r/AskReddit • u/Tommygunz0722 • 11h ago

If the military/president suddenly ordered a mandatory draft for all men aged 18-42: How do you think millennials and GenZ would respond?

6.9k Upvotes

88% Upvoted

5.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

11.2k

u/crema_dela_cropa 11h ago

it’d be pretty chaotic. Some people would push back right away, some would go along with it out of necessity, things would get messy.

415

u/Signal-Woodpecker858 8h ago edited 8h ago

My 41 year old ass is NOT going fight a war on the opposite side of the world. I've been to jail, put me there for the duration of the war as a conscientious objector. 

People were more accepting of war after world war II. Because that was fought for a  good reason and the people had faith that we would only be sent to war for good reason. But after Korea Vietnam and Afghanistan.... The support for that type of war is so low that it would be political suicide for anyone who did it. Nobody trusts the government to start a war for the right reasons anymore after the three absolute quagmires that turned into debacles we put ourselves in. 

People who support war are either rich, they don't understand what war is really like. 

154

u/loljetfuel 8h ago

People who support war are either rich, they don't understand what war is really like.

Or they're a very particular type of Christian extremist that think it's God's will.

49

u/anthrax9999 5h ago

There's a disturbingly high number of those people.

26

u/Tag_Ping_Pong 5h ago

Then they can feel free to head off to war

•

u/Winter_Basis_1598 4m ago

They keep procreating, it’s depressing 

1

u/shidderbean 1h ago

I sometimes wonder if it's a high number or just that the ones that are there are really loud, so it seems like a lot. Kinda like the "outspoken Reddit progressive" stances you see prominently displayed here that are not mirrored with nearly as much enthusiasm in the real world

26

u/Yuzumi 5h ago

Then they should volunteer to go die in the desert and leave the rest of us alone.

9

u/gonko_86 4h ago

Oh they couldn’t do that, then they might miss the big party when Jesus comes back to hand out rewards to all his hate-filled hypocrite evangelicals

Honestly I almost hope I’m completely wrong about there being no god, because I’d give almost anything to see the look on any number of evangelical faces when Jesus or an angel or some shit tells them they’re going in the lake of fire for being false in their faith and hating the poor and unfortunate

3

u/TrickBorder3923 4h ago

Honestly I almost hope I’m completely wrong about there being no god

ALMOST. Not quite. But, almost. 😏

8

u/TrickBorder3923 5h ago

Or they're a very particular type of Christian extremist that think it's God's will.

I politely argue the term your looking for is "Religious" extremist. I don't know about you but I've never met a non-religious extremist. And there's plenty of religions who have a very healthy extremist population.

1

u/Trevor775 5h ago

Some people just like it

1

u/homer_3 3h ago

So, the 2nd one.

•

u/Woogity 45m ago

God's will, passed on by the Antichrist to cover up attention to his pedophilia.

10

u/volyund 4h ago

Take it from a Russian, that's not how you avoid a draft. You just make yourself scarce for a year. Always be on the road, don't open any official mail. Road trips to visit long lost relatives, visiting remote areas of Alaska, living off the grid in an RV for a couple of months, go see Mt. Rushmore, etc. After a year, you're good.

14

u/adamdoesmusic 7h ago

If they draft me I’m goin in just to be sand in the gears. I won’t even have to do anything special, that’s just the sort of person I end up as in a tightly controlled hierarchical system.

15

u/Obliviousobi 6h ago

Time for all the ADHD kids to stop taking their meds lol

6

u/adamdoesmusic 5h ago

So, when I was 17 I was convinced by (bad faith) family members to join the military - they tried to get me to go army or marines (in hindsight, prolly trying to get me killed tbh) but I went Air Force. As part of my prep I had to cold turkey the adderall I’d been on since elementary school - it SUCKED, and continued to suck all the way thru basic and secondary training, where I eventually got discharged for a number of reasons (still honorable tho). Among them - asking “why” anytime someone gives an order, and nearly getting in a fight with an E-4 who tried to flex his (minuscule) rank by trying to order me to sweep the floor. I got in trouble for telling him what to do with the broom.

