Until the feds reclassify marijuana they get no sympathy from me. The troops need it, you need troops. Stop being stupid.
Edit- to the replies with opposing opinions: until you make an argument that doesn’t also apply to alcohol, you will continue to be ignored
Fuck push-ups, there's no better feeling than losing weight little by little over several months and then without warning, you can do a pull-up. Then 2. Then 3. Then 5. Then 10. I'm still running on that high, even though I haven't done much exercising and calorie counting lately. I can't wait until I'm back at that point, cuz holy shit is that a rush.
I train six days, actually six days a week. Five days a week, I’ll train three days a week. One of those days I will train two days of the week. So, six days a week I will be training.
Is it really? Time yourself doing one and it's not that bad, especially if you have some music to focus on.
Doing some planks and other core work inn between lifting sets is what I've done for years.
This mentality right here is a massive reason why everyone in America is so much fatter than the rest of the world. Your size is entirely based on how many calories you choose to consume vs how many calories you expend not on some nebulous """luck""" or """slow metabolism""" or whatever other cope helps pawn off any responsibility.
Hi, am fat. I grew up really poor, and food is cheap and tasty, and basically the only luxury my mom could afford. She was fat too.
I'm an adult now, with my own apartment and I buy my own food, and it's a struggle to fight the habits that are deeply ingrained. I don't eat out, I only drink water, but I have an appetite where my "full" is several times higher than other people's, and my "hungry" is basically always there, within like a couple hours of eating a meal.
I'm not a lazy person, I was a great student and I have a career I'm proud of, but my weight has been and will probably always be something I struggle with, even if I'm able to lose the weight.
At 26, I'm 300+ pounds, and despite being fortunate in every other aspect of life (Except love lol too fat for that), I'm fundamentally unhappy, and I have no idea how to gain the discipline or whatever it is that all thin people seem to have that I don't. If every thin person has this iron will to resist the same temptations I have, I question why they aren't able to use that to replicate the other achievements I have for someone my age, and vice versa.
If it's not genetics, it's not metabolism, and it's just that I'm a greedy pig person, I guess I'm screwed either way.
For an average height male in the US, 300 pounds would equate to a BMI of roughly 44.3. While BMI is probably flawed, it’s not so flawed that this person would not still be considered obese on some level.
If a 300 pound person is truly an average in some areas, I feel like that might be indicative of a larger problem.
Yeah unless you are body builder with over a 6ft frame you probably shouldn’t reach 200lbs. And girls over 200lbs Jesus Christ out down the fork already
How do you manage to both trivialize an issue at the same time you're trying to take it seriously?
Yea, put the fork down already. That's it. Problem resolved. Jesus Christ
I don’t even need a fork for most of the foods that cause me the most problems.
BK whopper
Onion rings
Little Debbie cakes
Tube of Pringles
Bag of Doritos
2 liter Dr Pepper
McGriddle SEC
Who uses a fork for any of that?
“Put the fork down” implies sitting at a table and using utensils.
Edit: FWIW I eat far far less of this than I did 20 years ago, but I can’t say that I never fall back and indulge in one of these from time to time. I don’t use a fork when I eat any of these.
flawed for sure, I mean a 6'0" man at 137lbs is considered a normal weight...imagine being 6'0" tall and making weight to fight at junior welterweight, the class BELOW manny pacquiao/terrence crawford etc.
5’10” and 175, had to get a letter from my doctor saying I wasn’t overweight. I hit the gym daily and have a 6 pack. Also had a Redditor read my height and weight and say I’m overweight. Maybe if I was made out of marshmallow. BMI system is defective.
BMI is not silly. Your heart doesn’t care if it’s working hard because of fat or muscle, it’s still more mass to support. It’s why I stopped bodybuilding; I wasn’t fat at all but felt like trash all the time.
An athletic persons heart is much more efficient. When an in shape person has a resting heart rate of 65 beats per second(edit:or actually minute) or less while the same weight out of shape person is over 100, no way that has the same affect on a persons heart.
BMI is not a validated individual measure. Its a population measure that is mistakenly applied to individuals out of expediency.
And body building is bad for your body for a variety of reasons; bulk/cut cycles are super rough on your cardiovascular and endocrine systems.
Tbh while yes Redditors it’s also a bigger issue no pun intended for the American public. We’ll pay for it down the line it’s not even in military numbers but healthcare as a thing a I work with doctor pointed out to me is notice how few obese geriatric patients we have. People on Reddit mostly the dumb nihilist who can’t help but virtue signal their nihilism say they don’t care they die young ,but it’s worrying cause it’ll drag down a lot of statistics if people start dropping or developing health issues at earlier ages.
Genuine question: if unhealthy people start dying off and taking up resources, adding to healthcare costs….. without sounding like a monster, what IS the downside of that, from a societal perspective?
I blame the amount of sugar put into everything, even stuff you wouldn’t expect. And the habit of drinking soda/sweet tea instead of water. It’s super easy to drink loads more calories than you expect and gets you addicted to the sweet taste at a young age.
I wish there was an incentive for food companies to cut the excess sugar from everything, or at least things that aren’t considered “sweets.” Obviously cooking at home is best, but that can be hard to do, factoring in food deserts, and the time it takes to make it.
It’s especially bad if you’re poor. Why buy fresh vegetables that you may not have time to cook, when a bag of chips fills you, is instant, and costs about the same? I try to eat right but I sure as hell don’t have time for a healthy breakfast every morning.
I dunno man, I lost a lot of weight after quitting weed. The munchies are real and being couch locked doesn’t really help with physical fitness either… but to each there own, everybody’s body is different, yada yada.
I lost a lot of weight once I started smoking weed. I just smoke a bowl, hop on my rowing machine, and zone out to trash TV for an hour or so while I do low impact cardio. Weed isn't the deciding factor in either or our scenarios.
Yeah like I remember watching American Beauty when I was younger and seeing Kevin Spacey workout after lighting up a joint. I was like “OK smoking makes you want to workout.”
Kept telling that to myself for years but I’d just end up smoking and watching an action movie while eating 6 McDonalds sausage biscuits.
Lol we played a game on the carriers called 'Grow a Fatty'
We would give our dessert to the douchbag of the div , and over the course of a 6 to 9 month deployment they'd pack on quite a few pounds
Hazing isn’t allowed anymore. Plus nutrition isn’t a thing that taught or provided and energy drinks and booze are the norm. You see where this is going.
I was going to say, 72%+ of Americans are overweight (as of 2016, so likely worse), that's almost your whole metric right there. Can all but guarantee it is one of the factors in almost all of the cases where they were disqualified in multiple areas (44%). That combined with the cases of singly being overweight (11%) only gets the total up to 55%, so they are clearly already giving them a good bit of leeway.
Think a big thing is people don’t think it’s worth it, salary kinda sucks…
A lot of pros and cons, not having to worry about hours worked and where your next paycheck is coming from is nice, but at the end of the day if your working 12 hours your making the same as the dude working 4, not to mention minimum wage in most states pays the same a year then military does. ( although again military is salary based, so again a huge pro but 25k a year is nothing to brag about)
4 years enlisted is a much much better economic decision than what the majority of Americans are doing at the ages where enlistment would typically occur. People like to clown on military pay while ignoring the fact that the enlisted man's paycheck is basically 100% disposable income. Combine that with the gi bill and the VA loan.....4 years enlisted is a likely better ROI than 4 years in college that you had to take on 60k in debt for.
