As an American, I blame propaganda. We have it EVERYWHERE. Military propaganda has been the big thing since the late 90's.

It has created a culture where it is very difficult to criticize any person within the military. You are expected to call any soldier a hero, and thank them for their service, which I consider pretty dangerous. I grew up in a military town and am from a military family, the military attracts a few different groups of people, one large group are scummy as all hell and only go into it because they can't function with the rest of society. Violent crime and rape increase in towns with military bases. Not being able to talk about these problems without being called a traitor or some other hyperbolic term leads to some pretty obvious problems within our society.

One of those things is that literally anything that can be construed as "anti soldier" will be. Kaep/lane aren't even making a statement about soldiers or the military, but here we are, most people seem to think they should stand otherwise they are disrespectful to soldiers.

some people will act like they don't agree with it because "it takes attention away from the team" I'm sure if you asked the actual players they would say it has zero effect on their game.