cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16599001
“Why wouldn’t we give that a try?”
Can we do mandatory civil service instead
Like that would actually help people, building infrastructure, national parks, gaining skills and trades, maybe helping reduce obesity
What are you, some kind of socialist? A true patriot is happy to die for the profits of oil companies!
This is a great idea. How about this: After high school, you do 2 years of civil service. Then you go to college for free. After that, you do 2-4 more years of civil service, depending on how much school you do.
In the first 2 years, you grow up a bit, experience the real world, and earn a paycheck.
Next you go to college. Get a good liberal arts core and a major in your area of interest. Then spend a couple of years putting that learning to use and developing your skills.
Coming from a Draft Dodger and Convicted Felon, this is quite ironic. Neither would be allowed into military service in the US.
I joined the army for no reason other than I didn’t know what the fuck to do with myself. Hell I could’ve had a free ride to college if I’d known what I wanted to do.
So it is from the perspective of experience that I will tell you, the quality of our military will plummet when absolutely no one gives a fuck about being there. There were gung ho motherfuckers who really wanted to be in the army and they were good soldiers. Then there were those of us who were just there to fuck off. You don’t want 100x as many of those. The military would just be absolute garbage.
I think this is the point, as much as it is indoctrination.
It will have two effects, one of which is to water down the efficacy of the US military with a bunch of disaffected conscripts and the other to attempt a capture of the “activist” years for what will be the dominant post-Boomer voting block. It is to stamp out some of the more extreme progressive tendencies, like “let’s try not suck hot shit on everything from climate to racial equality to gender equality to economic inequality.”
Didn’t he refuse to serve himself ?
The ONLY way I’d accept this is if it applied across the board to the rich and political elites. It won’t, so I’m definitely not going to vote for Trump.
Also women, I am glad the removed the selective service requirement for males to apply for FAFSA but equal rights means equal requirements for those rights.
I’d be !00% on board with including women in the draft. Fair is fair.
Personally - like I told the recruiter from Annapolis 30 years ago, “trust me when I say that you don’t want me anywhere near your military.” If I were drafted I think I could fail out of basic on my own lack of merit.
If there were other service options, I could happily do other work. For example: Math, science, or language tutoring for teens. I could have helped out a kid who actually wanted to get into Annapolis but didn’t have strong enough academics.
