man that comment section is awful. A few people there, however, ask a very good question - How was manning able to get past basic training without being booted? I've always assumed that Basic was a bit like the first weeks of a new job - If shit's not working out, they give you the heave-ho. At the very least at the end of Basic, isn't there some sort of "yeah, this person's performance is so bad we can't keep them"measure? I know the army's always desperate for more folks, but fuck.
Long story short it is phenomenal that she survived this long and should have been booted a long time ago. Basic is not that hard and AIT, which comes right after Basic, trains you for your job instead of continuing to weed out threats to the strength/capability of the team. By then you could be in the army for a year, or more. If you haven't gotten your shit together in a year, and you join your new unit clearly still a shitbag, your commanders will make sure to put you in the sort of situations that will cause you to screw up and allow them to boot you. Edit: I'm sorry for misgendering Manning, I make this mistake all the time with my transgender or otherwise not-what-I-am people and they yell at me for it all the time. I'm not a bigot or anything lmao
you fixed it - that's the important part.Edit: I'm sorry for misgendering Manning, I make this mistake all the time with my transgender or otherwise not-what-I-am people and they yell at me for it all the time. I'm not a bigot or anything lmao
Seriously though, it's a problem. Idk what's wrong with me, I feel the same respect towards someone who is trans as I do anyone else.
With most people I meet, it's because they're speaking too quickly, or without thought. Not that you are being thoughtless, just that you are going through the quickest possible brain pathways to get what you want to say out as fast as possible. One strat I've suggested to people that has been generally successful is to take 2 seconds and prepare yourself - "I know i'm going to be referring to this person. their new pronoun is "X", so I'll make sure to use it." - then go on with what you were about to say. A side benefit is it means you give your brain a second for sober second thought for the dumb thing you might have been about to say.
When my ex joined the first time he actually quit basic training just before finishing because he realized he didn't trust a single one of the people there with his life. He joined shortly after 9/11 and there was a lot of people impulsively joining without really thinking things through. He told me a story about how barely any of them could figure out how to put their sleeping bag together so he sat there putting his together over and over again to show them. A higher up even mentioned to him that this was unusual and he was sorry he got stuck with such a shit group. He ended up joining again later for something else and that seems to have gone better.
The article addressed that, sort of, with this: "In 2007, the U.S. Army was habitually failing to meet its monthly recruiting goals; the application standards relaxed and a great cross-section of humanity ended up reporting for duty that warm October at Fort Leonard Wood."
Indeed - I saw that part. It still surprises me that they would allow someone like Manning to progress past basic. I was under the impression that if you don't do things right, the army just makes you keep doing them until you DO do them right. The whole tenacity, never give up thing.