The American government doesn’t want to give its citizens free college because then how would they convince millions of poor teenagers to sign years of their lives away to the military

the US government loves keeping people poor or else their predatory military recruiters wouldn’t be able to convince high schoolers to kill people overseas and die in the name of stealing resources, increasing American power, and making the rich richer

it makes me so sad to see these news stories about vanessa guillen and photos of her in her uniform when none of this should have happened to her. she shouldn’t have been harassed or (unfortunately most likely) murdered or her case ignored.

she shouldn’t have been fed propaganda her entire life about what it means to join the military. she shouldn’t have grown up in a country that offers few other paths to financial stability. she thought she was going to defend her country and be part of something.

but that’s not what the military does. it collects as many young bodies as it can to use and throw away once they no longer are considered of sufficient value. it doesn’t defend our country, it colonizes others, steals resources, kills children with drones.

I grew up an Army brat. My dad left as soon as he could and I remember as a kid when they’d call for veterans to stand at football games or whatever he’d never do it and I didn’t get why. I do now. It was the path he felt cornered into taking.

I have multiple friends who joined the military right out of high school who got injured and discharged and now just live with physical pain for the rest of their lives. They didn’t think they had other options bc our country purposely offers few others.

The military needs reforms so what happened to Vanessa Guillen - and what has happened to so many other female soldiers - doesn’t happen again. But the disease is coming from the very core of the system. The entire thing is rotten.

I don’t blame people for joining the military who were stalked by predatory recruiters before they even turned 18, pumped full of propaganda they didn’t have the life experience to see around, and given few if any other options to go to college and escape poverty.

I do blame the system itself, which does nothing but use and kill people, and our government which purposefully creates and perpetuates a disadvantaged economic class with no safety net to fill that brutal machine with the bodies it requires to ensure the reign of the powerful.