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  • 211@sopuli.xyz
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    4 months ago

    A brief scroll of Wikipedia (the sources seemed legit) shows that, for example, Cuba (which I’m assuming you admire?) has mandatory military service, no known policy of alternatives for conscientious objectors, and harsh punishments for evading it even in peacetime, to the point that people have attempted to injure themselves to get out of it. They haven’t been tried in modern war, but can’t see them suddenly relaxing the rules when actually tested. Border countries tend to take defence very seriously.

    For countries and cultures bordering Russia, this really is an existential question. The forced population transfer/ethnic cleansing of Tatars, Ingrians, Chechens and Ingush, Balkars, etc. show what tends to happen. And before you say “well that was Stalin”, I’ll point to the Russification efforts of Alexander III and Nicholas II, and to… well, just about all speakers of Uralic languages still existing in Russia, facing steadily or rapidly declining numbers. Also the number of people identifying as ethnic Russians in the Baltics and Crimea, directly attributable to said forced population transfers; Transnistria, where the change happened more organically but was nonetheless used as an excuse for invasion; and to some degree in eastern Ukraine, that saw significant russification attempts and Russians moving in to man the industrial centers during SU, inflating the numbers of ethnic Russians and prevalence of the Russian language at cost of the native population.

    • Bobr@lemmy.libertarianfellowship.org
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      4 months ago

      Cuba

      1. I said “countries that are considered “good” and “democratic”” by the west. Does Cuba fit that definition now?
      2. “Conscription” - that’s not what am I talking about though. Conscription (which is also absolutely wrong of course) is indeed present in a lot of countries. Mass kidnappings of cannon fodder that is not allowed to leave is quite unique to Zelensky’s regime.
      • 211@sopuli.xyz
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        4 months ago

        I said “countries that are considered “good” and “democratic”” by the west. Does Cuba fit that definition now?

        I honestly don’t know that much about Cuba, seems like country much like any other that has trouble because of a difficult neighbor and making the best of it? But if we’re talking about whether mandatory military service is sometimes justified, not whether mass media is biased (duhhhhh), perceptions held by the majority are inconsequential.

        “Conscription” - that’s not what am I talking about though. Conscription (which is also absolutely wrong of course) is indeed present in a lot of countries. Mass kidnappings of cannon fodder that is not allowed to leave is quite unique to Zelensky’s regime.

        Conscription is done in preparation for “mass kidnappings of cannon fodder”, as you put it.

        Edit: Also kudos for not trying to defend ethnic Russians’ history of ethnic cleansing.

        • Bobr@lemmy.libertarianfellowship.org
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          4 months ago

          Conscription is done in preparation for “mass kidnappings of cannon fodder”, as you put it.

          No?..

          Russia has conscription but not kidnapping part and forbidding to leave the country part. So do many other countries.

          • 211@sopuli.xyz
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            4 months ago

            Conscription is done in preparation for “mass kidnappings of cannon fodder”, as you put it.

            No?..

            …yes? Or do you think the countries with peacetime conscription do it for shits and giggles, and the massive economic benefit of half the population losing about a year of working life?

            • Bobr@lemmy.libertarianfellowship.org
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              4 months ago

              Okay, then surely you can show me a shittone of examples of such a massive campaign of kidnappings happening to people forbidden from leaving the country because they are needed as cannon fodder that happened in modern history (let’s say last two centuries)?

              • 211@sopuli.xyz
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                4 months ago

                surely you can show me a shittone of examples of such a massive campaign of kidnappings happening to people forbidden from leaving the country […] that happened in […]let’s say last two centuries?

                I’ll just give you a partial list of European countries that 1) had wartime conscription, and 2) executed deserters, in WW1 or 2, which would indicate an equally/more drastic “kill or be killed” choice, and is way easier to find. Or do you know better how conscription worked in the WWs off the top of your head?

                • Britain and the Commonwealth
                • France
                • Germany
                • Italy
                • Soviet Union (estimated around 150 000 executed in WW2, including returned POWs executed for “desertion”)
      • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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        4 months ago

        Mass kidnappings of cannon fodder that is not allowed to leave is quite unique to Zelensky’s regime.

        That’s literally what conscription means in legal terms, though I imagine most military organisations would object to the term “cannon fodder” as they do try to use personnel to get something done, not just send them running into enemy lines of fire for no reason.

        • Bobr@lemmy.libertarianfellowship.org
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          4 months ago

          That’s literally what conscription means in legal terms

          No. Conscription is you get summons and have to do military service (which is also totally wrong but a different thing). If you refuse you get sent to jail. You can simply leave the country if you don’t like that.

          What happens in Ukraine is kidnapping random people off the streets (who are forbidden from leaving the country), putting them into vans and sensing them to die.

          • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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            4 months ago

            You’re presenting a distinction without a difference.

            Both are effectively the same thing, a citizen pressed into service, against their will.

            Jail-time is the best case scenario, and in no way intrinsic to the concept.

            • Bobr@lemmy.libertarianfellowship.org
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              4 months ago

              Both are effectively the same thing, a citizen pressed into service, against their will.

              So “you cannot leave the country and will be kidnapped and forced to die a horrible death on the front lines” is the same as “you can freely leave the country but if you don’t you will have to do forced labour in military uniform for a year”.

              Got it.