Summary
Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s embattled nominee for defense secretary, has denounced policies allowing openly gay troops and women in combat roles as part of a “Marxist” agenda undermining military readiness.
In his book The War on Warriors and past interviews, Hegseth criticized the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” and argued that inclusivity erodes standards.
Accused of misconduct, his views against women in combat and seeing inclusivity as a threat to national security have been closely examined during his confirmation process.
My oh my. The next 4 years are gonna be a fucking trainwreck.
From a concerned onlooker…Good luck, America!
What’s funny is that the gay men community is one of the fittest. Goes to the gym every day crowd.
41.9% of the country is obese.
Who’s gonna fight your wars?
He’s offended by the fact that certain people exist? That is not a good sign.
Isn’t it “funny” how LGBT is “degenerate western propaganda” in communist dictatorships and “Marxist propaganda” for capitalistic autocrats.
we’re a threat to power, in general. the current world is built by sexually frustrated angry men. our existence in the open threatens them because if people realize we have always existed, we have always been a threat to power by way of not engaging with the specific torture that keeps the world going, and we still respond to terror enacted against us by calling on people to sing, dance, and be merry, they might do something dangerous: they might start singing, dancing, and being merry
I appreciate the sentiment, but none of that seems based on reality.
The reason is both those groups mad about LGBTQ are Abrahmic religious extremists.
And for the Abrhamic religions, it’s a numbers game. They want their population to reproduce faster than others because the more followers the more power/wealth the leaders have.
we have always been a threat to power by way of not engaging with the specific torture that keeps the world going, and we still respond to terror enacted against us by calling on people to sing, dance, and be merry, they might do something dangerous: they might start singing, dancing, and being merry
Not whatever that was supposed to mean.
This isnt the town from Dirty Dancing and the danger isn’t being told you can’t “be merry”.
And that is not going to be an effective way to fight back.
You’re both right. The existence of LGBT people and feminism does threaten the ‘legitimacy’ of religious fundamentalists (namely Evangelicals and Dominionists in America) by undermining their masculine authority they claim to de ordained by God. It’s more than just a numbers game. They certainly want a huge indoctrinated following. To do that they need to constantly persecute and ‘cure’ LGBT people and feminists, otherwise their ‘legitimacy’ would crumble from within the evangelical movement.
American Fascists by Chris Hedges
“These men suffered a loss of their own masculinity,” Roberta Pughe says, “so they have taken on this extreme form of masculine power, the power to oppress and to dominate. On the extreme end of the masculine continuum, it is the oppressive force that kills, that destroys. There is no room for anything else. Everything else is a threat. The feminine is a threat. Children are a threat. Homosexuality is a threat because it embraces a feminine, nurturing side between men. All power has to be concentrated at the top and be destructive.”
“The goal of the movement is to create a theocracy, but they must dominate women first to keep the system in place,” Pughe says, the late afternoon light spilling into the windows of her office. “They want to have one nation under God, based on their view of God and their interpretation of the rules that this peculiar God puts in place. … They know the family’s falling apart. The divorce rate is high. Families are in flux. Roles are in flux. Men and women are trying to figure out what we’re doing together. And the church is filling the niche, providing the extended family. There is no extended family, so the church is providing it for these people. Their ticket to power is family values. That’s the hook. People are hungry for that. But with this church family comes the imposition of an extreme male power structure. First, they use this power structure to control the family, then the church, and finally the nation.”
The use of control and force is also designed to raise obedient, unquestioning and fearful children, children who as adults will not be tempted to challenge powerful male figures. These children are conditioned to rely on external authority for moral choice. They obey out of fear and often repeat this pattern of fearful obedience as adults.
oh we’re still strapped. but the singing, dancing, and being merry is a driving factor in class solidarity and passing the people’s songs down to future generations. every resistance movement has had art centered within it. and yes: religions use fear to play numbers games. they need masses of people to enact genocides against other masses of people. us queer folk aren’t offering up those numbers, and our historical social responsibility has always been to take part in raising the next generation by imparting in them wisdom their parents don’t have because they lack perspective and they can’t be there 100% of the time. the wielders of power fear our art and our education deeply. they don’t want it taught in schools, and they want kids to be scared of us. why? because we have always been dangerous to these systems of power.
