Is Woke Culture Ruining The Military?

Colonel Douglas Macgregor, US Army (ret) and USMA graduate, talks with Patrick Bet-David about the problems of a woke military. (9 minutes)

What People Are Saying

(Comments on the video)

“Currently in the military as O3 and let me tell you, it is an absolute joke. Integrity and honor are not rewarded but diversity and sexuality is. The abuse to those who work hard and show up on time is remarkable versus the others who lack motivation and are extremely lazy. How anything gets done now is astonishing. If you’re looking for discipline and character building, go work for an independent business; the military is a far cry from what it used to be.”

“I was active AF for 23 yrs, plus another 1.5 as a G.S. All medical, but I served both enlisted and commissioned. I could see the wokism encroaching even before I retired nearly 10 years ago. I guess I’m just another of the voices saying “thank God I’m not in anymore”. Do your best. Stick to standards, and be ultra consistent in how you address deviation from standards…I guess that’s the only useful thing I could say. How is diversity and sexuality rewarded? it’s rewarded by presenting PowerPoints celebrating both, having meetings reinforcing these core beliefs, getting emails regarding them, pointing out individuals for either their skin color or sexuality and showing favoritism as well.”

“Wokeness is 100% hurting recruitment. I was in the military for 21 years and I’m still in contact with people I served with who are active duty. They tell me all the time that it’s 100% woke now….pronouns…..LGBTQ and trans-gender trainings. What concerns me the most, this administration has severed the bond between the military and “generational families”. Those families where all the men or women served so it’s a tradition for the kids to follow. I see 1990’s / early 2000’s vets telling their kids in 2023 “NO” and “Don’t do it” because of the wokeness, poor VA care post service, and things like the way this administration pulled the plug on Afghanistan or launched the “there’s a white nationalist problem in our military” campaign where instead of just investigating any issues and dealing with it, they preferred to just call every white guy a white nationalist through seminars and trainings. I also believe the left is assassinating national pride in America which is causing more and more young folks to hate their country and not want to serve. It’s a sickening and sad situation. Elections have consequences and we as a nation need to fix this!”

“I got out recently as a multigenerational family myself and told my nephews and nieces not to join it’s not worth it.”

“You are one thousand percent right and I proudly served with straight and gay people and we never gave a crap because we all treat each other with 1000% respect. But the woke crap going on from the top down I would never have joined nor do I recommend family members join. You can either have this crap or you can have a safe country but you will not have both under no circumstances.”

“I joined in 2005 and some of my best memories is basic training. The drill sergeants I had been to combat, great shape, and knowledgeable. It was exactly what I expected. Fast forward to 2019..I got out of active and doing my last year in the guard. I’m doing mandatory transgender training. I’m being told we have to respect them. I remember one of the female’s asked if a transgender female could use women’s restrooms. The answer was yes and we had to accept it. I knew then I didn’t want any part of this Army. I got out several months later…no regrets getting out.”

“It’s a huge problem man. The military is more sensitive than the civilian world. I literally just got out last month and I feel so free just mentally from all that woke crap and censoring the things you can say.”

“My wife and brother in law both got out of the AF. The schools on base have gone woke on the children. During lock down, the bases would allow airmen to leave for woke protests otherwise they had to stay. After doing PT, the first shirts would have some kind of woke agenda they would ask the units to participate in, etc. It’s been a hard push in one direction and you become ostracized for not participating.”

“Absolutely my trans station commander is personal responsible for at least 4 people deciding to get out and over 20 recruits not getting in because they weren’t woke enough. I was a recruiter until last year. She couldn’t even pass her PT test but was untouchable. Toxic is an understatement.”

“I went to basic in 2011 to be an infantrymen. Our drill sergeants said multiple times things like “shit is changing, the army is getting soft, y’all are going to be the last real mother f***er’s to come through this sh**.” They drove us hard, many guys dropped out. We didn’t think anything about it at the time when they kept saying stuff like that, we thought they probably said that kind’ve stuff to every group to “motivate” them. However, I went to airborne holdover some months after basic, and actually spent some time hanging out with my old Drill Sergeants. They had another class at the time. I found out they were not lying. They were no longer able to smoke privates in the same manner they did to us. They could only train them so many hours a day. They could only make them do so many push-ups/sit-ups during smoke sessions. It was honestly pathetic to watch. In protest, the drill sergeants basically quit caring. They didn’t even really try to train them anymore. And in hindsight, I realized they were not lying to us. It really did change on a dime it seemed. They made sure they got one last “real group” in with us before things got soft. A couple of my drill sergeants even told me that they felt they had crossed the line many times with my group of guys by being too hard on us. I’m glad they did though. We joined the infantry to challenge ourselves as men, not to be gently guided along like toddlers.”

