#though fwiw my friend said his time in the military helped with his depression massively cuz of the routine and socialising

[mobiused]

at the risk of being so so dumb what’s good about military consignment? I don’t care about bts or if they do it or whatever I just don’t understand really why people want them to do badly. is it just because it’s precedent and the idea of them being exempted feels unfair to people?

Not much is good about it, I didn't mean to imply that. I don't support conscription. I just hate the posts that condemn exclusively the ROK for being backwards and rightwing (which so easily leads to orientalism and racism) without acknowledging the reason for it, which is American imperialism and occupation. This isn't to suggest South Korea is blameless or not complicit, or not accountable for its various military activities and atrocities (see Vietnam war for example). But really I'm not the best person to ask about this so here's some other people (relevant section starting pg. 15) who talk about it better (and it's worth looking into the origins of the Korean War and the US' involvement in it for more details on why mandatory conscription persists to this day yourself, for your own edification).

The conscription system serves to intimidate ROK's brother in the North, which keeps Korea further away from peace and reunification, and only serves the US' imperialist and anti-socialist agenda - not only threatening the DPRK with its presence, but also the entire Pacific theatre. ~650,000 soldiers that MUST fight and die for the US due to the mutual defense treaty is surely a huge threat to any nation in East and South East Asia. Again, this only benefits the US and its maintenance of its empire, and keeps Korea divided.

Most Korean people want BTS to service because of "fairness" - even if they don't support conscription - there are more people who don't believe in compulsory conscription then there are people who do. I think this is more to do with Korean attitudes towards justice as opposed to a reflection on how the population feels about conscription, though.