Never ask a woman her age, a man his salary, or a Lockheed Martin higher-up how many children they’ve killed over the course of their decades-spanning year career in the arms industry.
A few students at the University of Texas at Dallas decided to put these long-held conventions to the test, grilling a Senior Fellow at the aerospace company about his products’ involvement in various global conflicts during a recent visit to their school, disguising their inquiries as those of prospective interns.
“Would I be working on a small little side project or would I be able to directly contribute to the murder of Palestinian children?” one student can be heard asking in a now-viral video, one uploaded by student organization SJPUTD last week.
Despite evoking a weirdly lax reply — “good question,” the Lockheed higher-up appeared to reply — this student was far from alone in asking the tough questions.
“During the 18 years that you spent working on the F-22 jets and the years since that you worked on the F-35, if you were to give an estimate, how many children do you think you’ve killed?” inquired a second student.
Just as with the question before, the speaker seemed unphased by this question.
“I don’t even know how to answer that question,” he asked with a giggle. “Nor will I give it a shot.”
The only thing that can make Lockheed Martin fail to take a shot? A few college students armed with reasonable asks.
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