This question was inspired by a post on lemmy.zip about lowering the minimum age to purchase firearms in the US, and a lot of commeters brought up military service and training as a benchmark to normal civilians, and how if guns would be prevalent, then firearm training should be more common.
For reference, I live in the USA, where the minimum age to join the military is 18, but joining is, for the most part, optional. I also know some friends that have gone through the military, mostly for college benefits, and it has really messed them up. However, I have also met some friends from south korea, where I understand military service is mandatory before starting a more normal career. From what I’ve heard, military service was treated more as a trade school, because they were never deployed, in comparison to American troops.
I just wanted to know what the broader Lemmy community thought about mandatory military service is, especially from viewpoints outside the US.
Yeah, my comment was unpopular, but I’m anti-violence and stand by my words. You don’t have to commit violence to support a violent institution.
You don’t have to support violence to survive either. Like I said, unless you wanted to be a farmer, there wasn’t a lot for work in Oklahoma in the 80s. People did what they needed to do and didn’t commit violence.
It’s also easy to say shit like that now since we have all the information on warmongering and things like that. Wasn’t as prevalent in the '80s.