#anyway im very much a pacifist if it wasnt obvious | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bananonbinary · 1 year

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the ideas around "mental fitness" surrounding the military is fascinating to me. like, they have mandatory counselors and shit and send you home if you're too unpredictable, but part of the express purpose of basic training is to destroy you mentally and condition you to follow orders without question. "break you down and build you up again." they want you broken, but in a very specific way where they can use you, and if you break in any other ways, THEN they declare you "unfit."

as if seeing and actively causing death every day could possibly leave anyone mentally okay. as if following orders blindly even when you know it's morally contemptible isn't an obviously wildly unhealthy mindset. as if it's even POSSIBLE to try and cultivate that mindset above all else AND promote "mental fitness."

#anyway im very much a pacifist if it wasnt obvious #humans arent built to do war. even seeing ONE death fucks you up severely #our minds cant handle being surrounded by it like that #and yes obviously that means more for the civilians of countries ravaged by war #but im not trying to say 'uwu poor soldiers' i am trying to say it simply is not tenable #ive never heard of a soldier that didnt have ptsd its literally part of the job that people break down after a short while #and you need to replace them with more #this is not specific to the american military either #its the one im most familiar with but zero militaries are able to be a death machine AND mentally okay

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