# ROTC hit piece in student paper



## Devildoc (Sep 8, 2016)

A friend forwarded this to me.  It is from the NC State student paper, The Technician.  It attacks the military in general and ROTC specifically.

OPINION: ROTC presence promotes militarization of the university, exploits the poor

I emailed my response to the editor, they asked me if they could publish it as a guest opinion, to which I agreed.  Let the fallout commence.

Oh, I simply love being a rabble-rouser....:)


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## Il Duce (Sep 8, 2016)

I'm about as liberal as you're going to get on SS and I'm ready to execute some punches to the baby-maker after reading that exercise in intellectual dishonesty.


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## DA SWO (Sep 8, 2016)

What do a ROTC Cadets shout at graduation?

We have jobs!

The author also seems clueless about Federal Student loans becoming life suckers.


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## CDG (Sep 8, 2016)

_Although the recruitment page of NC State’s ROTC website assures students that “most Army ROTC SMP [Simultaneous Membership Program] Cadets in the NG [National Guard] or Reserves have the benefits of the military without the worry of being deployed,” for the number of students who are deployed, they will likely face the terrible reality of participating in profoundly immoral acts._
_

_
I mean, how do you even debate with someone this far gone?  You can say whatever you want, it's not going to make a shred of difference to people like this.


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## Devildoc (Sep 8, 2016)

CDG said:


> _Although the recruitment page of NC State’s ROTC website assures students that “most Army ROTC SMP [Simultaneous Membership Program] Cadets in the NG [National Guard] or Reserves have the benefits of the military without the worry of being deployed,” for the number of students who are deployed, they will likely face the terrible reality of participating in profoundly immoral acts.
> 
> 
> _
> I mean, how do you even debate with someone this far gone?  You can say whatever you want, it's not going to make a shred of difference to people like this.



In my response I said that the vast majority of people in the military will face a "profoundly immoral act" no worse than whether to pocket a pack of sticky notes.  This stuff is just insane.


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## Single Malt (Sep 8, 2016)

Devildoc said:


> A friend forwarded this to me.  It is from the NC State student paper, The Technician.  It attacks the military in general and ROTC specifically.
> 
> OPINION: ROTC presence promotes militarization of the university, exploits the poor
> 
> ...


What a crock of horseshit! A lot of it rubs me the wrong way but the part that pisses me off the most is this: "However, implicit in this offer is the fact that these students, who may simply have no other realistic way to pay for college, make the decision to literally sell their lives to the federal government — terms that no other scholarship or job would require." Every kid should be thankful for the opportunity to go to college and be a student; literally waking up in the morning (mostly around noon) to get educated and eat without any positive contribution to the society at the moment. College shouldn't be a guarantee to getting a high paying job or even a job, it's an opportunity to learn, and the writer of that article doesn't seem to be learning well. 

Also, no one should bitch about college loans, I have a bunch of them that I have been paying off for the last few years and will be for a few more, but I am thankful that I had the option to borrow and get an education. Without student loans, I would have to work full-time in college and wouldn't have to be able to do any college sports, possibly wouldn't have decent grades or double major in STEM.


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## DasBoot (Sep 8, 2016)

Everyone who isn't coming from an extremely wealthy family is a "financially disadvantaged" student.

I always find it laughable when they roll out the ole "targeting the poor" bullshit. The majority of the people pulling triggers and getting flags draped over them are middle class to upper middle class white dudes.

Also all the shit about "extrajudicial imprisonment"? "'Massive Civilian casualties"? Does she not know about how crazy the ROE's are? I'm taking a course through work right now that touches on all the "can does" and "don't does" of prisoner handling and TQ. It's fucking kid gloves.

This shit is why I am a self hating liberal.


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## Gunz (Sep 8, 2016)

_*"The ROTC as an institution, as Sheppard rightly argues, promotes U.S. imperialism and makes NC State complicit in the failed war on terror." 
*_

She's read her Mao, her Trotsky, her Che and is regurgitating a bunch of Commie claptrap  propaganda rhetoric from 1963. There is some serious armpit hair there.


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## DocIllinois (Sep 8, 2016)

I think I missed the part of her piece where it mentions how students are forced to go ROTC.

Or forced to attend college at all.


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## J.S. (Sep 8, 2016)

Looking forward to your published response Doc, but I couldn't make it through this "piece". The writer's sheer pretentiousness is mind-boggling.


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## TLDR20 (Sep 8, 2016)

DasBoot said:


> Everyone who isn't coming from an extremely wealthy family is a "financially disadvantaged" student.
> 
> I always find it laughable when they roll out the ole "targeting the poor" bullshit. The majority of the people pulling triggers and getting flags draped over them are middle class to upper middle class white dudes.
> 
> ...



Yeah shit like this makes me embarrassed to say I am liberal. But looking at the other end there are just as many fucking whack jobs. The far ends of any spectrum are fucked up.


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## 104TN (Sep 8, 2016)

Ocoka One said:


> _*"The ROTC as an institution, as Sheppard rightly argues, promotes U.S. imperialism and makes NC State complicit in the failed war on terror."
> *_
> 
> She's read her Mao, her Trotsky, her Che and is regurgitating a bunch of Commie claptrap  propaganda rhetoric from 1963. There is some serious armpit hair there.


Swipe left.


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## AWP (Sep 8, 2016)

This crap comes up every year or so and if we did some digging I'd bet we could find other instances.


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## Devildoc (Sep 9, 2016)

Freefalling said:


> This crap comes up every year or so and if we did some digging I'd bet we could find other instances.



It does.  What surprises me is that NC State produces more general officers out of ROTC than any other college, and it is a relatively "blue collar school."  I know that writer's opinion is pretty radical, but I think for that school, even more so.  Yet, 25 miles down the road at UNC Chapel Hill, which is famously and notoriously liberal, ROTC flourishes and is well-supported.


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## Gunz (Sep 9, 2016)

Devildoc said:


> ..._*pretty*_ radical...???!!!



Jesus Doc, she's probably making molotov cocktails in the basement of the dorm.

Look, this woman isn't a "liberal" any more than the Grand Wizard Imperial Cyclops of the KKK is a "conservative."  And I suspect her circle of friends at NC State is pretty small and exclusively whacked. Some people will do anything to be noticed, and it sure as shit ain't her looks. I suspect for her the alternatives were pretty limited: Goth or Communist.


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## AWP (Sep 9, 2016)

Ocoka One said:


> Goth or Communist.



How could you lump Goths in with Communists? I'd walk around looking like Edward Scissorhands before I became a Communist.


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## Diamondback 2/2 (Sep 9, 2016)

Well I'll never get this 15 minutes back...


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## Gunz (Sep 9, 2016)

Freefalling said:


> How could you lump Goths in with Communists? I'd walk around looking like Edward Scissorhands before I became a Communist.



Not lumping. To some people desperate for acceptance, outrageousness can take many forms.


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## AWP (Sep 9, 2016)

Ocoka One said:


> Not lumping. To some people desperate for acceptance, outrageousness can take many forms.



Some even become Marines.


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## BloodStripe (Sep 10, 2016)

Diamondback 2/2 said:


> Well I'll never get this 15 minutes back...



Just write some bull shit article and you will get your fifteen minutes of fame.


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