I was in boot camp in the late 80’s. It was interesting seeing that indoctrination in action, especially knowing it for what it was. I’ve always been a reader, so already knew what to expect, and they aren’t exactly subtle, yet there’s always at least a few of the “I’m hear to serve my country!” kids to spur things along. It’s pretty easy to give them just enough platitudes to satisfy their criteria without actually buying into their bullshit.
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I’m very firmly in the middle of the Gen-X age bracket. Whenever I hear something about Boomers vs. Millennial (or now, Gen-Z), I find it pretty easy to make a choice about which side I’ll be supporting. As a group, the younger generation will no doubt eventually lose their current ideals and disappoint themselves, but for now, as long as I’m here, I’m going to oppose the ones that have already fucked us over for their own greed.
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If we follow ASCII then after Gen Z is Gen [, gen \, Gen ] and Gen ^
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I wonder if anyone did a cost/benefit analysis of how much it would cost to fix the problems that could potentially lead to the Zevolution instead of the costs of attempting (and failing) to put it down?
Lets face it… the kids are right.
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I went into the Air Force in 1987, so I experienced the AF version with basic training in Lackland in the summer. Not as rough as what the ground forces go through, but still well geared toward erasing individualism. I also grew up with a retired SMSgt of the Air Force as a father, so going in the door I was already fairly indoctrinated. But it wasn’t for me, and I was out in four years.
In 2018? With the Trump administration running/ruining things? Spend money to find out if spending more money will fix a problem? Money that isn’t going to rich folk? Nah. I doubt it. I think that’s going to be some “in the moment” discovery.
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As I understand it, in military wargames, the blue team always wins.
Sometimes the people running the exercise have to revise the parameters pretty heavily to achieve that, for example by declaring that the opfor which thought it had just wiped out the blue flank units and steamrolled straight into the blue HQ and parked several tank batallions on the blue commanding general’s command centre were in fact held up short of their objective and are now under fire from an artillery unit that didn’t exist until five minutes ago.
There may be numerous opfor victories along the way but ultimately, the blue force will come out on top.
Things may have changed nowadays in that respect but I doubt it.
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Ah, you were there not too long before me! I started in November 1988. Being at Lackland from November through February meant that we had PT called off or limited both due to “too hot” and “too cold” in the same week.
I got out after 3 years, 3 months, and 8 days, as they didn’t allow queer people to serve at the time since potential blackmailers could have threatened to out me … to the people that wouldn’t allow me to serve due to potential for blackmail. Oddly enough, being in the service only made me more cynical towards our political structures for some reason.
I have one of the last USAF issued olive drab field jackets, despite the times some of my younger partners have tried to talk me out of it. Apparently some of them are amused by the fact that I have a such a jacket that’s older than they are!
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Easy peasy, put out revolutionary content, especially lessons learned in history, in meme form with self-deprecating nihilist humor sprinkled in. I hear the Spiderman memes are cool these days.
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They can just do the same thing they did to the Baby Boomers, monetize, de-fang and appropriate the imagery, slogans and avenues of dissent. Turn it into something purile, hedonistic and self-destructive.
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Imagine if someone had considered helping
a generation that’s been psychologically scarred by 9/11, the Great Recessions, college debt, increasing healthcare costs, inequality, and economic frustrations.
“Gen Z are often described as seeking independence and opportunity but are also among the least likely to believe there is such a thing as the ‘American Dream,’ and that the ‘system is rigged’ against them,” the Pentagon writes.
and they’re not wrong. Some of us who are parents of Gen Z were slow to figure this out.
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This is not surprising. Making up plans for every possible, and quite a few impossible, scenarios is what general staffs and military planning departments do. It keeps them in practice, and when something unexpected happens, you almost always will have something in a filing cabinet somewhere that can be dusted off and used as a basis for dealing with the current crisis.
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ETA: call the Doctor. Someone meddled with the timelines.
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I wasn’t thrilled about all the parallels they drew/plans they kept making for a zombie apocalypse, either:
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In the novel World War Z, the two are one in the same. The plans implemented by the US government for the zombie apocalypse came from ones by an Apartheid era South African planner in case of race war.
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Exactly. Thank you. See for example:
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It’s almost like they understand on some level that there are actually reasons why a generation may turn on the govt…
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So we get a look at the opponents playbook, and a chance to adjust our own. We will have so much win, we will tire of winning, amiright?
Things always turn up when you need 'em, time being right. But not because we’re living in a sim running over the holidays with an intern in charge. That would be silly (murder hornets (snort)). Yeah.
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My first thought: Looks like raising my kid on RatM paid off in spades 
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And there are other organizations that have plans to stop a Gen Z rebellion in the polls.
I’d advise not Googling any spelling variations of the above game
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