• it is in existence for many decades, multiple generations
  • culture as a whole is integrated with the military via conscription, then many related employment opportunities later in life
  • military not some sort of symbolic peacetime standby thing, but a way where majority of citizens are indoctrinated and jumped in as children or very young adults.
  • israel has enjoyed almost a century of careful special treatment despite their crimes and atrocities being widely known since day dot
  • immense internal/external propaganda force
  • fake it til you make it – the fascist method of reality. rather than discovering truth, as with science, you create it. israel being a prime example.
    • MerryJaneDoe [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      2·
      7 days ago

      Can’t speak for their source, but here’s what I found:

      Over 60 percent of 2016 enlistments came from neighborhoods with a median household income between $38,345 and $80,912. The quintiles below and above that band were underrepresented, with the poorest quintile providing 19 percent of the force and the richest Americans enlisting at a rate of 17 percent…Over the last 20 years as civilian wages plateaued, military compensation for the post-9/11 force steadily increased.

      A mid-grade enlisted sailor, soldier, or airman (at an E5 paygrade) made 10 percent less than the median American in 2000 and at the time was eligible for food stamps. By 2011, service members of the same rank were making 10 percent more than the median American, even without including benefits.

      The article is a bit short on analysis, but it seems like the standards for Army recruits were raised and the pay was also raised. So, these days, an army grunt makes a bit more than the average middle class civilian would make.

      https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-the-u-s-military-became-the-exception-to-americas-wage-stagnation-problem/#%3A~%3Atext=Over+60+percent+of+2016%2Ca+rate+of+17+percent.

      • hellinkilla [they/them, they/them]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
        1·
        6 days ago

        It makes sense if you consider that low income people are more likely to be in situations that are disqualifying or making it difficult to join the armed forces. For example to be tangled up in legal issues, non citizens, lower literacy/education, health inequalities.

        E.g. https://www.goarmy.com/how-to-join/requirements:

        Asthma will only prevent you from joining if you were diagnosed with it after your 13th birthday.

        All that means is that the person didn’t have as good health care as a child.

        Also that page is saying a highschool diploma is required and there is a limited number of spaces for people who have GEDs instead of regular diplomas.

        So on the population level, lots of low income people will be filtered out and directed away on all these basis.