It can be anything: at your job or any forced activity that you just don’t feel like doing surrounded by other people. Visiting certain place, local, party, etc. It can be anything: at your job or any forced activity that you just don’t feel like doing surrounded by other people. Visiting certain place, local, party, etc.
I had to accompany my young brother to a small comic con thing a month ago and I was cringing HARD in that place I couldn’t bear being there, I just kept my head down most of the time otherwise I would’ve just start laughing or rolling my eyes looking all that adult people dressed like it’s a shitty Halloween party.
Lots; my anxiety does like to constantly bring up things I did (or could have done) when I was younger and remind me of all of my mistakes.
As an aside, if seeing people having fun in a way that doesn’t hurt anyone causes negative feelings in you, I think that’s something you need to question yourself about.
Most woke and anti-woke stuff. Like watching two toddlers go at each other around the toy bin, both screaming, “They started it!” The hate festering stronger, the division wider, the battered doll of 2010s’ equality surge propped up and still taking a beating until it’s unrecognisable.
It cements my position on human nature. Nice things cannot be achieved because of an ever-lingering darkness that insists it is the light. MLK saw it. No one respects each other. Those that are.meant.to help are.often the ones that hurt others the most.
Any secular group activity where someone thinks they need to “lead us together in prayer”. Dude, this is a Wendy’s.
But why? Poor hygiene, people being immature, why?
In the US, the singing of the national anthem and the military involvement always makes me uncomfortable, coming from a culture where that doesn’t happen unless it’s a really big event.
I am a veteran (you’re welcome for my service) and I also find this annoying/over the top.
I’m guessing that you don’t feel extremely offended because of that American football guy with the cool hair kneeling during the anthem?
Veteran here sharing my personal experience. It seemed like people generally didn’t give a shit about veterans except for maybe a few people that had some sort of relevant personal experience or values related to patriotism or sacrifice. Around 2009, it got politicized. After that, it was a competition to see who cared more about veterans and felt a bit odd and fake, kind of like how people are publicly obsessed with the US Constitution, yet have never read the whole thing. It’s a theater in the never-ending war for political or moral validity. Around 2018, it started slowly waning off again, but not to the level it was before.
I don’t see many of those “support our troops” ribbon stickers on the back of rusted out Suburbans and F150s like I used to.
I always thought what they really meant was “don’t criticize the GOP’s disastrous response to 9/11” so I guess that makes sense.
Do you remember how it got politicized? Did some politician start it, intentionally or not?
Also, obligatory: Thank you for your service.
It slowly started gaining some traction because of:
- Veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq were seen as those that placed themselves in harms way to protect the US from terrorism following 9/11. Until then, veterans were mostly seen as people that weren’t smart or disciplined enough to go to college and needed to figure out something to do with their lives. Kind of like how Trump sees veterans.
- Those returning from Afghanistan and Iraq began going to college, organizing, and being more public about their service. Imagine fighting the Taliban, then coming home to go to college and they delay your payments by 3 months. These combat vets were too head strong to tolerate that and would make a big deal about it.
- The overtly injured would be hard to ignore. Imagine a 25 year old missing their legs on a wheelchair at Golden Corral, yet they’re the most polite one there.
- The GI Bill was reliable, so schools that were able to attract veterans saw significant increase in their revenue. Schools competed for this by creating policies and programs that were supportive of veterans.
- Family members of the severely injured became strong advocates.
- McCain ran for President in 2008, and his time as a POW was used as evidence of his patriotic values and endurance.
- Veterans publicly socialized in tight-knit groups. Think of the ~5 really loud dudes at the bar that seemed to have an extraordinary bond, peculiar sense of humor, and confidence. People wanted to emulate this.
- Veterans would wear military clothes/items to identify themselves to other vets for camaraderie and a warning to potential threats. American bros started imitating returning combat vets as a prototype of masculinity, specifically attire and ironically beards1.
