Earlier this fall, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth addressed the military at Quantico. His speech (now required reading for members of the armed forces) railed against the “Woke Department” — his nickname for the old, bad, Department of Defense. According to Hegseth, the mission of the Trump administration is now to “remove the social justice, politically correct, and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department, to rip out the politics. No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. … As I've said before and will say again, we are done with that s***.”
What is here to replace “that s***”? Preparing for war. Guided by the War Department’s new so-called Golden Rule: “Do unto your unit as you would have done unto your own child's unit. …we must restore a ruthless, dispassionate and common sense application of standards. I don't want my son serving alongside troops who are out of shape or in a combat unit with females who can't meet the same combat arms physical standards as men,” Hegseth elaborated. (If that taste has left you wanting more, you can read the full speech here.)
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Then, this past weekend, as millions of Americans were out participating in No Kings demonstrations, Vice President JD Vance addressed a crowd of Marines in California. Vance, who is a Marine veteran himself, shared some brief snippets of his time in the Corps — including a story about waiting in line to attend church services on a Sunday morning. “Back then there were two lines, there was the Catholic line and there was the Protestant line. And I remember we all get into our lines and there's one recruit who's just standing there by himself.” Vance said. “And the drill instructor says, ‘Hey, what the hell are you doing?’ And the recruit said, ‘This recruit is an atheist.’ And the drill instructor says, ‘Bulls***. Get in the Catholic line.’”
Those were the good ol’ days, Vance seemed to be suggesting — an era stamped out by the Biden administration. And the moral of the story, he concluded, was that “It is not our diversity that makes us stronger. It is our common purpose, it is our common mission, it is the fact that every single person here bleeds Marine Corps green.”
In some ways, the messaging of both Vance and Hegseth is incredibly clear: Diversity bad. Unity good. Standards high. But in other ways, the message is strategically vague. A common purpose makes warriors stronger. But what is that common purpose, really?
I highly doubt many Americans enlisted in the military inspired by the idea that they would some day be united in a "common mission" to target their fellow countrymen. Then again, no one’s ever accused me of having a true warrior mentality. So what do I know?
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ON THE POD
Courtesy of Cindy Fatsis and Grove Atlantic
Who’s in charge of defining racial slurs? Whether it’s heated debates about racist or ableist language, arguments about gender, or even new kinds of profanity, dictionary editors have been at the center of these fights for a long time. So this week on the show, we talk to Stefan Fatsis, the author of Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary, for a deep dive on how the word nerds at America's premier dictionary wrestle with what to do with divisive words.
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That's it for today, fam. Let's all try to get some rest this weekend. Maybe unite in the common purpose of trying to figure out a good Halloween costume. In the meantime, you can always send me your thoughts, ideas, critiques and burning questions at CodeSwitch@npr.org.
I'll be back with bells on next week. Meet you here.
-Leah Donnella, senior editor
Written by Leah Donnella and editedby Dalia Mortada
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