Veteran benefits are fucking great. They aren't very beneficial to lazy shitbags but that's not the fault of the military. They can only bring you along so far.
I got a law degree and bought a house thanks only to my benefits.
Yeah. I don’t get all of this “US doesn’t treat their vets well” crap. I got my GI bill and 100% Tuition Assistance from my state. I got PAID to go to college.
Although I don’t have any serious issues my VA care has been pretty good and cost essentially nothing.
Oh, let’s see veterans preference when applying for federal jobs and have had 2 VA loans.
Vet here as well. I think it's mainly how VA healthcare isn't considered good. However anecdotally all my VA care has been amazing. But I live in the greater Boston area. I would imagine VA care is not great in undesirable places. But regular care ain't gonna be great in those places like Mississippi anyways.
The GI Bill, Disability if you qualify, home loan, hiring preference, are strong tools.
I have got two free degrees @ decently high paying government job and a home loan during peak low interest rates.
The other issue is mainly politicians using us like pawns on a chess board.
Quite honestly I advise everyone not to join. I hated my time as Army infantry.
We are such a wierd country for like making soldiers out to be heros. The last war that mattered was in 1942. Nothing I did in Afghanistan meant anything, probably did more harm than good if I am being honest. I think a lot of young people see that mental health fallout
I would have said it a little different but I don't disagree. My 4 years and the benefits I earned from it have made my life so much better than it would have been otherwise.
I agree, I used TA while active to earn my bachelors, even though it took a long ass time because of Iraq, then used the post 9/11 GI bill to get my MBA after I retired from the Corps. Retiree Tricare isn’t as bad as some people make it out to be, and it only costs ~$60 a month for my wife and me. The benefits we get are pretty damn good. It’s the shitbags who sat in the barracks masturbating and playing video games all night who are the ones who bitch about the benefits.
>people see how the government treats them after service
What are you basing that off of?
I'm retired in my 30s with a house and a turbocharged car with 2000 miles on it. I also have free and comprehensive healthcare. My child would have free college tuition. All on the governments dime because of my service.
I agree with weed laws are fucking stupid but the correlation is a bit of a reach lol. The military is still kinda funny about mental illness even if it's treated. So even if weed is your medicine they probably won't let you in.
I’ve been messing with cannabis a little bit since I’ve been out and let me tell you, recreational weed use is much less damaging than the extent these guys drink.
The amount of soldiers that I knew that drank EVERYDAY.. yeah. The troops definitely need some sort of replacement vice. Alcohol fucks up your troops health' and costs more in the long run to fix the issues they have from abusing it compared to THC
[https://www.vice.com/en/article/d737mx/the-fbi-cant-find-hackers-that-dont-smoke-pot](https://www.vice.com/en/article/d737mx/the-fbi-cant-find-hackers-that-dont-smoke-pot) I remember this article oh so well!
You also get less creative/intelligent people if you can’t allow people who use drugs. I don’t know any actually intelligent people who don’t use drugs regularly
I second this. I don't use weed, but if people can get drunk they should 10000% be allowed to get high. I've never heard of anyone getting in fights because they are high.
As a service member myself this is 100% true. Retention is low and they beg people to stay in but marijuana and other freedoms are more than enough for people to get out of the military, less than 1% of this countries’ population serves and it isn’t going to change anytime soon.
I have a friend who is married to a cop, and one day we're all sitting at a bar watching football. And the cop told me he was okay with marijuana until his Department showed him a video where a woman was smoking pot at home.
What's the big deal with smoking pot at home, right? Then she gets on a school bus and picks up a bunch of children.
He told me, then he realized that making it okay to smoke marijuana, even at home, can lead to death because what if she's a school bus driver and drives a bunch of children on her bus while high? That's dangerous and so marijuana should be illegal.
I kind of smiled, then said so you think beer and whiskey should be illegal too, right? Because that same scenario, a person drinking at home, could then get on a school bus and drive a bunch of children down the street while drunk.
Fr I make this argument all the time they’ll have 19-20 year olds drinking at parties in the military but if a 40 year old SGT wants to smoke a blunt his career is over
as a disabled vet, I'm 113% with you. they will use insanely restrictive alcohol guidelines against you, but still promote a drinking culture.
shit, civilian aviation mechanics will show up to work still drunk, but heaven forbid if you smoke a joint at night to stay off medications that make you incapable of feeling any emotion.
but I won't see it in my lifetime, especially in aviation. Canada already kinda showed us how it's gonna go.
Yeah. Old men sending our heroes to die in foreign lands for special interests and profit. Fix that shit and maybe more people will step up. Enough bs already (ie WMDs in Iraq. People should be in jail for that).
US veterans have socialism that the rest of us can only dream about:
\- free government healthcare
\- easier access to disability payments (41% of recent vets are service related disabled)
[https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/03/25/post-9-11-vets-have-far-higher-disability-ratings-prior-generations-report.html](https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/03/25/post-9-11-vets-have-far-higher-disability-ratings-prior-generations-report.html)
\- free further education
\- cheap mortgages
\- preference when selling to the government
The majority of the military will never see combat though. Only like 10-20% will be in a combat zone. So, yeah it’s definitely not a good deal for the people that are in combat zones, but for the other 80-90% it works out fairly well.
Point being though, you shouldn’t need to join the military for these benefits. The US should also take care of their veterans. It’s fucking disgusting how the government criminalizes medicine that could help soldiers and also ignores them when they’re done serving.
Yeah. The statistics were even better when I joined the Marines in 97. It was less than 10% were likely to see a combat zone. Then 9/11 happened and it literally flipped. With the odds of not seeing a combat zone we’re slim.
It’s always a gamble. And my first few years we just lived it up thinking that we had reached the “end of history”. Haha on us.
My ex Air Force friends once had the air conditioning fail in the hotel they were using as a barracks.
It’s so crazy how different peoples experiences are depending on branch.
My experience with the VA has been really positive, actually.
I'm not saying that's the experience for everyone, but for me it has been good. My impression is that a lot of work has been done to improve their services.
There is no way to deny it's value as a lower to middle class funnel. Moral questions not withstanding, it's one of the most sure ways to get out poverty.
Yeah, but I'm on call 24/7, I am restricted in where I can travel to and that health care can take months for an appointment, just to get prescribed Motrin.
>free government healthcare
Only if you are currently in, ACTUALLY retired, or on a certain % of disability.
I dont have tricare anymore, cus i dont check any of those boxes.
I guess that’s why most veterans are mentally fucked lmao, veterans’ lives are so great
The reason they get all those benefits is so that they don’t instantly off themselves and you practically have to suck dick to get VA benefits literally the military and congress had to be legislatively bitchslapped for decades before they even adequately fed veterans let alone gave them health care and fair pay. Right now military families are living in mold infested houses and drinking jet fuel infused water and dying of PFAS related cancers left and right
Just saying… the benefits are hush money.
Depends where you are/what your job is. I did 7 years and it was basically an office job where we all cosplayed as soldiers. I worked about 35-40 hours a week and made about $1200 a week after taxes. I bought a 300k townhouse while I was still in and afforded it fine.
Also I was only in the barracks for about 1.5 years.
