Vietnam hats aren’t trophies. They’re badges of survivors. They know they lost. They were fucked by our govt while they were there, they got their asses kicked and then came home to a population that didn’t see them as heroes like previous soldiers has experienced. Everything about that war was a shit show and it’s no surprise so many of those vets couldn’t transition back into civilian life.
The "We Tried" Award
Submitted 10 hours ago by RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com to [deleted]
https://retrolemmy.com/pictrs/image/7301830d-30e4-4e2b-b9bb-93c8a3cf9d98.jpeg
Comments
doingthestuff@lemy.lol 7 hours ago
Ladylullabunk@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
And many came back with serious health and mental problems too! I know I was married 2 Vietnam vets. The fought and suffered for their government.
AbnormalHumanBeing@lemmy.abnormalbeings.space 9 hours ago
Also Boomers: Not actually doing anything for veterans suffering from PTSD, mental illness more broadly, poverty and homelessness.
jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works 9 hours ago
“Well it’s not MY fault they shot some Vietnamese kid in the face and now have nightmares and a paralyzing fear of fireworks. Guess they should have thought about that before getting drafted.”
/S
punkcoder@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
You forgot the part about Dying in Vietnam, that’s the reason that they aren’t getting the support that they need.
spankmonkey@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Also Boomers in the 80s: “Let’s give kids participation trophies!”
samus12345@sh.itjust.works 7 hours ago
Frozengyro@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
I feel like there’s a meme to be made about trump wanting a peace prize, while bombing other countries, while hating participation trophies, but also thinking he deserves one just for being president …
SadSadSatellite@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 hours ago
You’re not wrong, but like, ouch.
Gladaed@feddit.org 6 hours ago
They are wrong, for the premise is wrong. Being open about the trauma they suffered is no participation trophy. Being a veteran of a war is a burden and not an achievement.
RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 3 hours ago
“I raped and murdered innocent people I’m the victim”
sangriaferret@sh.itjust.works 8 hours ago
I’m almost got mad until i saw what community i was in
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
I couldn’t name anyone I knew who actually went through the shit of Vietnam and wore one of those hats proudly.
They were exclusively for the ranks of the Texas Air National Guard, the straight up draft dodgers who wanted to look cool with their chud friends, and the handful of sociopaths who thought burning down people’s homes was cool.
mkwt@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
I have a relative that was in Nam and wears that hat, but he claims he was POG. I have another relative who lied about his age to get into Nam, who definitely was in the shit, and he doesn’t wear the hat.
three_trains_in_a_trenchcoat@piefed.social 9 hours ago
O O F
Oneser@lemm.ee 9 hours ago
Big O O F
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 9 hours ago
Side note, I highly recommend the podcast episode of Between The Covers where Dao Strom is interviewed. It gives some really interesting perspective on Vietnam and the wake of the Vietnam war especially from the incomplete US perspective that is still only interested in certain stories about Vietnam and about Vietnamese.
21Cabbage@lemmynsfw.com 6 hours ago
They’re still convinced they got cheated out of victory by liberals.
Passerby6497@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Yet another ‘stabbed in the back’ myth…
Slovene@feddit.nl 7 hours ago
IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 9 hours ago
As a millennial, at no point did we actually want participation trophies. The feeling of coming in last was not changed in the slightest by receiving a junk trophy.
kautau@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
It was never about the kids, it was about the boomer parents that got jealous seeing other kids with trophies around other petty boomer parents
the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 1 hour ago
And the boomer shrinks who were a bit too laser focused on self esteem during the 80s and 90s
Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 7 hours ago
Yo you could post that in showerthoughts. That’s such an insightful take.
y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 hours ago
It was the Boomers who “needed” and forced these trophies on their kids (in the same way the forced sports on some of us) because their fragile egos needed their kids to be “successful” in a useless and arbitrary way.
aeronmelon@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Trophies were forced upon us. I didn’t even like the idea of getting a trophy if I won. I won, neat, I don’t need a gold-colored plastic guy hitting a baseball to help me remember that 2-1 game against another collection of school children.
I certainly didn’t need a wood cutout of me posing on home plate. It was tee-ball, I stopped playing after six months.
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
I played t-ball. I struck out in every at-bat … in t-ball. Fortunately I excelled at defense: coach put me in right field and the other teams were so scared of me they never hit the ball there.
ButteryMonkey@piefed.social 7 hours ago
I never got a trophy for anything, but I did like the medal I got for my first wrestling win.. it wasn’t, like, any big thing, but we were against a specific school that has a good program, it was my first year, I was the only girl on the team.. and I won by techfall.
It was definitely a participation trophy of sorts, but it actually felt ok to get. It was engraved to read “for beating your [school] opponent, and first win”
We, as a team, lost to them. Badly.
eestileib@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 hours ago
They expected me to treasure that bullshit too. Kept my seventh-place ribbons in a box for ten years until I threw them the fuck out
saltesc@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
It felt worse. Getting a recognition certificate or a white ribbon for coming fourth was a total bummer to my care-factor for participating. Kick a kid while they’re down and they’re not likely to be motivated.
theUwUhugger@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
I personally never cared about them, usually lost them on my way home