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I know not all of them are conservative....but are they conservative GENERALLY? The reason why I'm asking is because I have known a few people from the military. There was one cute guy in my class who visited Afghanistan. He was very cute, blond, intelligent, muscular life of the party-type, and extremely old fashioned. During class, he just blabbered whatever came to his mind. He openly spoke against gay marriages and even feminism. I have to admit, one time there was an argument between him and a girl during a discussion. He said "women shouldn't work"....(LOL..I guess the "Afghanistanness" rubbed off on him) Nobody really stood against him(even the liberal students) since he was so popular.
Are they really that conservative? Or is he a minority.
And you consider people in the military "old fashioned" .... How about the 18 year old soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan. Were they "cute" and "visited Afghanistan"?
In my over 8,000 days of continuous active duty in the U.S. military we really didn't discuss who was conservative or old fashion. You pulled your duty and when not on duty you "hung out" with those you got along with.
"The current generation of military service members is more conservative than the public at large, for sure. But they are not much more Republican -- with nearly half identifying as political independents, according to a new poll of military service members from the Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation." Iraq and Afghan vets are conservative. But, they’re not all Republicans. - The Washington Post (Article By Peyton M. Craighill April 1, 2014)
Quote:
Originally Posted by globby_832
I have known a few people from the military.
We have about 1,429,995 active duty military.
Last edited by Poncho_NM; 01-27-2015 at 09:02 AM..
It has been my experience during my 15 years of recruiting for the Navy that conservative families are more likely to have children that want to serve and who's parents allow them or encourage them to serve. Of course that isn't the case for everyone but it was generally a much easier interview when you were sitting in the living room of a conservative family.
Liberal families I heard a lot of "my son/daughter is better than that", "my son/daughter has options and doesn't need the military", etc.
The leadership in the military and the majority of the rank and file lean conservative I would say.
BTW...what you're describing isn't necessarily because he's conservative, it sounds more like he's ignorant than conservative.
I know not all of them are conservative....but are they conservative GENERALLY? The reason why I'm asking is because I have known a few people from the military. There was one cute guy in my class who visited Afghanistan. He was very cute, blond, intelligent, muscular life of the party-type, and extremely old fashioned. During class, he just blabbered whatever came to his mind. He openly spoke against gay marriages and even feminism. I have to admit, one time there was an argument between him and a girl during a discussion. He said "women shouldn't work"....(LOL..I guess the "Afghanistanness" rubbed off on him) Nobody really stood against him(even the liberal students) since he was so popular.
Are they really that conservative? Or is he a minority.
Well, we start out as liberals who join the military to prove how evil they really are. But once in boot camp we're all brainwashed to become ultra right wing Republicans who can't think for ourselves. We parrot anything Rush Limbaugh and the Koch brothers want us to say. We all hate homosexuals and we all think women should be in the kitchen bare foot and pregnant.
What you described is not a symptom of military service. It's a symptom of his home life, culture, & family. I served in the Navy in the 1990s. We had gay men on our ship. The crew knew they were gay. In my experience, gay sailors were kicked out after getting caught having sex on the ship. This is the same as getting caught having sex on the job while on the clock. Later I served on a ship that had women as part of the crew. I know of two instances of straight couples kicked out the military after getting caught having sex on the ship. There are people who never served in the military who have the attitude you described.
It's been a pretty mixed bag, in my experience as a military spouse, civilian employee on a military base working with military children and families, and a liberal. Many people who are the product of conservative upbringings join the military, obviously. I find that it definitely skews politically and socially conservative, but there are definitely outliers (my husband being one, or we'd not have lasted too long!). There are also plenty of those who lean liberal on some things, conservative on others. I noticed this a lot among some of our lesbian sailor friends at our last command. Then there was also one of my husband's colleagues who was quite vocally conservative, yet not so conservative that staunch social mores prevented him from alternately flying in his wife and his girlfriend, neither of whom knew about one another, while geobaching.
Also concur that the guy you speak of sounds like a huge prick, independent of his political or social leanings.
I always found them to be when I served. But what you state about his views on male -female relationship is the same as many married couples now; even some who work out of necessity.. It maybe old fashion but many see it has major reason for more problems raising child and family unity fading. Its not a negative view on women; its a view on how important their part is in it successful family; IMO.
He visited Afghanistan? You make it sound like he did it voluntarily. Military members are DEPLOYED to Afghanistan. Maybe he had those values when he left home. I have met liberally-minded military members during my two enlistments in two separate branches but I must say, the overwhelming majority seem to have conservative values. Perhaps they come from average middle class families, have parents/relatives that were military and feel a sense of duty to their country. Unlike more well-heeled liberal teens whose college educated parents can afford to send them to college/university after high school, perhaps a lot of (conservative) military members use their service time to obtain the GI Bill/tuition assistance to fund their education and not be overwhelmed with college debt. Are military members old fashioned? Yes, a lot of them are....thank God.
They're generally mainstream conservative, meaning that they believe whatever liberals believed yesterday. The guy you described would be more than conservative, and thus an outlier.
For the most part, yes -- people in the military are conservative. Conservatives are more likely to join, and then once in the service and surrounded by likeminded individuals it tends to increase. Even liberals in the military (and I consider myself one) are probably fairly conservative by civilian standards.
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