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A collection of some classic Lemmy memes for your enjoyment
With the amount of classified information that goes into weapons manufacturing, where your just making doo-dad#1, it's understandable some people wouldn't even know their doing something wrong.
Makes me think of the, "when does life begin" debate. When do random parts become a weapon of mass destruction?
I'm unable to get any info on what my grandpa did after leaving active duty and going to work for LM on government contracts. I have paperwork mentioning him, and it's alllllllll still sharpied out almost 70 years later. Dude was a logistics engineer, he basically organized warehouses, yet apparently was so important to the nuclear sub program (Mare Island in the 50s & 60s tells me that much) apparently that I'm not allowed any further info
It's entirely possible he didn't know what he was working on, I only have guesses because of other shit we know from decades after his death
Why?
Of all the tools for oppression and murder, advanced weaponry is pretty low on the list for what actually makes the murdering happen. If you work for a company that does any kind of business with any repressive regime (ie most companies above a certain size), the simple fact that you're working for a cog in enabling the economy of the repressive regime to pay its cops, its soldiers, its secret police and informants and massive bureaucracy, is as much as a contribution as "I was .1% of designing a multirole jet that's 10% better than the previous multirole jet"
Hell, anyone making steel of the correct grade to go into small arms probably kills more innocent people, by that standard, than your average person working for Western defense contractors.
It almost sounds like you might be suggesting that there's no ethical consumption under capitalism
Something like that. And little ethical work.
I mean yes there is a sort of "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism" dilemma when it comes to working. But just with that dilemma, you don't just give up, you try to minimize your participation as much as you can healthily do. And I think not working for a corp who's sole purpose is to develop weapons for killing people is one of those no brainers.
Communists make weapons too tho. It's kind of a whole cycle.
One, the issue isn't the production of weapons in of itself. Weapons are used for defense, survival, and recreation which are (in my opinion) ethical. The issue is "defense" contractors like Lockheed are not producing weapons to defend against exploitation, oppression, etc. They are produced for imperialist powers to defend the interests of exploitors, oppressors, and war mongers.
Secondly, I am an anarchist. Statist "communists" are often no better than capitalists to me.
It might be a no-brainer if it was all "We are making orphan crushers for the orphans", but the defense industry is much more complex than that. For example, would you say that a Ukrainian working for a Ukrainian defense firm, whose sole purpose is to develop weapons for killing people, is evil?
I do think there is nuance to the situation and exceptions. Your example being one. But I would consider Lockheed (the example of the original post) would be the no brainer one. Those weapons aren't going to defending my family from an imperialist power, they are going to death squads in South America and committing genocide in Palestine.
I do think there is nuance to the situation and exceptions. Your example being one. But I would consider Lockheed (the example of the original post) would be the no brainer one. Those weapons aren’t going to defending my family from an imperialist power, they are going to death squads in South America and committing genocide in Palestine.
But Lockheed-Martin's equipment is going to Ukraine as well. Are the families of Ukrainians not worth defending? And 'death squads' in South America are not particularly likely to be using state-of-the-art US jets and missiles for their murders. And considering the state of things in Taiwan and Europe, if the US doesn't end up on the side of the imperialist powers, I don't know how much I would bet that Lockheed-Martin weapons won't be defending other families from imperialist powers in the near the future,
Considering the strict controls on defense exports, it is far more relevant to question who the US government chooses (directly or indirectly) to support with Lockheed-Martin's output. When the US is against genocide, as in Ukraine, Lockheed-Martin's output is used to save innocent lives; when the US is for genocide, as in Palestine, Lockheed-Martin's output is used for murder. Though even then I would note that it's not particularly pivotal to the murders committed.
The correct target for ire in this, other than perhaps capitalism in general for creating a significant disconnect between social responsibility and firms of all industries, is the US government and where it funnels this equipment. The firms themselves are amoral but unexceptional, both in consequences and in nature; and the people who work at them (other than at the highest decision-making levels) are no more immoral than any other cog in the capitalist machine.
With Lockheed you are forced to choose between being complacent with it because they supply Ukraine's defense against occupation by an imperialist power or outright oppose it due to its supplying towards the Palestinian genocide. The genocide is a dealbreaker in any capacity for me. Even ignoring the genocide, the bad outweighs the good to me by a longshot. I oppose it just like how I oppose McDonald's, Amazon, Starbucks, and more.
If less people worked to make weapons, there would be less weapons made.
How is this a hard concept to understand?
If less people worked to make weapons, there would be less weapons made.
Okay?
How is that relevant?
Do you think that there is a dire shortage of tools for murder, and only the modern defense industry is sustaining the strained supply?
Defending defense contractors isnt as cool as you think it is, Jesus would be ashamed.
Do you think that there is a dire shortage of tools for murder, and only the modern defense industry is sustaining the strained supply?
Israel, Russia, and Ukraine sure seem to think so. None are producing enough munitions domestically to satisfy themselves.
Less weapons made still means less weapon used.
Plus you have deterrance weapons like the F22. It hasn't actually killed anyone, because no one has challenged it. That sort of weapon can keep wars from starting, since they're less likely to win.
I agree: Everyone is terrible.
At MIT in the 1980's it was called, "Get your fingerprints on the murder weapon."
Got offered interviews at Raytheon and Lockheed once. Said no immediately. Can't have a good conscience working for these companies.
I guess it would
Lockheed does more than just defense contracts
Compact fusion could literally save our civilization.
Yeah sometimes they crash spacecraft on Mars
I laughed and upvoted the meme but then I had to find it again and double check to see if it specified a country.