Checkmated by Progress

Our military will collapse because flipping the table is unprofessional

“A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.”

Joshua/War Operation Plan Response

The long march through the institutions is complete. Society has been feeling the effects of this for some time, but I assure you, this is not as bad as it gets. It will get much, much worse, and there aren’t enough of us to stop it. I’ll keep trying of course. I get paid well enough to do so, but it will become a lonely fight as the rot sets in and the most competent among us bleed away to escape the increasingly pervasive absurdity that defines our professional lives. The thing is, it only seems absurd if your soul has yet to acquiesce to the Globohomo agenda that unifies the enemies of life, liberty, and property in their misguided quest for ‘progress.’ For those who have fallen, this dark religion masquerades as progressive professional norms¹ ensuring that its primary role in devastating military readiness goes largely undetected. The power of this dynamic lies in the fact that human beings are a normative species. Few if any social forces can match the behavior shaping potential descriptive norms have on a given population. What, then, can you do once cultural norms are aligned to destroy the foundation of the very institution in which they reside? Is there any way to fight back if the occult process by which traditional and effective military norms have been perverted is beyond reproach?

The Long Con

The game we’re being coerced into playing is really just an elaborate multi-generational confidence trick. Typically, a confidence trick aims to gain a victim’s trust in an effort to defraud them. This particular confidence trick adds another layer of complexity that bamboozles even very intelligent and well meaning individuals. How? By seeking control of institutions that people already trust. The straightforward Marxist con of “the rich are exploiting you for your labor, give us money, power, time, and attention and we’ll fix it for you!” never played well in a country where the middle class was quite prosperous and content. Americans were culturally wired to expect that prosperity required hard work, and that if you were a lazy asshole you didn’t deserve shit. A bunch of sweet talkers prancing around promising something for nothing screamed “obvious con” to ordinary Americans. Recognizing the American middle class wasn’t buying what they were selling, those early American Marxists made a brilliant long term strategic move. They set off to capture institutions that had already earned the trust of Americans, the more venerable, the better. And what American institution is more venerable than the U.S. Military?

A Marriage Forged in Hell

As it turned out, the institutions were resistant to capture as well. This was America, after all. Luckily for the Marxists, this culture that prized rugged individualism, self-determination, and negative rights had a weakness: A shameful history of slavery, racism, and broken promises inconsistent with these foundational principles. It is into this wound that Marxists plunged their knife. Using racism, sexism, and most recently homophobia and transphobia as proxies for the very principles that made America exceptional and prosperous in the first place, Marxists set about their dark task. Using this approach, instead of finding resistance in America’s institutions, they found powerful allies. The overarching raison d'être of America’s elite that animates the most powerful ‘democratic’ institutions was and still is managerial liberalism, an ideology that happens to justify itself on the same grounds² as this new racialized form of Marxism. The humanities departments of academia were the first to fall to this demonic symbiosis. With no reality tests to check the insanity of an ideology that denies the very existence of limits imposed by nature, these institutions became the perfect breeding grounds for the mind virus known as Critical Race Theory (CRT). As

John Carter

explains in his recent essay, everyone assumed that these grotesque incubators of madness wouldn’t be able to infect the hard sciences. The reality testing in those fields seemed to preclude such a fate. As John put it, you can either do the path integral, or you can’t. Alas, the march continued, and judging by the ever expanding replication crisis³, capture of all of academia has long since been realized. If the straightforward requirements of physics coursework and research isn’t enough of a reality test to thwart the irresistible revolution, what hope do we have to stop it in the DoD? Does anyone really think that the mere prospect of large scale combat operations is enough of a reality test for an organization that spent trillions of dollars and thousands of lives fighting a Global War on Terror (GWOT) with nothing to show for it? Indeed the DoD was always especially vulnerable to CRT infection being so dependent on managerial liberalism to justify decades of foreign intervention that only ever seems to advance the interests of an internationalist elite at the expense of the American people.

