this post was submitted on 06 May 2024
450 points (98.1% liked)

World News

38506 readers
3028 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (2 children)

See Mohammed Ali. See Elvis Presley.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Ali was convicted of draft dodging when he very publicly burned his draft card and refused enlistment. He was arrested, in Houston, after repeatedly refusing to acknowledge his name during induction. Then he spent the next eight months fighting the charge of draft dodging as a conscientious objector, ultimately appealing and winning his defection in a SCOTUS decision. Along the way, all his titles were revoked.

Presley got an absolute sweetheart deal and spent his two years "at war", living in a West German hotel, recording for RCA in his ample downtime, getting addicted to amphetamines thanks to a ahem helpful senior officer, and then being discharged with honors after being promoted to sergeant as part of a giant photo-op.

It does not look like Pielieshenko's experiences were comparable in either respect.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Rather irrelevant to the original question. Any man can be drafted, whether they go or not is another question we aren’t addressing here. But thanks for that history brush up!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

In both cases, they were seen as subversives who reactionaries were glad to be rid of.

It's not an automatic system, they stood in front of a draft board who ruled they'll either join the army or go to prison.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

I'm too old and a foreign national, but since my late teen years I was committed to doing a ted nugent if it came to it.