You are not a hero. Change my mind.

“A hero is someone who puts others before himself or herself. A hero has good moral ethics, and is someone who does things for the sake of being good, and not just a means to an end, or a reward for good deeds, but it is someone who does good for the sake of doing good.”

The So-called Founding Fathers don’t qualify..

There are heroes in every day life everywhere in the world those that try to save humanity for example Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg is a Swedish environmental activist who happens to be an hero to so many.

CJKent.... How about this... FUCK YOU. Piece a shit ignoramus.

Where specifically are you finding this attitude? Social media? The news?

I haven’t noticed much in my personal life on either social media or IRL. My essential employment I think pretty much everyone considers our job just a job and nobody really has much concern over anything. We only wear masks directly in front of customers to not piss them off.

I felt like the hero recognition came more from certain individuals wanting to give lip service validation in the hopes people don’t go around asking for something tangible (like hazard pay). Kinda like the strip club customer who waxes poetic about how beautiful you are and you know he’s just trying to get as much freebies out of you as possible.

But I could be wrong. What have you noticed IRL?

“I don't get why some of you are so butthurt about the truth.”

~IceyLoco ~May 25th 2020

Hero is a term thrown about loosely partly spawned by the 24 hour media. In the days following the 9-11 World Trade Center attacks I saw a TV program about a fire brigade that responded after the attacks. Now many years have passed so my memory of the details might be a bit fuzzy. I believe the program was on CBS and narrated by Dan Rather and it was highly promoted as an exclusive in the days rolling up to it's airing on TV.

What I do remember was that the firemen entered a dimly lit building mainly aimlessly wandering around on the ground floor trying to decide what they were going to do then deciding to evacuate themselves from the premises without having done anything. Rather constantly referred to the firemen as heroes even though in actuality they did nothing besides enter the building then leave the building. I recall sitting there after the program was over thinking how loosely the definition of hero was bandied about. The criteria for being a hero hasn't tightened up in the years that have followed.

Now in no way do I want to take away from the firemen that entered the WTC buildings and hiked up the stairs with full loads of gear in their attempts to rescue people and fight the fires and eventually lost their lives when the buildings collapsed. Yes they were doing their jobs but when tossing out the hero moniker they were much more deserving of the title than the firemen that entered and left without doing a thing as portrayed in the program I watched.

I agree the word hero as applied to cops especially is ridiculous. Most of them love to be portrayed that way when in actuality they are fat and lazy and not even close to a hero. Oh I forgot to mention bullies and womanizers.

I know a HERO....The single Mom, Dad, or Grandparent that works two minimum wage jobs to feed their kids or grandkids.

Yeah your profession does not make you a hero. Some of those jobs you listed are some of the best jobs around and those in them should be very fortunate to have them. I have been in some and I’m very grateful. I was the lucky one. This shove my hero shit in your face is called “boot” look up boot memes and what not. Aka thank me for my service. One of my favorite reddit stops is thatssoboot. All that shit is hilarious to me while also makes me cringe hard.

And of course the media LOL all day

@ TheeOSU. You are correct. Just being at the WTC om 9/11 or in cleanup afterwards does NOT make you a hero. The firefighters who went up the stairs to fight fires and save lives might have been heroes. We do not know their attitudes and motivations, if they knew the true scope of the situation, and so on.

@ etsutwigg22: not heroes. suck some more of Oprah's dick, momma's boy.

@ Muddy: "Thank you for your service" = better you than me. A few years ago, I saw a hand-painted sign in a yard a half-block from my house. Something about a PTSD'ed vet living there and we shouldn't be shooting off fireworks and traumatizing him during Independence Day celebrations. I had already bought over $200 worth fireworks. After reading the sign, I bought another $300 of the biggest mortars I could find. (Backstory: Guy was a handyman and contractor. I could see and hear this guy's house and garage from my backyard. He had floodlights, power tools, and shop stereo on full volume at all hours of the day and night. The yard was a fucking wreck, with trash and litter everywhere. Typical Cape Coral douchebag.)

Also the passengers that fought back on Flight 93 were heroes. They realized that they could either sit still, obey the terrorists, and die along with whatever poor bastards were the target (most likely the White House); or they could fight back, probably die in the attempt, and maybe save whoever the target was. We know the rest.

Enlisting because you have no other opinions doesn’t make you a hero, but serving honorably with distinction does. I had several buddies from high school who joined up because they had no better choices. They were typical good old boys who preferred hunting to class. A few of them got their shit together and rose through the ranks, one became SEAL team leader and another who became Navy fighter pilot who was very involved in first Gulf War. Unfortunately they are now among those remembered on Memorial Day. In my opinion heroes are those who serve and protect others without regard to themselves. They risk their lives by running to the gunfire while most seek shelter from it.

