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pol-ish, possibly controversial opinion
i've realized that we don't really have any respect for people in the military, probably because the only wars or other military action we've known of in our lifetime have been for not-very-good causes like "we want your oil"
a lot of people seem to have a lot of respect for military people and I guess to us it just feels like they're fighting for a cause we disagree with (at least US military stuff, anyway)
pol-ish, possibly controversial opinion
I feel like the many "we want your oil" wars demonstrate that the powers in charge don't have any respect for people in the military. To me, respect for military people requires treating them as people and not as power to use/abuse freely.
militarism re: pol-ish, possibly controversial opinion
@Felthry I think it's relevant to this conversation the difference between "respect for people who served in the military" and "elevation of the military itself as an object of adulation and celebration of soldiers when and if they serve that militarism"
because a lot of respect for people in the military has nothing to do with respect for them as people and everything to do with celebrating the military itself
there's a story I can't find now that a veteran told of meeting someone super insistent about Being Thankful For Their Service who flipped to hostility when the vet was like "I'm one of those liberals you hate and the war I fought in was unjust and /I don't even want to talk about this/ - I just want to go home"