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"Fighter jet pilot" is a really cool job. Guess who gets the cool jobs in these countries? Typically not the most highly motivated individuals, but the childre
by JasonADrury 7mo ago
"Fighter jet pilot" is a really cool job.
Guess who gets the cool jobs in these countries? Typically not the most highly motivated individuals, but the children of influential people who pull strings to make it happen.
Guess how easy it's to fire those people when they don't pay that much attention during training?
- sschueller 7mo agoCool job? Being ordered to drop bombs on schools filled with children doesn't seems like a cool job..
- JasonADrury 7mo agoI'll spell it out: A lot of air force pilots in these countries end up being rich kids who do it because it's a fun hobby, not motivated soldiers. Because many of these people see it as a fun hobby, they don't spend much time worrying about potentially being ordered to drop bombs on schools filled with children. It's rather unlikely that their government would order them to do so anyway, compare a list of countries being hit by Iran with a list of countries bombing Iran.
- singleshot_ 7mo agoWhen you say, “these countries,” I imagine you include the United States, where politically connected youngsters like George W. Bush secured and then ignored jet interceptor training during the 1960s?
- JasonADrury 7mo agoBe that as it may, I think we can agree that the USAF is not the same as the air forces of the Gulf countries.
- baybal2 7mo ago[dead]
- mvdtnz 7mo agoNot everyone agrees that America is special. You haven't convincingly won a conflict in how long, so we're not really convinced your military is as exceptional as you like to say.
- JasonADrury 7mo agoI'm not American
- true_religion 7mo agoI would include the USA, with the caveat that in the US being sent to the military is often seen as a punishment for rich children where as in the Middle East being sent to the military can be an opportunity to build an independent power base for yourself or your family.
- nradov 7mo agoThe USA has a volunteer military. Occasionally there are cases where the criminal court system might agree to dismiss a minor charge if the defendant enlists. But that doesn't happen to rich people, or those joining as commissioned officers (pilot track).
- true_religion 7mo agoThis is all true but I can’t see how it’s relevant to why I said.
- morkalork 7mo agoAir force pilots are the modern day knights of the sky. Also, up until WW2, which social class you were from determined whether or not you were going to be an officer or canon fodder so rich kids swooping their way into being captains is historically normal.
- breppp 7mo agoActually during the time when the nobility went to be fighter pilots it was a suicidal role with very low survival rates (ww1)
- morkalork 7mo agoIncidentally: TIL George Bush Jr was an airforce pilot. Hah.
- seanmcdirmid 7mo agoAir national guard. He didn't want to go to Vietnam, so he (or his father) used his connections to join the weekend warriors. One of my uncles did something similar (while my dad got drafted in the army and went to Vietnam).
- kakacik 7mo agoWhat does that have to do with anything? They went through training in different times when conflicts were not on their plate. During peace it is a cool job, you know not every air force around the world bombs schools, in fact most don't. Anybody who ever went through arab countries with eyes opened saw the massive nepotism and corruption at all levels. Army/air force ain't immune to this, in contrary. Do you think ie some general or politician's first son would be treated and pushed up same as common folks?
- esseph 7mo ago> Cool job? Being ordered to drop bombs on schools filled with children doesn't seems like a cool job.. That was a launched cruise missile from a ship, targeted by an LLM. Apparently the grounds USED to be a valid military target long ago (a decade? I'm not sure exactly) and now there's a school there.
- dgroshev 7mo ago> targeted by an LLM I don't think it's a known fact at this point.
- esseph 7mo agoI'm not sure what's better/worse: 1. A LLM did the targeting 2. Targets were selected and evaluated by humans and the many-years old change of building shape and purpose didn't get caught during target eval.
- esseph 7mo agohttps://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/03/04/anthropic-ai-iran-campaign/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/03/04/anthrop... https://defensescoop.com/2026/03/11/us-military-using-ai-against-iran-operation-epic-fury-adm-cooper/ https://defensescoop.com/2026/03/11/us-military-using-ai-aga... https://www.democracynow.org/2026/3/3/headlines/pentagon_used_claude_ai_to_attack_iran_just_hours_after_trumps_ban_on_anthropic https://www.democracynow.org/2026/3/3/headlines/pentagon_use...
- dgroshev 7mo agoNone of those articles elaborates on how that particular target was selected, which is the claim the GP made. There's a difference between "Pentagon uses AI for targeting" and "AI selected a school as a legitimate target". Ted Bundy drove a car. Cars kill people. Doesn't mean that Ted Bundy was killing people by running them over.
- sschueller 7mo agoTaking out the human factor makes it so much worse. Building an LLM is one thing but building one specifically to pick targets is another. For me knowing that my actions may have contributed direcly to the death of anyone is not something I want to live with.
- axus 7mo agoIt's a "high status" job. Doing the high status jobs correctly isn't always easy.
- dylan604 7mo agoPilots are not told they are dropping bombs on a school filled with kids. They are told it is a headquarters or storage or bunker or whatever.
- anonymousiam 7mo agoAnother example of using children to shield a military target. (The USA has done the same thing in the past. For example; Aviation High School was located on the same parcel as TRW.) In the case you're presumably referring to, no fighter pilots were involved. A Tomahawk missile was launched from a US naval vessel, aimed at a military site next door to the girls school.
