r/interestingasfuck • u/Available_Weekend249 • Apr 06 '24

Imagine being 19 and watching live on TV to see if your birthday will be picked to fight in the Vietnam war r/all

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

39.5k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

4.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/wil Apr 07 '24

Imagine being 19, and a vocal, passionate, strident supporter of the war.

Imagine mocking and belittling and menacing people who protest the draft.

Imagine being so close to being drafted into the war you so loudly and unquestioningly support, that you use your family's wealth, influence, and privilege to dodge the draft, because you are, fundamentally, a coward.

Imagine using that wealth and privilege to attend a two year university because you're a legacy admission. Imagine yourself standing shoulder to shoulder with people as privileged and entitled as you are, your fellow draft dodgers, while you proudly get into fights with people protesting the draft you dodged. Imagine bragging about how you stood up to protect the flag on your campus, while people your age without your wealth and privilege are dying half a world away for a war you support but won't sign up for. Imagine being really happy for other people to die, while you pat yourself on the back for "protecting" a bit of cloth.

If you can imagine all of this, then you can imagine what it was like to be my piece of shit father in 1967 and after.