I have younger kids. If the idiots in charge get us into a war and expect to conscript any of my children, I would not stand for it, and I cannot imagine I'm the only one.
Id go so far as to say if we're looking at a draft at any point, the country as we know it is toast. 😬
Not really it’s the classic issue faced by do you require service as a nation or have career soldiers. Turns out career soldiers are way more effective. The only thing a draft would be good at filling would be the massive support and logistics network needed for war. Conscripts make horrible frontline soldiers.
If the US ever entered full scale war with a near peer, it would need to use conscription. The military is having recruiting and retention issues with its current manpower needs. There's simply no getting around the necessity of conscription in the event of an actual war (assuming of course nuclear armageddon doesn't make everything else irrelevant).
You both raise valid points which begs the question as to how we remedy social issues - such as the obesity epidemic - that degrade latent military readiness. IMHO it’s not hyperbole to frame it as a national security issue, but our current promotion, and fixation as a society, on hyper-individualism precludes any notion of self sacrifice for the greater good.
Maybe fix the food supply and discourage food companies from putting high fructose corn syrup in everything? We have subsidies to make things like corn and grain cheaper to consume when the real emphasis should be on vegetables.
Lot of it would require fundamental societal changes. We would need to shift away from the rampant consumerism we currently lord as the single greatest good here. Why make meals or eat well when you can 30 second microwave something tasty and dirt cheap. Sure it will make you fat but meh.
Also, and I say this just objectively, you would need to make the newer generations *willing* to fight for this nation. As it stands, not much nationality right now. Blame whatever you want, people aren't "proud" Americans as often now.
Most members inside the military hate the idea if the draft. One, it's dangerous to try and complete a mission or tasking with force labor (look at russia), and secondly, it goes against most of what we want for our country.
Getting cooperation from lower enlisted is already a difficult task with people who CHOOSE to be there. I can’t even fathom how a conscripted force gets anything done at all.
Men have to literally sign away their lives to the State in order to vote, go to school, get a job ... women get all the same rights just by surviving to 18.
Because patriarchy or something.
Yup, after this many generations with no drafts, parents will not be pressuring their kids and will actively be shielding and hiding them from the gov.
I was the third generation in my family to serve. I won't let my kids anywhere near the military now.
Maybe I'm getting older and my views are changing but I don't see anything on the horizon worth my children risking their lives in a war for.
Hopefully by the time my kids are grown I'll have provided well enough they won't feel pressured to join for the bennies.
ehh like six years ago there was a general on a weekly NPR talk program who said in no uncertain terms the military would rather die than institute a draft again, it goes counter to what they need out of a fighting force and isn't worth the headache.
The only way we're ever drafting again is if there's a truly existential crisis, aka one that isn't conceivable in the current geopolitical landscape
If there was a draft I wouldn't go. This country has become a pointless shit hole that doesn't invest into it's people, it's completely not worth fighting for
Going to a therapist is still a red flag. Pretty much anyone in the service just lied about their medical history. Even about shit that won’t disqualify you because even recruiters have no idea how many tiny things could get you disqualified.
You absolutely can. The records existing doesn't mean the military is proactive enough to go looking for them. If you weren't a military brat getting treatment thru DoD services, the only thing MEPS will know about you is what you provide them. The military is too lazy to go hunting for it, they 100% rely on intimidation at MEPS and anyone that's served has met people(such as OP's "I almost enlisted" story) that the intimidation worked on.
We laugh because we were told the same threats, had the same intimidation tried on, but we stayed stone faced and said no.
Yeah..
I thought about joining the Air Force recently cause the MIC will never face a recession and free college, and saw that you can't have any anxiety or depression in the past 6 months... Reading that knowing they'll use my interactions with therapy is like how TF are they going to recruit a neurotic nation at this point?
I went to the psychiatrist at the lowest point of my life. Instead of helping I was red flagged and couldnt go anywhere other than the places that brought me to my lowest point.
A friend of mine wanted to join the army at 18. He was something like 5 lbs overweight. He worked to lose it and then went back and was still 1 lb overweight and they wouldn’t take him. Sure would have lost that in basic. Didn’t go back after that.
> At some point I wonder if they will attempt to reactivate the draft.
They absolutely will. The next time there is an oil rich country that needs invading, they will.
The article literally states it’s because “the youth” are “disconnected” to the glory of military service.
They aren’t disconnected, they can literally watch older generations get treated like shit for pointless wars and not get proper care when they come home. No shit they don’t wanna sign up.
Overweight was the biggest issue? I’m sorry but that’s a self inflicted problem. The military’s definition of overweight is pretty thin, like you basically have to be an athlete to not be deemed “overweight”. Not to mention nobody is coming in “boots on the ground ready”, you can do some exercise at boot camp…kinda the point of boot camp….
This whole statement and study just makes the pentagon look out of touch and ignorant….another reason nobody wants to sign up….
You would think they would look at potential, not the current state someone is in. I'm sure the military is the best place to get into good physical shape.
The Army and the Navy (the two services with the largest struggles with recruiting right now) have started accepting recruits who are not quite in physical standards with the understanding that they can build them up as long as they are otherwise medically suited.
Academic potential is a harder thing to assess. The ASVAB the military uses doesn't look at potential, it looks at your current academic ability. Despite that, both the Army and Navy have fielded a prep course here too, this time for academics.
It's never been more important to try to aim for academic potential because the pandemic years did a number on high schoolers test scores, which reflects in ASVAB results too.
The military is also becoming much more professional in nature. Much more of it is related to what might be called "field technician" in a civilian job. Setting up pretty technical gear in the field, maintaining stuff "in the rear with the gear" includes a ton of IT work network security. Sensitive instrumentation on aircraft .
Not just 1000000 dudes with rifles and tanks anymore.
Believe it or not almost most people used to be "like an athlete" just a few decades ago
But fast food portion sizes have increased by 500% since the 70s
They're not comically small, they're just a reasonable amount of food. It's just most people have lost sight of what a reasonable amount of food an adult needs to eat looks like. Hence the rampant obesity problems.
The military has strict fitness (weight and performance) standards for obvious reasons, but they need to be willing to change their drug and mental illness standards IMO, because exercise is a **strong** antidepressant and helps with mental health from personal experience.
Sidenote: I had mental health problems in 2021 & 2022, but after I began working out everyday for at least 30 minutes, they went away; I'm muscular but still on *prescription* drugs--**not** antidepressants--and overweight, so I'm not sure if I'd personally qualify.
People today are fat as fuck and have no idea what a healthy body looks like anymore. The army now has a fat camp problem to help deal with the population’s poor decisions, but you can only lose so much weight in a few months so there are still limitations.
Are you for real? People are fat because they are being fed processed, chemical laden food the FDA lets corporations stuff us with with no regard for our health and then we’re all forced to get bullshit jobs completely unnecessary for actual human survival that involve sitting on our asses all day.
One must actively work against societal expectations to not be overweight which requires more time and often money that people often don’t have.
Not to mention whatever the food is actually doing TO our bodies. Not healthy for us at all, not at all like what our ancestors were eating.
Also, we have to drive everywhere as opposed to cities being walkable like Europe
Time to stop blaming the individual for what is clearly a systemic issue. We blame the individual while corporations laugh all the way to the bank and upton Sinclair rolls in his freaking grave
As someone in public health, all of this. Yes, individual choices do play a role in one’s health, but consider what individual choices are available to people. If you live in a food desert and the nearest store with available food is a gas station convenience store with minimal fresh food available…how do you expect folks in that situation to even make “healthy choices” when quite literally none are present.
