Conspiracy theorists believe that the U.S. military is preparing to reinstate the draft as Russia’s attack on Ukraine intensifies.
The claim began circulating online Wednesday following a tweet from the Selective Service, the independent agency tasked with conscripting young males in the wake of a national emergency.
“In the event of a draft, our agency would partner with @fema to provide opportunities to conscientious objectors to ensure our nation keeps moving forward,” the agency tweeted.
The timing of the tweet, given the escalating conflict in Europe, was immediately deemed suspicious by conspiracy theorists online.
Despite most of the agency’s posts struggling to receive even 10 retweets, the message regarding the draft was quickly shared more than 2,000 times.
While many in the comments argued over their opinion on the draft, otheres weighed in on what they saw as evidence of an impending world war.
“What a weird time to tweet this,” @DolioJ wrote. “Brace yourselves.”
The Twitter account for the Libertarian Party also shared the conspiratorial sentiment while reminding its followers that they aren’t “GOVERNMENT PROPERTY.”
“Well the timing of this tweet is more than a little terrifying and this feels like a very good time to remind everyone that WE ARE NOT GOVERNMENT PROPERTY,” the account wrote.
Numerous other accounts appeared to encourage their followers to engage in violence if they were ever approached by government officials looking to draft them into the military.
“Do not acknowledge any draft. If they come for you, put them in the ground,” one user said. “Dont become a slave.”
The tweet also went viral over on Reddit’s r/conspiracy, a subreddit with more than 1.7 million members.
Redditors defiantly claimed that they would refuse to acknowledge any draft under the current administration. Some even threatened to start a civil war.
“Let me make something perfectly clear, I would rather go to prison than serve the clowns running the federal government right now,” one user stated.
But there’s no actual evidence whatsoever that indicates that a military draft is around the corner. For starters, one of the main purposes of the Selective Service is to talk about the draft process.
A simple search on Twitter shows that the Selective Service has already shared five tweets mentioning the draft in just this year alone. The account mentioned the term at least nice times in 2021 as well.
In a statement to the Daily Dot, the Selective Service reiterated its purpose as a government entity.
“As part of our overall awareness campaign, we remain active on all forms of social media, and amplify the requirement to register, volunteer opportunities, our alternatives service program to all young men between the ages of 18-25,” the agency said.
