I remember when my sub was on a six-month deployment. The rule was, when you're talking to family and friends back home, you don't talk about other sailors, period. We had a guy who got kidney stones. His wife heard a rumor that he had some type of STD. She got mad and went and slept with some rando guy, ended up getting some actual STDs herself, and there were divorce papers waiting for him when the ship returned home.
But the military runs on rumors. They're the only source of entertainment soldiers and sailors have most of the time. And in the weird mental stimulation vacuum that is life at sea, people will literally start swinging at you if you question their preferred rumors. Antisemitic, racist, classist, secret society crap ... they love it.
I remember when my sub was on a six-month deployment. The rule was, when you're talking to family and friends back home, you don't talk about other sailors, period. We had a guy who got kidney stones. His wife heard a rumor that he had some type of STD. She got mad and went and slept with some rando guy, ended up getting some actual STDs herself, and there were divorce papers waiting for him when the ship returned home.
But the military runs on rumors. They're the only source of entertainment soldiers and sailors have most of the time. And in the weird mental stimulation vacuum that is life at sea, people will literally start swinging at you if you question their preferred rumors. Antisemitic, racist, classist, secret society crap ... they love it.