[cgbg]

There was extraordinary pressure for young men to sign up for the military.

The advertising and media campaigns made the Covid vaxx propaganda seem mild by comparison.

The peer/social pressure was very intense.

Those men who did not sign up were viewed as loathsome—the very bottom of the social pecking order.

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I remember talking to my father about this. He said every single young man he knew signed up for the military. Among his peer group failure to do so would have been regarded as nothing less than treason.

[dfwgator]

One of the soldiers of Easy Company in an interview for “Band of Brothers” mentioned a man from his hometown who committed suicide because the Army wouldn’t take him.

[MinorityRepublican]

There was extraordinary pressure for young men to sign up for the military.

The advertising and media campaigns made the Covid vaxx propaganda seem mild by comparison.

The peer/social pressure was very intense.

Hard to imagine. Nationalism used to be a thing.

[dfwgator]

White Feather Campaign

The White Feather Campaign was a prominent enlistment campaign and shaming ritual in Britain during the First World War, in which women gave white feathers to non-enlisting men, symbolising cowardice and shaming them into signing up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Feather_Campaign

[Chewbarkah]

I imagine there was intense social pressure to join but also personal pressure, especially for some in their 20s or up, not to. Going into the service meant leaving behind wives, young children, sick or elderly parents, etc., to fend for themselves; farms that go to wrack and ruin without constant attending, jobs with decent pay they needed to support families, jobs in critical defense industries, etc.

My father and uncles all served in WWII, and were never shy about talking about it, but I don’t recall a word about draftees from them or their peers. Upon reflection that is sort of curious.