Every day, in every conceivable way, the Trump administration is waging war against equality–rooting out that hated effort to replace tribalism with acceptance of diversity and difference. Media outlets report on “DEI” assaults daily; the mediocre (and worse) White males of the administration are busy scrubbing government websites of evidence of the accomplishments of women, gay people and non-Whites and issuing discriminatory edicts. It is impossible for any fair-minded observer to miss the ferocity of their White “Christian” Nationalist effort to roll back any movement toward civic equality.
MAGA’s hatred of “others” recently manifested itself in an executive order barring transgender people from the military. As a soldier who is a self-described Evangelical described that order in an op-ed for the New York Times,“The order may be legally sound, but it is neither moral nor ethical. I believe that it is my duty as an officer to dissent when faced with such an order.”
I may not be the sort of person you would expect to oppose a ban on transgender troops. I am a conservative evangelical Christian and a Republican. Though I have deep compassion for people who feel they are in the wrong body, I do not think that transitioning — as opposed to learning to love and accept the body God gave you — is the right thing to do in that predicament. But my views are irrelevant to the issue of transgender troops.
This soldier understands–as so many do not–a foundational principle of American democratic governance: individuals have the liberty to believe as we choose, but no right to impose those beliefs on our fellow citizens.
The executive order barring transgender troops is a legal command that provides cover for bigotry. It delivers hate in the guise of a national security issue, dressed up in medicalized language.
The meek compliance of military leadership with the ban sends a chilling message to all service members — namely, that our ranks are open only to those who fit a specific ideological mold, regardless of their ability to serve. Equally concerning is the message that military compliance sends to policymakers. If officers accept this kind of unethical order, where does it end? I fear that the White House will ask members of the military to perform increasingly loathsome tasks.
And indeed, since publication of this op-ed, the military has been asked to perform other loathsome tasks–and it has obeyed, as citizens of LA and Washington, DC, can attest. This soldier resigned rather than allow his continued participation to serve as implied concurrence with a policy he found morally reprehensible. As he concluded:
I am just one officer in a large military organization. I do not expect my resignation to persuade the president or the secretary of defense to reconsider the policy. I do hope, however, that my actions will prompt some reflection among military leaders about what it would take for them to disobey a lawful but unethical order. Most important, when my children grow up and look back at this moment in history, I want them to see an example of someone who chose the harder right over the easier wrong.
And there we have it. That–in a nutshell–is what each of us must decide, and sooner rather than later: where we draw the line between resistance and accommodation. Between the American Idea and “blood and soil” fascism.
It’s depressing to see how many people are willing to “go along to get along.” History will not be kind to them.
As to loathsome tasks. Let’s not ignore taco having uniformed military members literally roll out the red carpet for a war criminal on a us military base in alaska.
What a great example of Gandhi’s admonition “Non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty”.
And history continues to repeat. Except eventually, it will reach for a crescendo that will never be grasped. Social media will never slow down it’s mad path, we’ve reached a point where Frankenstein’s monster is running amok, and pitchforks along with torches are not going to stop it. The only thing that will stop this stampede towards self immolation would be a silence, but where would the silence come from? Not only do we have the insanity of Christian fascism, but they’re also is a large presence of Russian and Chinese social media accounts some posing as varying interests including science, military, and ecology sites. Except, they are not rooted in reality, or, they boost those other countries as superior in their ideology and intellect. Everything is done better than here they say. Not in those exact words, but the way information is portrayed. It’s just another tool of trickery forcing doubt on the reader concerning the veracity of American ingenuity and education. Social media and the internet in general has destroyed newspapers across the country which have been replaced by the above mentioned.
What’s happening today is just a sign of the times. A point in history where the conflagration of continued onslaught creates a Nexus of alternate reality that never was or is reality. A society cannot function on unreal or alternate facts. If they shut down social media, you would start to see a reversal in a lot of what’s going on today. But of course that will never happen because those who own social media have become extremely wealthy and powerful. They can buy politicians with campaign donations that can be converted into personal income with a little bit of paperwork, and pay some tax. Maybe!
Really then, social media is the driver for what we see today. It is dishonest and unforgivable, it’s lawless and bigoted! Sure there’s some fluff in social media, just enough to keep people focused on it. It needs to be shut down, after all, what good is it really? Pornography, cancerous ideology, and narcissistic praise will continue to chop the foundation out from under society’s structure. The collapse will be great, the benefits will not exist. Social media has corrupted completely, discernment, foresight, compassion, empathy, common sense, and self-respect and replaced it with tribal divisions and witch hunts!
It ain’t going to get any better, it may seem like it a time or two, but that’s just like sitting in bathtub and adding more and more hot water until your body is used to the heat, and then it doesn’t seem hot anymore. You tend to cook your own goose!
Go ahead and research history, you will see many versions of this very scenario, without the social media. Now you add social media into the mix, you’ve got a runaway juggernaut that’s got a lot of juice!
The signers of the Declaration of Independence wrote that together they pledged “our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor” in the cause of liberating the U.S.-to -be from English oppression. Where is such courage now, when oppression threatens again? Pence on Jan. 6, Liz Cheney on the committee investigating the events of that day… one hand suffices to count them all. It is appalling and depressing that so few powerful people and organizations resist the disgusting, immoral, and often illegal acts of the worst government our nation has seen in 250 years. Short-sighted selfishness is the order of the day. At 83, I can only watch from the sidelines. And weep for what may be lost forever.
