Veterans Who Fought To Protect Kaepernick's Right To Protest Never Thought He'd Actually Take Them Up On It

When Colin Kaepernick took a knee in protest of institutional bias during the national anthem in a recent pre-season football game, the gesture unleashed a wave of pro-anthem, anti-free-speech indignation that has dominated the social media landscape ever since.
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When Colin Kaepernick took a knee in protest of institutional bias during the national anthem in a recent pre-season football game, the gesture unleashed a wave of pro-anthem, anti-free-speech indignation that has dominated the social media landscape ever since. And some of Kaepernick's most vocal critics are U.S. veterans who were shocked and dismayed to learn that an American citizen had actually invoked one of the basic democratic liberties they had pledged to defend.

Said one irate former army private, "We put our asses on the line so that people like Colin Kaepernick would always have the freedom to do exactly what he did, little suspecting he would one day force us to be as good as our word. It's like he spit in our faces."

Asked why he seemed to have no trouble reconciling his belief in the inviolability of free speech with his seething resentment of Kaepernick's text-book free speech protest, the veteran replied, "When you watch as much Fox as I do, it's easy."

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