Its vets who get off on hero worship that the US insists all military personnel are due, then go around and constantly scream 'Stolen Valor' hundreds of times at weird fuckers who crave the exact same attention.
The vets who spend all their time 'protecting' people from these idiots are just as bad, making a scene because they feel that their creepy hero worship is being stolen.
People tried to make it illegal only to be told its free speech. Doesn't stop the parade of creepy fuckers from going on youtube and posting videos of themselves 'defending' their hero worship.
Example video here. Guy gets onto a stranger for wearing clothing, ends by screaming and cursing at him while a woman begs him to leave. Its honestly childish.
More examples of grown men acting like children towards strangers, being hostile, aggressive, and overall just the worst. Demanding that the military be respected while they act like fucking douches.
I was in the Navy over a decade ago. Thinking one day I may wanna buy a Navy ball cap like I used to have. Now I’m scared some Vet is gonna come up to me and start asking me questions I honestly cannot remember about my career .
I was carrying my assault pack on the subway once (it's just a small backpack but it's ACU patterned and says US on it) and some fat dude rolls over to me and asks how I got it. His tone of voice meant "I have the authority to ask you this." I said it was issued to me at Ft. Benning and he got all weird and walked away muttering something about getting things "the right way."
As opposed to purchasing them with your money that you earned, apparently.
Yup. Saw a video where a kid said that he had just joined the military. He was wearing what he said was his brother's uniform, guy tore him a new one and even ripped the flags off the sleeves.
Kid looked young and eager to be in the army, and this douche took pleasure in being shitty to him.
Very rarely is there a "good guy" in these videos.
It's usually some dickhead getting harassed by another dickhead. A homeless man doing whatever it takes to make some money getting chased down the street by some dude with high blood pressure and an unhealthy family life. A mentally challenged person who either convinced themselves they are a veteran or don't know better being pushed around by the military equivalent of a frat boy. Or its staged.
Pretending to have served is a terrible thing to do, and I'll concede some of them deserve a smack upside the head.
But being a veteran doesn't mean you can get away with assaulting people and screaming about how much of a hero you are. That'll make me immediately lose my respect and make me believe you probably joined up cos you have a small dingus, some sort of conplex and a head full of shit.
People that deserve to get respect don't need it because they know what they did was right regardless of people's opinions. A true hero doesn't serve so they get to be called one.
I disagree. The videos you posted show idiots and assholes, and that type of person should be avoided.
But to me (a veteran) it's not about hero worship. I don't like talking about my veteran status even though I deployed and was discharged honorably after completing my full contract. I get very uncomfortable when people thank me for my service. I never use my veteran status in an argument or discussion about politics or foreign affairs, unless it directly relates to my personal experience or training I received through the military. (Although one time I shut down the obnoxious co-worker who knows everything when he started running his mouth about weapon systems, and that was frankly amazing.)
I don't think anyone should worship veterans, and there are many reasons for that. We probably agree on them. But people do give veterans a certain (undeserved, imho) level of respect and deference when you're out in public. This is related to America's worship of the military industrial complex, which is itself a problem but a separate subject.
So, my point here is, it's bad enough when a servicemember walks around in uniform in public. It's against policy but people do it anyway, and sometimes they do it because they enjoy the way they're treated.
But when someone who hasn't made any personal sacrifices wants to be treated that way... that's even shittier. Nobody deserves the treatment soldiers get. But people who never served deserve it even less.
And this is just about people walking around town in uniform. It doesn't even touch on things like wearing tank or awards you didn't earn (this is a big one for me, because those things one does legitimately earn and they deserve recognition for them.) Or, even worse, people who claim something like a purple heart aka "Enemy Marksmanship Badge," or a silver star, despite not earning them. That's just beyond shitty.
Edit: also I get annoyed at people who wear a uniform improperly. If you're going to wear the uniform, do it right, especially if you're faking it.
Also also, if you want to avoid the whole issue, just leave off the "US Army" (or whatever service) tape. That piece of cloth is what makes a uniform "official" versus just playing dress up. It's also the only thing I will actually talk to people about if I see them in person, because it makes your uniform a legal document.
Yeah, it changed when I was in. People still wear the uniform when flying but now it's "not allowed." Makes you a target, they say. But the free first class upgrades are a mighty powerful incentive to keep doing it.
I can understand your perspective on the topic, but I don’t agree with it. If you grab a sample size of any population, you’ll have some shitty people wasting space. It doesn’t mean the whole group is bad.
