4 ms·
I would have thought that in the 90s but the fervor around 9/11 made me think that such popular consideration is fickle in both directions. If we were fighting
by monocasa 3y ago
I would have thought that in the 90s but the fervor around 9/11 made me think that such popular consideration is fickle in both directions. If we were fighting an actual, military threat to the country, conscription would have almost certainly happened.
- Analemma_ 3y agoI'm not actually sure another 9/11 would have the same unifying effect it did in 2001. Today the information ecosystem is so much more fractured, there's way more material and reputational reward for being a "counter-consensus" voice, and polarization has increased to the point where it has totally undermined even the potential of national unity -- hop on Twitter and you can easily find tons of partisans declaring that they'd rather live under Chinese communist or Russian anti-liberal "trad" rule today, if that were an option. My guess would be that if something like 9/11 happened again today, you'd see [tribe controlling the White House] try to use it as a unifying event, and this would immediately catalyze a furious reaction and counter-narrative from [tribe not controlling the White House] denouncing it as cynical grift, especially if it was used to try and justify a draft.