Maddow Blog-Pete Hegseth's 'warrior ethos' is increasingly focused on banning books

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Last edited Sat May 10, 2025, 09:02 PM - Edit history (1)

For all of the defense secretary's interest in a “warrior ethos,” he seems to spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on banning books.
https://bsky.app/profile/nodderuf.bsky.social/post/3lore2vydac2u

No warriors that I've known have ever been afraid of a book, even if they knew how powerful words can be.

Pete Hegseth’s ‘warrior ethos’ is increasingly focused on banning books

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/pete-hegseths-warrior-ethos-increasingly-focused-banning-books-rcna205939

The New York Times reported this week about the ongoing challenges at West Point, as the U.S. Military Academy struggles to comply with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s culture war agenda. Classes have been scrapped midsemester; works from well-known Black authors have been purged from the English department; a history professor was told not to mention atrocities committed against Native Americans; and another professor was told not to mention specific novelists whose work is out of step with Team Trump’s sensibilities.....

These were not isolated incidents, as a new report from The Associated Press makes clear.

The Pentagon has ordered all military leaders and commands to pull and review all of their library books that address diversity, anti-racism or gender issues by May 21, according to a memo issued to the force on Friday. It is the broadest and most detailed directive so far on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s campaign to rid the military of diversity and equity programs, policies and instructional materials. And it follows similar efforts to remove hundreds of books from the libraries at the military academies.

Last month, Amid personnel turmoil at the Pentagon, multiple and intensifying controversies and fresh calls for his resignation, Hegseth spoke to U.S. troops at the Army War College, where he delivered an “expletive-laden address” about how pleased he is with recent efforts. The beleaguered Pentagon chief concluded, “We are laser-focused on our mission of warfighting.”

Except, that’s clearly not the case. Hegseth is certainly “laser-focused” on several priorities, but combat doesn’t appear to make the list.

On the contrary, the former Fox News personality appears preoccupied with some cartoonishly absurd priorities such as scrubbing Defense Department websites of articles and images about Jackie Robinson and the Navajo Code Talkers. As Politico reported, Colin Carroll, the former chief of staff to the deputy defense secretary who was fired last month, recently said that Hegseth was obsessed with the spread of leaks and spent half his time investigating them at the detriment of defense priorities.

And the Cabinet secretary appears increasingly fixated on banning books.

For all of Hegseth’s reported interest in “lethality” and championing a hypermasculine “warrior ethos,” in recent months he and the Pentagon have invested a ridiculous amount of time in pursuing petty culture war goals that don’t advance the nation’s national security goals in any way.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Pentagon orders military to pull library books about diversity, anti-racism, gender issue

Hegseth is fighting culture wars and not making our military stronger

Link to tweet

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/pentagon-orders-military-to-pull-library-books-about-diversity-anti-racism-gender-issues

The Pentagon has ordered all military leaders and commands to pull and review all of their library books that address diversity, anti-racism or gender issues by May 21, according to a memo issued to the force on Friday.

It is the broadest and most detailed directive so far on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s campaign to rid the military of diversity and equity programs, policies and instructional materials. And it follows similar efforts to remove hundreds of books from the libraries at the military academies.

READ MORE: Pentagon restores some webpages honoring minority service members but defends DEI purge

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the memo, which was signed Friday by Timothy Dill, who is performing the duties of the defense undersecretary for personnel.

Educational materials at the libraries “promoting divisive concepts and gender ideology are incompatible with the Department’s core mission,” the memo states, adding that department leaders must “promptly identify” books that are not compatible with that mission and sequester them by May 21.

By then, the memo says, additional guidance will be provided on how to cull that initial list and determine what should be removed and “determine an appropriate ultimate disposition” for those materials. It does not say what will happen to the books or whether they will be stored away or destroyed.

[jls4561]

2. Real men ain't skerred of learnin'.

[Demovictory9]

3. he delivered an "expletive-laden address". Im sure that made him feel manly

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4. How does book banning make our military strong?