My greatest blackpilling event was probably when I volunteered to do "hometown recruiting" when I was in the Coast Guard.
I drove to dozens of high schools all over Northern NY, talking to kids about life in the USCG.
Met hundreds of students -- got zero applicants.
I had assumed that it'd be a very easy thing, particularly because at the time, the CG was desperate for new recruits (which was very unusual).
So all I had to do was find the young men, tell them about the legitimately adventurous life that the USCG could offer them, share my glowing review of my time in the branch, and get them in contact with the recruiting office. The door was wide open for them to make what would certainly be one of the best decisions in their young life.
Instead of finding adventurous young men, I found visibly distressed, obese, effete, proudly lazy teenagers whose primary concern seemed to be about whether the job was "easy" and whether you get cell service when underway on a Coast Guard ship. Many were visibly high on marijuana, clad in sweatpants, long-haired, dead to the world.
Their interest was only vaguely piqued at the idea of the GI Bill. And at any appeal made to the bold adrenaline and selflessness of Search and Rescue operations at sea, I was met with bafflement and total disinterest.
At first, I thought it was a fluke -- that the school I visited first simply had a student body that was particularly dysfunctional. But soon, I found myself having the same experience at every school, without exception. And this went on for weeks. Day in, day out, the portrait of America's youth I saw was dismal.
If you ever wonder why I seem to have developed a passion for telling young men to get their asses in gear, to grow up, grab life by the horns, and to reject all forms of self-pity and passionlessness -- I think I picked it up when I did Hometown Recruiting.