I proudly design and manufacture products for the US military. I do this because I believe individual liberty is one of the most fundamental human ideals, and I see the US (even with all its faults) as freedom’s greatest ally (and by extension: innovation’s greatest ally as well) over the past 241 years. I view the US military as freedom’s insurance policy against external threats and the US constitution as freedom’s best defense against internal ones. I realize it’s not PC to support the military or the constitution these days. For proof, one need only read the vast majority of the comments in this thread. You are obviously free to have these views but I question the intellectual honesty of believing we possess certain unalienable rights as humans on the one hand (freedom of speech comes to mind) and then not supporting the basic structures that ensure these rights are not taken from us. (a charter established to protect our individual liberties and a defense force sworn to protect us from foreign threats, for instance)
The question you are asking yourselves (could you allow yourself to design for the military) is an absurd one. It’s like sitting in warm comfortable house asking yourselves if you could ever possibly “support” the designing of houses. Then deciding you can’t on ethical grounds but remaining in your nice warm house, cozy in your having taken a stand against the evils of construction or whatever. Your emotional coziness doesn’t mean anything. If you don’t support the US having a military, how do you deserve your natural human rights that they have safeguarded for you? Imagine the US was full of “you’s” in 1941… sure there would have been cooler music and more beard wax stores, but the Axis powers would have simply taken over the free f’n world! In fact, they almost did despite our and our allies’ herculean efforts to stop them (and by “our efforts” I’m referring to over 407,000 individual service members from the US alone who gave their lives to keep you free.) The only way freedom survived those years was our and our allies’ ability to supply more smart and courageous individuals to the front lines and yes to create more and better tanks, guns and bombs than our enemies could. When it’s an objective fact that war exists it doesn’t matter if you “don’t believe in war.” Saying you are against war just doesn’t mean anything. Every sane person is against war. It’s like saying you are against crime- who isn’t? But if someone steals your car I guarantee you would still call the police. How does realizing that police are kind of critical make you a fan of crime?? We’re losing the ability to actually debate real and nuanced issues. We’ve allowed PC group-think nonsense to teach everyone they have a right to be insulated from actual dissenting or complex viewpoints. All we do now is pitch fits when we don’t get our way and socialize more PC pabulum and group-think.
I am deeply thankful that there are still men and women who voluntarily put their lives on the line to defend our imperfect but awesome experiment in human freedom. And no matter who’s in the white house, no matter what the politics du jour are, I will proudly do anything I can to help them be better prepared to defeat any enemy who threatens them or our nation. You don’t have to agree with me - that’s the beauty of what so many of our service members have paid dearly for - for now we still have the benefit of their gift; the freedom to make up our own minds.