Tuesday, May 18, 2021, | 14:00
Ed Thomas | UK
Following his previous Facebook comment blaming China for Covid-19 and the cancelation of his European Tour last year – Meat Loaf posts a rant against 1960s and 1970s college students.
A fortnight ago, in a story covered here, Wasted Youth singer Meat Loaf, once an icon of glam rock and power ballads, replied publicly to a fan on his Facebook page.
Using language reminiscent of former US President Donald Trump, he accused China as the cause of the global covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent cancellation of his European tour.
Meat Loaf’s public reply this week were initially to a fan’s comment on another post, has since been deleted (by Facebook). Then reposted by Meat Loaf as a public post – he accuses 1960’s and 1970s College Students in the United States of being draft dodgers.
The original reply comment (which was screenshotted at the time) was about someone saying that Donald Trump esq-politic was attempting to take America back to the 1960s.
Meat Loaf accused the poster of ‘only writing things [they had] heard’ from ‘college humans’ (who he previously named ‘stupid college humans’) who were only at college to avoid the draft for the Vietnam war.
Insider writes about the US Draft system’s historical roots:
‘The modern Selective Service system was established to raise an army to fight in Europe during World War I. It was used again from 1940-47 to raise troops to fight World War II, and then again to meet the needs for the Korean War. Between the end of WWII and the Korean War, men could just be drafted to serve, regardless of the demands of a national emergency.’
The US Army draft in place at the time of the Vietnam War was abolished by President Gerald Ford in 1975, but the modern system was developed under President Jimmy Carter in response to Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan, on July 2nd 1980.
Three years previously on January 21st 1977, President Carter had unconditionally pardoned all the draft-dodgers of the Vietnam war.
During the Vietnam War period of the late 60s and early 70s, History reports that ‘some 100,000’ men emigrated from the USA to dodge the war; around 1,000 army deserters fled to Canada.
The US would go onto to formally accuse 209,517 men of draft dodging, and estimated another 300,000 were guilty – whom they never formerly accused.
After Carter’s pardon, many returned home to the US, however around 50,000 remained in Canada.
History writes that whilst ‘…no prominent political figures have been found to have broken any draft laws, Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and Vice Presidents Dan Quayle and Dick Cheney–none of whom saw combat in Vietnam–have all been accused of being draft dodgers at one time or another. President Donald Trump received five draft deferments during the Vietnam War, once for bone spurs in his heels.’
There is still a big stigma in the US towards Vietnam draft-dodgers; as a US Citizen, Meat Loaf therefore knows what he is saying, and the rhetoric is oddly reminiscent of similar anti-intellectual rhetoric.
Whilst some College student might have enrolled to dodge the draft – many did not – Meat Loaf himself went to North Texas State University, now University of North Texas after 1965.
He was also of an age (22) when the draft lotteries of 1966 took place – which called many men born from January 1, 1944 to December 31, 1950.
Meat Loaf has never served in the US Military – he was busy going to peace parades and gigging at shows with his band and and in the musical Hair, by his own admission.
His new post repeats many of the assertions of his initial post, as well as further political opinions of a negative on Presidents’ J F Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
The rhetoric of Meat Loaf connects with some of his fans, one commentor on the original post said they ‘love seeing incoherent lefties being beaten with he truth… this is not stuff made up or just plain lies… this was lived….’
Others told stories of dads and husbands who did and didn’t return from the Vietnam war, and the treatment they received on returning home.
If anything, the positive from this post is that Meat Loaf has highlighted the despicable treatment of Vietnam Vets by some of the public.
After all the war is never the fault of those who fight in it.
It is always the wealthy elites, like Donald Trump, who managed to avoid the draft, usually legally.
But the government still sent young boys out to die to protect the interests of the already wealthy, in the name of Uncle Sam.