I don’t want to give too many details so as to avoid doxing myself. I never left the US and wouldn’t have done so if asked, but fundamentally, I don’t think that really matters. It’s all part of the same machine. It was well before I became anything that could be described as communist, but all that means is that it hit that much harder when I had to come to terms with what I’d been a part of.
Maybe that’s the sort of thing you can’t ever make up for, but I’ll spend the rest of my life trying anyway. If anyone on this site never wants anything to do with me again after having read this, I understand.
I was in the Army before 9/11, with the invasion forces of Iraq in 2003 and the year zero occupation all before the age of 22. So yeah… you’ve got less to be uncomfortable about that some of us.