Popular Military and witch hunts
Yesterday, someone posted this on one of our Facebook groups – an opinion piece on Popular Military entitled; Veteran shames autistic teen for stolen valor, ‘witch hunts’ need to end and it’s about how the Stolen Valor investigations need to end.
As service members and veterans, we are better than that. We should really start doing more research into such matters and quit justifying our own personal miseries in the form of lashing out at every single case of “stolen valor” without doing any sleuthing of our own. Much like videos of police shootings, it is very easy to take something out of context.
I could have eviscerated a special needs kid today. A lot of my readers would have shared it (many without even reading the article) and this kid’s life would have been more miserable than it might already be- and for what? To engage in a poorly-researched “stolen valor” fury-orgy akin to the behavior of the Social Justice Warriors many of us hold contempt for?
Yeah, well, Popular Military has been fueling these “witch hunts”. They’ve posted almost every video that they’ve received and they’ve encouraged people to confront the liars and record the confrontation. It has resulted in some occasional violent confrontations. They are hacks of the worst kind. Someone remarked to me yesterday that they are the National Enquirer of stolen valor and I agree.
So they finally didn’t post one video and they think that they can scold the rest of us. I turn down cases everyday because they don’t reach the standard that you expect from us. I suspect that the only reason Popular Military wrote that piece yesterday was so they could post the video without getting chewed out by the rest of the community – yes, I chew them out in private when they post some of their crap. And yes, they posted the video despite their scolding the rest of us for doing that.
I went looking for their videos yesterday for examples, but apparently they’ve scrubbed them. I did however find one of my posts from two years ago criticizing them for encouraging the shaming of a Vietnam veteran.
Anyway, I tried to comment on their post yesterday and my comment suspiciously disappeared. Fortunately, I have another avenue with which to express my opinion and it’s Google-icious.
Category: Dumbass Bullshit
One of these days, I’m going to dress up in my Space Fleet costume and try to find those guys. Such fun that would be.
Can they still haunt airports? Or is that gone now with TSA extra-secure stuff?
Girls just want to have fun, you know.
If I’m walking through an Airport and see a woman coming at me in a Space Fleet costume, I am running like a raped ape for the door…….
If you see her, it’s too late.
IMHO – Big difference between sites like TAH and “Popular Military” – TAH and it’s brother/sister sites actually do something called “vetting” and “verification”. Popular Military is more like the CNN of military sites – fling some monkey poo around and see if it sticks.
Jonn – thanks for keeping your standards high.
Popular Military? Must not be that popular, I’ve never heard of them.
This argument is like saying that violent hollywood movies makes people be violent.
The real Stolen Valor Hunters, like yourself Jonn, don’t just walk up to someone and lambast them. Though, I’m sure they know that and are doing this to get some popularity?
That was my first thought. Popular who?
I just skimmed the article and call “Bullshit”. The kid may have issues but he has adult supervision who is supposed to know better and teach him right from wrong. Too often people use these type of mental problems as an excuse to do WTF they want or are let to do.
Wrong is wrong and calling him out may, emphasis on the may, encourage his parents or caregiver to do the right thing the next time. Just like the fuckin nut who drove over our Ten Commandants monument on the capitol grounds yesterday. He has “issues” so he was pampered when he did the same thing in Oklahoma. After seeing his mug shot, I would love to smack the shit eating grin off of his face.
You might be right, but then the issue becomes discussing with the caregiver and not the retard…picking on a retard makes you a special kind of fuckwit…
VoV, your sensitivity is overwhelming
VoV is blunt, but absolutely correct.
That is actually the first time I have ever been to their site.
And last.
Not seen such raw projecting in a while.
Luckily, If the kid really is autistic chances are he will forget all about it tomorrow anyway.
For some reason I read that as Popular Mechanics and was confused.
Then I read it again later down in Jonn’s comments correctly and then figured it was a bunch of bullshit fucktards.
I was right.
In a target rich environment, sometimes collateral damage occurs.
Shit happens.
For me Jonn you guys do meticulous work here and those of us with any history on this site know that so I’ve no issue with what you do here. I’ve no quarrel with what you do here or why you do it, and I expect you wouldn’t much care if I did have a quarrel with it…which is why I like you and this site.
What I’ve always objected to is these half assed confrontation videos where someone tries to publicly shame some clown and no one knows the real story at the moment. The one posted yesterday was some autistic kid with serious issues thinking his JROTC meant he was actually in the military…I can’t condone picking on a mentally ill individual under any circumstance, especially as the kid in the video wasn’t trying to get anything for it he was just some poor dumb bastard with mental health issues thinking he was a soldier as well…picking on the mentally ill should have its own special Karma designation.
