Tuesday, November 22, 2011

He who shall not be named...

  I'm not invoking the Cthulu mythos here.  I'm referring to a rather unpleasant fellow who has gone on record with public YouTube postings declaring his utter contempt for society.  He brags about dressing up in a manner that implies he has served in the military, and describes how he soaks up whatever "freebies" veterans are given at restaurants, by passersby, etc and how easily we are all apparently fooled by his act.
  He's dumping not just on the men and women of our Armed Forces that have actually served, but everyone who goes out of their way to recognize their service with an extra bit of kindness.
  Sadly, this person is probably accomplishing a secondary goal - that of grabbing a LOT of attention.  People like him are looking for that more than anything.
  There are a lot of message boards where active and former servicemembers confer, and in these fora, this  person is receiving a tremendous amount of hate, bile, and veiled threats to harm him physically.  His home address and a phone number have been posted, in case anyone wants to give him a piece of their mind.
  It's actually rather unfortunate in a way.  The language being used to describe him sound like third-grade taunts.  The talk of punching him out sounds like stuff I heard at the lunch table in high school.  Is it me or are people letting themselves be pulled down to his level?  Don't you think that if you call his house and curse him out, he'll hang up, but experience a warm and fuzzy at the acknowledgement of his effect on you?  Or that if you strike him, he'll get up, grimacing and pain but again, smiling on the inside that *someone has listened to him*?
  Every time someone talks about him, how he makes them feel and what they'd like to do about it, gives him more and more power.
  I think the wisest course of action is to tune him out.  Stop watching his videos, and posting the links.  Don't call, write or talk to him in person.  What I think this person fears more than anything is becoming a nonentity.  And if we take the high road here and simply move on to other, more positive topics, he'll dry up and blow away.

2 comments:

  1. I agree. For some people the threat of being ignored is worse than being threatened with violence.

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  2. I agree, ignore him, then perhaps then he will realize no one cares a hoot.

    ReplyDelete