This post was originally published on https://tftc.io by Marty Bent.

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Key Takeaways

The Problem of DEI in the Military:

• The podcast features Lt. Col. Matt Lohmeier, who addresses the issue of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the military.
• Lohmeier noticed ideological shifts within the military post-George Floyd's death that aligned with the social unrest seen across the country.
• The military began to focus on DEI initiatives after the reversal of Trump's executive order banning critical race theory by President Biden.
• DEI initiatives have led to division and a decrease in morale, impacting recruitment and retention within the military.
• Lohmeier argues that promoting based on race, gender, or sexual preference, instead of merit, undermines the military's effectiveness.
• He suggests that DEI, as it currently stands, is fundamentally racist and diminishes individual agency.

The Need for Strong Military Principles:

• The military's purpose is to fight and win wars; politicizing the military with DEI initiatives corrupts its core mission.
• A strong military requires a merit-based system free from political agendas.
• Lohmeier emphasizes the importance of a strong economy and military might in determining a country's power.
• The conversation also touches on the broader issues facing the United States, such as border security, political sovereignty, and the potential overextension of military forces.

Potential Solutions and Actions:

• Changes at the administration level could reverse damaging policies.
• Grassroots involvement in local government and school boards can protect communities' values.
• Speaking up within the military against politicization and advocating for a return to mission-focused values is crucial.
• Encourages the silent majority to use their voices against the current cultural and political madness.

Links

Follow Matt on Twitter

Check out Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military

Sponsors

Best Quotes

1. "The purpose of the United States military is to fight and win our nation’s wars."
2. "We want a relatively apolitical military. And so when you have an entire industry that is steeped in politics, and in this case, race identity politics, and now every other agenda under the sun... you run into the division that you’re talking about."
3. "There's no logic behind the cult-like ideologically driven policy implementation of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives."
4. "DEI as a construct is extremely racist in and of itself. It completely takes away the agency of individuals... and says we need to make carve-outs to put you individuals in this place."
5. "If you're not doing something unethical or illegal, then you should feel free to use your voice to say, I disagree with what I'm hearing, I disagree with what I'm seeing, and I have a different set of values, and you're offending me."

Conclusion

This rip with Lt. Col. Matt Lohmeier highlights critical concerns regarding DEI initiatives in the U.S. military and their potential to weaken the military's core mission. Lohmeier's insights present a nuanced perspective on the importance of maintaining a merit-based, apolitical military structure to ensure readiness and effectiveness. The conversation also extends to the broader societal and political challenges facing the United States, suggesting that a miracle might be needed to reverse the current trajectory. However, Lohmeier offers practical advice for individuals who wish to enact change, emphasizing the power of local involvement and the necessity for the silent majority to find their voice. The discussion ultimately serves as a call to action for those concerned about the direction of the military and the country, to stand up for their values and work toward solutions that preserve the strength and integrity of the United States.

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro
6:45 - Politics dividing the military
15:57 - Military of the best
22:28 - DEI harms those it “protects”
27:00 - US weakening is rapid and likely intentional
40:15 - What’s making us stronger?
47:12 - First steps to mending
54:18 - Call to the silent majority
50:03 - Money and incentives
1:02:15 - Define your values

Transcript

00:00:00:23 - 00:00:01:03
Matt
Great.

00:00:03:04 - 00:00:05:25
Marty
Lieutenant Colonel Matt Longmire, thank you for joining the show.

00:00:06:14 - 00:00:07:24
Matt
Sure. Happy to be here.

00:00:08:18 - 00:00:32:17
Marty
Well, I saw you were on a subcommittee meeting for national security a couple of weeks ago explaining the problems that you've recognized as it pertains to the military and the encroachment of the I throughout the military. You wrote a book about this subject. It was irresistible Revolution, Marxism, Goal of Conquest and the Unmet Unmaking of the American military.

00:00:32:18 - 00:01:06:03
Marty
So this is a problem you highlighted years ago. Began writing about sort of best seller on the subject. And thankfully, you were at the subcommittee meeting a couple of weeks ago to highlight this problem because it seems like it is a pretty massive problem when you look at recruitment rates and just the as an American citizen is not in the military outside looking in at everything that's been done over the last few years as it pertains to D-I quotas and just what seem like nonsensical decisions that have been made.

00:01:06:04 - 00:01:17:29
Marty
It seems a bit crazy as an insider. Lieutenant Colonel was retired from Space Force that has identified this problem. When did you first recognize this problem and what exactly is the problem in your mind?

00:01:18:22 - 00:01:45:16
Matt
Right. Well, you can spend an hour on a podcast talking about that, or you can spend four months writing a book about it and trying to inform people It's let me try and be succinct. And you think I get better at this, having spoken about it for like hundreds of hours and each new day brings the challenge of making sure I engage my brain properly to try and do the topic justice.

00:01:45:17 - 00:02:12:15
Matt
So I it's probably helpful to say that I had spent 15 years on active duty in uniform before really recognizing that there was this particular problem that we're so readily and easily identifying as diversity, equity and inclusion, industry and training. Today, it's getting a lot of attention on social media primarily, and even in the mainstream media a little bit.

00:02:12:15 - 00:03:05:05
Matt
Occasionally, if it's expedient or politically expedient, let's say. But it was to answer your question directly, it was in the summer of 2021, right after George Floyd's death that I noticed the same spiritual, energetic, ideological impulse that was tearing down the country in one sense through the smashing of windows and toppling of or the toppling of statues, the burning and flipping of police cars that people were seeing and the news being reported on in that late spring and summer time of 2020 in which the death of a black man was used as a pretext by left wing activists and anarchists to create strife, division, contention throughout the country.

00:03:05:05 - 00:03:38:19
Matt
That same spirit and energy was very apparently manifest in the United States military all throughout every branch of the military in the uniformed services. And apparently also and I didn't know it at the time, throughout the federal agencies and in the fall of that year, President Trump issued an executive order banning critical race theory training, spanning anti-American trainings and the uniformed services and all federal agencies banning sex and race scapegoating as the way it was termed in his executive order.

