#ww3jokes

So if you have been literally anywhere on the internet in the last two weeks, you’ll have been exposed to a lot of WW3 jokes. The hashtag started trrending on twitter - the point is that it’s blown up, and WW3 is the hot comedic topic of the moment. 

For context, this all started after a US drone airstrike killed one of Iran’s military leaders, Qassem Soleimani. This strike was approved by Donald Trump, and many are seeing it as a declaration of war, and therefore as the start of WW3. 

That’s what lead to a huge amount of WW3 jokes circulating online, and I want to outline my problems with them.

Firstly, the major themes in these jokes is the reintroduction of the draft. The draft was abolished in America in 1973 by President Nixon, who hoped to squash the anti-war movement, as he thought middle class protesters only cared about the Vietnam War because they didn’t want to be drafted or have their friends drafted (that’s not relevant, but historical context is helpful). Now, there has been rumblings about bringing back the draft for the past five years or so, but there is no actual evidence that this is going to happen.

 So for the draft to come back, what would need to happen? It would need to pass through Congress, with the majority voting in favour of it. President Trump would also have to finalise the process by approving the draft.

 If the draft came back, what would happen? Firrstly, would women be included in the draft? As of a recent federal court ruling, women not being in the draft would be unconstituional. However, this doesn’t mean that women would be included in the draft, because as we’ve seen the currrent administration has no problem with doing things that are unconstituional. So we know that women and men would be involved in the draft and the draft usually composess of people age 18-26. However, the system by which people are selected for military service is unkonown. Many different systems have been used in US military history.It usually starts with everyone (or all men) in the selected age range registering for the draft. What happens next is a different matter.It could involve local draft boards reviewing those registered and deciding who and wouldn’t be drafted (as it was at the start of the Vietnam War), or it could be a lottery system, where birthdays are drawn out in the same way as other lotteries, and those registered and born on those days would be drafted (as it was to the end of the Vietnam War). The draft was used during Americcan Civil War, WW1, WW2, The Korean War and The Vietnam War in America, and each time it was slightly different, so we have no idea how the draft would work if it was introduced again today. 

But back to the jokes. I’m going to say this once. The Draft Is Not Funny. It’s not a quirky topic for you to make a tiktok about. It’s conscription. It’s a system that has always been biased, regularly calling POC, working class people and rural workers to serivce, and allowing the upper classes, the wealthy and those in positions of power to escape, claiming that they have bone spurs in their foot (no shade Donald). It’s not funny, and there’s no concrete proof that it’s going to be reintroduced.

 Also, a slight sub genre of jokes about the draft I’ve seen are people saying they would revert back to stereotypes if the draft was reintroduced. For example, young girls saying that they would rather simply become a housewife and a mother to avoid the draft, or gay people saying that they don’t think they should get rid of the clause in the draft that says homosexuals cannot be drafted, as it would help them avoid being drafted. It is horrendous that it is considered funny in our society to accept and welcome opression rather than fight against the draft, a biased and militarisitc system. Seriously, would go rather “know your purpose” as a glorified dishwasher, baby-maker and sex toy (in reference to a popular TikTok) than fight against the draft? It makes me sad that this is how my generation has been socialised.

My second problem is the least relevant, hence why I am only going to devote a small paragraph to it. We do not know if this war with Iran (which may happen) will be WW3. WW3 may have already happened. Are any of the conflicts that have happened acorss the world since 1945 going to be considered WW3 by historians in the future? We don’t know. WW1 and WW2 are terms that were not used during those wars. They are historical terms applied after the event, so we cannot say that this is going to be WW3, when we have no idea if a) it has already happened or not, or b) how historians will view this conflict that has arisen between America and Iran. Calling it WW3 only serves to dramatise the events ocurring.

