Subsequent generations of people typically become more open-minded than their predecessors. In a time where civil rights movements are the norm as marginalized groups continue to gain visibility along with the backdrop of climate change hanging over our heads, many young people are a lot more conscious of these issues than ever before.
Marketers and advertisers are aware of this. Large companies like Nike and Google have used sustainability and civil rights-based campaigns as marketing ploys to lure in more socially conscious customers.
The U.S. military has also taken notice of this trend and has utilized inclusivity-based recruitment tactics.
The United States Army and CIA came under criticism for two ad campaigns that strove for the same goal. The first was a series of animated recruiting ads centered around different service members of people of color or LGBTQ+.
The language of these ads is very clearly supposed to speak to a more social justice-oriented recruit. The CIA advertisement uses similar methods, focusing on around one Latinx woman and her opportunities through the program.
These surface-level gestures from the military machine and powerful corporations exist for the same purpose, to wash over the malicious deeds of these institutions by appealing to victimized members of society.
The United States military is more comfortable promoting itself as a safe space than a criminal organization that commits genocide regularly.
Domestically, the US state has had a horrific relationship with its oppressed communities, usually at the epicenter of that oppression. It is a common fact that people of color have been historically mistreated by the United States, even upholding an apartheid state sustained by Jim Crow Laws.
Similarly, the United States also has a long history in the role of the oppression of LGBTQ people, with many of them having their existences made illegal for the early 20th century. This social exclusion culminated in the Stonewall Riots, a violent face-off between the community and the local police force.
Even to this day, what little rights transgender people have been hanging on by a thread, and over half of the states (including Georgia) have no laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
The tactic of half-hearted inclusivity to increase the numbers in the US armed forces is nothing new. The military did not integrate the services until after World War 2. Despite exploiting black soldiers to die for its interests, the military denied black veterans of World War 2 the benefits of the G.I. Bill.
This mistreatment is, of course, one of the most important aspects of military recruitment. Historically, they have been targeting the poor and disenfranchised for decades.
The military still employs recruits from diverse backgrounds, which only makes sense, as America itself is a very diverse and varied place. Even so, many of its active military participants face discrimination inside the services.
For a long time, the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy (lifted only in 2011) required LGBT military personnel to keep their sexual orientation secret, receiving a discharge if they did not do so. Sexual assault of female workers is rampant, with around 7800 reported incidents in 2020.
These infractions barely scratch the surface of the US military’s criminal behaviors. While its domestic treatment of oppressed people is less than stellar, the fundamental hypocrisy in the military’s plan is its complete and apparent lack of care or compassion towards the women, LGBT and people of color in other foreign nations.
The US military has been involved in coups in most South America, has committed massacres on every continent, upholds apartheid states for geopolitical power, and aids in the Saudi monarchal oppression of women and gays in Saudi Arabia.
The US military IS bleeding in numbers, and recruiters know that younger generations are less accepting of military conflicts and feel that they must change with the times and attempt to pander to a more “woke” generation.
This plan, of course, only goes so far, as it is apparent at this point that terror, exploitation, and profit is the modus operandi of the United States armed forces.