00:03:38:20 - 00:04:01:07
Matt
And that came at a time that provided great relief to the men and women in uniform because we had started to notice that our morale was being eroded and people were being divided about political talking points, ideological talking points. And so, by and large, that executive order helped kind of calm things in the fall of 2020 leading up to the election.

00:04:01:24 - 00:04:26:13
Matt
And that was reversed by policy, by executive fiat on January 20th of 2021 by Joe Biden. So that's probably a good starting place. There's a thousand things that could be said about any number of those points that I've made. So if you want to dive into any of those specific points, we can or or I'll continue to elaborate.

00:04:27:04 - 00:04:54:05
Marty
Well, I think before we dive into the specific points I get back to first principles is viewing the military and what it's trying to achieve and who it's trying to bring together. You would imagine that armed forces, the individuals that make up the military, come from both sides of the political spectrum. And they they agree that they want to protect the country and the ideals that it was founded on.

00:04:54:05 - 00:05:19:15
Marty
And the rights that it's trying to protect and sort of have this bipartisan agreement by servicemen and women to to protect that. And the thought of this very hyper political ized movement eating into that, it seems like it's corrupting something that's very pure and very important to achieve the goals that the military sets out to achieve.

00:05:20:02 - 00:05:43:05
Matt
Great points, and I'll elaborate on that just a little bit. I want to say a few things that are rather definitive. The purpose of the United States military is to fight and win our nation's wars. That's that's why states have militaries. And when I say states, I'm speaking of states in the international political sense, international relations speak sense.

00:05:45:11 - 00:06:10:20
Matt
We need to be able to fight and win our nations wars. We hope through policy and through a strong military and a strong economy to deter violent conflict. And if deterrence fails, then you have a strong military to fight and win nations wars. They have military objectives that are employed, that are achieved in pursuit of certain political aims.

00:06:11:13 - 00:06:41:07
Matt
So I want to go back to what you said about a kind of bipartisan contract between service members to do that job that they have. You can look at it that way in one sense, although there are many men and women in uniform who would rather be apolitical. And in fact, the obligation of those that serve in uniform is that in their day to day work life in the military workplace, they remain relatively apolitical.

00:06:41:07 - 00:07:11:24
Matt
And I say relatively compared to the American people who are welcome to argue and bicker and complain and and fight with one another over policy and political ideas and agendas. And over which candidates are the best to be in office. They're welcome to those views as service members individually and in their private life. But what they are legally obligated to do is to avoid overt politics in the military workplace, because, as you've heard before, religion and politics divide.

00:07:11:24 - 00:07:37:16
Matt
And so we don't talk about them at the dinner table except in the best of company. And so that's good advice for the men and women in uniform as well. We want a relatively apolitical military. And so when you have an entire industry that is steeped in politics and in this case race, identity politics and now every other agenda under the sun, identity politics that have various letters and things attached to their identities and their political agendas.

00:07:38:25 - 00:08:18:05
Matt
In fact, I was just reading something about queer theory and the queer agenda yesterday. It was an academic writing. It wasn't a screed by any means or by any stretch of the imagination. And the queer theorists themselves define and pursue their agenda, which they define as against normativity, against the normal cultural, social bearing that any society has. The queer agenda is to disrupt and and agitate against what is considered normal and hence the term queer.

00:08:18:06 - 00:08:33:16
Matt
It's different, it's odd. It's, you know, it always meant something else other than what we typically think of in our mind today. So my my point in bringing all of that up is you want the man and woman in uniform to not get caught up in all of that and simply be focused on being a good aircraft mechanic.

00:08:33:25 - 00:09:01:05
Matt
Simply be focused on being a good space operator and provide GPS to troops downrange and to American citizens and our allies. You want people to fly their planes and not worry about this. So when you have an overtly political administration, every administration is political. When you have an an administration overtly politicized through policy, the military workplace, then you run into the division that you're talking about that impacts recruitment.

00:09:01:07 - 00:09:12:04
Matt
It impacts our troops willingness to be retained retention and to continue serving and and a host of other problems we'll probably get into.

00:09:12:27 - 00:09:28:23
Marty
Yeah. So what is the justification for these policies from the the politicians who've enacted them and you mentioned earlier that it was dicta, it wasn't really voted on, didn't go through Congress and go through.

00:09:28:24 - 00:09:45:04
Matt
No, no, no. Yeah, it wasn't through Congress. Yeah, it was. It was a presidential edict. It was a it was it's an executive order. I mean, the executive branch has this authority to issue executive orders. Unfortunately, you can do a lot of damage and you can do a lot of good with that.

00:09:49:12 - 00:10:19:19
Matt
I don't like the answer I'm about to give. Maybe because it's it might seem like a non-answer, but it's not. There is no logic, at least decent logic. There's no logic behind the cultlike ideological ideologically driven policy implementation of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. And I want to I want to give you an example just keeps coming back to my mind.

00:10:19:19 - 00:10:50:10
Matt
And I almost said it right when we began. If you'll stick with me for just a minute on this, it'll seem like a tangent at first, but I just finished reading the book of First Samuel, and in that record you've got a body of people who are interested in their national identity. It was the children of Israel. You had a unique relationship that that body of people had with other nations.

00:10:50:10 - 00:11:09:08
Matt
They didn't have a king. This is before Saul becomes the first king in Israel and the children of Israel demand the king of the prophet Samuel. And so Samuel says, I don't think that's a good idea. Well, he goes and talks to the Lord about things, and he says they want a king and the Lord says, Well, give them a king.

00:11:09:13 - 00:11:30:26
Matt
It's not you that they reject. That's me. And there's a point I'm making about diversity, equity and inclusion. As I as I tell the story. Then the Lord informs Samuel what's going to happen when they select a king. He tells them all sorts of things. I won't get into that. Samuel then reports back to the children of Israel and he says, Hey, I'll give you a king.

00:11:30:26 - 00:11:50:23
Matt
He goes and anoint Saul. And then he tells the children of Israel. Now, let me tell you what's going to happen now that you've set up a king. And the reason they wanted a king is because it says in the text they wanted to be like other nations. So they get a king and all of the surrounding, I'll call them Arab, although I know that's incorrect.