A slightly more personal topic for my third problem. I have had severe anxiety surrounding “end of the world” type situations/jokes/news reports my whole life. I am also (un dx) autistic, meaning I struggle to understand when these things which may be jokes are jokes. Instead, I assume that they are peoples actual predictions of what is going to happen. As you can imagine, going on the interent this year has caused me to have a lot of anxiety and panic. With a WW3 joke on every meme account I follow, a refference to WW3 in every YouTube video I watch and every other TikTok I watch being about the draft, the interent is currently a minefield of anxietyr. I look at the wrong thing, and boom I’m having a panic attack. Now this is only my personal experience, Think of how other people with anxiety may be feeling at this time. Think of how other people with doomsday phobias may be feeling. Think of how other autistic people may be feeling. Now these may be cute quriky jokes to you and your neurotypical friends, but for many of us, they are seriously affeecting our mental health. But of course, most of you would disregard how those who are neurodivergent or with mental illnesses feel to get your TikTok about the end of the world trending.

Please consider us, and how these “jokes” are affecting us.

Fourthly (I know, I’ve got a lot of problems with this), I’m going to be talking about the astounding levels of priveledge that western teens have to be making these jokes online. The jokes are usually made by Americans, and I know it’s happening a lot in England too (as that’s where I live), but I don’t know about other western countries. A tweet from (@shraywavy) sums it up well:

“priveledged ass americans making this all ab them/ making jokes is completely absurd, how can yall belittle this situation when multiple brown ppl are about to be killed/displaced n the entire region is ab to be completely destroyed due to continuous imperialist agression”

Americans may find this funny. Americans may find WW3 jokes hilarious. Here’s the thing  - they need to examine their priveledge. They will be okay. Everyday Americans will be okay. Yes, people in the military will die. I think that is horrific, I think that anyone who is coerced by Republican propoganda into volunteering in this war that may happen is a victim, and I feel awful for anyone who loses a relative or friend in this war, if it happens. I will go on to talk about the treatment of American troops in this post. But the majority of US civilians will be fine.  Your country will not be invaded, or bombed. No one will destroy your cultural landmarks. Buildings around you won’t collapse and there won’t be fighting in the streets. Those things may very well happen to Iranian people. And you’re making a joke about it? It is not funny. The spilt blood of good people, people who did nothing wrong is not a joke. How much priveledge and ignorance does it take for you to think making a joke about this  situation when in reality it will not have that much of an impact on your life?

You may think I’m being overdramatic, linking memes to the deaths that may happen. But I’m not. If you make a WW3 joke. You are saying that this situation is a joke. That this situation is funny. Jokes are supposed to be funny. This situation may very well lead to death and destruction in Iran. And that’s funny to you? The majority of people making and liking WW3 jokes obviosuly do not endorse the confliict with Iran. They don’t want Iranian people to die. In fact,  the whole WW3 jokes movement has an anti-war undertone. But you need to think about the implications of the media that you create and consume.

Now, there has already been some backlash against these jokes online. I’m not the first one. Many people have come back at the backlash, saying that these jokes are a coping mechanism for the genuine fears they have about a war. As a big advocate for those with anxiety (and as a person with anxiety and with a lot of weird coping mechanisms), I don’t want to bash people’s coping mechanisms. I just want to analyse them.

Firstly, what is a coping mechanism? A coping mechanism is  an adaptation to environmental stress that is based on conscious or unconscious choice and that enhances control over behavior or gives psychological comfort, as defined by dictionary.com. What is the environmental stress here? The impending conflict with Iran. What is the choice you make to give yourself control or to physcologically comfort yourself? Making a joke. 

Now there is evidence both for and against the idea that humour is a good coping mechanism. There are plently of articles and pieces of research on Google Scholar about black humour as a coping mechanism that I would reccomend you check out.  Personally, I am of the belief that humour can be used a coping mechanism. It’s dicassosiation from the problem. The question is, what is the problem? You’re afraid of the conflict with Iran. Of what might happen. Now it is unlikely that any direct action will be taken against US domestic territories, so I don’t think fear of your everyday life being disrupted comes underneath this. *If it does, please tell me. This entire post is based on my assumptions and I want to be challenged if you feel differently to what I say. 

