EDIT: JT has now finished. Thank you all for coming. The thread will remain open for chats to finish then we’ll be locking it for preservation at some point after 24 hours. Thank you JT for joining us!

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  • FunkyStuff [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Hi JT, what do you think is the best way to dissuade STEM students in a low income area from selling out to defence companies? A lot of people I know seem to be considering it, and I’ve tried giving them resources about the many civiluan casualties of America’s wars, reports of children being hit in strikes, etc but it doesn’t dissuade them from it.

    • Secondthought_JT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      Good question. On the one hand, yeah, it’s a despicable career. On the other, we all have to survive under capitalism. If that’s what you’re trained to do, get that bag, but you better also agitate to destroy the machine that makes defense companies so lucrative. And heck, I’m not advocating for anything, but having some communists working on these crucial bits of US military equipment could be…interesting

      • FunkyStuff [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Lol I’ve definitely pondered that last point. However, sneaking something by QA would require it to work most of the time (unless you managed to obfuscate the sabotage somehow), so even if you get away with it, congrats, you made a drone that malfunctions 4% of the time but otherwise kills children as usual. Not great.

        • Faresh@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          However, sneaking something by QA would require it to work most of the time (unless you managed to obfuscate the sabotage somehow), so even if you get away with it, congrats, you made a drone that malfunctions 4% of the time

          I think a more reliable way to negatively impact the US military, for someone in that position, would be to leak classified information on the system’s design and capabilities.

        • GaveUp [she/her]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          Nah, if you were gonna do this the trick is definitely to be extremely incompetent so that you fuck up the projects but not so incompetent that they instantly fire you

          Keep making minor mistakes in your work that people have to keep fixing, suggest poor design ideas and try to get them approved, make the systems and weapons as bloated and inefficient as possible but in a way that makes your boss look good (which is basically what they’re already doing)