00:11:50:28 - 00:12:16:25
Matt
The surrounding Arab world from the kings of Gath to the kings of Amman to the kings of Moab and to other surrounding nations, all come to war against the children of Israel who now have a king for themselves. And what the Lord tells Samuel to tell the children of Israel is tell them that the King will take your best men and use them for his wars, because that's the only way he's going to be able to keep his kingdom intact.

00:12:17:21 - 00:12:39:09
Matt
And I reflected on that when I got to that part. The idea of taking the best men. And I thought any sane ruler will always, when it comes to military, might take the best of the best. The strong men, those who love and are willing to die for their country, those who are willing to put their neck on their line for the king, and in our case in this country.

00:12:39:09 - 00:12:59:23
Matt
Back to some of what we've been talking about. It's not for an administration, as K.J. just said, in one of our stupid press conferences where she wasn't sure what to call the the the dead service members. She wasn't even sure how to refer to these these men and women in uniform. It's not OBE obeisance to an administration in this country.

00:12:59:23 - 00:13:32:17
Matt
It's an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That's the oath that our service members take. And so they learn. They're trained to take that seriously. And then they see politics come in that look like domestic enemies, and they see something called diversity equity and inclusion trainings. And here's the point. They think, why in the world would we destroy a merit based promotion system, merit based selection system, putting our best foot forward on the world stage in order to deter conflict and hopefully win conflict of deterrence fails?

00:13:32:29 - 00:14:05:27
Matt
Why would we pursue racial quotas? Why would we pursue sex preference and gender affiliation quotas and make sure we diminish the number of white pilots from 85% to 67.5%. That was directly out of the mouth of the Air Force spokesperson. By the way, when service members of any race and any political demographic see that kind of rhetoric and see that kind of an ideological underpinning of policy decisions, it totally the spirit's them at totally wrecks the morale that undermines good order and discipline.

00:14:05:27 - 00:14:29:10
Matt
And they think, why would I want to stick around in a military that might ask me to go downrange and have bombs dropped on my head? Why would I want to serve? And and a regime that doesn't want the best of us in those seats, but is interested more in race, identity politics. That's a that's an impasse. That's why I say at the beginning, there's no logic to the decision.

00:14:29:10 - 00:14:51:22
Matt
It's cult like it's religious, like it's an ideological rooted policy decision. And it says that and it's Marxist, which is why I wrote my book. It's that we've got an oppressed class and we've got an oppressor class. And unfortunately, in cultural Marxism, it's not it's it's no longer the economic class stratification of Marx and Engels. 1848 Communist Manifesto.

00:14:52:10 - 00:15:25:22
Matt
It is a race based oppressor versus oppressed system. And the most blatant lie of all that has been that has been continually resurrected by race hustlers and politicians is that, well, one group of people will call them white and another group of people will call them black. And now people of color are oppressors and oppressed. And so we need to change through policy, the race demographic of our services to make things more equitable and equitable is forced equality of outcomes.

00:15:25:23 - 00:15:44:21
Matt
There's a whole lot to get into there, but I, I just couldn't help but reflect on the sanity of choosing the best for your military and the insanity and lunacy of selecting people based on any other selection process or reason or notion or model other than merit.

00:15:46:10 - 00:16:13:21
Marty
And when you think about it, DIY as a construct is extremely racist in and of itself. Completely takes away the agency of individuals of any race, gender, sexual preference, whatever it may be, and says we need to make carve outs to put you individuals in this place. It really denigrates, again, the agency of the individual at the end of the day.

00:16:14:05 - 00:16:35:06
Matt
Well, let me share another example of how it is detrimental to good order and discipline in the military workplace. And it's true for academia. It's true in an industry. Let's suppose that you are a person of color. I don't even like using these terms that have been foisted upon us. But let's say you're a black American or let's say you're a mexican female American.

00:16:35:06 - 00:16:54:00
Matt
I'm picking these very deliberately because of my time in command in the Space Force and some of the interaction I had with my troops. And let's say that this DTI training is telling you that you've been held down by the white male because of systemic racism in society. So you're thinking about that. You're in uniform, you've shown up to do your work, but you've taken a knee because you have a down day.

00:16:55:11 - 00:17:15:27
Matt
And the secretary of Defense has directed all service members to consider the ways in which we can heal ourselves of our systemic racist problems. So you've got a black male, you've got a mexican female. They've done quite well in their military career up to this point in time. They've promoted, they've been rewarded, they've been awarded, they've been promoted.

00:17:15:27 - 00:17:34:09
Matt
They've been selected for various programs, officers, jobs because they've performed well. And now we start to establish quotas or hint that there are racial goals. They call them goals because they know that they can get in trouble legally when they establish racial quotas. It's in violation of Civil Rights Act. It's in violation of other law that we have.

00:17:34:27 - 00:17:53:29
Matt
And so they don't like to use the term quota. And that's one of the things that came up in my recent congressional hearing. So you've got these people that say, hey, like up until now, I think that it wasn't because of my race or the way that I look or my gender or my sexual preference that I've been selected for this job or that I've been promoted to this rank.

00:17:53:29 - 00:18:28:03
Matt
But moving forward, I'm not sure anymore if it's going to be based on my performance or based on my ethnicity. Think about how deleterious that is to the military workplace, and I'll give you one more example that's shorter. If you have a I'm using race now, just because this is it's such a prevalent object of relevance anymore in our current ongoing dialog, it never really mattered before 2020, as far as I was concerned in the military.

00:18:28:04 - 00:18:51:25
Matt
Like we didn't talk about race, we just didn't talk. I knew personally a black couple, man and wife who were being subjected to Lloyd Austin's Diversity equity and inclusion trainings in my unit, and I tried to safeguard people from my unit, but there are base wide events. There are other trainings, guest speakers that are invited in and they can go to these things if they want to.

00:18:51:26 - 00:19:24:09
Matt
You can't tell them, you know, stay here, lock the door and don't don't expose yourself to this stuff. And one member of that family bought in and started to view the workplace as an oppressive environment in which she was the object of the scrutiny of white people. And the other member, the husband said, I'm not sure I buy into this training, and I think it's been unhealthy for my wife to buy into this training.