- igleria 7mo agoWhy would fighter pilot be as nepo-baby compatible as, dunno, actor/actress? Asking truthfully, I'm not american, not in the military, etc.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- JasonADrury 7mo agoToo many nepo babies and too little state owned movie production in the Gulf? Also flying modern fighter jets is the kind of fun that's typically very hard to buy with money, so you take the opportunity when available.
- fatbird 7mo agoIn those countries (i.e., middle eastern countries) power and wealth is usually more connected to gov't and the military rather than independent industries. If you are a nepo-baby, your opportunities will tend to be more gov't/military than celebrity or corporate.
- zardo 7mo agoA fighter pilot is the modern military equivalent of a medieval knight.
- duxup 7mo agoEven the early Roman legions were composed of land owning citizens. Partly because they could afford / knew people they could get equipment from. Also likely because you wanted people in the establishment that you could trust armed and the power that went with it.
- mitthrowaway2 7mo agoI thought that land ownership was offered as a reward for service?
- 7mo ago
- everybodyknows 7mo agoI knew a USAF flight instructor who trained foreign "guest" students: Said washing out the trainee was not an option, not even after mistakes like shutting down an engine in flight.
- mothballed 7mo agoA remember a very, very, very high % of flight technology (basically flight school) majors in university being in ROTC. Paying for fuel is additional to tuition and it was extremely expensive. A lot of middle and lower class who wanted to be commercial pilots joined the military to get it paid for. No idea how many became fighter jet pilot, I assume most of them got jobs doing something more boring like troop or materials transport. I would go so far to say as commercial flight is dominated by very rich people who could afford to do the commercial ratings on their own, or middle/lower class people that became military pilots to pay for it.
- nradov 7mo agoVery few rich people become commercial pilots. They might get a private pilot license as a hobby but generally pilots are just employees they hire to take them around. Plenty of working airline pilots come from regular middle-class backgrounds and never served in the military. They take out student loans to pay for training, then work low-paying jobs as flight instructors or something to build up enough flight hours to get hired at a regional airline. Those who go the ROTC route can totally get a fighter jet assignment if they want it. Once they get selected for a pilot slot, assignment to a particular airframe is primarily based on how they perform in the training pipeline.
- bityard 7mo agoWhat? No way. Yes, a lot of airline pilots were former military, but I know several people who are airline pilots and did not come from "very rich" families. Flying is not in any way some kind of high-status luxurious job. It can be grueling, with intensive and continuous training, wacky shifts, very strict rules, lots of time away from family, long stretches of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. You can lose your career over a minor mistake that snowballed into a incident due to factors out of your control. Minor health issue? Need mental help? Better get those fixed in secret or you probably won't fly again. In my line of work, a major mistake would bring down an internal website at a big company for a little while. An airline pilot's major mistake would kill himself and a hundred-plus people. I can't fathom why anyone who is rich would want to be an airline pilot. It's a shit-ton of work, stress, and risk for not much reward. You gotta love to fly in order to stick with it. If the rich want to fly, they just do the training and buy a plane, they don't need to do it for a living!
- lm28469 7mo ago> Guess who gets the cool jobs in these countries? What do you mean by "these countries"? What you lived in "these countries"? What do you know about 'these countries". It sounds like something someone who can't locate Africa on a globe or thinks "arab" is a nationality would say
- JasonADrury 7mo agoI've lived and worked in the Gulf for half my life, I think I know what "these countries" are like.
- myrmidon 7mo agoPresumably he means countries with somewhat higher levels of nepotism in the military than the US. MENA countries (excepting Israel here) are known to suffer from this significantly, and it is a big factor in their militaries historically underperforming. It is a valid point to bring this up as possible cause or factor, no need to get all defensive about it.
- m463 7mo agoare you talking about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush_military_service_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush_military_servic...
- roncesvalles 7mo agoIn almost all countries, military is seen as a "working class" profession, even joining as an officer. I don't think the rich and influential consider it an option for their kids. Btw fighter pilot is extremely physically taxing. It's not for everyone. Any degree of motion sickness and you're out. Everyone joins the air force wanting to become a fighter pilot but only a small percentage can.
- true_religion 7mo agoThe saying it’s true for officers seems to need greater support since historically officers were always nobility or from the leadership class. Today, in countries that are not full democracies, the leadership wants the military controlled by favorable people and that means family members.
- breppp 7mo ago> In almost all countries, military is seen as a "working class" profession In western countries that's the case. In autocratic countries it is essential to keep control of the army by placing the equivalent of the royal family in charge. Also, fighter pilots were historically considered as the successors for cavalry and manned by the nobility, in Arab countries this means the ruling elite
- JasonADrury 7mo agoThere are exactly zero places in the world where "fighter jet pilot" is seen as a "working class" profession. And my whole point was that it's often not a profession, but a hobby.
- kelipso 7mo agoPretty sure US military fighter jet pilots are mostly just working class or lower middle class people. I know two who did that are they’re nowhere near rich.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- 627467 7mo agoI guess Captain Sharif Ali bin Zeid (cousin of jordan king) in the camp chapman fiasco fall in this category of vulnerability.