as a gay navy kid who grew up very religious right next to a military base my whole life, I have really complex feelings about Veterans Day that I don’t think I can fully explain on Twitter but I can say I wish this country would do better for its people, stop sending kids to war

and also take care of veterans better, who have suffered a lot physical and mental scarring/stress and feel the need to try to cover it or ignore it under the guise of machismo

Don’t make joining the military a necessity for kids needing to survive or escape toxic environments. And don’t prey on those kids through recruiting methods like streaming on twitch

I’ve seen how war and the military has affected a lot of people in my life, and while that isn’t the experience for everyone, it shouldn’t be the only avenue you can turn to when you’re struggling to get by or need a way out of a bad home environment

Last thing: problems that stem from all of this are an echo chamber that can affect generation after generation of families through trauma and machismo until someone actively tries to break it. It’s a much bigger problem than one single person that is pushed into the military