Not the PLA either... 
Made a new account to hopefully minimize self-doxing, but here's some background. I haven't lived with him in 10 years and I left the country 4 years ago. We don't really talk all that often, but he had messaged me with some questions about photography and then brought it up.
I said something like "I'm sure you're aware I don't have a very fond opinion of the military". He said "I'm not too enthused with the idea either, but I need the security and discipline that it will provide while I try to find something to dedicate myself to and I've been in this dead end job for about 2 years and my soul is decaying".
I told him he can come live with me, that it's easy to get a 1 year visa and I'd happily pay for flights and I have a spare room. He said he'd think about it but "needs physical activity and more friends and connection in general". I tried to explain that I go climbing multiple days a week, volunteer for search and rescue, and play board games with friends every week that he'd be able to hang out with.
I get the impression though that he thinks visiting would just be putting his problems on hold for a year; maybe he's right about that, but I think living somewhere other than our shit hometown would give him a lot of perspective on the world and help him maybe realize that what he actually needs is a community of some kind. I don't want him to make a huge fucking mistake because he feels hopeless and gets pressured into it by our conservative step dad or some recruiter or whatever.
I also briefly tried explaining some issues with the US military, but it's a bit hard to undo decades of american "education" in one conversation. He said "my moral code is also not nearly as strong as yours, and I have very little strong feelings toward very much at all outside of just trying to be a good person". I assume he reached out to me because he's having some doubts.
Anyway I tried to make it super clear that if he wanted to come live with me or if he wanted to do a work visa somewhere else I'd pay flights and anything else and help in any way I can; I'm not rich, but I have a small emergency savings.
I think I've heard there are organizations of leftist / anti-imperialist veterans? Maybe one of them has information I could send him. Any advice or ideas would be appreciated.
(CW: discussion of SA)
This is a topic I'm trying to be more informed about; as a vet I'm trying to keep every young person I know out of the US military.
I always like to start off by saying that the military will lie to you every step of the way, from the time you contact the recruiter until the VA denies your claim. All anyone at any step of the way is motivated to do is hit their numbers/quotas, regardless of you. Recruiters and detailers have a certain number of certain billets to fill, and they will slot you in one regardless of what you want. Recruiters can tell you you'll be assigned to Combat Camera as a photographer, but then at boot camp you find out you're going into infantry. Even if you're smart, diligent, and read the contracts and fine print, they will find a way to screw you. In any investigation while in, they will do their best to deny you your rights and railroad you into admitting guilt at a non-judicial Article 15 hearing (where evidence is not required and hearsay is accepted) rather than a court martial.
Especially for femme people considering joining (mascs should also be aware and care), I always bring up Sexual Assault statistics. You can find official reports here (warning: US government website) https://www.sapr.mil/reports But, also actual numbers are 2-4 times higher than the US government estimates. On a more personal note, my cousin was sexually assaulted by the same man as multiple others at their command (who was never convicted), and suffers from severe enough PTSD that they're 100% disabled (and was physically assaulted by a VA police officer at a VA hospital). I lost a friend at my last command who was sexually assaulted by their superior, and I still hate that I couldn't do anything about it all these years later.
It is a machine that eats able-bodied young people and shits out MIC contractors and broken husks.
GI Rights Hotline has some resources about this.
https://girightshotline.org/en/military-knowledge-base/truth-in-recruiting/
The Quakers have some resources as well:
https://quakerhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/QH_SgtAbeApr2015.pdf
I will try to keep updating this with more resources as I find them.
I finally figured out that the best search engine query is "counter recruitment"
By We Are Not Your Soldiers, a group of antiwar veterans that speak in classrooms
https://www.beforeenlisting.org/home
Fuck I'm really sorry to hear that... thank you so much for the resources this is really helpful!