00:19:24:27 - 00:19:53:00
Matt
And so it set the husband and the wife at odds because they had ideology to argue over now. And and and and I looked at that as a commander. I thought, how do you solve. Now I've got marriage problems within my unit. It's not just about like distracting from the training mission that we're trying to accomplish. I got people who are having marital problems and all of that has ripples effect through the military workplace.

00:19:53:00 - 00:20:11:02
Matt
So you get feedback and you say, Hey, this is hurting morale that's dividing people in this area. What are we supposed to do about it? And it's like, well, I mean, we are the leaders, after all. We should be able to do something about it. No, but we're just following orders. You know, we're taking orders from the secretary of defense and from the Biden regime.

00:20:11:03 - 00:20:15:12
Matt
Well, so you have to do something about it. People have to speak up.

00:20:16:06 - 00:20:52:11
Marty
Yeah. And it seems like this this whole trend has happened rather quickly. You keep going up to 2020 and 2021, and it seems like it has had material effects on the military, the quality of the people who are enlisted, and even more so. I mentioned it earlier, but preventing people from signing up in the first place. And so how we use the word deleterious, how deleterious could this be to the quality of the United States military if things don't go back to the way they were rather quickly?

00:20:53:03 - 00:21:28:19
Matt
Consider this equation. Not only did we have race identity politics show up in the uniformed services at that time, summer of 2020. I mean, the seeds had been planted long ago. We could trace through some of the history. I don't know that it's necessary, but, you know, I can point back to 2011, during the last Obama Biden administration in which there is a military leadership and diversity commission established in which they began to go through all of the regulations and D.O.D. instructions and redefine terms like diversity, equity and inclusion.

00:21:28:19 - 00:21:50:23
Matt
So there are there are points in time you can certainly point to, but the seeds had to be sown through the soil over a long period of time so that at the right crisis or set of crises, they could begin to sprout and be be nurtured and and kind of take over the garden, these weeds that grow up.

00:21:51:09 - 00:22:09:23
Matt
It's like, where did they all come from? All of a sudden? It's like, well, the seeds had to be planted a long time ago and the soil had to be prepared and broken up properly so that they could so that they could actually sprout. But you consider the equation. You had race identity politics in the form of diversity and inclusion trainings.

00:22:10:15 - 00:22:37:11
Matt
You had mask mandates that were showing up not just across the entire globe, but I mean, not just in the military workplace, but across the entire globe. You had mask mandates, yet you had coerced shots, you had forced separation distance, social distancing that on some military bases like my own turned into an aggressive totalitarian regime, like don't go outside of your house on base without your mask, on your face.

00:22:37:11 - 00:23:05:15
Matt
And if you're caught socializing with people, you're going to be in big trouble. So we had lonely families. We had all of those things underway in the lead up to a presidential election and in the aftermath of a presidential election. And now, as we approach another presidential election and people wonder the things that are happening from our border to the over, now we've got an overextension of military forces abroad.

00:23:06:13 - 00:23:29:03
Matt
And so all of the things that took place three years ago and four years ago that led to terrible recruitment, terrible retention, which almost it's like, is it really by chance that all of this kind of compounded at once, or was it a deliberate weakening of the military strength of the United States and the economic strength of the United States and the social and cultural cohesion of the United States in the Western world, generally speaking?

00:23:30:02 - 00:23:52:17
Matt
And however you want to answer that question, QUESTION consider the fact that it's hurt our readiness. The Heritage Foundation puts out annual reports about US military strength. It's called the index of U.S. military strength. And so the Air Force for the US military is rated as weak in this independent assessment last year and now we're very weak, I think is that Heritage just put out the new report.

00:23:52:17 - 00:24:25:13
Matt
I've not yet read it, which means we're not capable of successfully waging conflict in in other in any major regional conflict in the world. And at the time that we're so weak, we can't even successfully wage a major regional conflict. We have multiple conflicts that we are starting to get involved in, in various regions around the globe that involve proxy wars with our great competitors, Russia and China and Middle Eastern foes in a conflict in Israel.

00:24:26:21 - 00:25:01:26
Matt
I mean, if you couldn't tee up a better recipe for disaster for this country than to cripple us in our recruitment and readiness, to cripple us economically, to weaken us militarily, and then to overextend us on the world stage. I mean, I reflect on through Saturday's history of the Peloponnesian War and the downfall of the Athenians as they it with some tangible degree of hubris overextended themselves on the world stage, even while they have their own domestic conflict and strife.

00:25:02:12 - 00:25:27:21
Matt
And I just I think, man, there's nothing new under the sun. We're teeing up a disaster for us and we're allowing millions of people to come into the country while we're doing that. There's a at least a two tiered justice system in which certain people go unpunished for terrible crimes and the most decent of citizens who are law abiding citizens like you and me, it's easy to hold us accountable for violating, violating law.

00:25:28:09 - 00:25:49:03
Matt
And so it will continue to be us who are held accountable, that we continue to be us who pay taxes, whether or not those who are here illegally ever have to pay a dime. In fact, they're given taxpayer dollars. So forgive me for a moment because I've just kind of like all of a sudden there's this whole panorama that opens up to view as we start talking about all these problems that we face.

00:25:49:03 - 00:26:06:12
Matt
I've been literally quite focused on the military problem specifically, but I'm very aware of the fact that it's one slice of the overarching pie of problems for the United States right now at this juncture in history. It's it's really serious problems we're facing.

00:26:07:08 - 00:26:39:15
Marty
Now. You're mentioning history rhyming, and that's a subject we cover a lot here. Obviously, Bitcoin podcasts focus on economic and financial side of things, particularly the monetary situation and ancient Rome right before Rome fell, very similar problems overextended its military throughout the world and then at the same time was debasing the Roman denarius, replacing the gold with bank metal to the point where when they went to pay their military, they were looking at the coins that they were getting paid and they said, this isn't worth anything.

00:26:39:28 - 00:27:05:03
Marty
We're done. And then you had the barbarians come and sack Rome. Not too too much longer. And we have a very similar situation playing here in the United States where, as you just explained, we've extended ourselves militarily across the world. We're getting involved in many different conflicts at the same time. I mean, on the heels of what's going on in Ukraine and Russia, where we've given them a lot of weapons that have been depleted.