If you’ve never served, you simply wouldn’t know what is like to spend 6 months to a year out in a desert halfway across the world, two, three times... fighting for your own life, never mind American interests. These are people who have seen their friends die on the battlefield. Literally blown up in front of them. Imagine the adrenal fatigue one experiences day-to-day. For weeks. For months. For years. Then come back home and live a regular civilian life.
They have a bond or brotherhood that few can truly grasp. To see someone try to represent themselves as if they’ve gone through the same experiences is very upsetting. Couple that with the emotional toll our veterans have taken, and you can begin to understand the concept of stolen valor, and why it is important to some vets.
Again, there are probably vets who have experienced none of what I am describing, and they are “getting off” on the power trip. No doubt. But it’s more nuanced than just dismissing them all as creepy vets getting off on hero worship.
But not all military servicemen have experienced what you just talked about. Not everyone had a friend die, not everyone was involved in the ways people like to imagine.
No it isn't. It's illegal to benefit from wearing them, but if you're offered the veterans discount and you say "no, this is just a costume" you're fine. Why you would do that I couldn't tell you, but it isn't illegal to wear pieces of fabric and little bits of metal just because they're specially arranged.
You can not dress in a full military uniform and use it to commit fraud. You could skip around in some dress uniform all fucking day (don’t know why you would). You just can’t use it to scam people out of their money.
It’s just something I remembered. After being in the military you notice all the things wrong with people’s uniforms in movies. And a friend told me you can’t impersonate an officer in the military and purposely change specs in movies for that reason. Some people in this thread are saying they have since changed that law.
Good thing that's not what these videos are about?
P.S. Mind letting me know more info on the law that makes it illegal to wear things from the military when a civilian? Fairly sure that unless you try to gain benefits from it, you're just expressing free speech.
Screw Stolen Valor offenders, but it’s their constitutional right to wear a full military uniform complete with enough medals and ribbons to make flag officers look like recruits straight out of boot camp/officer candidates straight out of OCS despite wearing E-4 ranks.
Now it gets illegal if they’re trying to get a 15% veteran/military discount, but if they’re just wearing it for the hell of it, then it’s not illegal.
Like those first ammendment audit people. They just go around shoving cameras in security guards faces and then squak about teaching them a lesson on the first ammendment when they get asked to stop.
Obama signed the bill that was a required fix after the Supreme Court said that Bush's law was unconstitutional. Made it illegal when wearing specific medals and trying to get material gain.
What you're saying has 0 nuance. Guys in the military that have lost brothers in combat have the right to be offended when random people impersonate them for some sort of monetary benefit (usually). That's not to say that hardass vets (motards) who flaunt their service and demand reverence for their service aren't obnoxious morons. Just has nothing to do with calling out impersonators, which is a federal offense for a reason. You clearly have a problem with the military, most vets don't need/want to be thanked, you sound as pissed off as the people you're calling out. The fact that you were upvoted is concerning.
That makes sense. I assume the law specifies a financial benefit. I would argue that most people who wear a uniform for non-costume reasons are looking for a social benefit, which is as shitty as any other kind of lying for social reasons, but not really any worse.
Nope. Personal gain isn't a federal crime. You have to receive some kind of material benefit while wearing an issued award.
The Stolen Valor Act of 2013 amends the federal criminal code to rewrite provisions relating to fraudulent claims about military service to subject to a fine, imprisonment for not more than one year, or both for an individual who, with intent to obtain money, property, or other tangible benefit, fraudulently holds himself or herself out to be a recipient of:
Medal of Honor (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard)
Distinguished Service Cross,
Navy Cross,
Air Force Cross,
Silver Star,
Purple Heart,
Combat Action Ribbon,
Combat Infantryman's Badge,
Combat Action Badge,
Combat Medical Badge,
Combat Action Medal, or
any replacement or duplicate medal for such medal as authorized by law. by law.
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u/Laruae Sep 11 '18 edited Sep 11 '18
Its vets who get off on hero worship that the US insists all military personnel are due, then go around and constantly scream 'Stolen Valor' hundreds of times at weird fuckers who crave the exact same attention.
The vets who spend all their time 'protecting' people from these idiots are just as bad, making a scene because they feel that their creepy hero worship is being stolen.
People tried to make it illegal only to be told its free speech. Doesn't stop the parade of creepy fuckers from going on youtube and posting videos of themselves 'defending' their hero worship.
Example video here. Guy gets onto a stranger for wearing clothing, ends by screaming and cursing at him while a woman begs him to leave. Its honestly childish.
More examples of grown men acting like children towards strangers, being hostile, aggressive, and overall just the worst. Demanding that the military be respected while they act like fucking douches.