Oddbean

Is it just a “coincidence” that the day after the US house passes an act automatically registering men aged 18 - 26 in “selective service” ie - draft, that my 16 year son comes to me saying that signing up for the military looks “fun”. As the propaganda and war machine ramps up, and social media channels/AI is used to manipulate minds and control the agenda, talk to your kids - openly and often about their thoughts. Ps - It was a good reinforcement lesson for my son that his own thoughts are being manipulated. (He thought he was immune because we often talk about it as a family) file:///var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments/99/09/968C4460-DD17-4B6D-8778-BEDAC4728133/IMG_1749.jpeg

Jeff, I'm at the stage of guiding my grandchildren through these propaganda traps, and I'm glad to hear you're keeping in close communication with your teen on these matters!🙏🏻🫂😆💖👍

Time to play Bob Dylan Masters of War on repeat for the next two years. Imagine signing away your free will to an organization that can and will command you to take another life or lay down yours without ever having to justify why.

my dad was military, his dad was NYPD, and they always preached the importance of serving. While they truly thought they were serving the people, they both served the state faithfully. Somehow I turned out to be a bitcoiner and on nostr. the universe is a strange place.

Have grace with your father and grandfather. The biggest tragedy of the military industrial complex is they prey upon the best and most idealistic young men who care deeply about ideals such as duty and serving others and exploit it to serve the masters end goals. That to me is the most sickening part of the system. What goes into the system is our nation’s best sons and what comes out is a broken man.

Pardon my French but what the fuck? Is this a new bill? Can’t find on Google and your image upload didn’t seem to work (try uploading to nostr.build and using that hosting link, if your nostr client doesn’t automatically render images)

@CODED SHADOWS <---- I wrote this specifically to keep the flames of Freedom, Bravery and critical thinking ablaze for teens and young adults! This is *the* generational story for this! 🔥⚡️🤙⚡️🔥🤙

So, today I learned that the ACLU filed a case with the Supreme Court on gender discrimination because only men are asked to register for draft when they turn 18 and women aren't. Rather than fighting for the individual freedom of men to not register for draft, the ACLU is arguing women should also be required to register for draft 🤯 By the way: this new act is unlikely to make it to the Senate floor, because it contains many other amendments Democrats don't like.

Speaking from somebody that fell for this type of propaganda and served in Afghanistan, war leads to more war, hatred and loss of innocent lives. I joined under a misguided belief I was doing good in the world but now I’d advise any child (including my own) to focus on building towards a free and peaceful society. Killing each other isn’t the answer, the sooner we realise that the better.

The best defense against manipulation is an independent thinker. I have 3 boys (18-16-14). I've tried to instill in all my children to be cautious of your own thoughts and make sure they are yours. A good simple test we would do is ask yourself "if I lived in the woods by myself with no one else around would I still want this thing or believe this idea?" That can start to give some perspective of where the idea stemmed from.

i feel for you and every parent out there in the same place. the day we get to see beyond imaginary borders and flags will be the day we unite as citizens of the planet. we are never all going to get along but i am sure we can see that we are all trying to look after our families. not so different really. it's ironic that one of the greatest fighters was also the greatest pacifist. sacrificing everything to stand against war. rip Muhammed Ali. wishing the best for you and yours - everywhere GM 🙃

to be honest i regret not doing a tour in the sandbox out of curiosity. most of us know nothing about whats actually going on over there. i say this as an anarchist with a passionate disdain for the military

@Bitcoin Veterans would be happy to enlighten you. We were all pawns of the murder cult but now we have a way to fight for true freedom without shedding blood. Slow death of starvation to the time thieves. We need to spill their blood, just to guard our time so the parasites can starve.

Fuck war. Do not let then take you sons and duaghters. nostr:nevent1qqs045r455l62u6v48spyu6wqd5zrz5q9zhcu7lc4fclwlm0msj9xdgpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wd68ytnzvuhsygyraqvdl0kvafttpa232a4nl5u60fgwrkq4jdp4qqmglgy9envkfvpsgqqqqqqs55dfsy

This is the playbook. I was part of the Army recruiting machine for over 3 years. We can anticipate forced retention of current service members, and continually increased enlistment incentives to attract new ones. Then a major threat will appear (think Pearl Harbor or 9/11) justifying limited conscription at first, then en masse.

Hey Jeff....hope to someday meet you in person, but thanks for sharing that. So my son turned 18 a couple months ago (and they registered him at his high school without my knowledge anyway 2 days after he turned 18, so might as well have been automatic). But I keep up on current issues pretty well, but did not know about this. So the day it passed, he comes out to me all freaked out that he is being drafted, and brings his registration number out to me (which we received in the mail about a month ago). Now I will say I'm not against the military if he wanted to sign up, and has even talked with some recruiters. I won't get into all that. But like you said, I have had previous talks with him about it all, and where our country is, and that day after looking into what had passed, we had another talk. So my point is he knew about it before I did which rarely happens, and not that he is "against" joining the military per se....he is (and so am I) against him being drafted, and he was freaked out as I said. Just goes to show like what you were saying, they are really pushing to control what happens. I have more to say about the matter, but will leave it there and just say thanks for being a voice in the space.

I agree to an extent. The world is where it is, and if you let down your defenses someone WILL take advantage. Those are the current rules, and even in a more peaceful world there will always be someone waiting to prey on weakness. BUT, we as people have zero say in WHEN to fight. They use our money and productivity to fund wars that benefit only a tiny number of powerful peoples, and now they need our sons and daughters to man the guns and get blown to pieces too. Fuck that! If you want me or my family to fight, if you want my money (productivity and time) I want to know and agree on what exactly we're fighting for.

here is an example for you to think. I'm ukranian, I lived in Kharkiv. russia invaded my country. part of kharkiv which is close to russian border were destroyed heavily, (northen saltivka - in case if you want to search and check). at the time I lived like 15 minutes walk from that area. for two weeks I lived in basement. russia says there no ukranians, there are no ukraine, (watch putin carlson interview). so - can you say that it is just ukrainian government who sending people to fight just to make money? in fact, i don't need my government to have incentives to fight russia. because I see in my own eyes how they destroying my city and country. in fact, I have no choice but to fight. because if russia occupies all ukraine I'm personally wil be dead for my beliefs. So either fight or flight. so, to add more craziness to all this - I hear here phrases like "funding foreign war". but in fact, just maybe, those patriot systems from US probably saved my life when russia trying to hit our cities with rockets. my conclusion btw about this sort of talks is like - never ever say "abstract good phrases". instead, learn something real and try to understand all sides. in this case you will be more balanced and real. because some time bitcoiners feels like cult to me with all this "bitcoin fixes everything"

'War is a civilization sickness' Just as a doctor diagnoses an illness, societies need to identify the root causes of war, such as greed, national pride, religious zeal, inequality, injustice, and lack of education.