A Rigged Game

The DoD is a completely captured institution, but I don’t know that senior leaders are capable of recognizing this. They think, “I’m not woke, that’s absurd!” And for many of them, this is probably true. Most don’t need to be in on the con, they just need to bend the knee to those who are. For this, the consummate military professional is most reliable. Why? Because of the power of ‘professional’ norms. Professionals understand at a fundamental level that they are obligated to ever and always promote confidence in not only their chosen profession, but in every institution with a nexus to their profession.⁴ With the legitimacy of credentials and the expert class so completely intertwined with the profession of arms, the implications of the imperative to promote this confidence is staggering. There is no ability to recognize stupidity and incompetence anywhere across the spectrum without generating blowback. When a policy is published that is unconscionable on its face, such as requiring female Soldiers to shower with intact biological males, then a professional is compelled to explain how this is necessary and proper as inclusivity makes the organization strong. If the Commander-in-Chief takes a bold stand against merit based promotions, it is unprofessional to question this obvious transgression against formerly core institutional values (that were just essentially ruled to be Constitutionally required by SCOTUS no less). To question is to undermine confidence. The question that gets asked in the place of anything meaningful is “how do we sell this policy to the troops?” Like rats trapped in a maze, leaders at echelon beg for a narrative from higher to make it all make sense, anything they can tell the their troops in a desperate effort to apply a thin veneer of sanity to the crumbling foundation of the military they have dedicated their lives to. It is in this state of desperation that these leaders betray the very thing they swore to defend, imploring their Soldiers to step onto the same dark path they started down the first time they put upholding confidence in the institution above their own conscience.

Selling a Lie

For many officers and senior enlisted, accepting and selling these lies embedded within professional norms has become habitual in proportion to the alignment of this practice with self-interest. Whether adhering to these norms is required for the next promotion, or their cushy post retirement sinecure, there are persistent and powerful incentives that motivate those in the professional-managerial class to maintain confidence that they’re doing the right thing. The thing is, these incentives only exist in the corporate culture that thrives in echelons above brigade. These same norms have very little influence on the individuals who work on the line. Private Joe Snuffy has very little incentive to buy into clear and obvious bullshit. When the good idea fairy takes a shit, where do you think it lands? Not in the Corps Headquarters. No, it lands right in Joe’s face, where he is hard pressed to convince himself it doesn’t stink, no matter how much he might want to be Sergeant Major of the Army some day. Don’t get me wrong, being subject to the UCMJ authority of commanders at every level, he can generally be counted on to play along and do what he’s told. He might even tell his corporate overlords that the shit doesn’t stink as he dutifully wipes it from his brow. He won’t believe it though. Thankfully for the continued efficacy of the con, nobody with power cares what junior enlisted Soldiers believe. Gaining the trust of junior leaders though, that is worth the effort, if only to reduce the likelihood that they’ll stand up in a meeting and loudly proclaim that the emperor is naked causing anger, frustration, and embarrassment for everyone. So unprofessional!

The Trust Grenade

Great commanders used to be individuals that could build highly cohesive teams capable of delivering overwhelming violence of action to enemies of the United States while weathering the horror and absurdity of sustained combat without breaking. Now great commanders are the ones that can sell their subordinates a load of self-serving bullshit for just long enough to escape accountability when the bill comes due.⁵ In other words, great leaders are able to get their Soldiers to pull the pin on a trust grenade that won’t cook off until after the next change of command. Going into the GWOT the trust grenade had a nice, long fuse. We had been attacked by terrorists, and America was unified, damnit! The last major conflict that people remembered was when the fruits of John Boyd’s life’s work battling the incompetence and graft of the defense establishment were finally harvested. From his direct involvement preparing the invasion plan implementing his principles of maneuver warfare to the efficacy of combat platforms Boyd had a hand in developing⁶, America achieved a decisive victory over Iraqi forces. We had the most powerful military the world had ever seen, and we finally had an enemy appropriate to unleash it upon. Of course that last little part was a lie, but it was a good lie with a long fuse. For some, it remained convincing for nearly two decades.

Shortening the Fuse

The most recent lie was that the COVID not-vaccines were “safe and effective.” They were neither safe, nor effective, and this lie had a much shorter fuse. Some leaders fully assimilated by the Globohomo borg still believe it. If you’ve been paying attention you already know why. To question the ‘safe and effective’ narrative would undermine confidence in a DoD intimately involved in promulgating this particular fiasco. In other words, it would be unprofessional. Others who had doubts about forcing a novel gene therapy into the arms of millions of service members without so much as a cursory risk-benefit analysis shoved them aside in the name of professionalism. In doing so, they pulled the pin and released the spoon on yet another trust grenade just as that one about “nation building” was exploding in their faces. It wasn’t long before everyone who had been vaccinated caught COVID once or twice and everyone knew someone who came down with a serious illness or medical condition shortly after “doing their part.” No matter, the important part was that Pfizer and Moderna made their billions⁷ and anyone within the ranks with the temerity to question the dictates of Globohomo were either purged or marginalized.