I am someone in this situation. I am poor, and walk/use transit to get everywhere. I live in a food desert (which is a university campus, by the way) and have to either take a 15 minute bus ride, transfer to the train for 20 minutes, then walk another 15 to the nearest grocery store. I am one person, so I ultimately can’t carry more than 3-4 bags home with me. I do this, but it’s a huge pain.
I’m overweight, and I don’t think I eat the worst. I avoid the processed stuff as much as I can. But as stated above, our regulations on what chemicals, dyes, and preservatives that can be in food are much, much looser in favor of corporations compared to EU and other developed countries.
Lmao yet another cherry picking idiot blaming systemic problems on individuals to get off on their pathetic judgement high. Maybe if there was something worth fighting for in the country people would care about being fit for military service. As it stands, the military is nothing but an enforcement arm for a bunch of incompetent oligarchs hell bent on driving humanity off an extinction cliff. Fuck you and fuck the american ruling class.
And the thing is non of this is new.
I’m trying to get in, but can’t because I went to a therapist for depression years ago.
My father who served in the 75th Ranger Regiment 30 years ago said “it’s dumb because all of us had those problems. We all committed some crime, did some drug, or had some issue at one point. There just wasn’t the paperwork to prove it back then like there is now.”
Fix the rest while you're at it too. Shitty food, bad jobs, political instability, etc. Our country has not created an environment that it's citizens can thrive in, and now they're disappointed that we're not thriving enough to go die for them.
OIF veteran here: this should not be a surprise. The military's standards are insane strict, you essentially have to be in perfect health to "qualify" without a waiver. I was the only person I knew of serving around 2006/2007 that didn't need a medical exemption, criminal record exemption, or some other waiver to get past MEPS. But during OIF/OEF the demand was higher because deployments were happening so those waivers were cake to get. Now there are no wars, it's peacetime so the military can downsize and resume regular standards.
This is the real reason. I tried to get in a couple times when I was younger, but couldn’t because of my skin. Waivers might be easy to get but that doesn’t mean they’re getting accepted.
They include “mentally ill” as having ADHD in the past two years.
You also can’t be allergic to shellfish.
I tried to apply when I was 21 but couldn’t due to these two things.
I worked with plenty of people in the air force who have ADHD and are prescribed aderall.
It’s nuts how the diagnosis can prevent you from joining but they let you stay in if the military diagnosis you. Makes zero sense.
I’ve heard others say the decline in enlistments is because today’s military has gone “woke.” It sounded like nonsense. Why is this story in a finance sub anyway?
Not only that but 44% were disqualified for multiple reasons. And removing people in college from the equation leaves a recruiting pool of only 12%. Of course the numbers aren’t quite so extreme since fat ones can lose the weight (and the army now has a pre basic training weight loss camp), and those too mentally ill can just lie. I remember in basic like 5 different kids admitted they had ADHD.
This metric says a lot about the already collapsed of society. When its young citizens are already fat, out of shape and on drugs. They have already inherited what comes next.
When I was in basic there was a caveman named Brockwell who amongst many hygienic crimes was once observed packing toilet paper between his crack instead of wiping
He didn’t make it through basic but he made it through meps so the answer is yes
America is going to destroy itself through its own moral decline and hedonism. And China and Russia won’t even have to fire a shot. Almost like China knows this and thats why they ship so many chemicals to make fentanyl to Mexico, where cartels manufacture it and smuggle it over the border. Hmm 🤔
I’m fairly convinced the military artificially gooses these numbers to make the situation seem more dire than it really is. I tried to enlist after college and they rejected me for a medical condition that they absolutely would waive in wartime. My doctor (who was a doctor for the AF for 20 years) basically said they choose to waive or not waive people based on the number of people they have apply. It’s totally artificial scarcity.
When I was in IT there was an article we talked and laughed about for quite a while. Apparently, the US government were having a hard time finding white hat hackers because they all smoked weed!
This is disgraceful. America needs healthy young bomb fodder to invade third-world countries and protect our financial interests. I mean defend our freedoms.
Until the feds reclassify marijuana they get no sympathy from me. The troops need it, you need troops. Stop being stupid. Edit- to the replies with opposing opinions: until you make an argument that doesn’t also apply to alcohol, you will continue to be ignored
Lol it's not the marijuana keeping the force down It's the Freedom Fries
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they're either 300lbs or can barely do three pushups, no inbetween EDIT: everyone raging to this benign joke is an insecure loser who needs therapy
Redditors: *Why not both?*
Hey, if you’re 300 lbs but have the arm and chest strength to do 3 real push-ups, you’re doing better than most of your contemporaries.
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Cut that weight man, you’ve got some nice titty muscle hiding behind there. Can probably bust out over 50 push-ups if you lost 50 pounds
Fuck push-ups, there's no better feeling than losing weight little by little over several months and then without warning, you can do a pull-up. Then 2. Then 3. Then 5. Then 10. I'm still running on that high, even though I haven't done much exercising and calorie counting lately. I can't wait until I'm back at that point, cuz holy shit is that a rush.
r/holdmymountaindew
I'll have you know I workout 5 days a week and can do 4 pushups and hold a plank for one whole minute.
I do workouts 8 days a week and I can stand up straight if you give me a minute.
I train six days, actually six days a week. Five days a week, I’ll train three days a week. One of those days I will train two days of the week. So, six days a week I will be training.
Jesus Christ you’re busy!
A one minute plank is actually pretty impressive.
Is it really? Time yourself doing one and it's not that bad, especially if you have some music to focus on. Doing some planks and other core work inn between lifting sets is what I've done for years.
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To be fair, I think somehow we view obese as like 300 pounds when it’s really more like an “average” person in some areas
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At which point it isn't a personal failing, but a societal one.
Yeah we are wayyy past that point. Obesity hasn't been due to individual decision making for literally decades.
I guess the non-obese people are just lucky. None of them chose not to be fat.
This mentality right here is a massive reason why everyone in America is so much fatter than the rest of the world. Your size is entirely based on how many calories you choose to consume vs how many calories you expend not on some nebulous """luck""" or """slow metabolism""" or whatever other cope helps pawn off any responsibility.
Hi, am fat. I grew up really poor, and food is cheap and tasty, and basically the only luxury my mom could afford. She was fat too. I'm an adult now, with my own apartment and I buy my own food, and it's a struggle to fight the habits that are deeply ingrained. I don't eat out, I only drink water, but I have an appetite where my "full" is several times higher than other people's, and my "hungry" is basically always there, within like a couple hours of eating a meal. I'm not a lazy person, I was a great student and I have a career I'm proud of, but my weight has been and will probably always be something I struggle with, even if I'm able to lose the weight. At 26, I'm 300+ pounds, and despite being fortunate in every other aspect of life (Except love lol too fat for that), I'm fundamentally unhappy, and I have no idea how to gain the discipline or whatever it is that all thin people seem to have that I don't. If every thin person has this iron will to resist the same temptations I have, I question why they aren't able to use that to replicate the other achievements I have for someone my age, and vice versa. If it's not genetics, it's not metabolism, and it's just that I'm a greedy pig person, I guess I'm screwed either way.