00:27:05:03 - 00:27:29:03
Marty
I mean, from reports I've read, you don't even have the weapons stockpiles that would be necessary to engage in some of these conflicts that some of the politicians that are in charge right now would like to lead us into. And it is very scary when you put all of that together. And then the social cohesion on top of the monetary and military situation, it does seem like a perfect storm.

00:27:29:03 - 00:27:58:15
Matt
And it's it is yeah, it's a perfect storm. And it's like it would take a miracle to get us out of all of it. I mean, it's really and so you can understand why people are angry, justifiably so. You can understand why people are increasingly polarized and hate one another. And that's under that's understandable. It's frankly, it's the way countries fall apart.

00:27:58:21 - 00:28:30:19
Matt
And I like that you brought up Rome. I'd be many of the problems we face today, and we've not touched upon some of them. I mean, there's the education system and there's other problems that we face. Many of the problems we face are reminiscent of failing empires from the past, as you suggested. I'm not quite sure I'd like someone to take up this challenge and help me out a little bit, but I like to study history.

00:28:31:29 - 00:28:58:11
Matt
I don't I don't I don't recall ever having seen such a wanton destruction of one's own territorial integrity as we see in the last couple of years in this country, where you've literally got millions of people allowed to come in from every country on earth and to displace its current inhabitants, It's there's no there's no better word for it than well, there's a lot of good words for it, but it's wicked.

00:28:59:15 - 00:29:35:26
Matt
Every country on earth that is a free, fairly legitimate regime. There are legitimate states. There's I don't know how many there are today, between 190 and 200 states in the international system, according to the United Nations. Every one of those states that's legitimate or is striving for legitimacy will go to war and be willing to die for and to kill over two things primarily their political sovereignty and their territorial integrity, meaning their borders.

00:29:36:25 - 00:30:12:01
Matt
And both of those things are highly compromised in our country at this time. And one of them, the territorial integrity of perhaps both of them, seem to be deliberately voluntarily surrendered, which makes you wonder if it's even, you know, the United States that controls its its decision calculus and its and and the decision making apparatus. Rather. It may in fact, be the case, as many people suspect, that there are those who are interested in pursuing an entirely different global order that demands the crippling of the United States.

00:30:12:27 - 00:30:38:28
Matt
If the United States ceases to have a sovereign, territorial border, and if it ceases to have political sovereignty, then it can be absorbed into a greater global community. And so it's likely to me it's all too likely to me that that's in fact, the case. But sometimes when when someone shouts like, oh, it's it's the global elite and they're tearing us down, they can't make the connection in their mind.

00:30:39:09 - 00:30:57:28
Matt
A listener can hear that and say, You know, I think that's probably true, but I just don't know what that looks like and how that's unfolding, really. And I see all the problems swirling around me. Just know that there are those for a very long time and frankly, throughout all of human history who have always been interested in expanding their power and their influence and to get gain.

00:30:57:28 - 00:31:23:03
Matt
And as they wield influence, they have to take out barriers to their expansion and to their dominance. And some of that evil impulse we've seen in the country for the past few years is only interested in destruction and tearing down the old order and the existing order. Oftentimes, the people that are so wantonly engaged in destruction, they happen to be the useful idiots of communism.

00:31:23:28 - 00:31:49:19
Matt
They're they're just pawns. And those who are the actual planners, the strategists who are who are trying to pave the path for that future global government are happy to steamroll those useless souls the moment they have accomplished some purpose that those idiots are useful for, they they'll steamroll them all day. They'll put them up against the wall, kill them.

00:31:50:12 - 00:32:04:25
Matt
And and I'm not exaggerating that one bit. They're useless to them after a certain point. They're only interested in their aims. And I think their aims will be frustrated, but it'll be really interesting, exciting and dreadful to see how all of this plays out over the next few years.

00:32:05:26 - 00:32:11:08
Marty
Yeah, I mean, we had a great example of those pawns yesterday in France at the live throwing, trying to I.

00:32:11:08 - 00:32:11:26
Matt
Didn't see that.

00:32:12:18 - 00:32:18:18
Marty
There was another just stop oil protests where they threw paint on the Mona Lisa or the glass but all these.

00:32:18:18 - 00:32:31:16
Matt
Beautiful pieces of art, they they want to go and tear it down and they're going to accomplish what you know, I guess they're they're trying to use their voice, but they're also wrecking things. And they're there's so many spirits abroad.

00:32:32:18 - 00:32:55:22
Marty
That's the I mean, you said wicked earlier. And I do think good and evil exist. And evil is very pervasive throughout society right now. And as you mentioned, it has convinced many Pons to fight against their own self-interest. And propaganda is a big piece of this. I've been covering it a lot on my site. We call it climate hysteria versus climate realism.

00:32:55:22 - 00:33:21:14
Marty
And the whole climate fear mongering, I think is one of the most potent that we have across the planet today. And it's just insane. Talking about we talked about military expansion making us weaker, the monetary situation making this week. But that's another key pillar, too, to the destruction of the stability of the Western world as a deconstruction of our reliable energy systems, which for the last two decades has been right.

00:33:21:25 - 00:33:32:21
Marty
It's disgusting what has happened in Germany being the perfect case study. And we're trying to bring those energy policies here to the United States, which is just incredibly disheartening.

00:33:33:10 - 00:34:03:18
Matt
Well, so I've got a question. It's rhetorical. I mean, it's for you and for the listener. We're mentioning all these things that are weakening. They have a tendency to destroy. They have a tendency to weaken. They have a tendency to undermine unity. They have a tendency be for failure or however you want to put it. What is it exactly that we're doing as a country right now that's making a stronger like the pick something you write?

00:34:03:18 - 00:34:23:13
Matt
And so, like if I want to be honest about it, I could sit here all day long and think, What is it that we're doing as a country to make us stronger? And every thing that comes to mind where I think, okay, there's groups of people trying to do X, Y or Z, I can rebut them within within a few seconds.

00:34:23:13 - 00:34:45:13
Matt
And I just think now that's all being undone. That's a terrible place to be because as you go back to how empires thrive, you need to you need to embrace principles that make you last as a and you need to militarily, at least from a security perspective, you need to you need you need to prepare for conflict in ways that make your country strong.