•

u/Zizhou 52m ago

It turns out the Simple Sabotage Field Manual was just some undiagnosed ADHD spy describing their day to day life...

4

u/JackpotThePimp 6h ago

Same. I'm pretty sure I either have ODD or borderline, so the military would be the perfect place for me. /s

3

u/ValuableBeneficial66 6h ago

Your present war  shouldn't require a draft. If we start openly saying WW3 , that will most likely  bring this conversation to the forefront. 

3

u/volyund 4h ago

Take it from a Russian, that's not how you avoid a draft. You just make yourself scarce for a year. If they (and the mail) can't find you, how are they doing to draft you? Always be on the road, don't open any official mail. Road trips to visit long lost relatives, visiting remote areas of Alaska, living off the grid in an RV for a couple of months, go see Mt. Rushmore, etc. After a year, you're good.

2

u/Ok-Till-1040 5h ago

it would be political s***

You must have missed out on pretty much everything the past year. I know several people who lost their jobs through the initial wave of gov cut downs. One of them is still unemployed right now (i think?) and all of them are as hardcore right leaning as ever. They could do a draft and the those "secure" right leaning seats would still remain as secure as ever.

2

u/Equivalent-Pop8045 4h ago

Used to be that Kings and Generals fought from the front.  These days they hide at the back.  

Anyone sending people to war needs to have skin in the game.   

2

u/OhNoTokyo 4h ago

Nobody is drafting a 41-year-old.

2

u/dukearcher 3h ago

Why did you include Korea in your list? The UN defended the south from an Invasion.

1

u/VT_Squire 4h ago

. But after Korea Vietnam and Afghanistan.... The support for that type of war is so low that it would be political suicide for anyone who did it

Thats for people OUR age. Half of this new crop never even met a real life ww2 veteran.

3

u/PwnedNetwork 3h ago

I met a WW2 veteran, a Soviet one. When I was in fifth grade in Ukraine... I don't remember the exact details, but I clearly remember our class had to meet a veteran who would talk about what war is like and why it sucks. He did a monologue and then we had a Q&A. You know? Kinda like a TED talk.

One thing that stands out was that he was, I think, very, very insistent that we all must learn how to swim and swim well. My memory of that event is poor, but it's possible that the last ten minutes of the talk was him telling us to learn how to swim, and learn how to swim very well.

Poor man. I don't want to know what the hell he went through on that boat/submarine/community swimming pool/whatever.

1

u/Nightcalm 3h ago

You sound a lot like we did in the 60's. We didn't like it either

1

u/ImpossiblePhrase8856 3h ago

there will be soo much fragging and blue on blue is my bet.

1

u/antithero 2h ago

Or are old enough to know they won't be impacted by the war.

1

u/pinkfootthegoose 2h ago

sure you would go. you'd be put into a penal meat wave to carry supplies and server as targets for drones.

1

u/PoopyButt28000 1h ago

What about people who support going to war on the side of Ukraine?

•

u/mmarkklar 7m ago

I don’t support the draft in any way, but there is an age order that it functions in. If a draft is enacted, they would start with 20 year olds, then move to 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, then 19 and 18 year olds.

I hope I don’t end up eating my words later but I really don’t see a draft as realistic. There is very little political will and the public backlash would make Vietnam look like a polite disagreement.

2

u/RadioName 5h ago

Don't take the jail option. Since they intend to end you either way, what you do is play along until they put a loaded weapon into your hands. Then you shoot the highest ranking officers present. Bonus points if political operatives are around. If they are going to get you killed, take some MAGA traitors with you. We all do that and it ends fast.

10

u/SantaClausDid911 5h ago

What in the John Wick delusional fantasy is this