A trainee in his sixth week of basic training died after falling ill on Friday and being taken to Brooke Army Medical Center, the Air Force said in a news release. It was not immediately clear whether the death of the trainee, Keon McDaniel, was related to the flu outbreak.
Barracks and military training are known for being incredibly effective environments for the flu to spread. Having a big chunk of your military get sick at once is a very real problem.
They certainly made being intelligent optional!
It’s not really a question of intelligence so much as misinformation and peer pressure.
If everyone in your unit lines up to get the jab, you’ll get it. If sergeants are up in your face and screaming about how they don’t need you pissing and shitting yourself on the front line like a little baby, you’ll get it. If you’re stuck in a 10 hour long powerpoint presentation about the necessity of getting vaxed and the only way to escape is to sign the fucking waver and get the shot, you’ll get it.
If everyone in your unit is saying vaccines cause autism, and you know you’ll take shit for lining up, you’re not getting it. If your unit never gets supplied with shots, because the base commander doesn’t think it’s worth the paperwork, you’re not getting it. If you’re inundated with right-wing talk radio on base for years of your life and all you’ve ever heard is that vaccination is a liberal plot to turn you transgender, you’re not getting it.
… T… ten… HOURS?!
brother I’m signing that waiver before the presenter clears his throat and I don’t care how many kidneys they take.
For a bunch of self proclaimed alphas, a lot of military personnel are amongst the weakest minded demographics I can think of. I thrive on going against the grain. If I got shit for getting the stick, I’d dish it back tenfold. I believe everything you said is true, the content of which is just sad and pathetic.
Intelligence certainly enters into the equation here, it just isn’t that simple. For example, a lot of people have trouble differentiating between the effects of intelligence and the effects of education. Even people of moderate (or low) intelligence, when well informed through proper education, can make highly rational and logical decision decisions. But it requires that the calculus of other influences be balanced correctly so they can make those well informed decisions. A person’s level of intelligence is simply another weight on that scale.
But, yes, peer pressure, social influence, and, of course, the dastardly Internet, all have highly powerful and complex influences as well.
That’s why anyone looking for any one, single solution will always fail. The fix for this sort of problem (as with any systemic problem) is not just one fix – it’s lots of different fixes that have to work together in aggregate over a period of time. Just like how it all got fucked up in the first place. No one thing did that, and no one thing is going to undo that.
McNamara’s Morons was actually the inspiration for the top brass to restructure their command centres rather than a cautionary tale.