The US military is using online gaming to recruit teens
First: Yes, this is my second comment on this post.  I wasn&#x27;t sure if I should just edit my comment but this has a different theme so I&#x27;ll keep them separate.<p>You should note when reading this article that it is written from a progressive&#x2F;leftist perspective.  The author isn&#x27;t trying to hide it.  I want to comment on some specific points just to offer a little balance and some inside knowledge from my experience being in the military (experience the author does not have).  I&#x27;m not a recruiter and none of this represents an official stance from any organization, it&#x27;s my personal views.<p>- &quot;None of the military branches or Twitch would comment on paid promotion or how branches might qualify for prominent placement on Twitch’s homepage&quot;  It&#x27;s money.  Literally just money.  There is nothing nefarious on Twitch&#x27;s part about selling featured space.<p>- I&#x27;ll admit that the whole promising a chance to win an Xbox controller and then redirecting to a recruiter is kind of scummy.  But if you&#x27;re going to get mad at recruiters, get mad at them for lying to recruits about their potential jobs based on their ASVAB scores.  They will tell low scoring kids that they can do whatever job they desire just to get them to sign papers, when a lot of jobs have specific requirements that the recruiter knows they don&#x27;t meet.  This is a really bad thing that recruiters do and it&#x27;s way worse than lying about an Xbox controller.<p>- But as scummy as recruiters sometimes are, let&#x27;s acknowledge that the military can be beneficial to some people.  It <i>really</i> does pay for college, both with tuition assistance while they are serving and with the GI bill after they get out.  For me personally, I have received a bachelor&#x27;s degree, a master&#x27;s degree, and a PhD all without taking a single loan because of the military.  I have also helped tutor airmen taking college math classes while they were deployed.  A lot of them would not have thrived in a traditional college environment, but while deployed they would work 50+ hours a week and also knocked out six credit hours of classes in six months.  A lot of those airmen have now finished their bachelor&#x27;s degrees with zero debt and are now stellar civilian employees with great lives.<p>- The military can help people raise their station in life.  This phrasing &quot;a system by which recruiters target children in unstable and&#x2F;or disadvantaged situations. Recruiters take advantage of the poor seeking steady income, the vulnerable longing for stability, and the undocumented living in fear because of their citizenship status&quot; screams that it was written by a privileged person that looks down on poor people but wants to look like they care.  The reality is that a lot of people that came from poor families and broken homes really appreciate that the military gave them a new family, a good paycheck, secured their chance at citizenship, etc.  No, the military isn&#x27;t for everyone, but it&#x27;s not a nefarious supervillian preying on the underclass of society.<p>- The anti-recruiter says &quot;They don’t talk about military sexual trauma.&quot;  I do want to acknowledge that this exists and is a problem.  But every branch of the military is making serious attempts at getting better.  There are pockets of absolute filth, but most people in the military want to fix the problem and do not tolerate sexual abuse or abusers in their units, and act swiftly and appropriately when it is discovered. I am confident saying that you are now at far greater risk of being sexually assaulted if you attend a college frat party than you are joining the military.<p>- This part &quot;Despite being older than most of his young viewers, he speaks like them&quot; is how you should communicate with people.  Most groups&#x2F;cultures appreciate it when an outsider speaks or makes an attempt to speak the native language.  It&#x27;s not a bad thing.<p>That&#x27;s probably enough commentary.  It&#x27;s true, the military isn&#x27;t perfect, and sometimes pulls some shady tricks when recruiting.  But this article is slanted, so keep an open mind when forming an opinion.  The truth probably lies somewhere between the radical left and the radical right, it&#x27;s up to you to find it.  There are a <i>lot</i> of proud veterans that appreciate their time in the military and the benefits it brought them.  There are too many happy veterans for them to all be psychopaths or brainwashed or idiots, some of them have to be decent regular people.  There are also a lot of veterans that regret their time in the military for various reasons.  Many of them have real trauma and legitimate complaints.  But I think overall, using Twitch to reach young people for recruitment isn&#x27;t a bad thing.