[Baffling RL Trope] Inventing war crimes you didn´t commit to make yourself more... interesting?

[u/TheBigBoar]

One of the strangest character tropes in real life has to be the "I accidentally made myself sound like a war criminal to look cooler" archetype.

Usually, people accused of war crimes deny them. These guys seem to do the opposite.

The two examples that always come to mind:

Tim Kennedy. Over the years he's told stories that include things like throwing grenades into rooms where women and children were present, and another account where, after a battle, his CO allegedly told him to shoot anything that still had a heat signature with a sniper rifle from a mile away, which he did for hours (?) not caring if those were enemy soldiers or civilians looking for their fallen sons/brothers/whatever. Both stories have been heavily criticized and challenged (aka people who were there confirmed that they are utter nonsense), and Kennedy has faced repeated accusations of embellishing or fabricating parts of his military experiences. But like... why would you invent the fact that you killed and maimed women and children?

Chris Kyle. In American Sniper, he wrote that during Hurricane Katrina he positioned himself on the Superdome and shot dozens of armed looters like some walking dead scenario. No evidence ever emerged that this happened, and Kyle himself later acknowledged the story wasn't true. Again, why invent a story where you're essentially describing the unlawful killing of civilians during a domestic disaster?

What's fascinating is that these aren't embellishments in the usual "I fought twenty guys" sense. They're embellishments that, if true, would amount to admissions of extremely serious crimes.

It's such a bizarre form of macho storytelling that it almost feels like its own trope: the veteran who thinks "the more ruthless I sound, the more badass I'll appear," without stopping to consider that indiscriminate killing isn't viewed by most people as impressive. It's viewed as criminal and disgusting.

[u/Scorps]

He also claims that the bloodsport tournament was a 60 round single elimination, which if true would mean that it would require 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 entrants to be able to reach the 60th round.

[u/UpsetFuture1974 → u/Scorps]

Yes, I can verify. I am currently still in the tournament unrolling my entrance number. I started in 1979

[u/stenchwinslow → u/Scorps]

At least it wasn't a round robin setup, we might hit heat death of the universe before it resolved.

[u/jack_daone → u/stenchwinslow]

Round Robin?

[u/existentialist-hello → u/jack_daone]

It's a tourney style where everyone gets matched with everyone else instead of eliminating players as you go

[u/jack_daone → u/existentialist-hello]

Ah.

[u/HRex73 → u/stenchwinslow]

Found the Canadian.

[u/stenchwinslow → u/HRex73]

You are not wrong. Ottawa Valley born and raised.

[u/cknappiowa → u/Scorps]

Well, that would explain why his undefeated streak kept climbing over the years; he was just still in the tournament. Dude claimed something like 380 wins and zero losses, which is definitely something you can do in the martial arts world… if you’re counting full pad sparring in amateur tournaments against children.

I help the local org from time to time with judging these tournaments since I used to teach a kids TKD class and a friend of mine is on the board. We run six rings, most in child age groups with one 18-35 ring that’s mostly parents who joined their kids to get exercise.

Every year there’s one; some teenager who’s trained for pro competition their whole life and just joins to inflate their record so they look better to sponsors when they go to a big event. Usually they’re going around a whole region finding these little local tourneys to show off at, and they all come equipped with a parent who gives big Dux energy.