Gwyneth Paltrow: Getting Trashed on the Internet Is Just Like WAR

Gwyneth Paltrow is comparing meaningless Internet insults to the ravages of war -- real war -- claiming she's been dehumanized by widespread Internet trash-talking ... the same way a real-life soldier is dehumanized by blood, guts, bullets, night terrors, watching his friends die, and PTSD.

Shortly before her appearance at the Code tech conference this week, Paltrow said, "You come across [comments] about yourself and about your friends, and it’s a very dehumanizing thing. It’s almost like how, in war, you go through this bloody, dehumanizing thing, and then something is defined out of it."

Paltrow -- whose most recent life struggle was probably a scuffed nail -- added, “My hope is, as we get out of it, we’ll reach the next level of conscience.”

It's basically like that empty statement Tom Cruise made comparing acting to war ... minus all the physical exertion.

Paltrow added, "It’s taken me a long time to get to the point where I can see these things and not take it as a personal affront and a hurt. I see myself as a chalkboard or a whiteboard or a screen, and someone is just putting up their own projection on it."

Cindy McCain -- the wife of John McCain (an actual veteran) -- has already torn Paltrow to shreds on Twitter, writing, "Gweneth Paltrow [sic] is a joke ... Perhaps Gweneth Paltrow should go out on patrol with some soldiers. Kind of like a Red Carpet in her mind I guess!"

And other veterans agree -- a rep for Veterans for Peace tells TMZ, "She doesn't understand what it means to be in real danger ... Not someone talking to you on the Internet, but actually having bullets shot at you."

The rep adds, "I've gone to war and had that kind of fear. She's not in a situation where she can compare the two. She hasn't had to fear for her life and not know whether she'd make it home."