The most annoying US military veteran was a purebred conformist
One US military veteran was the exact definition of a government-bred dictator. What’s worse? This guy wasn’t even in a position of power.
Monday was Memorial Day, one of my least-favorite holidays on the calendar. There are a lot of reasons I find it annoying, the most of which is how quickly people fall into lockstep over the last Monday in May.
The virtue signaling, propaganda, and the “remember those who died fighting for your freedom” nonsense that scares the masses into compliance — even if some see through the smokescreen. I came across a legendary meme on Monday, with a caption that read “the best way to honor our fallen soldiers is to stop letting politicians create so many of them.”
That’s why I have an open vendetta against Memorial Day. But I’ll take it a step further. I refuse to honor “agents of evil,” as Larken Rose puts it.
Again, I’m taking it a step further because I’ve met the worst of the worst in my life. I remember when I had this roided-up co-worker back in the day. He was also a former U.S. soldier. My schedule, as it is now, is so routine that holidays slip my mind. When I told him I had clients that day, you’d have thought I set fire to the American flag.
I don’t remember much of the lecture that followed, but it was a novel text that ended in: Not remembering it’s Memorial Day? I’m kind of surprised.
Fuck you, dude. You know who you are, and I hope you read that statement.
Sadly, I’ve met a lot of former military personnel who act that way.
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This U.S. military veteran was the worst of the worst
You remember Eric Kanevsky, who runs Scaling Up Catches on YouTube? Before he started catching preds and taking pervs STRAIGHT TO JAIL, Kanevsky was one of the best pranksters on the platform.
His Chester Mitchell impression reminds me to a T of what this guy acted like daily. If you’re unfamiliar with Kanevsky’s Chester Mitchell character, I got another video linked below. Watch it, because it’s a fucking riot.
Imagine working with someone like that on most days of the week. They were also one of those staunch, America can do no wrong conformists. Luckily, I’d long since cut ties with this guy when COVID came knocking on the door, but I don’t even want to imagine how he’d have reacted to it.
I knew what town he lived in, and part of me hoped to run into him at a local grocery store. Especially when I was one of a few — if not the only one — who’d go in there maskless. If he was still the same person I knew between 2014-16, chances are, he’d have pulled one of the following dick moves:
- Call me out in front of everyone and give a long, drawn-out lecture of why I was such a safety liability
- Stormed toward me, pulled me into an empty aisle, and berated me there
- Gotten the “appropriate personnel” to tell me off
- If all else failed, phone the cops and demand they come and reprimand me
This guy acted like anything EXCEPT a defender of freedom
We used to keep the back doors open at the gym during the hottest months of the year, and it wasn’t uncommon for people to enter through the back. Until management told him to cut it out, this guy routinely watched the back doors, and insisted we all do the same.
“You don’t know who’s gonna come in there. I keep telling the (General Manager Name) we can’t have them open. It’s a safety issue.”
You know those Safety Nazis who run rampant just about everywhere these days? That was this guy times 10. The so-called freedom fighter was the world’s worst pro-safety dictator I’d ever met. The worst occurred when I caught him pulling members aside and them off, something they didn’t take kindly to. Especially the most familiar faces.
He also hated everyone. Eventually, management couldn’t take it anymore and got rid of him. It was long overdue, but they got there in the end. Yet not before he went on a smear campaign against me and the other trainers — propagating a contingent of members and clients that we were the problem and he was the victim.
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He cost us A LOT of revenue and clients
When a trainer leaves or gets let go, you mainly see them pass clients to other trainers. This guy didn’t. Instead, he had clients petitioning for us to not let him go — he knew it was coming. They insisted he was the best trainer in the gym, and that they’d cancel their training if we cut ties with him.
Not all of them left, since the manager talked a few of them out of canceling. But half his clientele refused to try out another trainer, and there were three of us in the place. If you know anything about small-box gyms, training makes up a chunk of revenue unlike the large-box, membership-based models. Yeah, this guy put us in complete damage control mode.
The constant gaslighting sealed his fate
If you ever met someone who was so narcissistic that they spin conversations to make you the “bad guy,” you already know what I’m about to say. I remember when he caught a minor stomach virus and bailed. Before leaving, he insisted I take his team training class.
For context, team training was our lowest-priority level since it cost just $60/month and could hold up to 25 people. Separate that from my small-group class I had going on near the team training area, with four clients who paid between $129-$199/month for more specialized, individualized workouts.
He insists I take over in front of my entire class. I respond with, “Let me talk to the manager and I’ll see what I can do,” knowing the manager would’ve shot down the “idea.” He went on a tirade, stressing, “We all need to work better as a team,” before storming off and berating the manager, who got the same talking to. A group text unlike any other followed that night, which nobody responded to.
As mentioned, I’ve seen this conduct from way too many vets
It’s not only vets — as in veteran, not animal vets. But it’s also prevalent in teachers, and many others who work in so-called “public service.” If you’re wondering why I’ve gone staunch Rothbardian in recent years — beginning in 2024 — it’s because I’ve seen the pattern at play too many times.
It also reflects in my work. Nearly every book I write is set in nations that are global superpowers, mainly “thanks” to their epic fighting forces. But not “epic” in a good way. “Epic” as in “they’re not fighting for you or your freedom, but for multinational corporate-government interests.”
Yet collectivism isn’t the answer, because the “respect public service personnel” cult of personality we have in America is on the same side of the coin. It’s why ALL of my works hold a theme that we need to move away from the State-dominated structure we see far too often today.
It doesn’t mean people like this annoying military veteran won’t fall by the wayside — a personality is a personality — but you’d see far, far less perpetual worship in lockstep that plagues the country these days.
Check out my backlist of genre-fusion fantasy and dystopian fiction at the appropriately-named Rebel Lore Vault. After just a few reads, you’ll see the common denominators for yourself.