I always wonder what will happen during one of these confrontations if the object of shame happens to be carrying and is nervous they will be taking a beating and decides to shoot instead of run….public confrontation doesn’t always end how the initiator intends. I can attest to that from a personal standpoint. When the initiator is lying there breathing their last breaths, one wonders perhaps it wasn’t worth the effort after all.
Second.
VOV, autism isn’t mental illness, nor is it mental retardation. It’s a neural disorder that impairs verbal expression and responses, and sometimes thought processes.
This ‘kid’ has a problem he can’t help. These idiots were wrong to pick on him. Someone should have been with him, because he seems quite defenseless.
+1
What they now call “Autism spectrum” includes a wide range of problems. They seem to share various degrees of inability to interpret social interaction clues, accept physical contact (touching, hugging), express feelings, feel empathy or sympathy for another.
But they are not mentally retarded. Many of them are of high intelligence.
Picking on an autistic person is somewhat lower than kicking a puppy.
Agree Graybeard. I have a 22 year old son who is Autistic, and does have some mental retardation. It’s a tough gig being a parent of someone who has special needs but it is also a blessing. G?d gave him to my wife and I for a reason. I would give my life up for him if it would cure him.
Amen.
Curious as to the source of their funding.
Costs money to blog.
PM is a “click bait” site. They have a long history of sensationalizing headlines to draw traffic to the site. It is driven from revenue off of banner adds.
The Company that owns it does web hosting for private entities and got a few good contracts. Then decided to take advantage of the veteran community by expanding and started that site.
They tried to buy some already existing veteran domains and were turned away. At least now it seems they have an actual veteran or two on staff.
Insofar as my old buddy Jack Hughes goes, he does not have two Purple Hearts. He has one. Wearing two side by side in public will gain the attention of anyone who served…particularly other Marines.
He can cry a river if he wants, I dont agree with anyone shoving a cell phone camera in someones face and screaming Stolen Valor. I doubt he does either, I bet if he doesnt claim two Purple Hearts and just wears the one he was awarded properly…that shit won’t happen.
The popularmilitary website is an oxymoron. They are neither popular and do not represent the views of most people who have been in the military. They are revenue driven and not mission based, unless you consider profit margins a primary mission. Nothing wrong with showing a profit, it is the manner in which a company goes about it that does matter. Its not just issues of Stolen Valor they have a history of misrepresenting, it seems to me they will do that with any topic if they can get people to click on their link.
I know you did some follow up on him ( Jack Hughes) Thanks for clearing up that issue for me.
You are absolutely right. If he had been wearing the one Purple Heart he earned I would have been more inclined to totally blast the two Marines that went after him.
The way he cried like a bitch and tried to get attention for being picked on was suspicious.
I haven’t visited that site yet and I’ll take the word of those who say they have, it sounds like they’re a bunch of hyped-up amateurs that are gonna get someone hurt one day.
I run into a dumbass or two a month who try to tell me their tales of military service while I am at work.
Half the stories sound straight out of a Hollywood movie screenplay that was written by Dullas and Dannyboi.
95% of the time I just nod and shake my head, then forget about them. The rare occasion that I say something, I smile and mention that I saw the movie that they are talking about, and it sucked. Then I move on to my next customer.
It just isn’t worth making a scene anymore, because the boss is getting tired of people complaining that I hurt their feelings. Then he yells at me, and I have to play extra nice for a couple of weeks.
I just don’t have it in me to play extra nice anymore.
I owned restaurants for years. Posers would come in it really, really, bothered me.
It got to the point where I was going insane. One day a guy came in wearing his Oath Keepers shirt with a hat that had a Silver Star pinned on it.
My first words were. “Look here Motherphucker I…” my staff all ran away and a few of my regulars came over and told guy, “Hey, you better come with me.”
I was not in a good place. A high ranking member of the local law enforcement community came to me and said it was getting hard to protect me.
Doing what I do here has helped me…really. Its like therapy for me. We make a difference here, we probably will never stop it all but we do make a difference here.
I will forever be in Jonn’s debt because of what he created here. I am convinced that I still walk a free man because I was able to make a small difference here.
I thought the Russian was your therapist.
Big difference between an autistic kid dressing up because he likes our soldiers and some shithead dirtbag parading around like Audie Murphy trying to get free crap. Remember that kid over in the Russia that had an American Flag and all kinds of stuff? No one went after him.
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Stupid Privates and Specialists are still stupid Privates and Specialists when they ETS
In My opinion too many people jump on the exposure bandwagon without doing their research or even considering if something is worth going after and posting up.
A bullshitting hobo or a mentally delusional person isn’t worth the effort, and can cause more trouble than its worth calling them out.
TAH and other sites worth their salt expose those who are worth the effort.
Just makes me admire & respect this site and those who make the effort to get it right.