• ☂️-@lemmy.ml
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    29 days ago

    defense contractors in the us should be called attack contractors instead. truer to form.

  • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
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    29 days ago

    I’d work for Lockheed.

    Well…, “work” is a strong word. I’d cash their checks for as long as it takes them to realize I’m only pretending to work and fire me. XD

    Unless it was like, weather satellites or some other non-military space tech. I’d probably actually do that but I’d be conflicted about it.

    • rtxn@lemmy.world
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      29 days ago

      You’d be a perfect fit as a military analyst. Those people make noncredibledefense look positively proficient.

  • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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    29 days ago

    “And you, young engineer, you who dream of improving the lot of the workers by the application of science to industry - what a sad disappointment, what terrible disillusions await you! You devote the useful energy of your mind to working out the scheme of a railway which, running along the brink of precipices and burrowing into the very heart of mountains of granite, will bind together two countries which nature has separated. But once at work, you see whole regiments of workers decimated by privations and sickness in this dark tunnel - you see others of them returning home carrying with them, maybe, a few pence, and the undoubted seeds of consumption; you see human corpses - the results of a groveling greed - as landmarks along each yard of your road; and, when the railroad is finished, you see, lastly, that it becomes the highway for the artillery of an invading army…”

    Peter Kroporkin, 1880

    A hundred years later engineers are more jaded. They know what they are doing. At MIT in the 1980’s it was called “get your fingerprints on the murder weapon”.

  • Asafum@feddit.nl
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    29 days ago

    I was always pretty interested in geology, but I knew that the only secure work would be for oil companies so I never went for the degree…

    I was always really interested in gems and minerals, but admiring them isn’t a job, and photography in that field is insanely specialized and not exactly a reasonable goal to shoot for, so I never got that degree…

    I was also always really interested in astronomy, but there’s literally no work in that field at all so I didn’t go for the degree…

    I never “found myself” because all of my interests either has you working for “the enemy” or there just weren’t any jobs to be had. Now I’m stuck working in a factory and I have an upcoming job that’s for the Israeli military…

    • Saleh@feddit.org
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      29 days ago

      Pretty sure geologists are also needed in many types of construction projects. Of course it is not that interesting to tell the 1224th project team that they need to dig their foundations at least 80cm deep and guard against rising humidity.

    • wpb@lemmy.world
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      29 days ago

      A geologist buddy of mine works on analyzing soil for placing wind farms.

  • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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    29 days ago

    I have a BS in physics that I never used, I chose it because I had no idea what I was doing and discovered afterward that most jobs involving physics are less “figuring out how stars work, for the joy of discovery” and more, “figuring out new and exciting ways to kill brown people, for profit,” which I did not sign up for. So, I’ve wound up doing grunt work at warehouses instead. “Learn to wash your own vegetables and you won’t have to pay court to kings,” as the story goes.

    A lot of people go into STEM because they just want to solve problems and the issue with that is that if you just solve any problem that’s put in front of you without regard for who’s problem it is and whether solving it will actually make the world a better place, then you belong in the same category as the guy who developed the Blitzkrieg doctrine, who claimed afterwards that he didn’t really care about “politics” and was just doing his job as best as he could. Just because you’re capable of solving a problem and someone’s asking you to doesn’t mean that you actually should.

    • FunkyStuff [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      29 days ago

      How do you feel about going into academia? I’m not in physics but I have a similar predicament (I have more options though, not just bombs) and I considered the idea of continuing studies, getting a PhD and just being a professor so I didn’t have to worry about ethics, but the lack of opportunities to organize labor + the fact I’d probably just be training students to go work for defense companies anyway convinced me to just try to find a more benign job in industry.

      • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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        29 days ago

        I’ve considered it, but I might have to go back to school to get the qualifications. I’m also trans and nervous about what that future might look like.

        And yeah, there’s also the issue of just training people to work for defense companies. At least you could maybe warn them? Tbh, if did go back to school for teaching, I feel like I’d want to teach history instead, it’s much more of a “study of everything” than physics is (and is more relevant to politics). Like tbh I kinda lost interest in physics after graduating, for me, it was tied to a lot of things that I’ve left behind.

  • FunkyStuff [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    29 days ago

    internet-delenda-est These people would have my whole family killed for a $200 raise and then tell me I’m the bad guy when I say the American military industrial complex is one of my greatest enemies, including its workers.

    • Z_Poster365 [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      29 days ago

      A revolution would be bad for the disabled

      How is the increasingly fascist state for them? This shit is so bad faith it reeks. I know so many disabled comrades that would laugh this shit out the door

  • Tundra@lemmy.ml
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    29 days ago

    Wait till you go to hell for spelling defence as “defense”

    • Feydaikin@beehaw.org
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      29 days ago

      Shiiiit, hell is full of children, dyslectic people and every person that used “U” and “R” instead of “You” and “Are” on the internet.

      Well, the last part doesn’t surprise me.

      • Tundra@lemmy.ml
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        29 days ago

        wait, what entity in Christianity is choosing your after life destination?

        If its god sending you to hell, surely that helps the devil?

        • Feydaikin@beehaw.org
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          29 days ago

          In Christianity, I don’t think it matters. All the deities and other entities are vicious cunts.

  • Iamaquantummechanic@lemmy.world
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    29 days ago

    I’m a physicist in Norway. Outside the few university jobs, you can either work for the oil industry, which kills the planet, or defense, which kill people. I like the planet.

    • wpb@lemmy.world
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      29 days ago

      A lot of people who studied physics do not end up in the “murder children for money” field. You have a choice, and you chose the deeply, deeply immoral path. You’re not fooling anyone, probably not even yourself.

    • agavaa@lemmy.world
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      27 days ago

      Or you could do the same most of my friends with degree in physics did, take 1. year study in IT and have plenty of employers and projects to choose from.

  • lemel@lemmy.ml
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    29 days ago

    Shaming people for their job is such a shitty thing to do. I heard the same thing in college for having a job lined up with a major defense contractor. My circumstances were such that living with parents or someone else wasn’t an option - it was very important for me to have a job. I am grateful for that opportunity - the people I worked with were all great people. You can be an ideological fool but not everyone has that luxury.

    • black0ut@pawb.social
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      29 days ago

      Working for and allowing people to kill other people is also a pretty shitty thing to do.

    • FunkyStuff [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      28 days ago

      If your job resulted in the design, testing validation, construction, streamlining, or otherwise indirect contribution to a weapons system that is actively killing children in Gaza as I write this comment, why should I consider the reasons you had to take the job? Should I also refrain from shaming an organ trafficker or a mafia capo?

      edit: ah sorry, checked your profile and literally every single comment is concern trolling. Won’t waste my time here!

    • Idreamofcheesy@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      I stayed job hunting a lot longer, working my part time job to pay rent and taking minimum classes to keep the student loans at bay.

      Everyone with a higher demand degree can choose to work ethically. Well, maybe not ethically, but at least not evilly.