Greta Thunberg is a mentally ill fuckwad being used by the worst people on earth: lefties. Doing your job doesn't make you a hero. One of my childhood friends became a cop, stole drug evidence and got fired. That's what people remember him for. I remember him as the police diver; who for 8 weeks in jan/feb one year used his off time (police regs didn't permit him to do it on duty) diving in the frozen Sudbury river, looking for the body of a little boy who drowned at Christmas, so the parents didn't have to wait until ice out in April. He found him. He's a hero.

Greta Thunberg LOL. She sacrificed what, to promote the most trendy celebrity cause and rant before the UN. We stole her dreams and her childhood by providing an 80+ year life expectancy, low rates of hunger and violent death. Before the industrial revolution, she would have died in child birth, or slapped by an abusive husband for running her mouth.

gam95,

Hero is a noun, that's it. It's definition depends on the speaker, writer, whatever. Like any noun, it's definition is variable. I somewhat agree with you that it is often overused. I didn't go to work. I didn't work before this started. I helped at some food bank. Does that make me a hero? NO! Just a bored fart looking for something to do outside!

gammanu, you’ve said what a number of us have been thinking. This was spun up as part of the ‘stay at home”and save “our heroes” on the “front lines”. In the meantime, my local hospital is laying off hundreds of medical workers including doctors and nurses. All the practices are closed in anticipation of the overwhelming, catastrophic of Covid patients that never occurred. I don’t know how they are going to unwind this mess.

A hot stripper who takes an old perverts load in her face for about $80 - is a hero in my book! That old pervert felt like a young stud for a few hours - and it cost less him than a pair of dress shoes!

Come on - prove me wrong! That old pervert may have looked a lot like me...

I love the constant TV ads mentioning the virus. Its inspiring to know we're "all in this together." Gives a warm fuzzy feeling inside...

Kind of like that warm fuzzy feeling right before you puke. 🤮

I do like the idea of celebrating the average worker though. Grocery store clerks and fast food employees should get more respect than society gives them. All honest work deserves respect. We used to do that on Labor Day but nowadays its just a day off to most people.

I’m gonna have to agree with OP. HERO is most definitely being overused in today’s culture. My idea of a true hero is someone like Desmond Doss. Even though he was an Army medic and he signed up for the task, what he did was heroic in nature. I’m sure there are many unnamed heroes who have actually put their life on the line to save another or many, but chances are that we never learn of them.

Agree with the OP.

People, most likely driven by sensationalized NY-mentality media, have converted the word hero to apply to anyone who has a tremendous load of crap thrust upon them involuntarily, i.e. first responders of any kind and now anyone who happens to be serving the masses during covid era. Yeah, some are temporarily working in a less than ideal setting but 99.9% are not heroes.

Greatest heroes of this generation

Barack obama The clintons Greta thunburg Oprah Cardi b Megan rapinoe Lizzo Taylor swift Colin Kaepernick Kaitlin jenner

Change my mind.

Agree with medical professionals. My cousin is a nurse and had just attended a conference on infectious diseases before this pandemic hit. They are aware these types of things are very real and deadly. I will say the grocery store workers at my neighborhood stores are damn heroes in my book. They were absolutely killing it in March/April when people were on edge and shelves were frequently empty. Calm, helpful, professional and showed up to work during a pandemic in a spot where people were in and out all day every day. It will be something I will remember years from now when I look back on this weird time.

@chessmaster. Who the fuck are those people?

I saw true heroism today.

I was at the grocery store and there was an old lady brazenly walking around without a mask. Later I could hear some self righteous male Karen hassling her in the next aisle. She wasn't having any of it and gave him a piece of her mind about the ridiculousness of masks.

It was inspiring. I am working up the courage to go to a store tomorrow without a mask myself. Courage is contagious as they say. The more people who don't wear masks more people will follow.

Stupidity is contagious. Don't believe it? Look at all the idiots walking around grocery stores without masks on.

The mask is for others, not you. Where is the courage in that?

People saving your life are heroes.

Like, are the real heroes to you only the ones that wear capes and fly around?

This discussion brings home the adage "The person that defines the terms wins the debate."

It all comes down to how one defines "hero," which obviously in this discussion isn't a generic term. My personal definition is if the act in question falls in your job description in your voluntary, compensated employment it's not heroic - it's your job.

"People saving your life are heroes."

I agree 100%. As such, the label "hero" is entirely subjective. The police and law enforcement are heroes to some people. But they have not saved my life personally ever. They are hardly considered heroes to me. Heroes to me include doctors(i have to been to the ER a few times in my life), military(i have numerous family members that served and i myelf almost wound up in the military), and firefighters(set my apartment on fire once as a kid). If they save your life personally, they're heros. I guess if they save enough lives collectively they earn the title of "hero" but they are ultimately subjective. To me, thanos was the hero in avengers. Along with killmonger in black panther and magneto in the x-men movies as heroes for their own people.