I personally find ignoring the problem the best coping mechanism in this situation. I will still be politically active about the fact that Trump alone seems to have declared war on Iran, but I need time-out from it to  cope. I want to know from the people that are using these jokes to cope specifically what they are afraid of. I  turned to Instagram for this, but if you want to tell me on here then that’d be helpful (I am aware that no-one is going to read this fucking huge post but still). An instagram acccount (@sapphic.in) reposted a tweet from (@uhhhhmad) which read:

“stop saying ur making memes about war as a “coping’ method every single one of you will be fine the people of iraq and iran will continue to suffer u people have nothing to be fucking coping for”

The comments underneath the instagram retweet of this post don’t really explain what people are afraid of (this post had a series of other posts on it so not all the comments are about this particular tweet). A few people refrenced being afraid of their boyfriend or brothers etc. (basically men they know elidgble for the draft)  being drafted. There are some comments which basically say “it’s a joke calm down liberal”, and if you need me to explain why “it’s just a joke” is a terrible justification for anything, tell me and I’ll explain. But back to the fear of relatives being drafted.

 There is no proof that the draft is coming back. In fact, the only reaso that people are afraid of the draft coming back IS BECAUSE OF THESE JOKES. They are the primary soure of media that all of us are consuming about the situation. They mainly refrence the draft - so everyone thinks the draft is coming back. Then larger news outlets pick up on the fact thatt the draft coming back is a hot topic - not politcially but in teen-created media, so they make media about it. They make it sound as real or as serious as they want - American news outlets have no obligation to tell the truth, and they have a motivation not to (they are businesses, so if they make drastic headlines about the draft people will read them and watch them and they will get more money). So suddenly because of these jokes about the draft coming back everyone thinks that there is a eerious threat of the draft coming back so they need the jokes about the draft coming back to cope?

This leads into my final big problem, but before I go onto that, I’d like to ask anyone who has a family memeber, relative, partner, friend of a friend etc. serving in the US military in the areas where this conflict is happenning (and where this war might happen), how do these jokes make you feel? Honestly, I want to know. I have no idea if they help you to cope or if they make you more afraid, as I have no relatives in the military so I don’t know how it feels.

My final big problem is that these jokes are the primary source of media that people are consuming about this situation. Does everyone read the news etc., making sure they know the latest on what’s going on? I know I don’t. I’m not commenting on the situation though. I’m commenting on the memes, and beleive me I’ve seen A LOT of them. So we rely on the memes etc. to be our informant. That could potetntially leave us well informed, but it doesn’t. Who’s making these memes? Is it journalists, politcial correspondents, military spokespeople, anyone really who works in the military or politics or who knows what’s happening? No, it’s not. It’s teens just like you and me who have no real clue beyond the headlines and the instagram posts what is happening. We’ve created this media hysteria. What do you look at more? The memes/jokes/tiktoks or news articles about it? How the hell are we supposed to stay reasonably informed and take anti-war action when the source of information we use is people making memes because they think they’re funny who have no real idea what’s going to happen next. Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but this is really distracting us from what’s really happening. What the US gvernment is actually doing. These jokes may be anti-war but they are helping those who are pro-war immensely.

The people who do serve in this war will not be positively affected. The American government doesn’t care about the troops. The people who will lose the person in their family who provides them with income in this war will not be cared for by the US. The people who get injured in this war will be victims of the poor veterans healthcare system. The people who get PSTD from this war will be mocked and ignored. Most pro-war people like Trump couldn’t give a flying fuck about the troops and the ordinairy people they’ll affeect. So please don’t make jokes about getting drafted. People who lost people to wars aren’t laughing. People who got drafted in Vietnam or Korea aren’t laughing. Serving in the millitary can have horrific consequences. It’s not funny to make a joke about being forced into that situation.

Finally, I’d like to refrence a tweet by (@eclipsecassette). It’s about the impact that this war may have if it happens. 

“this war will likely bring another wave of islamophobia and xenophobia against anyone visibly brown just like after 9/11 so we should probably worry about that more than getting drafted”

They’re right. We don’t know what this war will bring but know that it cannot bring good. It will bring more xenophobia disguised as nationalism. It will bring more violence and hate crimes. It will bring veterans left injured and in poverty. It will bring destruction to Iran. It will make our world a much worse place. That’s why I say no to war with Iran, and I say no to making a joke out of it.