Stolen Valor

[foxglovehp.livejournal.com]

I admit a bias here, as a professional soldier, I consider Stolen Valor absolutely reprehensible.  Public floggings or keel-hauling seems to me to be about right.  What are your thoughts?

Comments

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

Agreed, and I say this as a former enlisted sailor who finds this sort of impersonation despicable. To be honest, it pisses me off so much that I don't even trust myself to have an objective opinion on what should be done about it. That final quote at the end of the clip really encapsulates its harm to me, because as offensive as it is for someone to take credit for a sacrifice they never made, the worst part of it is that it risks invalidating the actual sacrifices made by others, so that, if somebody says, "Oh, I was in the war, and based on my experience, I think we should do [fill in the blank]," someone else who disagrees with that opinion can simply say, "How do we know you were in the war at all?" It short-circuits the fuck out of the ability of vets to advocate for their own based on the needs they've seen.