Hello Hexbears!
I am acquaintances with a student who has a very likely lead on a software development position with a major military equipment manufacturer. He is VERY excited about this. Now, I don’t know him too well but we are close enough to have a conversation and I would like to try to prevent him from going down this path. Especially considering he has other, less blood-soaked leads. His politics are unclear but from what I can gather he is vaguely progressive/berniecrat-ish, possibly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause but that’s not 100% confirmed.
I have an idea of how I’m going to talk to him about this but I’m looking to see if anyone here has any experience regarding what is or is not effective in conversations like these.
Disorganized rambling
Ok so I’m being vague about what company this is specifically for OPSEC reasons but from what I gather its pretty unambiguous that he would be contributing to the development of guided bombs, police surveillance, and networked weapons systems. Of course he has not actually said any of this. To him, the soon-to-be college grad its a high-paying job with some degree of prestige in a shitty labor market. The banality of evil in the imperial core I guess.
Things you could try that should work on someone who’s Bernie-levels of liberal, that is, they think they care about people.
"1. Have you thought through what your labor will do? How will you feel when something you work on blows up some civilian?
If everybody refused to work for these ghouls, they wouldn’t be able to murder civilians. Why would you help kill people?
It’s easy to get pigeon-holed into a career track based on work experience, so if you take this job it’s likely you career advancement path will take you deeper into the MIC. Particularly given that you have other leads, why not pick a less unethical career path?
Software is rough, but there’s a need for software and firmware developers in better fields, such as biomedical engineering. Why not seek a job that saves people’s lives instead of murders them?"
Idk, depends on how much he actually believes his ostensibly progressive ideals.
yeah this discussion is how you find out if he’s actually a monster who’s not worth associating with
These are all really good because 1) They are very poignant and 2) they are highly actionable given how much I am reticent to be “mean” to people. Thank you very much.
o7 glad to help! I’d love if you can report back and let us know if any of pur suggestions helped or not.
It’s really going to come down to whether he’s goodhearted and just hasn’t thought of these things, or if he’s a selfish ghoul who wants to have his blood-soaked cake and eat it too. You’re not so much able to change his mind as give him an opportunity to do so himself, but his response will tell you if he’s worth associating with or not.
Also, I salute you for trying yo convince fellow students not to go into to MIC!
Thank you, if it works it works, if it doesn’t it doesn’t, I don’t have any great attatchment to him, like I said hes more of an aquaintance. I’ll try to provide an update some time once I actually find the chance to actually sit down and talk to the guy.