I would like to expand upon this point and say that “a soldier with the wrong kind of political or ideological education is most probably a criminal”. Conscription or not. Just take a look at the Ukrainian army - it isn’t hard to find people with swastikas on their uniform. And, they are definitely not unhappy about being criminals. Just like the original Nazis they glorify.

Furthermore, professional armies are much more reactionary/apolitical in nature.

Active duty force - yes, there’s a clear reason for that - material interests (paycheck). Disenchanted and disenfranchised veterans - not as much, perhaps.

There’s another thing worth mentioning - the dichotomy of “professional” vs “conscription” is not as either/or as one may suggest, rather it’s become and/both, dialectics-style. Take Russia, for example: before Wagner was incorporated into the AF, they had all three - conscripts, professional/voluntary and mercs. The US is to be noted too - the Blackwater PMC has at least 110,000 soldiers, perhaps more.

I now tend toward the opposite view that if war is to be waged then it must involve the entire population of a country and happen only with their consent and participation.

This is not going to happen in capitalism, though. The ruling class needs war, they are going to force their will on the population. We need socialism for this.

Useless and fucked up

Also - petroleum could technically be considered “renewable”, it’s just that the amount of time you need to “renew” even a tiny bit of it (when taken into the context of the amount of petroleum the entire population can CONSOOM in a year) is ridiculous. So, part lying by omission and part “well, technically…”. And it really does not come from dinosaurs - it comes mostly from compressed plant matter (the flesh decomposes too quickly).

These tactics are often used by Ben Shapeabrain and other rightoid talking heads - omitting important details from their “sources” is how they are seen credible in the eyes of their base.