toad.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
Mastodon server operated by David Troy, a tech pioneer and investigative journalist addressing threats to democracy. Thoughtful participation and discussion welcome.

Administered by:

Server stats:

375
active users

When Timothy Snyder speaks, I listen. Today, he outlines how Trump's nomination of Pete Hegseth represents 13 steps to national destruction. Here's the posting in toto:

"1. Pete Hegseth, Trump's nominee for secretary of defense, has no qualifications for the job. He has never run a large organization and has no national security expertise."


/1

snyder.substack.com/p/pete-heg

Thinking about... · Pete Hegseth: The Short CourseBy Timothy Snyder

"2. Hegseth has zero notion of which other countries might threaten America or how. In his books this is simply not a subject, beyond a few clichés.

3. Hegseth does not believe in alliances. For him, 'NATO is a great example of dumb globalism.'

4. Hegseth wants a political army that bans women from combat roles, is purged of 'cowardly generals,' and is anti-woke."


/2

"5. Hegseth never notes that the politicized Russian army meets all of his standards perfectly, but is is ineffective and commits war crimes.

6. Hegseth never notes that the Ukrainian army, which does have women in combat, and is not politicized in the way he would like, has overperformed."


/3

"7. Hegseth has almost nothing to say about the most significant armed conflict of our time and has not visited Ukraine or learned anything about it.

8. Hegseth’s misogynist gender politics are consistent with his polygamy and the accusations of rape.

9. Hegseth's enemies are all internal: the Left, Muslins, and immigrants. He repeatedly claims that the Left wishes to annihilate everyone else, which is a call to violence."


/4

"10. Hegseth, a Christian Reconstructionist, believes that Americans should be governed not by law or by the Constitution but by God -- as interpreted of course by Hegseth and his friends.

11. Hegseth calls for a 'holy war' and a 'crusade' against Americans who think differently than he does because 'God wills it.' Trump is the pretext: Hegseth wants 'to make crusade great again."'


/5

@wdlindsy

In other words, Hegseth wants to remake America in the image of Iran, a corrupt theocratic oligarchy that kills its women.

William Lindsey :toad:

@Npars01 Yes, absolutely. Fundamentalist Islam and right-wing Christianity may be bitter enemies, but they're mirror images of each other, especially in their hatred of assertive women and LGBTQ people.