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January has been a strange month by anyone’s standards. The untimely and tragic death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and seven other passengers in yesterday’s helicopter accident bookends a month that began with WWIII trending on Twitter.
As the headlines and social media "hot takes" roll in regarding this most recent tragedy, there are more than a few veterans who feel that the national grieving of Bryant’s loss stands in stark contrast to another helicopter crash which occurred on the same day, January 26, 15 years ago. In that latter crash, 30 Marines and a Navy medic gave their lives in Iraq. Still other military members feel that the outpouring of condolences and news attention for Bryant is noteworthy in its volume compared to that given to Specialist Antonio Moore killed in Syria on January 24, 2020.
In short, it seems like the most recent case of veteran outrage syndrome in which veterans use national level news as a foil for highlighting how the rest of America is focused on the wrong thing.
So to douse it, other military members and veterans with opposing viewpoints took to disparaging those previous veterans and their views on the same social media platforms.
I know how it works because I used to be one of those veterans—outraged at the outrage of my peers.
For starters, outrage on the internet can be a vicious and terrible thing. Studies have found that anger is the fastest-traveling emotion on social media. It’s also a high-arousal, activating one meaning it’s more likely to drive us to action, like commenting or re-sharing.
Outside of the internet, the expression of moral outrage historically created social cohesion and deterred societal violations. Defined as the anger and disgust that follows a perceived moral violation, when its expression is supported by the community at large, it triggers the brain’s dopamine pathways. The result—biologically-generated positive reinforcement.
Social media may also be changing that, according to recent research. Because social media interactions take place irrespective of time and space, positive reinforcement from expressed outrage occurs at unpredictable times, which creates a variable reinforcement framework. It just so happens that’s also the most effective schedule for promoting and sustaining a behavior.
What’s worse is that this “reward” schedule is amplified by the social media algorithms which prioritize content in feeds that is emotional in nature. Why? To increase engagement and keep you on their platforms longer.
If that isn’t enough to make you think twice about social media use, then let me at least offer you a different perspective by which you might view the veterans who feel frustrated and unseen.
Rather than judging these moments as expressions of veteran outrage and entitlement, we might be better served to look at them through the lens of the civilian-military divide and transition stress.
Their feelings of injustice and alienation are perhaps endemic of an all-volunteer force at war for nearly two decades. A war whose perpetuation was recently shown to be influenced, in part, by institutional cheerleading and disconnected, inaccurate, and imprecise measures of success. In that noise, many lost something irreplaceable, and while they don’t want your pity, they want acknowledgment of that loss in a meaningful way.
It’s something that can’t be cured, recognized, or fixed with a "thank you for your service." It’s deeper-rooted than any polite platitudes might reach, though make no mistake, it is not a sign of brokenness.
It’s more a weariness of the banalities and frivolities of life and the wish that we all shared something deeper and more profound. It’s about feeling disconnected in a world that is telling everyone we are more “connected” than we’ve ever been before. It’s about longing for intangibles like purpose and meaning in a world that prizes quick fixes and materiality. It’s about feeling unappreciated while being showered with halftime shows and speeches that celebrate veterans, while friends are dying by suicide, toxic exposure, or unable to get treatment. It’s about not understanding or knowing how to fully grieve the loss of your former self so you can live peacefully in the present.
Some of these moments of veteran outrage are canaries in the coal mine of how many veterans feel. From studies that show civilians don’t believe they can relate to veterans, or that employers believe veterans lack social-emotional skills, or that most Americans believe the majority of veterans suffer from a mental health disorder to ones which show that veterans largely believe that civilians can’t understand their sacrifice. They aren’t getting these feelings out of nowhere, and we are gaslighting them if we tell them their “outrage” is misplaced.
