This important episode of STARRS & Stripes looks at the radical and dangerous left-wing ideological influences and indoctrination reshaping both the military and academic world and those in it.
Host Al Palmer interviews Dr. Stanley Ridgley, a professor, former military intelligence officer and author of, “Brutal Minds: The Dark World of Left-Wing Brainwashing in Our Universities“. Joining the interview to discuss these issues is STARRS President Col. Ron Scott, PhD, USAF ret.
It’s important to recognize and expose the left-wing indoctrination techniques used against service members and students so that its effects are neutralized.
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Excerpts:
Dr. Stanley Ridgley: I think that the Left has always been fascinated by the hierarchical nature of the military and they know, and they have always known that if they can manage to insert some sort of directive at the very apex of the military hierarchy, that will very quickly disseminate throughout the ranks and the ranks will obey what the upper echelons are saying to do, because that’s the nature of the military.
You look at policy, you receive your policy directives, you receive your orders and you carry them out. This is something that cannot be done, it can’t be replicated in the civilian world. The Left has recognized the advantages of having this type of hierarchical structure.
If they can seize the commanding heights of the military, the Department of Defense, and insert this type of ideological balderdash at the highest echelons, get a DEI commissar appointed in the Pentagon, which I think you have a number of them, then have this person sit at the table and insist upon this type of ideological indoctrination of the type that Ron described going on at the Air Force Academy, then this will very quickly propagate throughout the military, far more quickly than it will propagate in any other organization in the country.
So I think that in essence answers the question as to how it happened so quickly. The upper echelons were targeted. The unfortunate death of George Floyd gave them the opportunity that they needed. That was seized upon, both in the military and, of course, in my bailiwick, which is higher education. It gave them a raison d’etre to make this move and implement a lot of the policies that they had been champing at the bit to implement for quite some time. . . .
. . . It’s unfortunate that one of the great institutions of the United States, the military, and certainly the military academies has now succumbed to a certain extent to this ideology. I think it can be rectified equally as quickly if the danger is recognized and the right people begin to take actions to rectify that situation and restore the United States military to its former glory in terms of its uniform treatment of soldiers and officers.
The military has always been the great democratizer, taking people from all backgrounds, races, creeds and colors and putting them through the same treatment. I think you’ll find no other institution in America where so many black people of color are in positions of authority, certainly in the NCO ranks, than in the United States military. I think that there is an imbued or an inherent respect for ability, for merit, for brotherhood, sisterhood.
Now, that is incomparable, it cannot be compared to any other institution. Well, the Left wants to destroy that and replace it with something else, and as we further continue along our discussion what that something else is, as we can begin to get very specific about that. . . .
. . . . The military ethos is one of cohesiveness and unity and achieving the objective creating a sense of unity and a bond in military units, because one’s life quite often depends upon it.
The effect of DEI in the military is to work against that cohesiveness. It’s not designed to create a bond among people. It is designed to create a belief in oppressors and oppressed. It’s designed to create the idea of enemies to your left and right. It’s designed to increase suspiciousness. It’s designed to increase paranoia that is endemic, that is unique to them, as, say, a white person or a black person or a person of color, that their personality depends upon that, that they cannot overcome their innate racism, et cetera, et cetera.
When actually, the idea is to break down these individual differences, to increase an emphasis on commonalities and the idea of a shared burden, a shared mission, and to create that unit cohesiveness. That’s very tough to do, to create a cohesiveness where none existed before and to break down barriers between people who might be not natural bedfellows in it at large, very difficult to do. The military has always been good at doing that well.
DEI brings in this notion of tribalism, this notion of you are a member of a distinct group and rather than being judged on your how you measure up against a yardstick of achievement, you’re now going to be judged by the fact that you are a member of a particular group and that you’re expected to behave a certain way, and then if you’re a member of an “out” group, that’s a villain. We have to be suspicious of you.
So this is what is meant by teaching divisive concepts. It’s not just divisive concepts, it’s very harmful, debilitating concepts that simply aren’t true. It’s pseudoscience. It always has been, and I’m very surprised that this type of primitive alchemy or kind of astrology, this type of magic thinking, has made its way back into the university and has somehow found its way into the one of the most merit-based, merit-grounded institutions in all of our society, and that is the US military. . . .
. . . There’s a larger agenda at play here to remove the military as a bastion, the last big bastion that protects American values, the ideas of traditionalism, traditional family, the idea of cohesiveness, the idea of patriotism, and that’s the ultimate goal is to break that down and to destroy it.
I think that we need to be on the ready and to recognize that this is what their goal is. Again, Ron mentioned the best way to stop this is sunlight. Transparency is the best way to go about doing this and to make it known to the public again and again and again that this is what is happening and that this is wrong if you want a strong America and you want patriotism to inform our officer corps and to inform our enlisted ranks.
We have to recognize that these values are under assault by a bunch of folks who do not have the best intentions with regard to the future of our country. . . .
Former Military Intelligence Officer publishes new book about Left-wing brainwashing
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