The Key Point I see related to what you speak of For Me is WE: 3 1/2%+ Strongly Resisting- Organizing + Far more than the Usual 20%- Not Going Along with Major Things- NOW- the Basic Economic Insanity- Helps us BUT – Immigrants- re:ICE and more + Gaza-Hamas-Iran divide us- WE need to DO Much More Soon- see Part II Below.
One has to wonder what sort of twisted utopia the MAGAs and “Christian Nationalists” expect to have when they’re done destroying our history, our form of government, our international relationships and the upcoming generations of children who will inherit this scorched “earth”. What do they expect to have?
Has anyone seen the finish line for these assholes? I wonder if the 82 million non-voters have a take on this destruction? Probably not. They’ll just blame Democrats for not fielding good candidates, or that Biden was too old, or that “my vote doesn’t count” B.S., or any other convenient excuse that keeps them sitting on their asses.
We’ve done it to ourselves.
Your Example of resistance is Great! DC resistance is Critical NOW!
If DC Resistance is Strong- Oakland likely won’t be targeted (next) Fascist won’t Wait!
Will Putin or Epstein or … be important in Building Resistance or not?
“The People United I’ll Not be Defeated “
Will we BE UNITED?!
The 2026 Elections won’t save us!
Chuck Schumer and even Barack Obama aren’t The Anawer!
Mayor Pete- great speaker- Highly “Brain Intelligent “ – Israel- he “don’t get it”
We are “the answer “ supporting Deeply- our leaders, our real leaders- younger than most of us- Less white than most of us. Part II
I agree that social media are a significant contributor to this mess but the other media are also responsible. They normalize the daily insanity by refusing to ask and demand answers to pointed questions about the obvious ineptitude of the cabinet and the “president”. They have sold their souls and damaged us all.
There is no common experience anymore. Especially among younger people in this country, living in a bubble of their own construction is the norm. Watch as parents push their child’s stroller down the street while their attention is on the phone in their hand or the buds in their ears. Sit behind a car at a light that fails to move when the green light turns on because they are focused not on the road but on the phone. It seems they cannot function without constantly feeding the addiction. Living in a bubble makes life so much more “fun”, everyone else be damned. And “fun” means everything from rose-colored glasses to enjoying or ignoring the cruelty suffered by the “other”.
In ages past, people shared space at sporting and entertainment events, shared listening to the radio, watching TV news and entertainment, all of which cost the price of the radio or TV. Now paying for your “choice” of news and entertainment isolates and segregates according to available discretionary income.
The social, racial, gender, cultural, ethnic, wealth divides are hardening into deeper tribalism until any resemblance to a democratic Republic disappears into the glorious days of monarchy and blood aristocracy.
Interbreeding is a genetic dead end. As the administration isolates and segregates itself, that interbreeding will eventually kill it, one way or another. There are lots more of us than them.
RESIST.
I am personally uplifted when i see , on ‘social media,’ the protests against fascism , in the US and around the world..and when people have the courage to speak out
Social media is our current reality. Yes there is challenges,
learning how to spot fake news, and ways of being discerning in the digestion of information can be helpful ,
Kudos to this soldier!
My thoughts depart from his as soon as he mentions the body that GOD gave, but applaud his ethical position.
What does the MAGA cohort see as the end result of their insanity? Maybe something like a “Handmaiden’s” culture? A place where they are always right, always in unthreatened power, forever and ever…where no facts that contend with their picture of reality are permitted…where their interpretation of their god’s presumed words are never questioned…where even the female MAGAs are sooooo happy in their kitchens and bedrooms…where ridiculously intensifying hurricanes like Erin are not permitted, because there is no such thing as global warming and evolution is a discarded concept again because their god-thing would not like that…and so farmers would never again have to invest in the newest pesticides because farm pests would stop adjusting to last year’s pesticides…where Trump’s visage on Mt. Rushmore would forever more be bathed in a golden glow?
there is a buncha hard ass religious here in NoDak.and though they don t expect you to follow them, they do point you out. stigma and self rightiousness
are doled out daily with little regard for the others view. pressing this subject to younger folk is akin to just degrading them when they dont follow the sphere. stigma, damn sure is a hate in my beliefs. wereas the so called word in the bible forebids this. theology here and the past is ones own thinking.
we witness the changes,and now that the nationalist feel they have full tilt ok to subvert your thinking. my credo. get in my face and you wont again,,,amen..
JD…some brilliant thoughts today. Wish we could connect somehow…my email is [email protected]…
We’re running out of time. OJ has gotten far ahead of the plan. He’s already neutralized the Congress,. He’s still working on the courts, but if he can get any issue to SCOTUS, most likely he will get a win. Now he’s getting us used to the presence of armed military in in the cities of the US. All he does is find an issue and declare an emergency. He’s will not hesitate to call. an emergency and cancel the 2026 elections, if he thinks he’s going to lose.
I’m not sure what he’s doing to keep the Senate, especially those whose terms extend beyond his own, in his pocket. It’s clear that they’re afraid to call his bluff. They are the worst kind of cowards.