like, i genuinely appreciate you replying. it gives me an opportunity to give more context. armed resistance from places of love are so critical to pushing for liberation. just like how every liberation movement really catches steam once the movement starts listening to and involving women
communist dictatorships
*State Capitalist Dictatorships
Theres nothing “communist” about those so-called “communist” countries that still have rich people and huge wealth gaps, and gender inequality. Fun fact: most people in power in “communist” China, are men. In fact, all 24 Members of the Chinese Politiburo are men, zero women. Doesn’t sound very communist to me.
Every country is just capitalism under a different banner.
In fact, all 24 Members of the Chinese Politiburo are men, zero women. Doesn’t sound very communist to me.
You’re confusing economic systems with social policy…
Which is ironic considering that’s what you’re upset about others doing in the rest of your comment.
Yes, but the economic policy too, they don’t even have universal healthcare.
Healthcare is a social issue…
But it’s incredibly depressing that people believe it’s economic policy now.
Allowing for profit healthcare is very much economic policy too.
communism was originally a stateless, post economic, social organization structure. the fact of the matter is that all issues you engage with in life have multiple facets to them: social, economic, political, and propaganda. the real questions when applying a critical lens to our current place in time is to examine who benefits, who suffers, and who is played between the two to decide who the real evil is, and in what ways are they tricked into thinking the people with power are on their side.
Fellas, is it gay to seize the means of production?
There is a lot to unpack here. For one, I’m pretty sure every capitalistic state that came from communistic priors falls into it. If so, you have just called Russia gay, as they seized the means of production from the Soviet Union. I think Ukraine falls into the same category there. You know… I’m starting to think you may have classified the entire world as gay… Which I’m okay with. Just wish we were more jovial
Are the “Marxists” in the room with us right now?
Looks nervously at .ml … they are - but they’re the cool ones that are just a bit too fond of furry art.
I have a friend who’s a communist and I feel so bad for her having to overcome the image tankies have given communists
“Under capitalism, there are no gay troops. Under socialism, all troops are gay.”
-Karl Marx, probably
Ah yes. The Four Long Years of Desperate Insanity Journalism have begun.
Settle in, lefties! Your incessant despising of the Democrats is going to pay off bigly!
You have that flipped. Lefties vote Democrat for the most part for damage reduction. Democrats despise lefties. See the treatment of Bernie and AOC. The latter of which is currently being blocked by Pelosi for her committed chair bid.
Right, I do despise the Democrats but I still voted Harris for harm reduction. If anything, these 4 long years mentioned above are just going to make me despise Democrats more for fumbling the election so badly
I wish it was flipped. I had plenty of discussions with lefties who informed me in sneering tones that I was a liberal, I was transphobic for supporting Harris blah blah blah. There were no shortage of “not going to vote to suppor this broken system!” garbage, don’t even get started on the third party bullshit. Lefties (or, to be clear, accounts representing themselves as “left” for whatever that might mean to them at the moment and presuming they are human) stated many many times in loud arrogant ways they wouldn’t support Democrats ever, (even if they eventually said they’d vote Harris) it wasn’t anything like support. Just panic.
Look- the fact of the matter is a lot of people get high and move out of their parents house where they become super libertarian anarchist man and for awhile stop understanding that running things is very boring, and everything takes a shit-ton of money. There are zero answers to any of those problems with anything any “lefty” has promoted prior to the election here, other than being very confident it’s not a problem and of course it can be done. Well, since now’s their chance, whatta they got? It’s been real quiet. And it will remain quiet.
Here’s what’s going to happen - three-point-five years of hellish, nightmarish horror, followed immediately by a shit ton of <30d accounts talking shit about the Democrats and declaring the system broken and unsupportable. There’s a good solid three-point-five years for these people to jump in and make that change they want to see. Let’s see it. Prove me wrong, so called lefties. Please.
