Vetsploitation
How Media and Celebrities Distort the Public on Veterans
Last week I authored an article about the Pathologizing of Veterans. It was my first actual article on my new Substack. I am flattered by the tremendous public appreciation for the article, and it outperformed everything else on this blog by a factor of 10.
Dozens of veterans reached out or Tweeted about their negative experiences with anti-veteran discrimination and other similar situations. It is alarming how common and frequent veterans face strange and hostile treatment from the public, media, corporations, law enforcement, or medical professionals.
Pathologizing Fallout
Brandon Neely’s Twitter account is excellent. He discusses all sorts of heavy subjects around the veteran’s community and deserves a follow.
Brandon is a brave man for going onto Twitter to discuss his struggle with other people’s view of his medical diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I won’t get into the details because you should read his thread (above) yourself. The biggest lesson here is to fight for your rights, and you need to be your best advocate.
In the replies, under the comment section, several veterans spoke about their concerns about the perception of seeking help for something. This help also includes orthopedic and other physical injuries, not just mental health. As BowTieRanger pointed out to me, “At the age of 30 as a veteran, you are way more beat up than you think, compared to an average 30-year-old.” I think about this a lot whenever I go to the gym, and some days, I struggle to do walking cardio on the treadmill because of its impact.
Some of the worst perpetrators of these myths and stereotypes around mental health issues can be family and friends – especially those who primarily receive their knowledge of veterans’ affairs on primetime dramas. No, veterans who have PTSD aren’t unstable, not all of them saw direct combat, and it doesn’t always go away. Especially when factoring in Traumatic Brain Injury, these are permanent and often deteriorate over time, reducing the quality of life and life expectancy
One of the key places I blame in society is media and entertainment. Often there’s a veteran character on a television drama who has some significant mental health that impacts his or her lifestyle. Or there’s a side character, villain, or antagonist whose military experience drives them to some tragedy or criminal event. Not everything is this serious, but there are egregious examples everyone can cite.
Dancing for Money
One of the saddest aspects of American society is how everything must be an entertainment-driven sideshow. Politics is one of them, but so is activism. You end up seeing that the more documentarians do not draw the crowds, and you end up with the docu-drama phenomena. Everything is fictionalized but based on a true story because the truth is often mundane and sometimes horrific in its ordinary reality. The same goes for the media about the military and veterans.
This topic is difficult to discuss publicly because it sometimes strikes at commonly held beliefs about American society, the military, and some famous veteran characters. One of the best examples that received bipartisan criticism is Congressman Dan Crenshaw.
Other than the despicable way that he handled a question based upon a bizarre way he phrased his view of Jesus Christ, the reaction in defense of Crenshaw is almost worse than the overreaction. On Twitter (yes, not real life but a portrait into people’s psyche), you had a litany of excuses of “Well, he’s a former Navy SEAL, of course, he’d defend himself.” That is a hot-garbage excuse for bad behavior. Normalize not tolerating overreactions. The hallmarks of a military professional are spirit, discipline, and standards.
However, can you blame people when they’ve become used to these?
Yes, some veterans literally jump out of airplanes and who’ve done extraordinary things – Dan Crenshaw included – but at what point are these trash action-movie style ads in bad taste? I cannot imagine this being tolerable even a few years ago. The ad is far more substantial than wrapping yourself in the flag rhetorically or running on your resume. It’s a cash extraction tool.
According to Open Secrets, Dan Crenshaw’s primary fundraising source is from retirees. Dan jumping from airplanes in a mini-action sequence like GI JOE to fight Cobra is designed to pull cash out of elderly folk’s bank accounts. Read the following thread on Twitter:
Is Dan Crenshaw’s shtick good for veterans? Are his repeated outbursts of rage at mildly tough questions a good thing? Luckily, public opinion is souring on him.
This article isn’t about Dan Crenshaw or the other candidates, though I am not a fan of turning tridents into cudgels. The same goes for Purple Hearts. It’s about the financial incentives to sell out, cash out, through media and the desire to become famous. Crenshaw is just a useful example, there are uncharitable examples of public criticism of him too.
When I went to college, there was a joke veterans asked other veterans. It started with veterans asking a Navy SEAL veteran when his book was coming out. It was extended to other veterans because it was hilarious, especially if the veteran had political ambitions. As a side note, there’s a lot of cash pushed through books by political candidates, and there’s something vaguely unethical about the practice. Most candidates don’t seem to buy their books with campaign money as gifts. PACs, nonprofits, and other politically oriented groups tend to make those purchases.
Using the book deal as an example, why is there such a media empire around veteran stories, podcasts, and others? There is a demand for them as there should be. As a civilization, we should exalt service. The other side of it is the supply of such media creations.
