If you are going to read one book off that list, read Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield Also on the Army Chief of Staff reading list: https://history.army.mil/html/books/105/105-1-1/CMH_Pub_105-5-1_2017.pdf And the USMC's reading list: https://mca-marines.org/resource/commandants-professional-reading-list/
How to Win Friends and Influence People? They're evil! In seriousness, I've heard of several of those authors, but I think the only book on there I've actually read is Red Badge of Courage. None of that immediately makes me think it would tend to make someone into an unfeeling racist killing machine. What are you seeing that I'm not?
Influencing people is a very important part of leadership, which is why it is in the header for the column. This book is commonly read for making people more persuasive. The military is 90% mentality, 10% everything else. It's why martial arts in the Marine Corps is "One mind, any weapon." Part of training is training the mentality, and that occurs on all levels, from the lowest enlisted to the lowest officer. And if I didn't install in you the idea that we're right, we're superior, our way of life is better... how the hell am I going to get you to believe you running at a machine gun on a hill is a good idea?
Yea. But by nature of the job, "might is right" will always be a common theme. It doesn't alter what it is, though. And while command might not tolerate calling a fellow member of the unit a slur, nobody is getting NJP'd for calling a random Iraqi one.
So if it’s that easy to turn something innocuous, even positive, into a social taboo... Can we go ahead and work on making Alabama the official white supremacist sports team?
I thought we had been? The ok sign as a symbol of white supremacy is stupid. I use it. I don't mean it as white supremacy. I use it because of diving, and it has just kind of become how I say... ok/understood. But if I use it to get a rise out of someone, then I'm using it wrong. That's the part, the intent. Because the intent always matters.
The intent always matters. It just might not move the scale. But if I'm ignorantly and unintentionally racist, and I get labeled such, then I was still correctly labeled.