The headline leaves out some key details. It looks like he did this to avoid a promotion, specifically. Meaning that he was already enlisted, and gave up a lot of rights that a civilian would otherwise have. The article doesn’t make it clear if the same sort of conviction could be applied to a civilian trying to dodge the draft.EDIT: The article has been updated and no longer seems to refer to the person receiving a promotion, and it appears he was always a civilian.
More like a choice between essentially community service and actual military duties.
I normally don’t comment, but this is completely incorrect. What happened here is that the Korean conscription system separates people into four levels of eligibility depending on health and other factors. IIRC, category 1 and 2 are healthy enough for active duty, 3 is borderline, and 4 is not fit for active duty. This person would have been in a active duty category, but gained weight in order to dodge active duty and either get conscription waived or do alternative service such as public service. This person was not already active duty, but got his conscription notice.
Edit: It’s actually worse. He previously took his medical evaluation and was deemed fit for active duty (either category 1 or 2) and was waiting for an enlistment date (apparently it’s actually hard to get an open spot for military service these days). In that time, he allegedly deliberately gained weight so that when the day came and he had to redo his physical, he would be able to dodge active duty.
I normally don’t comment
I’m glad you did, I appreciate your insight on the subject! It looks like the article may have been updated since I originally read it, as it no longer refers to a promotion like I saw earlier. That’s a lot more concerning, to know that he was still a civilian the whole time. I feel like that sets a dangerous precedent that would be very easy to abuse.
Yeah, IIRC stuff like this has happened often before. One example that comes to mind was a celebrity getting their teeth removed to get deemed not fit for active duty.
My personal opinion is that these people probably wouldn’t be mentally fit for active duty anyways.
Meaning that he was already enlisted, and gave up a lot of rights that a civilian would otherwise have.
South Korea used to jail and abuse people who objected to compulsory military service and nowadays just treats them like shit. This guy tried to eat his way into doing community service instead of being an active duty soldier and he got jailed for it. I would say that tracks as abuse against objectors. I wouldn’t say he was avoiding a “promotion.”
I dunno, Fish Sandwich.
Yeah… The military conscription service AKA fascism. How long before Israel escalates a war in the Middle East and Americans are conscripted to carry out Trump’s fascism? I’m guessing the bone spurs argument only works on wealthy people.
Are you aware of who South Korea share a border with?
Are you aware that countries sharing borders is no excuse to force conscription against the individual’s will?
Saying it doesn’t make it true.
Do you even know what is happening in Gaza & Lebanon right now?
I thought we were talking about Korea?
Lol are you going to act like you don’t know that Israel’s conscription is part of the reason they are committing a bunch of war crimes right now? Sharing borders is no excuse to force military service and results in fascism.
Ok but again, we’re talking about Korea
Can’t believe this is getting downvoted.
No country, for any reason, should ever have the right to disenfranchise an individual and force their enlistment. Authoritarianism of this nature should never be supported.
Authoritarianism
As someone from a country where I was the last year to do that… eh. I dunno. The military service, sure, fuck that. But the alternative if you didn’t want to do that was 1 year of working as a helper in the medical or caretaking field, and those people are missing. It’d be better if everyone just had to do a year of caregiving. It gives you a lot of perspective and is a really good experience, anyways.
I am absolutely in favor of some sort of civil service or CCC-revival in the US. I’m so fucking tired of how anti-social and disrespectful of others Americans are, and it seems like Covid has only accelerated that.
Yeah that’s the thing. It’s one thing to rail about immigrants, the elderly, the homeless, whatever. The same people who do that think quite differently after a year of civil service in a refugee shelter camp, caring in a geriatric station for people with ~no family or providing food for the homeless. It changes you. In a good way, you get to see a wholly different perspective of society, and this perspective is sorely missing with so many people. 😢
When I was in my 20s, the only people I met who were at least somewhat well-adjusted were those who had either worked through college or participated in something like the Peace Corps. Big big fan of mandatory civil service, especially as an option for those who don’t know what they want to do with their lives yet.
It’s probably getting downvoted because it mentions American politics, it’s not necessary to mention trump under EVERY post
Not yet anyways.
That was literally the point of starship troopers. “Service garentees citizenship.” Forcing people into service is a form of fascism because that is the in group you desire.
Starship Troopers is a kinda subtle book, and the author wasn’t a huge sympathizer of compulsory anything, or of subservience.
It separates civil rights and citizen rights. Everyone has civil rights - no such thing as an unregistered alien, no such thing as forbidding abortions or whatever one wants to do. But citizen status (ability to vote in elections, hold political posts and even work for the government in less important positions, like that veteran with prosthetics in the office who accepted the friends’ papers in the book) is something requiring commitment, so it’s gained by making a sacrifice in the form of federal service.
It’s also not only gained by military service, there are a lot of dangerous and important jobs eligible for that.
Unlike with typical fascism, everyone capable of understanding the oath is eligible for federal service, so if they are not fit for anything military or space related, there still are such jobs to be found.
So IMHO one shouldn’t judge it by Verhoeven’s movie alone.
Evading service is definitely not punishable there. Except there’ll be no second chance to serve.
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And the lemmits downvote a perfectly valid standpoint.
And drafting isn’t just
racismfacism, (thanks autocorrect), it’s straight up slavery.