00:34:45:14 - 00:35:16:15
Matt
That and that there's an international relations scholar that I very much I like his thinking overall. I'm not sure I like his domestic world view, like public policy world view. It doesn't matter. He's an international relations scholar, John Mearsheimer, and he wrote a book called The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. For those who are listening that appreciate international relations, terms or models, he's he's an offensive realist.

00:35:18:11 - 00:35:50:20
Matt
But the point I wanted to make about Mearsheimer, what I learned from Mearsheimer and I think it's largely true the way in an international system that states measure power is by a state's economic strength and its military might. Those two things together determine how strong a country is and at least also drive perceptions in the international community of how strong that country is.

00:35:52:06 - 00:36:12:12
Matt
When a country forfeits its economic might, it doesn't. It almost doesn't matter how strong its military is for very long because it's going to go out the window. Pretty soon you'll stop being able to pay, you'll stop being able to pay for weapons and and procure innovative new technologies, for example. That's just one example of how this works.

00:36:12:12 - 00:36:48:23
Matt
But both of those things have to be strong and flourishing. You need a strong economy, you need a strong military. And frankly, you can add to that, although it's not a part of the international relations paradigm, necessarily not at least in the realist model, you need a people that have some sense, have some sense of patriotism or nationalism that says internally in the soul of the country, culturally, socially, that they are willing, they love their country, and they're willing to go lay down their lives and die for their country because they believe in what their country is pursuing.

00:36:49:14 - 00:37:12:10
Matt
We have many good, patriotic, nationalistic in every positive sense of those terms, by the way, they've been demonized, too. There's a constant changing of language, but those are powerful forces. We have very patriotic men and women in this country who love their country and who want who are willing to die for it. But they watch what's happening on the world stage right now.

00:37:12:10 - 00:37:47:21
Matt
And they say, I'm not willing to die for that. What am I trying to secure exactly? If I if I sign up today and swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution, am I going to defend the Constitution or am I as that that What's her name? JP jumper, that stupid spokes person. She's an idiot. She really she's she's about as terrible as it gets as she says she she wanted to thank the the three people who those folks that wear the uniform.

00:37:47:24 - 00:37:57:28
Matt
You can go watch the video just a couple of days ago. It's totally offensive who who died serving this administration. That's utter bullshit. People don't.

00:37:58:07 - 00:37:58:23
Marty
Slip.

00:37:59:06 - 00:38:19:14
Matt
That's like you don't. You don't. Yeah, and that's exactly. That's right. That's what it was. She's like, Yeah, they died serving the administration. That's true. But that's not why young men and women sign up to serve in the military. They're not interested in serving in administration. And because this administration, unfortunately, views it that way, it's like, hey, you're faithful to the administration.

00:38:20:12 - 00:38:39:09
Matt
There are many people on both sides of the political aisle that have no interest in in serving their country. It's like, yeah, I'll serve this administration, but when the next one comes in, I'm not I'm not sure I'll be interested in serving the interests of the administration. Military men and women can think that way, ideally, and I know it doesn't always work this way anymore.

00:38:39:19 - 00:39:17:13
Matt
Ideally, any administration, regardless of their political party, would come in adamantly interested in preserving political sovereignty and territorial integrity, believing in the Constitution and our values as a country, believing in a national identity. And if you have presidents and administrations come in with those with with the apparent interest in preserving our values as a country, whatever your political makeup, whatever your religious worldview, then you have willing citizens who can, in an all volunteer force, sign up to die for their country.

00:39:18:11 - 00:39:36:13
Matt
The moment people start sniffing you out and saying like, I don't even think you're interested in preserving our border, I don't even think we're not even preserving our border or political sovereignty. And we're demonizing one side or the other of the political aisle. And you're going to send me to go die in Syria? Like for who? Exactly what?

00:39:36:17 - 00:39:57:27
Matt
What are we preserving? So and we get all of this and I'm thinking out loud, but you know, your listener gets this because the comment because the average American has common sense. And if you're disgusted by what you're seeing for various reasons, think about if you were 18 or 19 and and someone said, we'd like you to serve in an all volunteer force and maybe go die for your country.

00:39:57:27 - 00:40:23:21
Matt
And it's like the question immediately is, I'm not sure I'm willing to do that. Die for what exactly? What are we preserving here? So with that's a big problem to solve. And even if we solved that today, somehow in an amazing way, we solved it today. The consequences of our decisions for the past several years will last for many years, and it takes years to recover from the buffoonery that we've been watching for the past several years.

00:40:23:21 - 00:40:27:22
Matt
So that's why people like me are very hard on the decisions that we're making.

00:40:30:02 - 00:40:50:20
Marty
And you mentioned it twice now. It would take a miracle to solve this problem for being pragmatic, recognizing that the problem exist. We do need a solution. The solution may take years to implement. What, in your mind are the first steps that we could take as a country to begin mending this gaping hole that we have in the culture of our military?

00:40:51:19 - 00:40:53:14
Matt
Are you asking what are the first steps?

00:40:53:28 - 00:40:54:11
Marty
Yes.

00:40:54:25 - 00:41:23:15
Matt
Okay. Boy, that's we've gone down the hole of cynicism and sarcasm and not some not sarcasm, but cynicism. Negativity. And it's you have to you have to be very real. Right. All right. So so let me come out of that as best I can, because it's equally as true to assert that if our country is to survive, we need good men and women who love their country serving in uniform.

00:41:24:02 - 00:41:45:07
Matt
As it is to say that we're facing all these problems, it's equally as true to say that. So the problem then becomes how do you get good men and women to serve in uniform? And again, admittedly, I'm talking about the military problem that we're facing. There's all these other problems that need to be solved. So an can make a big difference.

00:41:45:07 - 00:42:11:28
Matt
And so let's assume for a moment that, you know, let's assume for a moment that you get a better administration in place and you've got a president that's able to solve problems, then you've got part of the problem solved that's that by executive fiat through executive order, some of the idiot policies that are currently in place that are wrecking good order and discipline can be removed on day one, just as has happened.