- Veterans with considerable training and experience would go to major protests and either do a better job than police or intimidate them. Veterans at protests would be injured by police, making them a good example of hypocrisy that the news would report on. You’d see something like, “Veteran that protected Iraqis right to protest sent to hospital by Oakland police.”
- Veterans became the group with the highest suicide rates in the country…by a lot.
- The Arizona VA Medical Center scandal outed that veterans were dying from lack of access to healthcare that was purposefully hidden by administration. Veterans had long been complaining about terrible healthcare services, but were brushed off or made to seem too privileged and ungrateful2. When this scandal broke out, it was major validation for the vets and shame for the public and government. Politicians and citizens that wanted to avoid the shame would pretend to be veteran advocates and accuse others of the problem.
- When the government and public tried correcting this for the recent vets, all the Vietnam vets that had been ignored and marginalized started coming out too.
- The baby boomers that spit on Vietnam vets and called them baby killers had to rid themselves of their shame, so many of them became super veteran supporters. As my one military buddy put it, “They were competing for American of the Year.”
- The country had a reckoning with how they had treated all veterans until this period. Basically, the country felt it had to make up for it.
- People that want to ride veterans’ coat tails without the risk and effort advocate for veterans to get some of the esteem.
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1: Fun fact! The beard thing was a rebellion to having to be clean shaven every single day for ~4 years straight. It was also a way of hiding that someone was in the military.
2: I’ve worked in the VA. It is pretty common to hear medical providers say something like, “I wish I didn’t have to work for the rest of my life,” when referring to veterans asking for help applying for disability.
Also, obligatory: Thank you for your service.
Edit:
Also, obligatory: Thank you for your service.
Obligatory: discomfort
Thanks for the write up! I’m Canadian with family members in the military and the vibes different and I never really knew why. Your post helps put it into perspective.
Thank you for your
servicewell written response, it was really informative. I was really young when most of this shift began so most of my conscious life I’ve seen people throw themselves at veteran’s feet (unless they’re homeless of course… then ew) and didn’t know it was a relatively recent thing.
Remembering everyone went for the toilet paper during the COVID crisis still makes me cringe.
Yeah imagine if there was a real food shortage lol. People would eat each other
Talking to my wife about meal planning.
Playing the Star Spangled Banner before every damned sporting event.
Car shows are pretty cringe. Anyone who’s been to one knows what I mean.
Sitting around politely listening to someone poorly play music or worse, poorly sing. This has happened very rarely to me,and the bad guitar was embarrassing but the other instances, the singing, where we all were trying and failing not to wince at every high note and marveled at exactly how long a 3 and a half minute song could really be while this poor wretch clearly had no idea what he sounded like…god that was an awful experience that goosebumps are reminding me of even now.
<holds arms out wide to indicate this thread>
Eating in a grocery store. 😬
My wife loves opening a drink while she shops and I know everyone knows we are going to pay for it, but oh man it makes me uncomfortable.
Any time I read a story about people responding to a controversy by spending a lot of money at a particular company or donating to a political party.
It’s because on my Mastodon feed I see post after post after post of people needing mutual aid, and I wish people cared more about that than spending their money on self-righteous capitalism.
Americans chanting “USA! USA! USA!” At the Olympics
Anytime two people who don’t know each other are forced to wait in a shared waiting area.
One person feels the NEED to talk about SOMETHING. So it’s always the weather. ALWAYS the weather. Is there a more boring and irrelevant topic in all of humanity???
“Oh, think it’ll rain Tuesday?”
“I don’t give a shit.”
But somehow I’M the asshole. All I wanted to do was scroll my phone, and wait for my appointment in silence. I’m not even a fan of this mundane music we’re forced to listen to. If I want music, I’ll wear my headphones. And if you want music, YOU wear YOUR headphones.
But don’t bother me with the weather just because you feel a compulsive need to fill the silence. I like the silence.
Just don’t look at them and say, “Indeed, there does appear to be weather outside, happening right now.”
It is outside out today. I am expecting it to be quite outside out for the foreseeable future.
