One of the talking points about the Syrian refugee crisis I see being repeated again and again is commenting on how many of the refugees are young men, particularly "fighting-aged men", the implication being that these people shouldn't qualify as refugees, since they should be back home fighting for their country. A more tinfoil-hat form of this argument is that the Islamists are using these "fighting-aged men" to covertly invade Europe. As an example, a prominent YouTuber who keeps using this term is Lauren Southern.

Now, I don't care what your opinions are on immigration laws or whatever. But can we talk about this "fighting-aged men" thing?

Why is it bad for "fighting-aged men" to flee a war-torn country? Because it's "unmanly"? Because it's "cowardly"? Because men are somehow obligated to die in any and every war that happens to break out? Why shouldn't young men be classified as refugees? Only women can be victims of war? Men should just shut up and go die?

I don't know about you, but if war broke out tomorrow, and some authority told me to go out and kill a bunch of people I don't know, I would prefer to flee than go to war. Notions of honor and glory in the battlefield are lies told to young men in order to convince them to die for someone else. It's the epitome of male disposability. There's no honor or glory in being dead. The only reason they build memorials is to convince the next generation of men to go die as well, should the need arise.

Stop saying that young men don't deserve shelter from war, as if it's their inherent duty to die so others can live. How is that not a direct implication that young men's lives are worth less than everyone else's?

What do you guys think?