“My entire family is military. No one else is going at this point.”

“30+ years of service here. Yes it is, and it is getting worse every year. You will likely not hear that from our civilian and military leadership, because it’s a career-ender. However, the bigger problem is the mental health of all ages of our service men and women. In my experience, this is the most mentally weak our military has been, and it causes huge issues across the force. Very little resiliency!”

“Is Woke Culture Ruining The Military? As an U.S Air Force Veteran who just got out in March of this year…YES!”

“I learned last week my brother in law retired partly because of the wokeness. He has been in the Air Force for over 20 years and he’s sick of it.”

“I’m an army vet and I’m still in touch with some of my buddies who stayed in and they absolutely have gone Woke. They’ve had to change their language completely to accommodate incoming recruits.”

“Yes. As soon as I left Luke AFB in 2019, they installed a DEI office on base. Messages to “celebrate” identity groups were getting louder. Nothing good comes from this crap.”

“I’m 20 year AF vet. Retired in 2017, so I have some buddies still enlisted. A few of them are great leaders, E-9s. Unfortunately they’re being unofficially pushed towards retirement because they are the wrong race and gender. This is already having a massive domino effect, and I hate to say that it’s going to get much worse in the coming years.”

“18 years active duty, been medical my entire career, been to Iraq in ’06, Bahrain, Kuwait, Norway, Sweden, and several other places. I’m not gonna lie when I say I’m having a hard time leading as an experienced clinician in the military. I’d say in the last 10 years, the military has drastically changed. I remember the don’t ask, don’t tell policy. I don’t care if you are gay, lesbian, trans, or whatever your race, religion, gender is; however, I do care when it affects me as a straight white male married to the same woman for 17 years, 4 kids with the same woman and I get reverse discriminated against because of that. We hear all this systemic racism that’s happening, I’ve felt it as a straight white male the entire time I’ve been in. I’ve never been super political, but I’ve gotten to the point I want my kids to understand and I’ve been educating them on social media, the current state of the country, etc.”

“I served for 33 years and just retired last year. This is partly why I cashed out. Promotions based on race is all I saw in the last couple of years. On another subject, I served in Iraq and Afghanistan with some true female warriors. They were awesome and hard core, however that was in a war where we had a huge advantage. A war that’s coming with China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran all at the same time things will be vastly different for my female sisters. Hand to hand in the middle of the night in a trench will be what it is about. It always comes down to that. Not to mention the POW situations that will occur that will make the Hanoi Hilton look like Club Med. Can you imagine female prisoners in today’s environment? Also, especially in the Air Force, there are numerous joint spouses who fly, are Commanders etc. If one gets captured especially if she is female. What will happen to her in Russia, China, North Korea or an Iranian POW camp? Will she be passed around to the troops in the field to be humiliated and videoed, and if the internet is still going, that video goes viral on purpose? No one is thinking about this at all.”

“22 year Army Vet. Thank God I retired before all this insanity. No way could I have made it a career if I had to deal with the PC/Woke bullshit.”

“I retired from the Marine Corps in 2004. I am disgusted by what has happened in the last 20 years.”

“Came back last year from the Marines, and it’s a shit show honestly.”

“My four year enlistment was enough to realize I didn’t want to make the Air Force a career.”

“My Son is in the AF. His six year enlistment is coming to a close (He’s Air Traffic Control) and he has also decided to walk away and go work in the Civilian Sector.”

“My son won’t join the Marines anymore because of the weak wokeness. I was a squad leader during Desert Storm with a solid Company of warfighters.”

“Yes. They tried to shove a pride run down my throat. I’m a SFC medic active duty. I’m over it. I’m trying to get out.”

“We were on our final ruck in basic before graduation. There was a recruit named rowe. Her feet were bowed out to the side, walked like a penguin. She couldn’t keep up. DS Baker pulls me from the front, I was flag guy. He says ” look soldier we gotta quota to meet. she has to finish. And I’m making it your problem.” They literally linked us together with 550 and I dragged this lady for a few miles! mind you my ruck was already 75lbs. I was salty, but we made it.”

“I chose not to reenlist because of this craziness. When The Chairman called my white counterparts terrorists and suggested that all units have extremists in them, and wanted to examine white Soldiers for their beliefs… His statements vs. what was sent out were very different. The SecDef echoed those views and worse, and I was among MANY service members from my base who refused to reenlist under this administration, some with as many as 15 years of service. When we talk to people, it absolutely plays into why they’re not wanting to come in.”

