Trigger finger frostbite

I just learned about this phrase on Reddit. The following may be controversial- but what isn't on HL? ;)

Reference- I served in the military- U.S. Army, trained as a combat medic, although I was never in a war zone.

Also probably relevant- I self diagnose myself as being in the aspergers spectrum.

Relevant takeaway info- I am logically minded and emotion doesn't control me.

So lets begin-

What is trigger-finger-frostbite?

"For those who don't know, we humans, like other animals, don't like killing each other. On an instinctive level, us humans much prefer posturing and scare tactics to actual violence. Soldiers, barring about 3% who account for sociopathy, would routinely miss their human targets, even if they demonstrated acceptable accuracy in tests against non-human targets. It appeared to sociologists at the time that these soldiers had a subconscious drive to try and scare the enemy off with the noise and threat of death presented with their firearms.

The way they (military) worked around this was through a form of conditioning to for soldiers to take accurate shots at human targets before their instinct could intervene. Bullseye targets were replaced with man-shaped targets, and soldiers during training would be rewarded for fast accurate shots in timed challenges. The idea was that they would be conditioned to shoot at human shapes on reflex before instinct could take hold. They went from a mere 25% "shoot to kill" rate, to as high as 90%.

This poses a new problem, however. PTSD, previously limited to extreme experiences, was becoming more rampant than ever before. These soldiers would eventually reflect on all those they've killed because of the conditioning and the guilt was potent at damaging their psyche. There's also no known way to effectively undo the target acquisition conditioning yet developed. Soldiers are being broken so they can fight."

So as I read this today it struck a nerve- hence my posting-

I was trained in the era of human shaped pop up targets. Myself, I scored 40 out of 40. That means I hit every target, prone and foxhole with my M16 (pre M4 carbine days).. targets which popped up & then down, giving limited time to react and redirect fire (aim) , sometimes multiple a time, up to 300 meters. Amusingly in retrospect- I was trained to kill- as a medic who was issued a 9mm sidearm (a joke in war) and my goal was to help / save people.

I found it interesting how the article mentioned the training changed to increase kills (logical in war to complete the objective) at the trade off of the individual soldiers mental aftermath (bad).

As someone who was trained at a young age in such a manner, and is logically minded- at the time it made sense- follow orders, shoot the bad guy. And yes, as I was trained decades ago my younger self would have had no issues. There is a reason the military focuses on young recruits- easy to train both in mind- and disposable bodies. God knows I am now well aware of how my body is paying the price for how they push you to the limit. Knees, back, ears, it doesn't matter. They know damn well they are doing damage, but most 'kids' won't say anything at that time/age ...and later it is too late...

My significantly older self, one who is much more aware of the news (for whatever that is worth) acknowledges that our troops may not always be somewhere for the the ultimate goal of kill the evil bad guy (say Hitler in this example)...much less somewhere even in our honest best interest- (there are plenty of our youth dying on a daily basis, in countries, and reasons that we will never hear of on the news, much less agree with the motive)...

Although we still have a military who I support, many ready to fight our enemies.. it saddens me to think they are being led astray, many to suffer the rest of their lives (or be crippled or die) for dishonest reasons. And the government is well aware and lets the Vets suffer. But the news talks about money for foreign countries aid, refugees and illegal immigrants.

I am off on a tangent, I know- but feel the need to talk to someone..and have no one to converse on said thoughts.

Anyone have anything to say on the topic?

Josh ✉
Dec '16

Watch the Black Mirror episode "Men Against Fire."

killuminati ✉
Dec '16