Originally posted by nbk:
[qb]
Originally posted by muskrat89:
[qb]I bet 99% of the people I‘ve encountered, in any military, have generally been of a right wing, conservative mindset. [/qb]
The largest standing army in the world (I believe), the Peoples Liberation Army of China may disagree with that.
Personally I cannot understand how anyone with a right wind mindset would want to be in the army. You don‘t get to wear a suit and tie, carry a briefcase, make millions of dollars, drill for oil, or squeal with delight as the common workers below you get fired and have their lives ruined. Maybe officers are more conservative, then NCMs? I don‘t understand how the military is a capitalist favourable occupation.
I don‘t believe I have ever read too many anti military rants on this site however. Perhaps the mods delete them too quick. [/qb]
You are confused a little bit about about the difference between right and left wing politics.
The military IS predominantly made up of right wing minded people. Just browsing around this Army forum should give you a sense of that.
Right wing people tend to be more rigid and conservative in their views on most subjects, and it doesn‘t matter if they are a Bay St business person, or a construction worker.
They typically hold views like, we should have a two tier health system, we should remove natives from reservations and treat them on par with the rest of us, we should increase our military budget and corporate tax breaks (to encourage big business to come) by cutting funding and eliminating the socialist safety nets (ie Finacial Aid, back to school programs (for young adults coming off the streets drugs, bad situations, etc), also that we should close our borders to immigration until we put all of our unemployed back to work, and that we shouldn‘t let gay people marry.
Anyway in my experience the most vocal of all conservative (right wing) people are the ones at the lower end of the pay scale, the municipal and city workers, the construction workers, the military. The ones who truly resent having to pay 40% of their paycheck to fund social programs for "PC types" (you know, the heroin addicted sandal wearing, yogurt eating, long haired hippies, who go to University for free for 15 years to get 3 degrees in slacking, anti war protesting, and marijuana growing).
As for the anti military sentiment stemming from BC, I just have to disagree. I lived in BC for 23 years and I never once saw an anti military protest.
Maybe some people protested the war in Iraq, more than in other areas of Canada, but as it was mentioned before BC has an awesome climate (South Western BC that is) and people are more willing to go outside to participate in big activities like that.
I once stopped to watch Jann Arden on the waterfront in Victoria just because twentyfive thousand other people were standing around watching. Not really my cup of tea, but there was tonnes of women around and it was a nice night, so we stopped to check it out.
I‘ve stopped to watch lots of protests I disagreed with, just to gape in awe of some of the things people belive in.
I‘m sure Chipdudeman can verify this since he‘s from Prince George, and that is after living for nearly half my life in Northern BC (PG, PR, QCI), that I feel confident in saying that there are many right wing minded people who live and work and raise their families in BC. Prince George is the dirtiest most violent, big rig driving, cow/lumber town in all of BC, and its the Northern hub. Not very many overtly liberal people will ever come out of that town.
BC is not some liberal paradise where hippies conspire to turn us all into communists.
It‘s true that a lot of liberal minded public figures live there, also a lot of musicians and authors and artists. It‘s a beautiful province with a mild climate. You can easily find peace and solitude within a 30 minute drive of Vancouver (the largest city). It‘s a different kind of lifestyle, it‘s more laid back, and its an environment far more conducive to liberal minded politics and beliefs than can be found anywhere in the rest of the country. People feel free to express themselves there, and why not, it‘s their country too.
But to steretype the entire Province into one political grouping is WAY off the mark. It‘s actually a very diverse region politicaly.