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In think it's personnel selection.

I think the militias don't get the top-of-the-line retired military people. They get the wannabes, the people who love the trappings of being tough and deadly, without the actual skills or training. Putting on my amateur psychologist's hat, I'd guess that the militia types mostly washed out in the military, but are still looking for what they went into the military to try to find - a sense of belonging and identity.

The real SEAL/Delta level people don't go into a militia to try to find that - they found it for real in the real military.




The love of military-style vests (and of the word 'tactical') seems like a signal.


More often plate carriers and body armor, mag holders and other “operator” gear than just military syyle vests. “tacticool” is the ironic label given to overtly “tactical” gear.


> seems like a signal

Also “mil-spec”, and in a totally different context i.e. big box retail, “contractor grade”.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_grade


During the pandemic, I was wondering why I never saw "military grade" or "tactical" masks.

I guess not enough of an overlap between anyone anti-mask and any convenient promotional memes.


This is a good point, and the emphasis on belonging aligns with the article.

A trope of many action/thriller movies is groups of top-notch professionals becoming disenchanted with democracy and forming terrorist organizations. While movies aren't reality, it's striking that even watered-down versions almost never seem to happen. Maybe the military is just that good at filtering out those types during psychological testing, or maybe belonging is far more important than ideology.


>>Maybe the military is just that good at filtering out those types during psychological testing, or maybe belonging is far more important than ideology.

The more mundane reason is probably because it's more appealing to use those skills to enter law enforcement or become a private military contractor than knowingly and overtly breaking away from society to form and maintain an organization that uses violence to achieve specific political aims.


What you write sounds plausible at first, but then there’s this example from the German KSK:

„In 2018, the German Federal Criminal Police Office uncovered a plot involving unknown KSK soldiers to murder prominent German politicians such as Claudia Roth, Heiko Maas and Joachim Gauck among others, and carry out attacks against immigrants living in Germany.[7] Also, earlier that same year in a separate investigation, the State prosecutors in the city of Tübingen investigated whether neo-Nazi symbols were used at a "farewell" event involving members of KSK.[8][9]

In June 2020, German defence minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer announced that the unit would be partially disbanded due to growing far-right extremism within the ranks.[10] The KSK had become partially independent from the chain of command, with a toxic leadership culture. One of the force's four companies where extremism is said to be the most rife was to be dissolved and not replaced.[11]“

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kommando_Spezialkr%C3%A4fte




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