Dealing with the Fallout

As trust grenades explode across the formation causing a moral injury MASCAL we are predictably dealing with some dire effects. Recruitment is at all time lows, retention is dwindling, and suicides are at all time highs. It’s bad enough that leaders feel compelled to do something. This will almost certainly compound the problem. As various amendments are proposed to the National Defense Authorization Act we are given a direct window into the marching orders DoD senior leaders have from the President.

The Administration strongly opposes the House’s sweeping attempts (sections 364, 523, 566, 595, 596, 598, 904, and 1046) to eliminate the Department’s longstanding DEIA efforts and related initiatives to promote a cohesive and inclusive force. As articulated in the 2022 NDS, one of the Department’s top priorities is building a resilient Joint Force and defense enterprise. DoD’s strategic advantage in a complex global security environment is the diverse and dynamic talent pool from which we draw. We rely on diverse perspectives, experiences, and skillsets to remain a global leader, deter war, and keep our nation secure. Moreover, DoD is committed to developing and maintaining a dignified, respectful, and safe workplace. Legislation that reduces DoD’s ability to create a positive work environment and fully leverage the best our nation has to offer puts the Department at a strategic disadvantage.

As is plain to see, DoD is firmly committed to promoting “DEIA” which in case it isn’t obvious to you yet is simply a proxy for intersectional Marxism. The senior leadership expects this of everyone at echelon regardless of anything Congress or the Judiciary says or does, and they’re trying to do a lot. This direct affirmation aligning DoD with DEIA binds the fate of this dark religion to the institution. Professionals are required to abide by policy. Leaders are expected to promote it. Anything less undermines confidence in the institution, remember? Those with the moral courage to take a stand against such policies that rape the spirit and letter of the Constitution we all swore to defend are few and far between. Nobody wants to give anyone the impression that they are *gasp* unprofessional. Those who are so bold are unlikely to survive in the “up or out” officer corps that dooms the career of anyone who sufficiently rankles the wrong person at the wrong time.

But Isn’t Diversity and Inclusion Good?

No. For the military unity is good. Diversity and inclusion are acceptable so long as they don’t interfere with unity. In practice, the promotion of diversity and inclusion is directly antagonistic to unity. Small unit cohesion is the only thing that sustains will in a prolonged fight, so if we’re serious about fighting, we need to be serious about unity. Focus on DEIA will make the development of meaningful small unit cohesion impossible. In fact, unless DEIA is outright condemned it is unlikely that any small unit cohesion will develop given the extent to which trust has been destroyed throughout the organization. But this simply isn’t possible. To condemn DEIA would be certain career suicide for any senior leader who dared try it. This is much worse than the omnipresent abstruse threat of actual suicide, because you never really know what caused an actual suicide. Certainly not failure to condemn DEIA as the proxy attack on traditional American and military culture that it is.⁸ The table is set and no available moves will free the DoD of the Marxist scourge that now controls it. There is only one thing left to do.

Flip the Table

Remember how all this started out? It all started as an elaborate confidence trick, and that is still what it is at a fundamental level. They need the con to work to defraud their victim. In this case, they need the American people to give them power that they most certainly aim to abuse. Our military, like academia, had the trust and respect of the American people. A People too content with the status quo to rise up and overthrow a Republic obstructing the path to Progress with its backwards fixation on life, liberty, and property. The inability to let go of these obstacles to Progress couldn’t be allowed to stand in the way of human society’s transcendence from mundane groups of individuals to a divine and glorious collective. The unholy union between an ideology that inverts victimhood and virtue to siphon social power from competent to crazy and an internationalist elite that has become softer than baby shit since the reality test inherent to a multipolar world faded with the fall of the USSR is complete, and they have total control over every institution. United by their enmity for nature and natural rights that rightly portrays them as the cretins and criminals that they are, they gleefully silence and destroy anyone who stands in their way. They guard all the doors and they hold all the keys.

