Hot Takes/Unpopular Opinions?

[Capt MJ]

Oh goodness, this one made me laugh. I have a lot of vets on my team. Some are great, some are adequate. Many thought I would favor them… wrong. Many think they should be promoted because they show up. This isn’t all of the vets I have, some are great. I am the hiring manager for a fairly senior level position with a nice salary and bonus, well north of $200k. I interviewed a retiring Army Colonel last week… the level of arrogance, wow. He didn’t make it past the phone screen. He asked when he starts and he wants max salary 5 minutes into the phone screen. He didn’t read the job description and then spoke down to me because I didn’t do 30. Most vets are not like this. I hired a guy with great skills, impressive resume, very good interview, oh and is a former Marine Corporal.

I hired a CWO4 over a line O-6. The CWO4 was confident in his ability but knew he had much to learn, had done his homework on the role, could articulate his value proposition and negotiated competently for salary. The O-6 assumed he had it in the bag, was asking about perks (ridiculous ones!) and compensation way too early in the game, and was overly familiar with me as a fellow retired O-6 but not recognizing where he would be on the team I led. At the point where the O-6 was a bit of a jerk to the HR partner, I stopped the interview process.

 

[Day-Tripper]

“Complaints by veteran soldiers about younger generations who lack discipline and traditional values are as old as war itself. Grizzled veterans in the Greek phalanx, Roman legions, and Napoleon’s elite corps all believed that the failings of the young would be the ruin of their armies. This is not the chief worry of grizzled American veterans today. The largest threat they see by far to our current military is the weakening of its fabric by radical progressive (or “woke”) policies being imposed, not by a rising generation of slackers, but by the very leaders charged with ensuring their readiness.”

The Rise of Wokeness in the Military

The following is adapted from a talk delivered on July 20, 2022, at the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship on Hillsdale’s Washington, D.C. campus, as part of the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series.

www.heritage.org

There were a lot of Americans who thought the armed forces would be destroyed by:

* Allowing blacks to serve
* Drafting immigrants
* Allowing Japanese-Americans to serve
* Racial integration
* Allowing women to serve
* Ending the draft in 1972
* Allowing gays to serve
* Allowing Moslems to serve

They were all wrong.

 

[justdoit19]

HOT TAKE/unpopular opinion

Both Top Gun movies were really good

 

[VelveteenR]

The Bee Gees are (way) better than the Beatles.

Bacon is just OK.

 

[unkown1961]

There were a lot of Americans who thought the armed forces would be destroyed by:

* Allowing blacks to serve
* Drafting immigrants
* Allowing Japanese-Americans to serve
* Racial integration
* Allowing women to serve
* Ending the draft in 1972
* Allowing gays to serve
* Allowing Moslems to serve

They were all wrong.

And people said communism was coming when Wilson started the progressive tax system, or when FDR did his thing, etc. and it's never come.

 

[unkown1961]

Everyone with a VA rating deserves it.

 

[Day-Tripper]

And people said communism was coming when Wilson started the progressive tax system, or when FDR did his thing, etc. and it's never come.

Anti-FDR 1930s republicans said that OASDI ("Social Security") was Bolshevism.

Ronald Reagan said Congress approving Medicare would result in Communism in the USA. 20 years later, as president, signed approval for tax increases to both Social Security & Medicare (last president to do so).

Today, with the heartland of the Republican Party being over the age of 65, such sentiments are not tolerated. Impossible.

Just a decade ago we were told by the Republican Party that the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") would destroy the nation. Haven't heard much opposition to it lately, though. Too busy attacking the "real" foes of liberty, like trans-athletes, drag queens, public schools & libraries.

Witch-burnings are not too much far in the future. For, you know, "anti-wokeness".

 

[Day-Tripper]

Post anything, but preferably Military related.

Here is my almost universally unpopular opinion, which I've expressed a number of times on this website (and others) with very little support:

UNIVERSAL CONSCRIPTION

The draft.

All American males (sorry, I'm somewhat of an old fashioned sexist) between the ages of 18-24 should spend 24 months on active duty in the armed forces. If they voluntarily extend to 36 months, then they are qualified for GI Bill benefits, i.e effective free college & 0% down home loans. Like 1945-1975 America.

What was considered normal in 1950s peacetime America is considered radical & militarist in 2023. Hangovers from the Vietnam & Iraq wars, I guess. I get it.

I have no confidence this will ever happen, but deeply believe it would be a positive for the nation at large.

 

[Day-Tripper]

HOT TAKE/unpopular opinion

Both Top Gun movies were really good

TG2 was much better than TG1. Sorry.

And Mr. Cruise should've never been cast as Major Jack Reacher. Ever.

 

[Day-Tripper]

All three were eventually ruined, so they must have been right.

Has any empire ever lasted?

