A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers at a briefing Monday that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that Pres. Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” according to a complaint by a non-commissioned officer.
From Saturday morning through Monday night, more than 110 similar complaints about commanders in every branch of the military had been logged by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).
The complaints came from more than 40 different units spread across at least 30 military installations, the MRFF told me Monday night.
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That seems to be the answer for everything on this site. I left reddit because I didn’t like all of the doom scrolling, nihilistic, bullshit posts, yet they’re here too now.
It’s definitely aimed at promoting learned helplessness.
I’m convinced it’s part of state sponsored propaganda and influence campaigns. The tactic is to always belittle any idea, frame everything as pointless, and divide opposition.
So many comments like, “if you can’t even get people to go vote, how do you think they’ll resist?”
I’m tired of it. I think the only way to combat it is to set up heavily moderated areas where cynicism is flagged and removed. But man, even that’s a slippery slope, to easy for mods to take over to enforce discussion only around what they want.
But however it’s going to be done, I want people ready to act. And stop with this cynical, defeatist BS.
Exactly. And ideas don’t have to be perfect to be functional. Or at least a good starting point.
Cynicism seems smart even when it’s not. That seems to be the way it works, and I think I read it’s been shown scientifically.
I’m deeply cynical in the ancient meaning of the term (and not in the ancient literal meaning of living like a dog): based on long experience, I am convinced that people are largely motivated by their (self-perceived) self-interest. I’ve met a few people with other motivations, but they’re prominent in my memory because of their rarity.
But that doesn’t mean I’m checked out: I just know that there’s a continuing struggle to counter that pro-nihilist brainwashing.
Beat me to it. I would love to have some place where I could go without having to read anything about US related.
I dont mind the presence of these articles. I like to be in the know. I like the opportunity to engage in a constructive nuanced discussion that you can no longer find on Reddit, and can be found in abundance on Lemmy.
What effects me most is that, whether honest (human), not (bots) or covert (intelligence agencies), the defeatism, acceptance and obeyance in advance is the fundamental barrier to meaningful change. It catches, it spreads and it demoralises. It is the boot on our collective necks.
We need to be more mindful of spreading our nihilism to each other, unless we’re happy being part of the problem. More solutions, more raising each other up, less wallowing.
I agree with you, but the usual “absolutely nothing can be done except armed insurrection” you see here is just another flavor of the same doomerism.
That might be where we have to go. But even that will fail without solidarity, organization and clear ideas of what will replace the current, evil and corrupt system.
It’s not even just US related subjects though. There was just a post the other day about physical media(photos, dvds, etc.) and I posted a comment detailing pricing out a local NAS so you can backup your shit to it(because physical media can get destroyed) and replies I got were the whole “digital stuff can get destroyed too”, “ransomware”, “it’s about the experiences! you can’t have that with digital!”, “prices are CRAZY for computer stuff!”(even though I linked products at reasonable prices and people said it isn’t that price anymore, CLICK THE LINK DUMBASS!).
And it’s all an asinine argument because you can DO BOTH. Have your physical photos AND back them up digitally.
It’s all or nothing with some people and it’s infuriating. It feels like I’m arguing with children over ice cream flavors. Yeah, chocolate is good, but I prefer strawberry and then it devolves into “CHOCOLATE ONLY FOR EVERYONE!”.
Stupid either/or thinking seems to be getting increasingly prevalent. I think it’s being promoted to train us to not think in a nuanced, resilient way. It’s like their goal is learned pseudo-autism.