“I got out of the Army 40 years ago. After reading several of these comments I don’t even recognize our military anymore. You can rest assured that our enemies know this as well.”

“I have 4 years until I retire and I don’t know if I can make it. It’s a torturous level of ridiculous getting worse each and every day.”

“It’s so funny, the military propagates the women in combat arms discussion so religiously that hearing a grown up casually point out the obvious about feels like I’m committing an EEO violation for agreeing – even though most people privately agree 100% with what he is saying.”

“20 year vet here. Yes, it is. To be clear, while I disagree with the gay lifestyle, I have served with gays, I’ve had two gay commanders, both of which were fantastic btw, and at the end of the day, whether I disagree with people or not, we’re working on the same mission and we are all pulling together. However, when DE&I started to become a thing, when they started ramming down our throats how we didn’t have to just tolerate people but celebrate depravity and lunacy, that’s where they lost me… I’ve been told I’m a piece of trash because I’m male, because I look white, because I’m a Christian, because I’m straight, because I am a conservative… I’ve been told I’m a rapist, a racist, and an extremist, and that’s all garbage… Meanwhile, I passed signs every day in my building for all kinds of events celebrating this group and that group and this other crazy thing. Not only am I completely left out of that, I am asked to celebrate things I don’t agree with. I am asked to take time off mission to do it. I am asked to consider diversity above actual mission requirements. I am asked to make sure things look right rather than actually being right or effective. This is not sustainable, and if people think they’re going to get the kind of performance that we used to get out of the military out of this mandatory celebration, diversity is our strength bullshit, they have another thing coming.”

“I am a SFC in the Army with 13 years in, DO NOT JOIN it is an absolute mess right now and we are so weak.”

“This is why I got out 3 years early from my retirement target.”

“Yes, it’s a woke military and that’s why I retired. We are screwed due to our weak leadership.”

“23 year old Army Vet. I’m glad I ETSd. Shit is only getting worse and worse. I absolutely will not be rejoining our nation’s military for any reason… ever. For this exact reason.”

“Wokeness is absolutely affecting the military. I personally know guys in the Navy who have over 20, but aren’t being allowed to submit their retirement paperwork because recruitment and retention has been negatively impacted by horrible liberal policies. They can lie and obfuscate in front of congress all day long, but the troops know that limp wristed leaders have negatively impacted serving.”

“I joined the Air Force 2 years ago. Don’t join. I should have listened to the people who tried to warn me not too. How can you form effective teams when some people have preferential treatment based on things like sexual preference and you can’t trust that they won’t use that advantage to tear you down or end your career? I don’t have a job that is really dangerous or anything but it’s the military. You have to expect the possibility of having your life on the line and I can’t say I have much confidence in many people’s ability to perform in even slightly dangerous situations.”

“My son graduated high school 2 yrs ago . He wants to go into the A.F.. he won’t join b/c of this Admin & the current b.s. going on in all the Arm Forces. My other son joined the Navy did his 3 yrs & said FTS.. He came home in December. It’s not like it use to be.”

“I know a model Marine, 6’1, 230lbs of monster muscle did not re-up because of wokeness.”

“Yes, it is super woke now. Gotta deal with it every day.”

“I was in the army from 2013-2019, even in that timeframe I saw a lot of change. I left right as they were allowing women to get combat roles. It’s dangerous because other countries / cultures do not respect women the same way we do in America and in the west. Women in combat roles could find themselves in very dangerous and traumatic situations that a man may not encounter.”

“As a veteran for 10 years, it is an absolute joke. Those who work hard vs those who are in for a paycheck and do the bare minimum get rewarded the same and promoted the same. It becomes a game of numbers and officers sanction enlisted for the same exact things the officers do. Leadership is a clown show and work ethic is nonexistent due to lack of accountability. When the military presented this Extremism training which was all about targeting right wing groups after January 6, but did not implement or vilify anything about left wing groups, I knew I had to do something to get me out of there, and I did. That and the Afghanistan withdrawal were the reasons I did what I did.”

“I almost got the boot after 16 years of service b/c I refused to use pronouns. That’s when I knew, the military was over.”

“My friend is being targeted for being straight and not wearing a pride flag where his American goes on his uniform.”

“There is a very good reason men do not want women in combat, and especially not in positions of military authority: men know they’re supposed to protect and defend women, and that the military leader lays his life down for his men. And men do not want to sacrifice women or force them to take care of themselves. It has nothing to do with a lack of respect for women, or with any kind of misogyny. It’s about common sense and natural male instinct to protect.”

“Left the Marine Corps because of the stuff.”