 

[raimius]

Here is my almost universally unpopular opinion, which I've expressed a number of times on this website (and others) with very little support:

UNIVERSAL CONSCRIPTION

The draft.

All American males (sorry, I'm somewhat of an old fashioned sexist) between the ages of 18-24 should spend 24 months on active duty in the armed forces. If they voluntarily extend to 36 months, then they are qualified for GI Bill benefits, i.e effective free college & 0% down home loans. Like 1945-1975 America.

What was considered normal in 1950s peacetime America is considered radical & militarist in 2023. Hangovers from the Vietnam & Iraq wars, I guess. I get it.

I have no confidence this will ever happen, but deeply believe it would be a positive for the nation at large.

Universal service would probably be good for the nation, but horrible for the military. As a unifying civics program, yes! As efficient for developing a modern fighting force, not as much.

 

[Day-Tripper]

Universal service would probably be good for the nation, but horrible for the military. As a unifying civics program, yes! As efficient for developing a modern fighting force, not as much.

The experiences of 1917, 1941 & even 1950 would seem to differ.

 

[raimius]

Mass is a necessary component of military power. It's also either HUGELY expensive or relatively inefficient (insert joke about the Red Army here...they took 20x as many casualties as the Wehrmacht, but still won).

 

[Day-Tripper]

Mass is a necessary component of military power. It's also either HUGELY expensive or relatively inefficient (insert joke about the Red Army here...they took 20x as many casualties as the Wehrmacht, but still won).

Has any nation in the last 200 years won a war without conscription?

British Empire excluded.

 

[A1Janitor]

Has any nation in the last 200 years won a war without conscription?

British Empire excluded.

We haven’t won one in 70 years. I would like to see a few victories before we went to this.

With our military and weapons, you’d think we would have done better. Unless the goal isn’t winning.

 

[Day-Tripper]

We haven’t won one in 70 years. I would like to see a few victories before we went to this.

With our military and weapons, you’d think we would have done better. Unless the goal isn’t winning.

Not a bad point.

 

[JohnMcLane]

And people said communism was coming when Wilson started the progressive tax system, or when FDR did his thing, etc. and it's never come.

But it's getting closer. Look at the proposals trying to get mainstreamed like universal income, forgiveness of student loans, etc.

 

[OldRetSWO]

Here is my almost universally unpopular opinion, which I've expressed a number of times on this website (and others) with very little support:

UNIVERSAL CONSCRIPTION

The draft.

All American males (sorry, I'm somewhat of an old fashioned sexist) between the ages of 18-24 should spend 24 months on active duty in the armed forces. If they voluntarily extend to 36 months, then they are qualified for GI Bill benefits, i.e effective free college & 0% down home loans. Like 1945-1975 America.

What was considered normal in 1950s peacetime America is considered radical & militarist in 2023. Hangovers from the Vietnam & Iraq wars, I guess. I get it.

I have no confidence this will ever happen, but deeply believe it would be a positive for the nation at large.

Hugely expensive, even if you paid them NOTHING, you need to put them somewhere, provide food, equipment and actually a force structure to fit into. Just ONE years worth of 18 yr olds is much larger than our entire Active duty force is now. Now we'd need to provide leaders and actual force structure - ships, planes, tanks, etc to operate while we have trouble paying for what we have now.
The military is very different from the Industrial Age military where huge numbers of foot soldiers slogged through the mud or operated huge and totally manual ships. Look at the crew size of ships WWII and now to see that the crews are a fraction of the former size and the jobs that are gone are mostly the untrained or slightly trained like ammo passers and the like. We just don't need but a fraction of the numbers that we needed in the past to operate our ships and short time enlistees wouldn't be around long enough to train even if we could make enough schools to handle the huge numbers of draftees.

 

[NavyHoops]

Hugely expensive, even if you paid them NOTHING, you need to put them somewhere, provide food, equipment and actually a force structure to fit into. Just ONE years worth of 18 yr olds is much larger than our entire Active duty force is now. Now we'd need to provide leaders and actual force structure - ships, planes, tanks, etc to operate while we have trouble paying for what we have now.
The military is very different from the Industrial Age military where huge numbers of foot soldiers slogged through the mud or operated huge and totally manual ships. Look at the crew size of ships WWII and now to see that the crews are a fraction of the former size and the jobs that are gone are mostly the untrained or slightly trained like ammo passers and the like. We just don't need but a fraction of the numbers that we needed in the past to operate our ships and short time enlistees wouldn't be around long enough to train even if we could make enough schools to handle the huge numbers of draftees.

And then there would be the VA part of this…

 

[Aglahad]

A lot of people excessively hold onto their service after they finish their time. Almost like it's a personality trait. Think the "vet bro" entitlement stereotype, akin to that guy who won't stop talking about that touchdown pass he caught on JV back in 2005 and thinks you owe him a beer at every meeting.

Vets are people: some good and some bad with a lot in between.