No Stupid Questions

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There's a lot of assumptions going on here. First of all, historically 26 wasn't the maximum for the draft but 40, but secondly there's really no rules for a draft. A draft is already so much of an encroachment on one's human rights and legal rights that all bets are off should one be declared. Sure there'll be court orders and legal battles over it but we've seen how that goes already with the current administration, they'll simply delay and ignore while shuffling as many humans out of reach as possible until they can't anymore.

Best thing any of us can do is simply hope for the best. My personal hopes are, in order of declining positivity:

• There is no draft
• I'm either too old or too autistic to be drafted
• I can go back to college to be ineligible to be drafted
• I can find myself a non-combat role given my technical expertise
• Whatever happens happens and I'll figure out how to survive and thrive like I have every other challenge that's come my way in life

There's really no other planning for such an eventuality. There's too many unknowns you can plan for, and while I'm seeing plenty of folks talking about fragging, taking drugs or establishing a false history of drug abuse, transitioning, etc. the fact is there's no telling what will happen nor what the legal landscape will look like

Itd be really funny if a natiomal epidemic of bonespurs happened

What are you, a cop? Anyone who is actually planning to dodge shouldn’t be posting their ideas publicly.

Just act gay or trans and come into the recruiter wearing a Mexican flag.

I took inspiration from Arlo Guthrie and I pre-emptively got a fine for littering so I have a criminal record and thus would be rejected.

Not of age, I got through the "draft period" during GWB. The US probably won't have a draft, mainly because we have a sizeable "volunteer" military.

However, if I was drafted, I would talk to my draft board about how I've read books about fragging, and how all I can think about is how powerful that is, for one man with one weapon on the inside to destroy or disrupt the chain of command. Then do your best Private Pyle "Seven Six Two millimeter. Full Metal jacket!" imitation. The military doesn't care about sending untrained and unqualified conscripts into an active war, but I doubt they will take someone who seems to have uncontrollable fantasies about shooting their own officer.

Take an opiate before I go in and nod out in the line or seat or interview or whatever.

Also talk about how you've had to be on the opiates to come to terms with figuring out that you might be a different gender.

Boom. No war for you.

(I'm not really conscription age)

Did I miss some news (which is entirely possible) about a draft, or is this just Lemmy being dramatic again?

Not to break anyone's spirits but I find it funny many of you believe your age, sexual orientation, health issues, etc., will matter to people like this. If they want you they are going to try to send you. These people don't seem to care about many laws so what's stopping them from sticking their most disliked groups straight to battle?

Why would they draft me? I've never even been to the US!

I’m pretty sure sure I don’t qualify. I have ADHD, Tourette’s, and I think I’m autistic. Not to mention that I may or may not be trans (I’ve considered it but I’m not really sure) and I think with all of those combined I would not be allowed

never felt so lucky to have a T4-L4 spinal fusion & epilepsy

By being Canadian. Y'all can come live in my basement, my little American basement babies.

shoot my superior that's telling me I need to kill innocents

Everybody, tell them this!

It could be a beautiful strategy to avoid the draft.

They gonna run to Canada. They old Vietnam war trick.

They aren't going to have a draft, they will just destroy the economy so young people have no other option but to volunteer for the military if they want to eat/feed their families.

I'm too old, but remember doing this planning after 9/11. (FWIW, if it didn't happen then, it's really likely not going to happen now, but you never know. Always good to have a plan.) Here he's some options:

First option: conscientious objectors are still allowed. Go join a Buddhist temple (treeleaf.org is an online one). But you have to commit. Be a member in good standing, take the precepts, actually participate. Similarly, you can be exempted if you're a priest. Do you genuinely think that aliens are angels and that the alien god Raël is our savior? Great! Start a local Ralean church and start preaching. Do it on YT! Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Perfect! We need more Pastafarians to get it legally recognized in more states.

Second option: Mental Health Disqualifications. An ADHD diagnosis CAN sometimes be enough to get a deferral (but Petey might sign a blanket waiver). Gender dysphoria as well, and with this administration, they're so trans-phobic that seems like a slam dunk (assuming there's no trans gulag you'll end up at). The important part to any mental health disqualification is treatment or meds in the last 12 months (24 months maybe).

Third option: Stay in school, kids. Regular university attendance still is ground for a deferral....today at least. Grad school? PhD program? Might be worth the application fee.

Fourth option: Leaving the country. A lot of people ended up in Canada during Vietnam. Digital nomad visas are easy to get in a lot of places. An alternative to this would be Peace Corps service, which would let you defer being drafted until your service is done. You can extend up to 5 years in the same country. Also a large number of people in PC during Vietnam. Considering it survived when USAID didn't, I'd say anyone qualified might as well start applying now as it can take up to a year to a placement.

Last option: Be the sole income earner for your family. So marry someone - anyone - and be employed, preferably in an industry that won't go away during a draft (sorry, DoorDash isn't going to cut it). I had a grand parent who was a welder during WWII who wasn't drafted based on this one.

Do you think they’d actually bring back the draft? I feel like after Vietnam they realized that it’s too hard to send the general population to do terrible shit without getting a lot of pushback. A professional military that’s already filtered out anyone with a conscience is half of why they can just do shit like this while most of the country doesn’t want it. Plus technology has improved a lot, allowing a smaller force to do the same thing.

As for me. I’m already out of that age range, but I’ve already been wanting to move for a while. Maybe that would be the last kick in the pants necessary to get me to actually do it. But with the depression it’s still kind of a coin flip so….