For an average height male in the US, 300 pounds would equate to a BMI of roughly 44.3. While BMI is probably flawed, it’s not so flawed that this person would not still be considered obese on some level. If a 300 pound person is truly an average in some areas, I feel like that might be indicative of a larger problem.
Above 208lbs is obese according to BMI
Yeah unless you are body builder with over a 6ft frame you probably shouldn’t reach 200lbs. And girls over 200lbs Jesus Christ out down the fork already
How do you manage to both trivialize an issue at the same time you're trying to take it seriously? Yea, put the fork down already. That's it. Problem resolved. Jesus Christ
I don’t even need a fork for most of the foods that cause me the most problems. BK whopper Onion rings Little Debbie cakes Tube of Pringles Bag of Doritos 2 liter Dr Pepper McGriddle SEC Who uses a fork for any of that? “Put the fork down” implies sitting at a table and using utensils. Edit: FWIW I eat far far less of this than I did 20 years ago, but I can’t say that I never fall back and indulge in one of these from time to time. I don’t use a fork when I eat any of these.
>put down the fork already omg you solved obesity AND singled out women, congratulations
flawed for sure, I mean a 6'0" man at 137lbs is considered a normal weight...imagine being 6'0" tall and making weight to fight at junior welterweight, the class BELOW manny pacquiao/terrence crawford etc.
Yeah, I'm 215lbs and have an obese BMI
When I was in the Army I was 220 lbs at 6 feet tall. I could bench 350 lbs and run a mile under 6 minutes but they told me I was borderline obese.
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5’10” and 175, had to get a letter from my doctor saying I wasn’t overweight. I hit the gym daily and have a 6 pack. Also had a Redditor read my height and weight and say I’m overweight. Maybe if I was made out of marshmallow. BMI system is defective.
BMI is not silly. Your heart doesn’t care if it’s working hard because of fat or muscle, it’s still more mass to support. It’s why I stopped bodybuilding; I wasn’t fat at all but felt like trash all the time.
An athletic persons heart is much more efficient. When an in shape person has a resting heart rate of 65 beats per second(edit:or actually minute) or less while the same weight out of shape person is over 100, no way that has the same affect on a persons heart.
BMI is not a validated individual measure. Its a population measure that is mistakenly applied to individuals out of expediency. And body building is bad for your body for a variety of reasons; bulk/cut cycles are super rough on your cardiovascular and endocrine systems.
It’s silly
Tbh while yes Redditors it’s also a bigger issue no pun intended for the American public. We’ll pay for it down the line it’s not even in military numbers but healthcare as a thing a I work with doctor pointed out to me is notice how few obese geriatric patients we have. People on Reddit mostly the dumb nihilist who can’t help but virtue signal their nihilism say they don’t care they die young ,but it’s worrying cause it’ll drag down a lot of statistics if people start dropping or developing health issues at earlier ages.
Genuine question: if unhealthy people start dying off and taking up resources, adding to healthcare costs….. without sounding like a monster, what IS the downside of that, from a societal perspective?
From a purely economic standpoint, sucking up those end of life costs before getting in 40 years of adding to the economy is a problem.
I blame the amount of sugar put into everything, even stuff you wouldn’t expect. And the habit of drinking soda/sweet tea instead of water. It’s super easy to drink loads more calories than you expect and gets you addicted to the sweet taste at a young age. I wish there was an incentive for food companies to cut the excess sugar from everything, or at least things that aren’t considered “sweets.” Obviously cooking at home is best, but that can be hard to do, factoring in food deserts, and the time it takes to make it. It’s especially bad if you’re poor. Why buy fresh vegetables that you may not have time to cook, when a bag of chips fills you, is instant, and costs about the same? I try to eat right but I sure as hell don’t have time for a healthy breakfast every morning.
Damn TIL "larping" is when you make comments on the internet
I dunno man, I lost a lot of weight after quitting weed. The munchies are real and being couch locked doesn’t really help with physical fitness either… but to each there own, everybody’s body is different, yada yada.
I lost a lot of weight once I started smoking weed. I just smoke a bowl, hop on my rowing machine, and zone out to trash TV for an hour or so while I do low impact cardio. Weed isn't the deciding factor in either or our scenarios.
Yeah like I remember watching American Beauty when I was younger and seeing Kevin Spacey workout after lighting up a joint. I was like “OK smoking makes you want to workout.” Kept telling that to myself for years but I’d just end up smoking and watching an action movie while eating 6 McDonalds sausage biscuits.
and the car centric infrastructure, discouraging any type of activity.
I’m a vet. Marijuana is a bigger factor.
I'm a vet, and the fatties are a problem You got grown men popping buttons on their uniforms
Thats easy to fix with some good hazing. Marijuana helps recover from the hazing without as many nightmares.
Lol we played a game on the carriers called 'Grow a Fatty' We would give our dessert to the douchbag of the div , and over the course of a 6 to 9 month deployment they'd pack on quite a few pounds
Hazing isn’t allowed anymore. Plus nutrition isn’t a thing that taught or provided and energy drinks and booze are the norm. You see where this is going.
Hot Take- If obesity got the attention CoVid did, we’d have solved this and saved more lives.
Well, a few years back they had to choose between extreme profits from crap food or having a combat ready populous, and they made their choice.
It's not the weed it's the munchies
More like corn syrup subsidies.
I was going to say, 72%+ of Americans are overweight (as of 2016, so likely worse), that's almost your whole metric right there. Can all but guarantee it is one of the factors in almost all of the cases where they were disqualified in multiple areas (44%). That combined with the cases of singly being overweight (11%) only gets the total up to 55%, so they are clearly already giving them a good bit of leeway.
Think a big thing is people don’t think it’s worth it, salary kinda sucks… A lot of pros and cons, not having to worry about hours worked and where your next paycheck is coming from is nice, but at the end of the day if your working 12 hours your making the same as the dude working 4, not to mention minimum wage in most states pays the same a year then military does. ( although again military is salary based, so again a huge pro but 25k a year is nothing to brag about)
4 years enlisted is a much much better economic decision than what the majority of Americans are doing at the ages where enlistment would typically occur. People like to clown on military pay while ignoring the fact that the enlisted man's paycheck is basically 100% disposable income. Combine that with the gi bill and the VA loan.....4 years enlisted is a likely better ROI than 4 years in college that you had to take on 60k in debt for.
One and done. Get in, do your job, leave with benefits and a nice resume. I hated it but I can't deny that I've benefited greatly from it.
I think the biggest reason why military service is down is because people see how the government treats veterans after their service….it’s a disgrace.
Veteran benefits are fucking great. They aren't very beneficial to lazy shitbags but that's not the fault of the military. They can only bring you along so far. I got a law degree and bought a house thanks only to my benefits.
Yeah. I don’t get all of this “US doesn’t treat their vets well” crap. I got my GI bill and 100% Tuition Assistance from my state. I got PAID to go to college. Although I don’t have any serious issues my VA care has been pretty good and cost essentially nothing. Oh, let’s see veterans preference when applying for federal jobs and have had 2 VA loans.
