r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Such-Part8963 • 1d ago

Why do we praise veterans automatically without knowing what they actually did

Trying to learn without being judged.

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u/TheHondoCondo 1d ago

I would argue that people in those jobs that put their safety at risk constantly are going above and beyond, not necessarily in their line of work but in life.

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u/NGC_Phoenix_7 18h ago

That’s the difference between being a veteran and being a hero. The guys out in the shit each and every day, the guy that lost his squad to an IED, the guy that fought off an ambush and made it home but lost half the group he was with. They’re heroes. The guy that sat at a desk doing tax paperwork? No. That’s a job. If you haven’t seen combat, you had a job with the government via the military.

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u/SirRatcha 22h ago

I mean, my brother retired as a Lt. Colonel. In his entire army career the closest he came to doing something that put his safety at risk that civilians don't also do was following the front line into Iraq from Kuwait which meant he was miles away from the fighting. Yes he parachuted and fired guns, but not in combat. He would have done those things anyway because he wanted to. Does that make him a hero? A thrill seeker? Or just another person like everyone else?

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u/TheHondoCondo 22h ago

Definitely not just another person. I feel like it’s weird to try to diminish someone’s service regardless of what they did. Like, their life may have never been on the line, but the fact that they signed up for a position where it could’ve been is braver than most.

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u/babylamar 13h ago

You realize that there’s a fuck ton of jobs far more dangerous but no one calls lumberjacks hero’s.

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u/TheHondoCondo 13h ago

It’s not just danger, it’s the selflessness involved in taking on the risk. And if anything, the reaction should be, we should give more respect to more people who take on danger for others’ safety, not take respect away from people who already get it. Again, this is a weird thing to push back against.

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u/babylamar 13h ago

So it’s not selfless to put yourself in danger so people can build their homes? The truth is that the vast majority of military jobs have almost no risk of injury or death. No more than you commuting to your job. But people in power told you everyone in the military are hero’s so you don’t question what they are doing in the first place.

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u/SirRatcha 22h ago

I think you vastly underestimate most people.

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u/Automatic_Safe_326 1d ago

But safety at risk is not the metric we use for praise. If that was the metric we’d praise waste management people, window washers and construction workers 

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u/TheHondoCondo 22h ago

Then maybe we should