How has the Department of Defense facilitated these media creations? Does Special Operations Command have a training pipeline of the warrior-to-commentator program (not that’s necessarily a bad thing)? Given what we know about what happened in the cases of soldiers like Jessica Lynch and heroes like Pat Tillman, we should ask if the military is involved in these media creations. If the military is not, then who is creating this media empire?
Jocko Willink is an excellent demonstration of a media entrepreneur after his military service. Jocko authored a book early on after his service. His book was part of a corporate leadership consultancy he participated in, like many veterans, particularly officers, tend to start after their military service. Some corporate leaders are interested in veteran-run leadership retreats and consulting. A guy like Jocko’s brand is a general good even though some products, like his kettlebell sack, are suspect. His show is entertaining as well.
Not everyone can be Jocko Willink, though.
By comparison, Black Rifle Coffee’s ads and schtick were uncomfortable and cringe-worthy the whole time. I’ll go as far as to say the sideshow they built was to extract cash from nostalgic veterans missing the days of being in the barracks. Is the coffee that good? Do we want to encourage this kind of rent extraction?
These examples and others also create unrealistic expectations of wealth and lifestyle for ambitious veterans who think they can lean on their years of service to receive a payout. Combined with senior military officers making careers as military or political commentators, many veterans develop an impulse never to develop new skills and build their second careers. This perception creates a culture of resentment and nihilism when we should encourage personal growth.
We’re in the modern era of B2C media-generated product sales like Black Rifle Coffee. Hype maximizing for otherwise indistinguishable products or even inferior to existing products. Not every company will be Apple and invent a whole new product line. However, in the era of mass information overload and the constant barrage of advertising and “influencing,” the line between entertainment and advertising is gone. The product is the media, and the media is the product. I have more respect for people who sell kitsch t-shirts with motivational sayings than merchants of digital heroin.
This kind of exploitative media is dangerous when you’re not providing actual value, which value does exist in B2C product sales. Some companies do mean well and attempt to deliver novel value, but not every business. However, the fad-product substitution is real and addictive. It’s elliptical product sales, where a lot of work is going on, but you’re staying in the same place. These are the addictive endorphin highs sold as products through addictive media. It’s pernicious around the veteran’s community and products marketed toward people with an affinity toward veterans.
With financial incentives like these, the stolen valor phenomenon makes more sense. A lot of these con artists see easy money. Some are mentally ill. But the financial and social motivations to lie about one’s military service or exaggerate the military aspect of a product are irresistible to these professional liars. These people are a distinct category because of their darkly dishonest methods and goals. In this case, the difference between marketing and deception can be very blurred, like we saw with the Reality-Based Self Defense gambit (or many Krav Maga schools) in the 2000s. In that example, thousands of people overpaid for internet media-driven substandard products sold often through forums. People who exaggerate, steal, or otherwise misrepresent themselves for profit are more widespread than people realize in the military, veteran’s community, and political spaces. It’s a quick way to touch people’s inner morals and motivations and exploit them.
We need to stand up for our veterans and fight back against harmful elements in our society looking to exploit veterans. This fight includes being critical of the military and other veterans when they misbehave. No one is beyond fair inquiry and criticism. Beware of people who lash out when criticized for what they do or say and avoid con artists as a rule.
You are your own best advocate. Arm yourself with knowledge and protect yourself from swindles and product drives.
In future pieces on veterans’ issues, I’ll continue to discuss mass media representations of veterans, veterans who sell out to foreign countries interests, nonprofit theft and exploitation, stolen valor, and others. I’ll also address some aspects of gun culture, cultural degradation, and the self-ghettoification of veterans. I’ll also discuss how social media traps young people, including veterans, into dead ends and wasted efforts. Subscribe, Like, and Share.
This substack is great. The topic of veterans is such a minefield. It requires a veteran to discuss fully.
I've had several friends come back from the military and struggle to adjust to 'normal' life. The whole time they're struggling, they're being called a hero by the right and a psycho by the left when the truth is much messier and guys like Crenshaw don't help.
There is probably no organization better than the U.S. military at taking individuals from all walks of life, from all philosophical points of view and ethnicities, and forcing them to work together, problem solve, for the common good.
The problem is that a lot of calm, rational, non-battle-scarred veterans are shunted aside because they aren’t exotic or newsworthy enough. Instead, you end up with a plethora of secret squirrel, special ops guys with whom the media engages in sort of a live-hate relationship.
We would do well to elect a few more ordinary, non-newsworthy veterans. With what’s going on in DC these days, boring, dull problem solvers appear to be an unattainable luxury.