So you're a veteran in your field? What war did you fight to earn that title?!

As a veteran of the US Air Force, I can say that veteran is not exclusively a military term. You can be a veteran of any field, hobby, or activity if you've been there a while and are experienced.

We always get these people who might have served for a single enlistment (4-6 years), then make the rest of their life about their military service. It's really cringey and they don't deserve half the respect they think they're entitled to. Your life shouldn't be defined by a few years in a particular role.

(Hint: no one is entitled to respect. Respect is earned.)

For the record, I spent 20 years working an IT job in the military, mostly out of harm's way. I feel weird when people try to thank me for my service. I didn't really do anything worth thanking. Save it for people who laid down their lives in your defense. Most of us don't actually experience that level of responsibility and hardship in our service; a lot of service members tend to have a pretty quiet career.

Hey, so I’m curious. Have you ever been to sports games or other events where they ask veterans to stand up to be recognized? Do you participate? And if you do, has anyone sitting close by asked you what you did in the military? What was their reaction when you say you were a non-comabatant? Just curious really, I mean no disrespect.
- Not the person you're asking, but a veteran of 4 scant years in the Navy.
  
  Yes, and no, respectively.
- I don't usually participate in these kind of events. Those closest to me know my service experiences and that's usually good enough for me. I don't feel right being publicly acknowledged and/or thanked by strangers. There are far more deserving people.
  
  But my prior service does occasionally come up in social circles. I actually had a doctor ask me this morning what kind of work I did, and he was somewhat familiar with it, as his son in-law served in the Navy in a technical field like mine.
  
  Most of the time, when I tell people I was in the Air Force, the first question people ask is, "What planes did you fly?" It blows their minds when I tell them I don't know anything about planes; that my job was to fix computers. Not even computers on airplanes, just regular ol' desktop computers, servers, laptops, etc. Anything that touches a computer network.
  
  Only 5% of the Air Force are pilots. The other 95% of Airmen work in jobs either directly or indirectly supporting those pilots. We have a lot of generic job fields you might find in the civilian sector: mechanics, police, doctors, lawyers, cooks, firemen, chaplains, etc. All have a critical role to fill that ensure our ultimate flying missions are accomplished.
  
  So yeah, there are a lot of people in the military who work a job that doesn't put them anywhere near the front lines of war. In some careers, your job is the exact same as the civilian sector, except that you have to wear a military uniform while doing it.

Lol

: an old soldier of long service. 2. : a person of long experience usually in some occupation or skill (such as politics or the arts) veteran adjective.

I've heard veteran teacher and nurse many times.

Honestly I think this is the point of confusion. This guy has somehow never heard the word used anywhere other than the widespread military usage and his own field. Weird that that's the case, but given that starting point I don't think it's crazy for him to say "why are people in my field acting like we've fought in a war? Maybe we should chill and take ourselves less seriously".

Obviously there's the additional problems of not googling things before trying to make a public point, and apparently doubling down when corrected. But I see where a sufficiently sheltered person could get there at least.
- I think this is it, lol. The confidence is still really funny, it's like they didn't ask a single person before making the post.

I particularly like that he labels himself as ex-Founder of something... Either you established something or you didn't, you can't take it back motherfucker

What a pedantic asshole. “Veteran” is just a thing people say when they’re experienced in a given area.

I don’t think I’d be able to tolerate this guy for more than a few minutes.

Reminds me of one of my favorite short programming stories. Real programmers write in FORTRAN (The story of Mel, a real programmer)

According to Merriam-Webster, the word "veteran" comes from a Latin adjective, veteranus, describing long experience. The first known use in English carried the meaning of an old soldier who served for a long time. But okay, let's pretend that the original meaning isn't valid because it was borrowed as a word describing a soldier, then shouldn't we also go after people who call themselves "veterans" because they spent a single term of enlistment in the armed forces, and especially those who never had a tour of duty?

Vet here (🤮). Who gives a shit. I've heard numerous professions have so-called "Veteran Xs". It implies experience, knowledge, and time spent in a role. Not having had your leg blown off by an I.E.D.

Is this jackwagon even a Veteran, or is this just another virtue signaller who feels they need to jump to our defense for brownie points?

I had a really viscous bad tempered old dog.
It kept barking and trying to bite people that did't look like it,
so I took it to the Veteran Aryan.

Eeew…sticky dog.

Viscous Having relatively high resistance to flow. Viscid; sticky. Adhesive or sticky, and having a ropy or glutinous consistency; viscid; glutinous; clammy; tenacious.

(“Vicious” is what I think you meant, but your spelling made it way funnier.)

I've fought all over, from tilted towers to badwater basin. I'm a veteran gamer.

I fought in the great war against Ulfric the false Dovahkiin! In the time before and ever after I've slain countless Dovah and befriended but few. In the towns, in every city they all herd the Greybeards call. In every mead hall a song in remembrances of my kin long before my time had come.

For I am the last, Dovahkiin!

Every non-rookie sports person is a veteran.

Why does the gaming industry constantly try to gatekeep certain language?

Get a more interesting hobby.

This guy is a real veteran dumbass

Did this dude say this somewhere I can go and call him an idiot directly? Because, if this wasn't one of the corporate social media companies, I would very much like to.