East Bay Area's aggression towards U.S. Military

[Noodles]

Why do all of these people need to know that he is in bootcamp?

Why do you need to 'educate' them?

Let them have their negative opinions, and keep it moving. In my experience, it isn't worth your time nor effort to try and change their opinions.

[villanelle]

First, you need to surround yourself with different people. No matter how liberal the area, there are plenty of people who are respectful. And if these people are as bad as you say, they aren't respectful. I'm assuming these aren't strangers or people you don't know well, because those people would have no way of knowing about your DB, unless you are shouting it to the world, in which case I think that issue is with you. Sharing personal information with random people is just kind of weird, honestly, and more so if you keep getting negative feedback for it. So if this is your dear friends, I hate to say it, but your dear friends are assholes. Find new friends.

And learn to accept that there are people in the world whose views and their choices about expressing those views are objectionable. You can't fix them. You can't save the world from themselves. May I ask how old you are? I generally find that with maturity, people get better at realizing they can't correct or "fix" the opinions of strangers who aren't already interesting in broadening their horizons.

[LoveAtWestPoint]

I've lived decades in the bay area (was in Monterrey so a bit removed admittedly) and unfortunately there's a liberal anti-military zeitgeist that always been quite pervasive.

As Tojai said - pick and choose your battles. If someone is protesting outside a recruitment center, fat chance a conversation with them is going to change their worldview. But with friends of friends or friendly acquaintances, give it a try. My 2 cents would be to show that you're not a character or stereotype, but a multi-faceted individual who happens to be involved with the military.

[villanelle]

FYI, this is a pretty old thread.