In the US; it's pretty funny watching someone in a Halloween costume or "in their [insert familial relation here]'s uniform" and them not being able to answer questions in a believable way towards their accuser (who of course are actually a part of the armed forces). I have a lot of respect for soldiers which is why it's pretty awesome seeing a good number of them reporting exploitation of uniforms.

Anything like this rampant for you other folks? You can probably find many meme videos.

We have so many military and retired military folks in San Antonio that stolen valor is pretty uncommon.  There’s still a problem with tacticool posers and Call of Duty Operators who think they understand combat because they play video games, but they’re usually smart enough to not try to fake an actual service story. They just hang out at gun shops and brag about their Roland Specials. 

One really good way to spot an imposter is to pretend to be impressed, fawn over their “bad-assery” for a few minutes, and then casually ask them about the difference between Special Operations personnel and Special Forces Operators.  That almost always makes them squirm

... and if anyone is wondering, the answer is no. I was not in the military myself.

It usually stems from inadequacy. They probably have family who are or were in the military so feel they have something to live up to or are envious. Honestly it's hard to get mad at people like that. Same as people who always talk about that one amazing goal they scored when they were in high school or some clever thing they said years ago. Happy, adjusted people don't have to pretend or fall back on old glories.

Hey now, Furries aren't all that  bad compared to 'Stolen valour' people.

Because furries are really more of like a Fandom-following of people obsessed with varying Anthropomorphic characters. Of course, you will get those really-wierd people who ruin it for everyone, but that is a symptom that virtually all fandoms have. You've also got a bunch of normal-ish people who have a wierd obsession but it isn't 'too' weird.

With how people like to use the word 'Furry', they might as well be castigating the Ancient Egyptians as being 'furries' or Medieval Marginalia drawers as being 'furries' too, because they were inordinately fascinated with depicting  Anthropomorphic creatures also (To the point that Ancient Egyptians worshiped cats, for example).

Stolen valour people, however, do not vary. They are all lying bastards trying to either get people to like them (Which is not necessarily bad, but the way they go about it is bad) or probably try to get veteran's discounts despite not being in the military (Which is morally wrong!).

Finally, there are also Bronies. I do not like these guys... because 40 year-olds should not be fascinated with a cartoon program for five-year-olds. Not saying that all bronies are gross dudes, but again fandoms... not all of them are bad but you will have the few in the bunch, but I must remind those people, you are an adult! Why are you watching a show for five-year olds?

I may be biased, however. Depending on how one does this whole 'Furry' analysis, I'd probably score a 10% to 20% furry rating, if only because my favourite disney movie is Beauty and the Beast. 

Hell, I'd imagine that about 40% of the modern Furry fandom started out as kids watching that movie! As they  say, hook 'em while their young

Edit: Oh, and don't mention military stuff to Furries... there are some sub-sets of furries that are inordinately fascinated with military knowledge to the point that they get ridiculously over-anal...

I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are serving members of military forces.

Am I one of the very few Vets that don't really care? It doesn't seem there's that many of us of such an opinion.

I'm also convinced we shouldn't really be given mostly meaningless discounts, lip-service thanks, and uncritical praise, too, which would vastly reduce the instances of so-called "Stolen Valor" anyways.

We're not all heroes, and to call us all such for no reason belittles those who have actually done something significant. The more you put us on a pedestal, the less human we become, and thus the more expendable in whatever the war-of-the-week(Or decade, as the case may be) happens to be.

The real problem that lets this proliferate isn't stolen valor itself, it's the fact we have such a small minority who ever enlist. If it was more common, fewer people would find making the false claim gets them anywhere. I sincerely doubt you'd see anything of the sort in, say, the age cohorts who were still conscripted in Germany, France, Switzerland, Finland, and so on.

Here in the US, the military is some mythic beast to the vast majority of people, and it's not healthy for the country for that to be the case. It's also par for the course when it comes to Imperial Militaries, though.

@woodsj: LOL not too many cases  of stolen valor where the person pretends to have worked at a stateside supply depot

I agree that “stolen valor” is a confusing term. Who are they stealing from by getting attention and making up fake war stories?  The ones who pretend to be “operators operating operationaly” definitely give real heroes a bad name among the gullible, and pretending to be a badass confuses bravery with careless disregard for life. Either way, it’s not exactly stealing, even if it is idiotic bad behavior.

Like I said, it's hard to be mad. It's kind of just sad and pathetic. It's interesting hearing about America's view of the military. Growing up in Britain with their attitude to the military and then now living in Finland where they have national service (for men at least). America seems on one end of the scale where the military is revered, it's not really a big deal in Finland (families are still proud when their sons go off to do it but no one is going to thank them in the street) then the UK is somewhere in between. Because of unpopular wars people don't love the military but they do appreciate soldiers. I think I am closest to this view. I hate war, I dislike the military, I appreciate soldiers. I think it's important to separate out those different elements.

I myself, once I get Finnish citizenship, will probably have to do national service but then I might be ineligible because of a few health reasons. I'm hoping I could go into the medical side because that would be really good experience for my career.

(One element that's different in Finland actually is that they aren't nearly as involved in any wars. A few go to Afghanistan and actually do some soldiering but for the most part it's a standing army just in case Putin gets ideas...)

I lean towards KTO's views. It's an unusual thing to do and maybe indicative of some form of mental disorder.

These people probably have bad lives and I wouldn't bother going out of my way to ridicule them. Probably just nod along and smile.

I kinda agree with Woodsj too that it seems weird the level of reverence that vets get in the US. I'm not anti-military but many different jobs are needed to keep a country working and contribute to modern life & society. Rarely these people are credited (even when comparably dangerous working conditions, or even more dangerous working conditions).