Stolen Valor

 I often end each night going down a rabbit hole of YouTube videos. I like the randomness of content. I don't know if it's algorithms or just the chaos of YT itself, but I like the hodge podge aspect of it. I can easily go from comedians like Norm MacDonald to Vietnam documentaries, to carpentry lessons, with those REELS that stop and start with no method to their madness spliced in. There is a lot of good info out there- except for those fucking REELS- and I'm always down for learning something new or confirming my bias on something else. Now, I'm not a subscriber to any channels because I was gifted with a LIFETIME BAN from subscribing or commenting on YT's, evidently because I *bullied* a couple of gangster-adjacent assholes several years ago, on a thread about the late Frank Cullotta, a Chicago gangster. That's as much as I know about it. One day I got on YT and was informed of the ban- not why it happened- just that it happened and I could contest it if I cared to. I didn't care to. If you think Twitter commenters are bad, and you know Facebook commenters are awful, trust me that YT commenters are the scum that make all those other assholes look thoughtful. I want to say I don't bully people, but I have to admit, I occasionally do bully bullies. I just do it really, really well, without threats of violence that are pretty damn useless on the internet anyway. 

There is a channel I do follow without actually following, because once you watch something on YT, they flood you with other similar content. It's like that Gloria Estavan song, "The Algorithm is Gonna Get you- TONIGHT!" I think that is how that song went. Not sure. Anyway, the channel is called "Valhalla", and it is hosted by a former Green Beret, named Nate. He's a very cool dude, kind of a bro, who relates his opinions and stories about the Special Forces community, the good, the bad and the ugly of military service. He's quite honest and very well-spoken. He doesn't brag about his bravery. He does not like it when his comrades in arms boast about their exploits, and he has a particular disdain for those that embellish their service for fun and profit. 

If you are not privy to the myriads of channels about Special Forces on YT, you are missing out on some really juicy stuff. Evidently there is a lot of money in going on podcasts and talking about one's missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. People eat that stuff up. Nate, not so much. There is far less that six degrees of separation in the Special Forces community and these guys can pretty easily connect with someone who knows someone and whether the tales they are telling are truthful or not. 

I've never cared much for talk shows. An actor goes on a talk show because he has a movie coming out. He has to tell a funny story to Johnny, Jimmy or Jay so that people find him or her engaging and witty. They are actors. They tell stories on camera. It's what they do, and I get that. They are selling the product that is themselves. It's the same on podcasts. You believe it or not. Everything you hear in life should be taken with a grain of salt. It's great sentiment to say, "Believe All Women!"  and the like, but do you know women? Many are unbelievable.

But I digress. Suffice to say, many people in life have agendas and those agendas don't always have a relationship with the truth. That also goes with the current generation of THE best-trained warfighters the world has ever seen. It befuddles me that a guy can become something so rarified as a Navy SEAL or a Green Beret, and yet still feel compelled to take his service to another level, with outright lies and embellishments. It seems to befuddle Nate too, and that is one of the reasons I find him very watchable. Pretty honest in his assessment of his fellow SOF comrades, whom he certainly knows better than you or I ever could.

Jeez, I could be here all day talking about these guys he has called out on their lies. The clip I saw this morning was about Stolen Valor by a couple of these podcast warriors and how they ruin it for all veterans who do- or do not- talk about the horrors of their combat experiences. My father's generation went to WWII and was largely noted for having no desire to talk about the experience. Several years ago, a brother-in-law's dad was interviewed by a high school kid about his time as a Marine in the Pacific. Growing up, BIL had never heard his dad talk about the war. He probably knew that he had been in combat as most Marines were, but daddy never talked about it. He never asked. The guy had volunteered to operate a flame-thrower on Okinawa (I think). It was a volunteer gig because it was the most dangerous, horrific job on the battlefield. You were burning human beings alive! You were the target of every Jap on the battlefield because of this. To my knowledge, the USMC couldn't make a guy do this. I think BIL's dad volunteered not only because somebody had to do it, but because he wanted to spare some other fella from having to do it. I cannot tell you what a nice, quiet, gentle man BIL's dad turned out to be. You would never look at him and suspect, "Oh yeah- that guy used to burn people alive. That's why he's the way he is..." You just never know what a man has been through, especially in war, unless they tell you, and my father's generation came home, put all that shit behind them and went about life. THAT is heroism.

Now, the gist of this particular podcast was the comments Nate would see in reaction to outing of these mendacious, self-aggrandizing warfighters. A small but serious sampling of commenters defended these guys and declared they would continue to be enamored with them, because they are "war heroes". Like, "OK, maybe they lied- but they are still heroes!!" 

And as all things must these days, we must circle around to Trump. When Nate opened up the clip by condemning these "losers" for doubling down on their love for these men, I jumped up and shouted, "MOTHERFUCKER! YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT TRUMP AND MAGA!!"

I really did, because he was. We are all so very tired of the people who support Trump no matter what he does, and all too often, because of what he does. They relentlessly defend Trump despite the very obvious truths about his advancing dementia and his sordid past of raping young girls and boys because, in their feeble minds, he is a great man for trying to make America, great again. That is all that counts. ALL of his sins must be forgiven because of all he has and will accomplish as the greatest man who has ever walked the earth. The means justifies that end.

Dumbfucks. 

We see that every goddamn day in comment sections everywhere. Every single thing he does is perfect, 5D chess. Right? Goddamn these stupid motherfuckers. I tell them all the time that I'm sad for them having to blindly defend every stupid action he takes. I am sad because I just cannot fathom such blind, stupid loyalty. He's as revered as the Biblical God who, let's face it, is a little hard for a lot of us to believe as well. Some republican washed away the murders in Minnesota as those children being lucky to be with Jesus now...

How the fuck can people think that way? It must hurt to be so stupid. But here they are among us, blindly devoted to the Trump's and lying warfighters of our time, an overflowing basket of deplorables, wallowing in the depravity of the worst among us.