askchapo

23090 readers

398 users here now

Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.

Rules:

Posts must ask a question.
If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.
Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.
Try [email protected] if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

How do you respond when you meet a real world ghoul? (hexbear.net)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

44 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Seems like every day I meet more guys on a Raytheon coop program or some other project building weapons. How are you supposed to respond when all you can think about when looking at them is the deaths and the blowback their work is directly causing? I know that being well adjusted to a sick world is not a good thing, anyone who can shrug off mass murder to be professional is on their way to being a ghoul themselves.

That being said though, if I went on a Jeremiad every time I met one of these guys I'd be an utter pariah. So fair I've just tried to avoid these people and used them as a reminder of what we struggle against. How do you deal with it?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 years ago

How are you supposed to respond when all you can think about when looking at them is the deaths and the blowback their work is directly causing?

You should let them know what the fruits of their labor are: death and mayhem. Most of these dudes, even the ones who work on things like the warhead design team, have literally never had anything beyond the most surface level thoughts about the implications of what they're building. I used to be one of those guys. I think what ultimate made me rethink what the fuck I was doing in my labor was the Obama's drone war and the obviously uncaringly murderous nature of it. My labor was directly contributing to making it cheaper and more efficient for the American empire to extend it's power. The bodycount from the last 20 years of American "interventions" is in the millions, and every Little Eichmann who contributes their labor has a not-so-theoretical bodycount that they are morally responsible for. The gears of death don't grind onward on their own.

But it's going to fall on deaf ears, especially now that all these dudes have consumed Russo-Ukrainian war propaganda. Whereas before, the workers at military contractors were mostly apolitical, a lot of them are now explicitly pro-war and think the fruits of their labor are going towards expanding freedom in Europe.