124 retired flag officers sign an open letter bemoaning the state of the US and its radical turn towards socialism and Marxism. Space Force Commander Matthew Lohmeier is removed from his post for self-publishing a book about Marxism in the military. It’s 2021 - should the US military be afraid of Karl Marx? I talk with retired Army officer and Havok Journal writer Christopher Otero about the threat – or lack thereof – that Marx plays in today’s military.
We talked about Critical Race Theory and it’s Marxist origins, we talk about the Constitution, the Civil War, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights movement, we talk about America. I asked Charlie for a guest I could play tennis with, and Chris was that guest. It was a pleasure and I think you’re going to hear just about the best arguments that can be made from both the right and the left.
I had never met Chris before, but I had read a lot of his writing. He’s unknowingly been my touchstone at Havok Journal for many the arguments I don’t agree with. So I looked forward to this a lot and he was a complete gentleman. We found things to agree on, we found things to disagree on and we reminded ourselves that you can talk about delicate political issues honestly and with conviction when you’re aware that we are all more than our politics and that our discussion isn’t more important than our common civic bond.
Have a listen here.
Show Alibis
I sometimes take it for granted that everyone listening knows who I’m talking about when I refer to “Charlie.” Previous listeners should know by now that I’m talking about Charlie Faint, the owner of Havok Journal.
So why didn’t Charlie ride shotgun with me this week? There are times when the subject matter cuts a little too close to the bone for an active duty officer at West Point and this was one of those times. It’s always nice to have Charlie on, but with him absent, I had the opportunity to poke fun at his calculated, political stance of radical neutrality. Just wait until he’s retired and he can let the expletives fly (or not, as the case may be).
Chris professionally steered us back on topic at the end of the episode and I’m glad at least one of us was fulfilling the obligation to our listeners to actually talk about our subject. So I can’t blame him for not also helping us dive further into the open letter from the 124 flag officers. I don’t know when I’ll have the chance to rant about it again, so let me make one point about one of the complaints #milTwitter had regarding the letter. #milTwitter incessantly ridiculed the hypocrisy of flag officers who made their living in a “socialist utopia” only to bash it after they retired – a bit of pro-socialist smart-assery that doesn’t exactly refute the signatories’ concern about socialism’s growing influence in the ranks. This reheated troll of an argument – it got really popular with a certain type of wavetops-level intellectual circa 2014 when Jacob Siegal wrote a piece for The Daily Beast called “Troops of the Uniform Unite! The Military Is a Socialist Paradise!” – seems to have been repeated enough to be taken seriously, so it is worth taking a moment to let the air out of its tires.
It does not make one a hypocrite to condemn socialism while serving (or having served) in the military any more than it makes one a hypocrite to condemn communism after being raised in, you know, a family, since all families are essentially communist in practice (that whole, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” thing. Or did your parents make you pay for...
