I’m unable to serve an administration that enables the atrocities in Gaza, so I have decided to resign from my position at the Department of State, writes Annelle Sheline.
“I am being told to kill 5 people, but I think that’s wrong so I will only kill 4 people instead. That’s better than me leaving in protest. and morally absolves me of the murders I’m doing, because if I leave they’d just replace me with someone who will kill all 5. So really, I’m 1 person’s savior.”
This is not even really hyperbole, because this person was literally departing an organization that was enabling the murder of now 34,000+ people in Gaza alone, never mind the rest of the world. The idea that their less-than-full-compliance, if staying, could materially change the genocide is laughable.
Change occurs because of bottom-up actions from individuals working against the government’s status quo, not from conscientious objectors within doing malicious compliance. Lots of idealistic young conscientious objectors actually joined the military during Vietnam, thinking that they’d try to reform the military from within, and most of them just left traumatized, or didn’t leave at all. Our government literally spent the entire Cold War fortifying itself against any kind of internal pressures/ “infiltration” by Left-leaning beliefs, and that’s not going to be bypassed by just trying really hard.
“You got skin in the game, you stay in the game. But you don’t get a win unless you play in the game.”
The “game” is Politics, not Government Jobs. Political actions as an individual not employed by the government (like talking about your political objections on a national media platform) are still “stay[ing] in the game”. This woman can have a MUCH larger impact talking about her objections on CNN than by voicing objections in an internal meeting somewhere.
“I am being told to kill 5 people, but I think that’s wrong so I will only kill 4 people instead. That’s better than me leaving in protest. and morally absolves me of the murders I’m doing, because if I leave they’d just replace me with someone who will kill all 5. So really, I’m 1 person’s savior.”
This is not even really hyperbole, because this person was literally departing an organization that was enabling the murder of now 34,000+ people in Gaza alone, never mind the rest of the world. The idea that their less-than-full-compliance, if staying, could materially change the genocide is laughable.
Change occurs because of bottom-up actions from individuals working against the government’s status quo, not from conscientious objectors within doing malicious compliance. Lots of idealistic young conscientious objectors actually joined the military during Vietnam, thinking that they’d try to reform the military from within, and most of them just left traumatized, or didn’t leave at all. Our government literally spent the entire Cold War fortifying itself against any kind of internal pressures/ “infiltration” by Left-leaning beliefs, and that’s not going to be bypassed by just trying really hard.
The “game” is Politics, not Government Jobs. Political actions as an individual not employed by the government (like talking about your political objections on a national media platform) are still “stay[ing] in the game”. This woman can have a MUCH larger impact talking about her objections on CNN than by voicing objections in an internal meeting somewhere.