant you are being. Seriously, I don't think ONE person falls into the group of people that you have just ranted on.

 

[Snowy Rainbow]

Doesn't bother me in the slightest. I think most of the ads are pretty stupid, really.