This week on the podcast, Nate and I discussed an article about the racism shirt company GruntStyle, which has been creating shirts for your fatbody, four year contract cousin who won't shut up about how great the Army was, but also complained the entire time they were in.
You all know me. I'm not the one to accuse anyone of being 'less' of a troop, especially less than me. But also I try to be as honest about my service. I spent 20 years in the Reserves, with two major deployments and a few 2-3 week long trainings in various countries from Honduras to Japan.
I'm not a soldier of fortune. Nate is though. Combat tested, Ranger trained, passed selection to go to Special Forces. If Nate decided to go right instead of left, there's a good chance he'd be training his very own Panamanian death squad. Or starting a racist shirt company. But at least his racist shirt company would be founded by someone who walked the walk.
Daniel Alarik, the founder of GruntStyle, decided that his actual service wasn't enough and he created a brand around being a badass operator. Unfortunately Alarik did two Balkan deployments and then spent time as a part time Drill Sergeant before really taking off with his company.
As the SA Express reports, the company was rife with sexual harassment, day drinking, yelling, threats of violence, and guns. Toxic VetBro culture at its finest. A company flushed with cash, but not with any knowledge on how to properly use it. they moved facilities and fired people the day of their moves. They created a Superbowl commercial that jerks off cops and then claimed the networks refused to air it (which was true. It didn't get aired because they didn't pay the money)
All of which culminated in Alarik getting removed from his CEO position and then taking to GoFundMe to raise money for his wife's cancer treatment while lying about the terms of his stepping down. Ten years is a long time to learn no lessons and not change your ways.
On our episode, we discuss this all at length, as well as how we just can't feel sorry for anyone. If you look at those products which glorify violence as the answer to everything from common annoyances to political opponents, we just can't muster up the sympathy. I can only hope that someone, somewhere learned a lesson