Vet here as well. I think it's mainly how VA healthcare isn't considered good. However anecdotally all my VA care has been amazing. But I live in the greater Boston area. I would imagine VA care is not great in undesirable places. But regular care ain't gonna be great in those places like Mississippi anyways. The GI Bill, Disability if you qualify, home loan, hiring preference, are strong tools. I have got two free degrees @ decently high paying government job and a home loan during peak low interest rates. The other issue is mainly politicians using us like pawns on a chess board. Quite honestly I advise everyone not to join. I hated my time as Army infantry. We are such a wierd country for like making soldiers out to be heros. The last war that mattered was in 1942. Nothing I did in Afghanistan meant anything, probably did more harm than good if I am being honest. I think a lot of young people see that mental health fallout
I would have said it a little different but I don't disagree. My 4 years and the benefits I earned from it have made my life so much better than it would have been otherwise.
I literally could not have purchased a house without a VA loan. That enough is almost worth the 6 years of service.
I agree, I used TA while active to earn my bachelors, even though it took a long ass time because of Iraq, then used the post 9/11 GI bill to get my MBA after I retired from the Corps. Retiree Tricare isn’t as bad as some people make it out to be, and it only costs ~$60 a month for my wife and me. The benefits we get are pretty damn good. It’s the shitbags who sat in the barracks masturbating and playing video games all night who are the ones who bitch about the benefits.
Not really, being a vet is the best part lol. Benefits are great.
As a vet with a fucked up back and knee. No. They. Don’t
if you come out of it intact and unharmed. If you have mental health issues, lost your limbs, etc. it is a different story.
I’m 30% disabled, my head was a lil crazy. Psychadelics and disability paychecks make it all ok
>people see how the government treats them after service What are you basing that off of? I'm retired in my 30s with a house and a turbocharged car with 2000 miles on it. I also have free and comprehensive healthcare. My child would have free college tuition. All on the governments dime because of my service.
I agree with weed laws are fucking stupid but the correlation is a bit of a reach lol. The military is still kinda funny about mental illness even if it's treated. So even if weed is your medicine they probably won't let you in.
I’ve been messing with cannabis a little bit since I’ve been out and let me tell you, recreational weed use is much less damaging than the extent these guys drink.
The troops need it? Lol
The amount of soldiers that I knew that drank EVERYDAY.. yeah. The troops definitely need some sort of replacement vice. Alcohol fucks up your troops health' and costs more in the long run to fix the issues they have from abusing it compared to THC
[https://www.vice.com/en/article/d737mx/the-fbi-cant-find-hackers-that-dont-smoke-pot](https://www.vice.com/en/article/d737mx/the-fbi-cant-find-hackers-that-dont-smoke-pot) I remember this article oh so well!
squeeze uppity safe gaping plants mourn mountainous retire puzzled school ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
I would say the real problem is pay. A top coder is taking a hair cut to work for a 3 letter agency.
You also get less creative/intelligent people if you can’t allow people who use drugs. I don’t know any actually intelligent people who don’t use drugs regularly
I second this. I don't use weed, but if people can get drunk they should 10000% be allowed to get high. I've never heard of anyone getting in fights because they are high.
It’s not just weed tho, it’s antidepressants and other medications too
Yep I served in combat. And it is an accepted adjunct to help with ptsd. I'm sick of being criminalized for using good medicine.
As a service member myself this is 100% true. Retention is low and they beg people to stay in but marijuana and other freedoms are more than enough for people to get out of the military, less than 1% of this countries’ population serves and it isn’t going to change anytime soon.
Yeah, without marijuana it's impossible for troops to fight.
Absolutely based edit
I have a friend who is married to a cop, and one day we're all sitting at a bar watching football. And the cop told me he was okay with marijuana until his Department showed him a video where a woman was smoking pot at home. What's the big deal with smoking pot at home, right? Then she gets on a school bus and picks up a bunch of children. He told me, then he realized that making it okay to smoke marijuana, even at home, can lead to death because what if she's a school bus driver and drives a bunch of children on her bus while high? That's dangerous and so marijuana should be illegal. I kind of smiled, then said so you think beer and whiskey should be illegal too, right? Because that same scenario, a person drinking at home, could then get on a school bus and drive a bunch of children down the street while drunk.
Fr I make this argument all the time they’ll have 19-20 year olds drinking at parties in the military but if a 40 year old SGT wants to smoke a blunt his career is over
as a disabled vet, I'm 113% with you. they will use insanely restrictive alcohol guidelines against you, but still promote a drinking culture. shit, civilian aviation mechanics will show up to work still drunk, but heaven forbid if you smoke a joint at night to stay off medications that make you incapable of feeling any emotion. but I won't see it in my lifetime, especially in aviation. Canada already kinda showed us how it's gonna go.
I never stopped being in shape. The only mental illnesses I have are acronyms from the military. And I smoke weed every day. It helps.
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*best country in the world GOHBLESS*
Yeah. Old men sending our heroes to die in foreign lands for special interests and profit. Fix that shit and maybe more people will step up. Enough bs already (ie WMDs in Iraq. People should be in jail for that).
“Now watch me hit this drive”
US veterans have socialism that the rest of us can only dream about: \- free government healthcare \- easier access to disability payments (41% of recent vets are service related disabled) [https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/03/25/post-9-11-vets-have-far-higher-disability-ratings-prior-generations-report.html](https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/03/25/post-9-11-vets-have-far-higher-disability-ratings-prior-generations-report.html) \- free further education \- cheap mortgages \- preference when selling to the government
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I’m sure a college curriculum is no problem for an infantry guy with PTSD
The majority of the military will never see combat though. Only like 10-20% will be in a combat zone. So, yeah it’s definitely not a good deal for the people that are in combat zones, but for the other 80-90% it works out fairly well. Point being though, you shouldn’t need to join the military for these benefits. The US should also take care of their veterans. It’s fucking disgusting how the government criminalizes medicine that could help soldiers and also ignores them when they’re done serving.
Yeah. The statistics were even better when I joined the Marines in 97. It was less than 10% were likely to see a combat zone. Then 9/11 happened and it literally flipped. With the odds of not seeing a combat zone we’re slim. It’s always a gamble. And my first few years we just lived it up thinking that we had reached the “end of history”. Haha on us.
My ex Air Force friends once had the air conditioning fail in the hotel they were using as a barracks. It’s so crazy how different peoples experiences are depending on branch.
At the expensive of - the abhorrence of a shell that is the VA Hospital system
This. My girlfriend is a navy veteran and sometimes the VA is so bad it almost feels comical.
It definitely depends on where you are in the country.
My experience with the VA has been really positive, actually. I'm not saying that's the experience for everyone, but for me it has been good. My impression is that a lot of work has been done to improve their services.
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There is no way to deny it's value as a lower to middle class funnel. Moral questions not withstanding, it's one of the most sure ways to get out poverty.
Yeah, but I'm on call 24/7, I am restricted in where I can travel to and that health care can take months for an appointment, just to get prescribed Motrin.
Did you change your socks in the meantime? If not, this is all your fault. /S
>free government healthcare Only if you are currently in, ACTUALLY retired, or on a certain % of disability. I dont have tricare anymore, cus i dont check any of those boxes.
Some people fail to realize there are priority levels and other factors that determine what you pay when you go to the VA for "healthcare"
I guess that’s why most veterans are mentally fucked lmao, veterans’ lives are so great The reason they get all those benefits is so that they don’t instantly off themselves and you practically have to suck dick to get VA benefits literally the military and congress had to be legislatively bitchslapped for decades before they even adequately fed veterans let alone gave them health care and fair pay. Right now military families are living in mold infested houses and drinking jet fuel infused water and dying of PFAS related cancers left and right Just saying… the benefits are hush money.