00:42:12:12 - 00:42:43:27
Matt
And the change from the Trump administration to the Biden administration, where on day one, President Biden and on day one, Joe Biden issued a number of executive orders, and one of those was to advance equity in the military, workplace and in the federal agencies and DNI trainings came back on steroids and have been wrecking house ever since. And drag shows and pride activism and all this stuff.

00:42:43:27 - 00:43:08:27
Matt
It's like, go do all of that in the civilian world. Stop tampering around with the military apparatus and let people focus on their mission in the workplace. So on day one, that's one change that can happen. You can have an executive commander in chief, executive branch commander in chief come in and change policy that could incentivize people to return to the military in hopes that things will turn around.

00:43:08:29 - 00:43:37:29
Matt
So I admit that's possible. Instead of congressmen vying for another term in office and not solving the problems bipartisanly that we need solved in this country, instead preserving the problems so that they can all continue to point fingers across the political aisle and and and and be adamant with their voter base that they are the ones to solve those problems during their next term in office.

00:43:38:16 - 00:43:55:04
Matt
If we could actually come together in a bipartisan way and solve problems because we genuinely loved and cared for our country, that would be a way that you incentivize men and women to come and sign up to serve in their military, potentially die for their country. But why would you die for a country you're not sure is going to be around in ten years?

00:43:55:13 - 00:44:19:27
Matt
I'd rather live and take care of my family. So the other thing is, and this is not specifically related to the military, but it can pertain to those who have ambitions to serve in the military. People can get you can't always solve the problems at the federal level. There's a giant swamp of people who are entrenched there that aren't going anywhere.

00:44:20:11 - 00:44:48:06
Matt
And it almost hasn't mattered what administration came into power. Good people in their states and in their cities can get involved in local government. They can get involved and in school boards. They can get involved in grassroots roots movements that seek to get victories. And unfortunately for decent people who like the privacy of their own lives, it means becoming slightly more activist than they've ever been in their lives.

00:44:48:06 - 00:45:20:29
Matt
You can do that in as decent a way as you know how in as noble a way as you know how with while keeping your integrity intact and not becoming slimy as a human being and turning into a monster, you can get involved at the local level and make some impact in your community. And that's a great way to create a sphere of influence, of decency and integrity and law abiding, law abiding citizens and lawfulness where you live despite hell that's being unleashed in our country by by the by any administration.

00:45:22:04 - 00:46:01:25
Matt
It might not save your country, but it might make your local more livable and more sane. Don't let bullies steamroll the majority of people in your area into adopting values and the public education system that are totally anathema to the vast majority of parents, for example. And people are starting to do that. And I think it's far more likely that in our local communities, our families, our churches, our local government, where we're able to have impact for good than it is for some citizen in small town Nebraska to rise up and make a difference at the federal level.

00:46:04:12 - 00:46:32:19
Matt
You see these truckers, you see you see tractors all over social media, see truckers, you see farmers, you see cowboys, you see the patriots there, the alleged MAGA alt riders there. They're coming from everywhere, all over the country to support what appears to be Texas standing against the federal government and trying to secure the border. The sane person says, What the hell is Texas been doing the last several years?

00:46:32:20 - 00:47:15:03
Matt
Like, why now? You know, but but Governor Abbott has issued some strong statements and people are showing up because they genuinely want to do something. And it's like we'll get involved in that. But beware, because you've got a federal government that's weaponized against you at the moment and these gun toting Americans that want to show up and a show of force at the Texas border and do some good just might find themselves the object of a conspiracy, see to or a false flag that that makes it look like, hey, we've got a bunch of we've got a bunch of patriot extremists who have shown up causing trouble and now now you're in a shooting match

00:47:15:03 - 00:47:34:08
Matt
and that that's not going to end well either. So it's a very it's a precarious time. Everyone's aware of that. Get involved locally. And and if you're here's another thing. Thanks for giving me a free mike, by the way, to just kind of ramble. I'll try and be more pointed and direct in what time we've got remaining.

00:47:34:18 - 00:47:35:13
Marty
No, this is awesome.

00:47:35:27 - 00:48:03:27
Matt
If you're a man or a woman in uniform, you need to speak. Speak up and and and not be afraid of punishment. Because if you are not acting illegally or unethically or immorally, funny enough, immoral shows up. We're doing drag shows and people are dressing up as dogs and dancing around. And it's like, that isn't immoral. What is the morality anymore?

00:48:03:27 - 00:48:24:26
Matt
So let's say let me eliminate that one. If you're not doing something unethical or illegal, then you should feel free to use your voice to say, I disagree with what I'm hearing. I disagree with what I'm seeing, and I have a different set of values and you're offending me in this training is offensive to me. This policy is offensive to me.

00:48:25:01 - 00:48:44:15
Matt
This is me not trying to be partizan as a service member. This is me saying I have a voice. I'm going to use it and and start to stand up because there are literally thousands of people all across the bases that are near you that feel the same way that you do. But they're afraid to speak because they've been trained that they're supposed to be yes men.

00:48:44:15 - 00:49:08:28
Matt
They're trained that they need to be loyal to senior leaders and and to to a military chain of command. And you need to respect all of that. And that's important for good order and discipline. But don't let your services be steamrolled by political activists. And I don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican or libertarian, doesn't matter. Speak up and say, hey, this is offensive.

00:49:09:08 - 00:49:24:14
Matt
I'm not a racist, so stop calling me one. This guy doesn't want to be treated like an object because of his race. So knock it off. Like we're not interested in this training, so shut the hell up. We're walking out of here. Kind of a thing Like you have to be able to stand up. And if you get paperwork, you get punished.

00:49:24:14 - 00:49:36:05
Matt
Like, live. Live with it. Suck. You know, suck it up. That's a small sacrifice to make to try and speak to your principles and stand on your values and to try and preserve the integrity of the United States military.

00:49:38:03 - 00:50:08:15
Marty
Now you're echoing something that we say a lot on this show is that the silent majority of people who just want to make a good life for their family do good work, be productive throughout society and live a comfortable life, need to have confidence instilled in them to speak up against the madness, whether it's in the military, with the monetary system, in the in the energy sector, with the woke agenda that's being pushed throughout the schooling system.

