Palantir Wants to Reinstate the Draft

Post by sunrunner » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 6:13 PM UTC

Teever wrote: post #114

chromacity wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Generally speaking I am a fan of the idea that everyone should be required to do some kind of community service for 2 years once they turn 18. Why? I get the warm-and-fuzzy angle of "instilling civic responsibility", but you're effectively instilling that at gunpoint: the government forces you to do this, else you go to prison. Is that really such an enlightened thing to do? It takes away two years of your life, po…

What if it didn't delay your education? In some countries an undergrad degree is only three years. I'd take a person with 1 year of civil service + 3 years of a degree over someone with 4 years of a degree any day. Somebody who is confident enough to handle a rifle and throw a hand grenade is way more useful to me than someone who was forced to another literature or geology course. Have someone demonstrate a command…

Post by mindslight » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 6:14 PM UTC

sph wrote: post #91

mrhottakes wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hacker aesthetic has always been largely reactionary and hyperfocused on the individual and individual freedoms. See also the politics of "generation X"

The saddest thing of our age is that "reactionary" and "individual freedom" is equated to authoritarian movements that are anything but. The hacker aesthetic has always been anarchist in nature, until the rich Californians decided that a hacker is an entrepreneur that participates into the game of capitalism. To be fair, even the concept of libertarianism was an offshoot of anarchism, until the Americans decided that…

Post by ishouldstayaway » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 6:23 PM UTC

vaylian wrote: post #152

sheikhnbake wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very much anecdotal but the concept of fragging has gone mainstream in my social media feeds. Mostly gen z joking about ww3 when the Iran conflict kicked off

What is fragging?

Post by causal » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 6:26 PM UTC

dualvariable wrote: post #156

rhcom2 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you could argue the draft forced the war to be real for more families (and the expansion of TV), intensifying the resistance to it. Quick googling says almost 10% of the population served in Vietnam in some capacity. Less than 1% served in the War on Terror. This was part of Charles Rangel's (D) reasoning to propose bringing back the draft. [1] 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_National_Service_Act

> I think you could argue the draft forced the war to be real for more families (and the expansion of TV), intensifying the resistance to it. Yeah, it did, all the young men of draft age had to live knowing that they might get drafted and be forced to fight and die. Even if they were never called, or in retrospect were too old at the time. We seem to have largely forgotten that now, along with the "Vietnam Syndrome"…

Post by b00ty4breakfast » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 6:31 PM UTC

sheikhnbake wrote: post #145

b00ty4breakfast wrote: post #66

Unless you have popular support behind you, a draft is a great way to make your military less effective. You get a bunch of soldiers who don't want to be there, who may not do their job to the utmost either out of apathy or active malice. It also gives lots of people, who might otherwise passively disagree with your war, a great incentive to actively resist your war and your attempts to force them to fight in it. It…

This is very much anecdotal but the concept of fragging has gone mainstream in my social media feeds. Mostly gen z joking about ww3 when the Iran conflict kicked off