I think the US would be a lot better off with a mandatory period of service. Not exclusively military, but an option between that and some kind of civil service. I think it would do a lot to bring the country together.
Slavery requires a lack of compensation, which was nowhere implied. A mandatory civic responsibility to participate in the government—a government that everyone benefits from, and one that doesn’t fucking work if people don’t participate—does not meet any definition of slavery.
Be that as it may, a civil service obligation does not meet any reasonable person’s definition of slavery. Equating the two is both offensive and fallacious.
A lot of reasonable people define forced labor as slavery:
The condition of a slave; the state of entire subjection of one person to the will of another.
A condition of subjection or submission characterized by lack of freedom of action or of will.
Forced labour, or unfree labour, is sometimes used to describe an individual who is forced to work against their own will, under threat of violence or other punishment. This may also include institutions not commonly classified as slavery, such as serfdom, conscription and penal labour. As slavery has been legally outlawed in all countries, forced labour in the present day (frequently referred to as “modern slavery”) revolves around illegal control.
“chain around your neck, abducted from your place of birth, sailed across the world stuffed into a deck 2 foot high, sold to the highest bidder, brought to a farm, whipped until you’re bloody, served gruel, tortured at will, killed if you escape, never being compensated for your labour, worked until you die or killed off when no longer economically useful”
… and …
“joining the forces for 9 months, fully paid, or become a conscientious objector and file books in a library for 9 months; in either case your full legal rights remain”
I didn’t say I see no difference? Killing someone by slowly torturing them over years and just shooting them is different. They’re both still murder though. Forced labor is slavery, some slavery is worse than others- but all slavery is bad.
I think the US would be a lot better off with a mandatory period of service. Not exclusively military, but an option between that and some kind of civil service. I think it would do a lot to bring the country together.
No, slavery is slavery, even if its for a noble cause.
Slavery requires a lack of compensation, which was nowhere implied. A mandatory civic responsibility to participate in the government—a government that everyone benefits from, and one that doesn’t fucking work if people don’t participate—does not meet any definition of slavery.
No, that is a definition that was constructed as apologism for various different forms of forced labor
Be that as it may, a civil service obligation does not meet any reasonable person’s definition of slavery. Equating the two is both offensive and fallacious.
A lot of reasonable people define forced labor as slavery:
So you see no distinction between…
“chain around your neck, abducted from your place of birth, sailed across the world stuffed into a deck 2 foot high, sold to the highest bidder, brought to a farm, whipped until you’re bloody, served gruel, tortured at will, killed if you escape, never being compensated for your labour, worked until you die or killed off when no longer economically useful”
… and …
“joining the forces for 9 months, fully paid, or become a conscientious objector and file books in a library for 9 months; in either case your full legal rights remain”
?
I didn’t say I see no difference? Killing someone by slowly torturing them over years and just shooting them is different. They’re both still murder though. Forced labor is slavery, some slavery is worse than others- but all slavery is bad.