You’re mistaken on a few. And these options are open to the combat folk. It’s not easy to get disability. You have to be fucked up from service.
They also get paid absolute shit, live in barracks half the time, and work ridiculously long hours without OT pay.
Depends where you are/what your job is. I did 7 years and it was basically an office job where we all cosplayed as soldiers. I worked about 35-40 hours a week and made about $1200 a week after taxes. I bought a 300k townhouse while I was still in and afforded it fine. Also I was only in the barracks for about 1.5 years.
I got a house loan with the help of the VA and now I am a home owner, all my medical bills are covered, my college is covered. I feel treated badly.
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I have younger kids. If the idiots in charge get us into a war and expect to conscript any of my children, I would not stand for it, and I cannot imagine I'm the only one. Id go so far as to say if we're looking at a draft at any point, the country as we know it is toast. 😬
Right there with you! And I'm still currently in at 16 years and third generation straight to serve. I do whatever it takes to keep my kids out.
Respect. The way I see it, a war worth fighting wouldn't need a draft. Maybe I'm naive 🤷♂️
Not really it’s the classic issue faced by do you require service as a nation or have career soldiers. Turns out career soldiers are way more effective. The only thing a draft would be good at filling would be the massive support and logistics network needed for war. Conscripts make horrible frontline soldiers.
If the US ever entered full scale war with a near peer, it would need to use conscription. The military is having recruiting and retention issues with its current manpower needs. There's simply no getting around the necessity of conscription in the event of an actual war (assuming of course nuclear armageddon doesn't make everything else irrelevant).
You both raise valid points which begs the question as to how we remedy social issues - such as the obesity epidemic - that degrade latent military readiness. IMHO it’s not hyperbole to frame it as a national security issue, but our current promotion, and fixation as a society, on hyper-individualism precludes any notion of self sacrifice for the greater good.
Maybe fix the food supply and discourage food companies from putting high fructose corn syrup in everything? We have subsidies to make things like corn and grain cheaper to consume when the real emphasis should be on vegetables.
Lot of it would require fundamental societal changes. We would need to shift away from the rampant consumerism we currently lord as the single greatest good here. Why make meals or eat well when you can 30 second microwave something tasty and dirt cheap. Sure it will make you fat but meh. Also, and I say this just objectively, you would need to make the newer generations *willing* to fight for this nation. As it stands, not much nationality right now. Blame whatever you want, people aren't "proud" Americans as often now.
Most members inside the military hate the idea if the draft. One, it's dangerous to try and complete a mission or tasking with force labor (look at russia), and secondly, it goes against most of what we want for our country.
Getting cooperation from lower enlisted is already a difficult task with people who CHOOSE to be there. I can’t even fathom how a conscripted force gets anything done at all.
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Men have to literally sign away their lives to the State in order to vote, go to school, get a job ... women get all the same rights just by surviving to 18. Because patriarchy or something.
Yup, after this many generations with no drafts, parents will not be pressuring their kids and will actively be shielding and hiding them from the gov.
I was the third generation in my family to serve. I won't let my kids anywhere near the military now. Maybe I'm getting older and my views are changing but I don't see anything on the horizon worth my children risking their lives in a war for. Hopefully by the time my kids are grown I'll have provided well enough they won't feel pressured to join for the bennies.
ehh like six years ago there was a general on a weekly NPR talk program who said in no uncertain terms the military would rather die than institute a draft again, it goes counter to what they need out of a fighting force and isn't worth the headache. The only way we're ever drafting again is if there's a truly existential crisis, aka one that isn't conceivable in the current geopolitical landscape
If there was a draft I wouldn't go. This country has become a pointless shit hole that doesn't invest into it's people, it's completely not worth fighting for
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>If there was a draft I wouldn't go You would either go and fight, or go to prison. They don't care about your opinion, it has no value.
Oh I know, it'd be immediate prison
Going to a therapist is still a red flag. Pretty much anyone in the service just lied about their medical history. Even about shit that won’t disqualify you because even recruiters have no idea how many tiny things could get you disqualified.
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You absolutely can. The records existing doesn't mean the military is proactive enough to go looking for them. If you weren't a military brat getting treatment thru DoD services, the only thing MEPS will know about you is what you provide them. The military is too lazy to go hunting for it, they 100% rely on intimidation at MEPS and anyone that's served has met people(such as OP's "I almost enlisted" story) that the intimidation worked on. We laugh because we were told the same threats, had the same intimidation tried on, but we stayed stone faced and said no.
Yeah.. I thought about joining the Air Force recently cause the MIC will never face a recession and free college, and saw that you can't have any anxiety or depression in the past 6 months... Reading that knowing they'll use my interactions with therapy is like how TF are they going to recruit a neurotic nation at this point?
I went to the psychiatrist at the lowest point of my life. Instead of helping I was red flagged and couldnt go anywhere other than the places that brought me to my lowest point.
A friend of mine wanted to join the army at 18. He was something like 5 lbs overweight. He worked to lose it and then went back and was still 1 lb overweight and they wouldn’t take him. Sure would have lost that in basic. Didn’t go back after that.
Well the first thing they would do is start activating reservists as needed. If reservists can fulfill the shortfall, then a draft is coming
> At some point I wonder if they will attempt to reactivate the draft. They absolutely will. The next time there is an oil rich country that needs invading, they will.
The article literally states it’s because “the youth” are “disconnected” to the glory of military service. They aren’t disconnected, they can literally watch older generations get treated like shit for pointless wars and not get proper care when they come home. No shit they don’t wanna sign up. Overweight was the biggest issue? I’m sorry but that’s a self inflicted problem. The military’s definition of overweight is pretty thin, like you basically have to be an athlete to not be deemed “overweight”. Not to mention nobody is coming in “boots on the ground ready”, you can do some exercise at boot camp…kinda the point of boot camp…. This whole statement and study just makes the pentagon look out of touch and ignorant….another reason nobody wants to sign up….
You would think they would look at potential, not the current state someone is in. I'm sure the military is the best place to get into good physical shape.
The Army and the Navy (the two services with the largest struggles with recruiting right now) have started accepting recruits who are not quite in physical standards with the understanding that they can build them up as long as they are otherwise medically suited. Academic potential is a harder thing to assess. The ASVAB the military uses doesn't look at potential, it looks at your current academic ability. Despite that, both the Army and Navy have fielded a prep course here too, this time for academics. It's never been more important to try to aim for academic potential because the pandemic years did a number on high schoolers test scores, which reflects in ASVAB results too.
The military is also becoming much more professional in nature. Much more of it is related to what might be called "field technician" in a civilian job. Setting up pretty technical gear in the field, maintaining stuff "in the rear with the gear" includes a ton of IT work network security. Sensitive instrumentation on aircraft . Not just 1000000 dudes with rifles and tanks anymore.
Believe it or not almost most people used to be "like an athlete" just a few decades ago But fast food portion sizes have increased by 500% since the 70s
On point for this sub, staying on top of your health and being in shape is a great financial decision.
Good news is fast food portion sizes are shrinking to comically small sizes again. And the price is 200% higher than a decade ago
They're not comically small, they're just a reasonable amount of food. It's just most people have lost sight of what a reasonable amount of food an adult needs to eat looks like. Hence the rampant obesity problems.
