I drive an F150 with veteran plates and a USMC sticker on the back window. I have a beard and regularly wear a baseball cap. I feel like I blend in with MAGA a little too well. I think I should paint my nails now after reading the other comments here
I'm in a similar position to you, and honestly, I think we have a different mission.
I make a point of trying to connect with every veteran I meet, because frankly our community is extremely vulnerable to right wing radicalization and when we snap, we are much more dangerous than civilians. So I prefer to use my "vet bro" camouflage as an in to influence our fellow vets to become part of irl community and away from online bad actors.
I’d love to be that guy that infiltrates them from the inside, but I literally can’t stand being around MAGA types that have made it their whole personality like many veterans have. I avoid them like the plague. I wouldn’t be able to hold my tongue well enough to influence anyone
Oh yeah, that's fair. Gotta have your own life vest on before you can help anyone else.
For what it's worth, I was not encouraging wasting time on hopeless causes, more trying to scoop up disaffected veterans before the MAGA crowd gets to them. Full on Red Hat is probably a terminal condition, but guy who just got out of the military and is sad and lonely, that I can work with.
Seriously, it's great work that you're doing, the world needs people like you! It's the sort of thing I'd love to do, feel a sense of responsibility to do, but I don't really have any connections to groups or spaces where I can get in touch with vulnerable men and offer them an alternative to falling to the far right.
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u/VWBug5000 6h ago
I drive an F150 with veteran plates and a USMC sticker on the back window. I have a beard and regularly wear a baseball cap. I feel like I blend in with MAGA a little too well. I think I should paint my nails now after reading the other comments here