No, Not Consistency!

The Pentagon is worried.
During military training sessions to address extremism in the ranks, some service members have challenged why the Pentagon is not treating the violence during racial injustice protests last summer as equal to the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol. 

That the two events are viewed as equivalent by some troops has caught the Pentagon’s attention in its effort to educate service members that extremist views and activity — on either side of the political spectrum — go against the oath they took when they joined the military, the top enlisted leader told reporters on Thursday.

“This is coming from every echelon that we’re talking to,” said Ramón Colón-López, the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Possibly you should listen, if in fact every echelon is telling you the exact same thing. 

What, by the way, is "extremism," and why is it forbidden? The military has traditionally permitted extreme pacifists to serve, even accommodating them by finding nonviolent forms of service for them to perform. What exactly is the philosophical principle at work here? Thou shalt not depart from commonly held opinions... well, thou might depart X far, but not X+1? Where is the X? What is the 1? 

3 comments:

  1. Well, really, there's departing from the common opinions of the bad people, which is a heartwarming exercise in standing up to unwoke evil, but that doesn't mean we have to tolerate people departing from the common opinions dear to the right crowd. There has to be a limit. In one case, x times a zillion is fine. In the other, x + 1 is already completely out of bounds.

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  2. Gringo12:47 AM

    There has to be a limit. In one case, x times a zillion is fine. In the other, x + 1 is already completely out of bounds.
    LOL. I didn't realize that an attorney could have a mathematically oriented sense of humor.

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  3. There is a perception issue I had not realised had permeated the military as much as it has.

    A person of the right, looking at someone to the left of him, thinks of that person as merely "wrongheaded" for quite a long way before they start thinking of them as extremist. This is true even of the far right. This is especially true if they have any redeeming features, even if they are quite leftist, like an Andrew Yang or a Tulsi Gabbard.

    A person of the left looking rightward thinks of that person as "extremist" pretty quickly. When I was a liberal I thought of Bob Dole and Bush 41 as far-right, for example. This seems to get worse every year.

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