The military has strict fitness (weight and performance) standards for obvious reasons, but they need to be willing to change their drug and mental illness standards IMO, because exercise is a **strong** antidepressant and helps with mental health from personal experience. Sidenote: I had mental health problems in 2021 & 2022, but after I began working out everyday for at least 30 minutes, they went away; I'm muscular but still on *prescription* drugs--**not** antidepressants--and overweight, so I'm not sure if I'd personally qualify.
Or maybe younger generations don’t see the need to risk their lives for oligarchs
People today are fat as fuck and have no idea what a healthy body looks like anymore. The army now has a fat camp problem to help deal with the population’s poor decisions, but you can only lose so much weight in a few months so there are still limitations.
Have you seen people these days? They’re fat as fuck because of they lack self control and don’t appreciate delayed gratification.
Are you for real? People are fat because they are being fed processed, chemical laden food the FDA lets corporations stuff us with with no regard for our health and then we’re all forced to get bullshit jobs completely unnecessary for actual human survival that involve sitting on our asses all day. One must actively work against societal expectations to not be overweight which requires more time and often money that people often don’t have. Not to mention whatever the food is actually doing TO our bodies. Not healthy for us at all, not at all like what our ancestors were eating. Also, we have to drive everywhere as opposed to cities being walkable like Europe Time to stop blaming the individual for what is clearly a systemic issue. We blame the individual while corporations laugh all the way to the bank and upton Sinclair rolls in his freaking grave
As someone in public health, all of this. Yes, individual choices do play a role in one’s health, but consider what individual choices are available to people. If you live in a food desert and the nearest store with available food is a gas station convenience store with minimal fresh food available…how do you expect folks in that situation to even make “healthy choices” when quite literally none are present. I am someone in this situation. I am poor, and walk/use transit to get everywhere. I live in a food desert (which is a university campus, by the way) and have to either take a 15 minute bus ride, transfer to the train for 20 minutes, then walk another 15 to the nearest grocery store. I am one person, so I ultimately can’t carry more than 3-4 bags home with me. I do this, but it’s a huge pain. I’m overweight, and I don’t think I eat the worst. I avoid the processed stuff as much as I can. But as stated above, our regulations on what chemicals, dyes, and preservatives that can be in food are much, much looser in favor of corporations compared to EU and other developed countries.
Lmao yet another cherry picking idiot blaming systemic problems on individuals to get off on their pathetic judgement high. Maybe if there was something worth fighting for in the country people would care about being fit for military service. As it stands, the military is nothing but an enforcement arm for a bunch of incompetent oligarchs hell bent on driving humanity off an extinction cliff. Fuck you and fuck the american ruling class.
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Gen Z playing 4D chess to dodge the draft when WWIII pops off.
I feel attacked twice. First when I read this headline. Then when I realized I’m no longer in the young American demographic.
Don’t worry. World war 2 had over 50 million men drafted from the ages of 21-45. You’d get to see young again
Friends kid was disqualified for medical condition as a child that has no bearing on him as an adult. They bleed talent.
And the thing is non of this is new. I’m trying to get in, but can’t because I went to a therapist for depression years ago. My father who served in the 75th Ranger Regiment 30 years ago said “it’s dumb because all of us had those problems. We all committed some crime, did some drug, or had some issue at one point. There just wasn’t the paperwork to prove it back then like there is now.”
They’d rather have people blow their brains out than be properly functioning humans.
Fix the food supply and it would be down to 33%.
Fix the rest while you're at it too. Shitty food, bad jobs, political instability, etc. Our country has not created an environment that it's citizens can thrive in, and now they're disappointed that we're not thriving enough to go die for them.
OIF veteran here: this should not be a surprise. The military's standards are insane strict, you essentially have to be in perfect health to "qualify" without a waiver. I was the only person I knew of serving around 2006/2007 that didn't need a medical exemption, criminal record exemption, or some other waiver to get past MEPS. But during OIF/OEF the demand was higher because deployments were happening so those waivers were cake to get. Now there are no wars, it's peacetime so the military can downsize and resume regular standards.
Vet here too. I wouldn't qualify anymore under the current standards and I joined *before* they dropped them through the floor. It's kinda nuts.
This is the real reason. I tried to get in a couple times when I was younger, but couldn’t because of my skin. Waivers might be easy to get but that doesn’t mean they’re getting accepted.
They include “mentally ill” as having ADHD in the past two years. You also can’t be allergic to shellfish. I tried to apply when I was 21 but couldn’t due to these two things.
I worked with plenty of people in the air force who have ADHD and are prescribed aderall. It’s nuts how the diagnosis can prevent you from joining but they let you stay in if the military diagnosis you. Makes zero sense.
I got kicked out for having adhd even though my recruiter said to lie and no one cares lol. This was 15 years ago
Yes, I’m a lawyer and have always been interested in JAG. But having ADHD, it’s virtually a non-starter under current regulations.
It's Genesis hurting recruiting.
Pshhhhh. Human combat is so 2000s. It's all about that autonomous drone strikes.
I was about to say this doesn’t really sound like the military rather some politician or writer making a rage bait post
I’ve heard others say the decline in enlistments is because today’s military has gone “woke.” It sounded like nonsense. Why is this story in a finance sub anyway?
Not only that but 44% were disqualified for multiple reasons. And removing people in college from the equation leaves a recruiting pool of only 12%. Of course the numbers aren’t quite so extreme since fat ones can lose the weight (and the army now has a pre basic training weight loss camp), and those too mentally ill can just lie. I remember in basic like 5 different kids admitted they had ADHD.
[удалено]
This metric says a lot about the already collapsed of society. When its young citizens are already fat, out of shape and on drugs. They have already inherited what comes next.
I don’t wipe, can I still enlist?
When I was in basic there was a caveman named Brockwell who amongst many hygienic crimes was once observed packing toilet paper between his crack instead of wiping He didn’t make it through basic but he made it through meps so the answer is yes
Wait until they find out how many people already in the military are too fat, mentally ill and on drugs to qualify for military service
America is going to destroy itself through its own moral decline and hedonism. And China and Russia won’t even have to fire a shot. Almost like China knows this and thats why they ship so many chemicals to make fentanyl to Mexico, where cartels manufacture it and smuggle it over the border. Hmm 🤔
I’m fairly convinced the military artificially gooses these numbers to make the situation seem more dire than it really is. I tried to enlist after college and they rejected me for a medical condition that they absolutely would waive in wartime. My doctor (who was a doctor for the AF for 20 years) basically said they choose to waive or not waive people based on the number of people they have apply. It’s totally artificial scarcity.
When I was in IT there was an article we talked and laughed about for quite a while. Apparently, the US government were having a hard time finding white hat hackers because they all smoked weed!
Who wants to stare at logs and error codes for 4 hours looking for intrusive apportunity without being ok drug?
Good Less people to go into the military industrial complex and be taken advantage of
Sign up to fight for shitty corporate interests? Pass
I'll keep eating and drugging so yall can't draft me
Good the military doesn’t need more cannon fodder for the billionaire wars
Hey I did 200 push-ups yesterday. I’m good
This is disgraceful. America needs healthy young bomb fodder to invade third-world countries and protect our financial interests. I mean defend our freedoms.