This is
bound to get quite a few people up in arms, but I ask that you read it in the
fullest before making statements bellow.
First I’d like to lead off with this
in case someone is unclear as to the comparison. Ed Hardy was a popular and at
one point in time an expensive brand of clothing. It was soon taken over by the
“hipsters” of the early 2000’s and the, well for lack of a better term, douche
bags we all seen around where we work and live. Tapout followed the same path,
a clothing company that was designed for MMA and those types of people soon
turned to represent people that had the attitude of “I wear it so I am it”. Now
alas, it seems to me and a lot of vets that DV has started down this road.
I’ll be the first to say, I liked
their clothing as a funny thing. Their stuff said things that I thought and/or
agreed with, but wouldn’t wear it around. Not because I would be embarrassed by
it but because for the added attention it would bring to me.
For example, “Does not play well
with others” and “Stay back 100 meters”. It’s funny, it’s part of a lot of
deployments, and yes it makes me chuckle. But not for the reasons you think. It
makes me laugh because for someone wearing a “Does not play well with others”
it would appear to me that you are wanting the added and unnecessary attention
that it is bringing to you. Of course when you wear a shirt that says something
like that people are going to do one of two things. They are either going to
ask you about it forcing you to explain what it’s about (or blow them off
furthering the bad attitude stereotype that veterans have, which we’ll cover in
a post coming soon), or they will smirk and make quiet comments about how
ridiculous and idiotic it is for someone to wear something along those lines
and when finding out it’s a veteran’s shirt and clothing line it will again add
to the poor stereotype that the veteran community is facing in this day and
age.
It seems to me that if you really
are a “dysfunctional” individual you wouldn’t want people to interact with you.
But a NARCOSIST would…. you WANT people to ask about the shirt, you WANT people
to inquire about your service, and you WANT to propagate the bad stereotypes
that people are getting about veterans now days. You think it’s “cool” and “funny”
to watch “potatoes” look at your shirt and walk away. You think it’s funny that
“potatoes” can’t understand your “sense of humor” or will ever be able to “get”
you. News flash bub/bubbets, if you climb down off the pedestal you’ve put
yourselves up on and actually TALK and COMMUNICATE with people you’ll find you
are actually NO BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE……..HOLY SHIT……did the wind just get
taken out of your sails?
You are a VETERAN! Yes, you took an
oath to defend this country, you volunteered to serve this GREAT nation, and
yes, you ARE the 3%. But what you are not is better than a civilian that did
not serve. Everyone has a calling and not everyone’s calling is to serve in the
military. But putting that aside just because you did serve does not make you
any better than anyone else. That’s a does or reality number one.
Dose number 2, just because you are
a veteran does not mean you are “dysfunctional”. Surprise, surprise sunshine, I
know momma told you that you were special but that doesn’t mean the same thing.
Something that is extremely funny to me and I’ve set back and watched this the
last couple of years is the number of people that wear and act the “dysfunctional”
way. I’m not tooting my own horn here but merely setting an example. I fought
in the invasion of Iraq in 2003 AND in the first battle of Ah Fallujah in 2004,
both as an Infantry Machine gunner. My brothers and I saw a lot of stuff and experienced
a lot of things. You know how many of them preach the teachings of “dysfunctional
veteran”? Not very many, actually less than 5%. We all thing the clothing and
facebook post are funny (mostly) but that’s as far as it goes. The reason I set
this here is for my next observation. The amount of people I see wearing and
boasting about being “dysfunctional” are generally people that seen or done
little to no combat missions let alone tours. Before you get to butt hurt, yes,
I do understand that NOT being in combat doesn’t mean you can’t “suffer” from
PTSD or feel “dysfunctional”. Just hold on I’ll be clarifying my stance
shortly. I say this because, in my and some of my brothers experiences, the
ones that wear these shirts and talk (loudly most of the time) about DV are
ones that will tell you a “war story” in a heartbeat without even being asked
about it or will have a very detailed and gnarly story to share that seems more
tailored to make the listener understand “why they are a dv” and less about
letting someone know that they are in fact a veteran. A lot of this comes from
the entitlement mentality (that I will be sharing another post all about soon)
that a lot of our veterans have. New age vets seem to be taught and coached on
how to get what disability ratings from the VA when the only disability they
actually have is laziness to not work. So instead of becoming a productive
member of society that happens to be a veteran they don on “veteran” gear, put
on an act at the VA, get very defensive to anyone that indicates they aren’t
buying their act, are rude and disrespectful to “potatoes”, and generally are
not someone that any self-respecting human wants anything to do with.
Third dose of reality. Believe it or
not, there ARE some civilians that have had it (mentally and/or physically)
worse than you. Just because they never served doesn’t mean that that civilian
you just were rude to doesn’t have PTSD/PTS/TBI. That “potato” that you just
scoffed at or thing has no idea what you’ve “been through” does in fact know
what you’ve been through 10 fold. That “civie” that you thing “wouldn’t get my
humor” has a more twisted sense of humor than you ever thought, mainly because
they actually think it’s funny where as you think it’s funny because DV said so…you
see where I’m going with this?
You want to put veterans up on a pedestal
and then act like a damned fool then wonder why/how vets have such a bad name. You,
who have no actual reason for being “dysfunctional” other than being a veteran,
you have just become that “douche bag” that dons on the ed hardy and tapout
gear thinking it makes you look badass or like you are somebody.
I was taught both in life and the
military, the actions of a man determine the character not his looks or appearance.
That squared away Marine may be the biggest shit bird in the unit but he keeps
is camies nice and pressed. That Marine that hasn’t used an iron in years will
more than likely be the best damned Marine in the battalion. Your cloths only
make you look foolish and draws attention to you, attention that you claim you
don’t want.
-CHIMPO OUT