But they have a weakness. Their continued ability to rape and plunder the world towards certain doom is dependent upon one thing: Public confidence in the institutions that they so painstakingly captured. This confidence is hemorrhaging rapidly from the grievous wounds inflicted upon said public accelerating with the explosion of every trust grenade. Many professionals who mean well try to play the rigged game by working to restore or maintain what little confidence is left in the flagging institutions they are dedicated to. This amounts to little more than applying tourniquets to doomed men, perhaps convincing some it will be all right just before they expire. It is time to reject this game and flip the table. It is time to start speaking truth to power. Truth that will unavoidably erode the credibility of institutions that are hopelessly off course. It is the reflex of the consummate professional to conceive of this as the gravest sin, but it isn’t. This reflex is what motivated the enemy to capture our most venerated institutions in the first place, and it needs to be turned on its head.

Confidence = the Con

Leaders at every level should be doing what they can to tell the truth as they see it. If our institutions have fallen into the hands of the enemies of liberty then it must be said. An unavoidable consequence is that confidence in these institutions will be undermined. Attempts to tell the truth in the military will be squelched with accusations that doing so is unprofessional, a danger to national security, and contrary good order and discipline. This is an inversion of the reality our enemies seek to deny in their ignoble quest. A true professional doesn’t allow his profession to be perverted into a weapon meant to murder its original purpose. The true danger to national security is confronting domestic threats to the Constitution with a silence born of ambivalence, ignorance, cowardice, or apathy. The true threat to good order and discipline is the leader who tosses trust grenades into his formation with a winsome smile promising he cares about his troops more than he cares about his career.

Telling the Truth

As the saying goes, truth is treason in the empire of lies. Telling the truth about such matters as a professional is very difficult. It is a task that is beyond many, including some who have my respect. There is an inescapable feeling that telling the truth to those who are unlikely to hear it is futile. I disagree with this. Speaking the truth as we understand it sharpens our own mind and conscience. It invites others to identify areas where we may have it wrong facilitating refinement and growth. The enemies of liberty that control our institutions don’t value feedback because they don’t need it. They are certain they are right, and that is what makes me so confident that they are wrong. To tell the truth you don’t have to provide solutions and you don’t have to provide evidence. Globohomo makes incredibly bold claims regularly with no evidence. Reference the White House DEIA support statement above. Does anyone try to justify how these policies increase the strength of our military, or do they just assume it to be so? Merely pointing out this assumption lacks factual basis is a truth. If you still feel like you don’t have anything to say, then why not support those who are doing their best to tell the truth in and around the military? Such individuals include

David Beckerman

, Mark Bashaw,

Dude

,

Ivan Raiklin

,

Paulos

,

Darin Gaub

,

Brad Miller

, Matthew Lohmeier,

Sam Sigoloff

, and Rob Green (whose recent book is a quintessential example of a military professional speaking truth to power):

Defending the Constitution Behind Enemy Lines

For a group of retired military professionals particularly keyed in to the devastating effects of CRT on military readiness check out Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services (STARRS). The folks over at Terminal X are worth checking out as well.

Oh, and if you’re interested in hearing more from me:

And if you know someone who might find this article thought provoking, why not

1. Or really just professional norms. The progressive qualifier is to be assumed at this point, the reward for decades of deliberate incremental cultural subversion.

2. I think managerial liberalism can be fairly characterized by its imperative to employ scientific-technocratic superiority to serve the oppressed masses of the world in the name of progress. Just like with race Marxism, the underlying reason the elite have adopted these assumptions is because it is an endlessly effective way to undermine classically liberal values in the pursuit of gross self-interest while appearing to advocate for the very same demotic values you are in the process of destroying.

3. If the results of a scientific experiment aren’t replicable, there are only two possible explanations; fraud, or incompetence. Both are a predictable consequence of institutional capture by the unenlightened.

4. As a professional, any attack on the profession is in a way an attack on yourself.

5. There are always consequences for spurning lady reality. Those who make a habit of denying her benefit tremendously from the fact that officers move jobs every year or two.

6. F15s, F16s, F18s, A10s, and BFVs (that aren’t complete deathtraps) were all born of Boyd and his acolytes, Pierre Sprey (A10) and Jim Burton (BFV) specifically.

7. As did select DoD leaders with certain stock options

8. You could also say it is a proxy attack on heterosexual white men, who I am reasonably confident make up the majority of military suicides over the last 2 years.