Is Military Recruitment Down Because 'Woke,' Or Because Rightwing Bigots Are GIANT DIAPER BABIES?

It's the second one.

One of the more popular ideas on the Right lately has been that the United States military is just getting too   woke . They point to various commercials they thought were not macho enough, they make jokes about a they/them army, they cry about how Russia's military recruitment ads are so much more manly than our own.

Last night, on her show on Fox News, Laura Ingraham blathered on about how military recruitment was suffering because all of the really cool macho guys who would join up are put off by general wokeness in the armed forces these days.

Transcript via Media Matters:  

The fact of the matter is, in large part our military is suffering a severe recruitment crisis because our military leadership is more focused on being woke and following Dr. Fauci than winning wars. [...]

They're using cartoons. Why is having two mommies relevant at all? The answer is, it's not. So, that would definitely get an A as, like, a woman studies project, but it fails in the recruiting soldiers department.
The fact is, our military leadership has just rolled over for the most radical left-wing ideas out there. And within our military, including at our military academies, they are actively teaching CRT and actively promoting the trans and sexual identity agenda.

Now, I can think of a few reasons why people might not be scrambling to join the military right now — a big one being the Iraq War, and how it didn't make people feel particularly jazzed about war or joining the military. Hell, even US conservatives have become increasingly non-interventionist — less for reasons of caring whether people live or die, but as part of their "America First" nonsense. To boot, we are not actively involved in any wars likely to inspire people to want to run off and risk their lives.

However! Perhaps there are other reasons why the military is going this route. Perhaps they don't want to recruit a bunch of babies who freak out over Heather having two mommies, or those who are so unpatriotic and so selfish that they would refuse a vaccine they know could save not only their own lives, but the lives of others? Hmm? I mean, is the kind of person who would faint over the mere existence of Laverne Cox really going to be able to get it together to do some of the things required of those who join the military? I don't think so! Bigots are babies .

I mean, just look at these babies having full on tantrums over Drag Queen Story Hour at a local library.

“The men who stormed into “Drag Queen Story Hour” at the San Lorenzo Library were described as members of the Proud Boys Organization. @ACSOSheriffs says an active hate crime investigation is underway. Im told this video was taken once the situation was “calmer.””

— Stephanie Magallon (@Stephanie Magallon) 1655064191 

Toughen the hell up, fellas! It's just a drag queen. One would imagine that people in combat see a lot worse than a drag queen reading "Little Red Riding Hood."

Also, for the last several decades, these sorts of bigots have insisted that gay people would be a distraction to them, that trans people would be a distraction to them. If that is the case, what wouldn't be a distraction to them? I have pretty severe ADHD and while I can be easily distracted by a bird or something that happened on an episode of "America's Next Top Model" 15 years ago or links in a Wikipedia article or the fact that I really need to do a wardrobe purge, I remain entirely unfazed by the existence of LGBTQ people. Seems like a bad idea for military readiness to have people who are worse than I am about being distracted.

Not to mention the fact that the US military already has enough lawsuits and bad press on its hands as a result of the behavior of bigots. That's not good for business.

 As I wrote the last time all of this came up:  

Nearly one in four servicewomen report having been sexually assaulted in the military. The GAO reports that women are 28 percent more likely to leave military service than are men, with most citing "family planning, lack of dependent care, sexism and sexual assault" as their reason for leaving.

And racism? Oh boy is there ever still racism. Just last year, a report on the Virginia Military Institute found widespread racism (and sexual assault) issues on campus, with one (white) cadet saying that he hears the "n-word" spoken by other white cadets “10 times a day from various people, that’s not an exaggeration.” [...]

Another report, this one conducted by Blue Star Families, found that 42 percent of service members of color had turned down assignments due to concerns about racism.
 
As for LGBTQ rights, sure — gay people and trans people are now allowed to serve openly in the military — but as of a 2020 study, 59 percent of LGBTQ servicemembers stay in the closet at work, for fear of repercussions.

Oh, and let's not even get started on the problem of white supremacist extremism in the military, what with many of our own homegrown terrorists joining up so they can learn how to kill us all better.

That's not helpful. Bad press and lawsuits are surely a hindrance to military readiness. Perhaps they are teaching things like critical race theory in certain academic military classes not because they are so fabulously woke, but because they don't want to keep having to deal with this bullshit.

Not being vaccinated is also a hindrance to military readiness. If someone infects a whole platoon because they didn't want to get their "Fauci ouchies" (as they call them because they are very grownup), that's not too great. Especially if some of those troops get long COVID and then have to possibly drop out of the military for an extended period of time.

Perhaps the reason the military is looking to recruit "woke" types is because they don't need to be coddled quite as much as those who think they are super macho do.

[ Media Matters ]

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