00:50:09:12 - 00:50:16:26
Marty
I truly believe deep down that most people do not want any of this and are just too afraid and self-censor.

00:50:17:06 - 00:50:50:11
Matt
And I think you're right. There's a lot of decent people in every country on planet Earth. They're just they just want to be left alone by their governments. They to raise their kids, to be decent humans. And they see all this evil and and ignorance and mean spiritedness and they're like, And so when you want to speak your values and here's some advice for you, remember that you're not the bad guy like you're just speaking, You're using your voice in a country that above all has valued free speech throughout its history.

00:50:50:11 - 00:51:08:09
Matt
It's like, use your voice, speak up, Take some spears from people saying, Oh my gosh, you're mean. Are you really that bigoted? Are you really that racist? Like, No, I'm none of those things, but I have values and I've wanted to be a decent human my whole life. And you're starting to bully me and I won't accept it.

00:51:08:09 - 00:51:29:28
Matt
So it's like, back up, get the hell out of my bubble and and stop bullying the majority of people here that feel like I do, like I'm just. I just want to be free of tyranny. And you're starting to play the role of the tyrant. So get out of my space, you know, and and say that to your supervisor in the military and say like, Hey, respectfully, get out of this space of my values.

00:51:30:11 - 00:51:48:15
Matt
I'm here to do a mission for the United States military, and you're changing directions for some reason. So stop being a political person. With all due respect, sir, ma'am, or they or juror or whatever you go by, step out of my space. Either teach me how to do my mission or I've got no respect for you anymore. And you can have someone working under you.

00:51:48:15 - 00:51:57:14
Matt
In fact, all of my all of my buddies here, we're we're not going to have respect for you. We'll follow your orders that are legal. But you've lost all of our respect because you're a political animal.

00:51:59:06 - 00:52:31:29
Marty
If enough people do that, I think we can change things rather quickly. Again, there's something good psychology weekly inverse humans that they self-censor due to fear of retribution and retaliation. And it is weird and I think where we stand today in 2024, it is more important than ever that people speak up. I mean, this is a show heavily focused on Bitcoin and, you know, like we focus on Bitcoin because we believe the root of a lot of the strife that we're feeling today is the money.

00:52:31:29 - 00:53:00:01
Marty
When you corrupt the money, you can print it out of nothing and throw it at DEA initiatives and right woke university systems and big pharma studies. It really corrupts the incentives of the economy overall and really corrupts opportunity cost. At the end of the day, you can just print money and throw it at these useless, unproductive activities. And I do think people are feeling it, particularly on the money side with inflation, people are feeling inflation.

00:53:00:01 - 00:53:15:10
Marty
They see it week in and week out at the grocery store and no matter how many times John Pare, Pierre tells you that that inflation has been solved, it's very obvious to people that it has not. People need to speak up against all of this.

00:53:15:25 - 00:53:39:03
Matt
The economy is stronger than ever. And and and God bless our heroes who wear that uniform of this administration. Oh, she wouldn't say God bless. But, you know, you bring up such a good point about how money incentivizes a lot of this industry that DIY facilitators and and public speakers are making a lot better money than you and I are.

00:53:39:26 - 00:54:02:06
Matt
And it's it's quite lucrative. And you've got there's a reason you pay in theory there's a reason you pay most of your teachers low salary. You don't want them to be incentivized by the wrong thing. I'm not I'm not saying I don't advocate for like improving pay for teachers, too, but like, it's like we want good teachers, not people incentivized by by filthy lucre.

00:54:02:18 - 00:54:21:26
Matt
We don't pay our police forces very well. We don't pay an all voluntary force very well because it's like we want you to choose to swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution against its enemies and to come in not for the purposes of getting wealthy, but because we'll provide sufficient for your needs while you do something.

00:54:21:27 - 00:54:51:04
Matt
Out of the motivation of honor and integrity duty to country service before self. And and that's worked really well while you had nation that was guided by some kind of a moral compass where you had teachers who were authentically interested in teaching something for for little or nothing when you had police forces who are interested in law and order and we had military forces who believed in the might, the military might of the United States and of its and of the American ideal.

00:54:51:28 - 00:55:21:28
Matt
And when you lose the moral compass and when this country ceases to look and feel like America, you start to pay all of the wrong people. And and sickos and sycophants and narcissists come in to positions in all of those places. And the ones that toe the party line end up being rewarded with social credits or money. Yeah, a lot of change needs to take place if we're going to if we're if we're going to.

00:55:24:06 - 00:55:30:03
Matt
Hmm. I always try and be honest. Well, if we're going to reverse course, then a lot of change needs to take place.

00:55:31:06 - 00:55:54:09
Marty
I agree. And luckily we have individuals like yourself out there fighting the good fight. I know we only have 2 minutes left here, so I want to again, thank you for everything you're doing. I think it's extremely important. We need more voices like yours out there incentivizing and instilling confidence in people and letting them know, like, Hey, you're not alone here.

00:55:54:22 - 00:56:01:25
Marty
There's many others who think everything that's going on right now is quite crazy. And if you don't like it, you should speak up against it.

00:56:04:02 - 00:56:33:22
Matt
Yeah. Sometimes people are afraid to speak solely because they're not sure how to defend or how to defend their worldview or to articulate it. And so one of the pieces of advice I give to people is, next time you're stumped in a conversation with someone and you're not sure how you should have responded, you better think about it then and know that next time you'll never be stumped again by that problem and and just come up with two or three talking points and then be willing to be humble and ask other people questions about their worldview.

00:56:33:22 - 00:56:52:07
Matt
And a lot of the lunacy that you see parading around us is not logical, it's not defendable. And they can't articulate their worldview. They've got talking points that they've memorized. And so like, learn about your values, learn how to articulate them. And sometimes don't be afraid to say I disagree, even if you're not sure how to articulate your worldview.

00:56:52:07 - 00:56:55:23
Matt
And that's kind of the beginning place for exercising your free speech.

00:56:56:10 - 00:57:02:22
Marty
Yeah, great advice, Matt. Thank you for joining us today. I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation.

00:57:03:12 - 00:57:03:28
Matt
Thank you.

00:57:04:22 - 00:57:07:01
Marty
All right. That's all we got today. Peace and love for.