Am doing my biennial Flight-Instructor-Renewal-Course [FIRC] and yesterday's lesson revealed that, three months ago, the FAA was ordered [by the Trump Admin] to undo every Biden Admin political kommissar order, for example, NOTAM, which since hallowed antiquity meant Notice-To-Airmen, had been changed to Notice-to-Air-Mission and now is back to Notice-To-Airmen.
The "O" in "WTFO?!!" implies you want a response, Rocco. (Yes, I know that "O" here means "Over". But in R/T, the prosign for "Over" is "K". In a sane world, the acronym would be "WTFK". And in this case it would act as a force multiplier to the letter F. I know my ACP's.) Don't see anyone else picking up the handset, so....
Rocco DE Dale, SecDef hiring goons, issuing cattle prods, assigning "Double O" numbers w/ license to impart painful but necessary life lessons to the recalcitrant. The Sec'y thanks you, BZ, IMI BZ, K. (You would now respond: DE Rocco, RAR.)
MEMORANDUM FOR SECRETARY OF DEFENSE AND PENTAGON LEADERSHIP, UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR PERSONNEL AND READINESS, USD (P&R) EO 13950 IMPLEMENTATION TASK FORCE
SUBJECT: Restoring America's Fighting Force, SecDef Memorandum from SecDef 29 January 2025
In reference to your Memorandum of the above date to the Commanders of the Combatant Commands, Defense Agency and DOD Field Activity Directors directing the creation and tasking of the USD(P&R) Task Force to enact the directives of Executive Order (EO) 13950 of January 20, 2025, please be advised:
"THEY ARE IGNORING YOUR DIRECTIVES AND ORDERS.” I must be an old-school, Cold War era naval officer, back when we obeyed our superiors and followed order. What the hell got into these people who scoff at the UCMJ? Firing people is one thing, but a clear message needs to be sent, especially at the Flag level: Disobey orders and you WILL be court martialed!
Orwell, I used to be a CWO Surface Op-Tech, SWO. Let me please explain. Gundog is old-school. Nothing has changed but the wind and sea state. "Orange man bad" is just the siren song of the carping harpies. You cannot put yourself into the Neanderthal mind set of a Surface CWO, especially the explosive type, which is no fault of yours. Most of us are still subject to recall, as unlikely as that is. Beholden to our oath, we try to stay ready, keep up, even not fudge overly much on our daily or quarterly PT. Maybe, in an abundance of caution, you ought to back off a smidge when a CWO goes CAPLOCKS. I know I do. ☺
Thing is, learning about constructivism might actually be useful, because it introduces you to the idea that different cultures might respond to the same actions in different ways--i.e., if we do X, people from culture Y will respond this way, while people from culture Z will respond in another, and so we should prepare different follow-on plans depending on whether we're dealing with culture Y or culture Z.
Now, the probability that the professor teaching this course actually has a clue about how people will react in practice rather than theory is low, but the concept is fine.
I can't say the same for a feminist interpretation of things, though.
That's where my thoughts ran as I was reading as well.
The fact that We have a hard time understanding, much less empathizing with, other cultures has long been a problem. At a minimum it creates the Ugly American caricature. But it also creates things like Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. And probably China to come.
Being inside potential adversaries heads is a good thing. But it seems that Critical Theory isn't that. It's designed to teach you to be a good Marxist and embrace Good Think in all things. The irony is that those who embrace it are the most intolerant of all.
You are not alone in not having any knowledge other than the opinions of others.
Maybe you should read some before you have an opinion yourself on what "it's designed to teach you."
I recommend Foucault's "The Birth of the Prison" and "The Birth of the Clinic" and bell hooks's "All about Love." There's also a recent survey, "Critical Theory: the Basics" by Martin Schuster.
That said, no one can onboard all the world's knowledge, or even the knowledge of a certain discipline. In my working life I never read the full canon of the profession(s). One relies on trusted sources and experts to distill some of that for us and take it on in that fashion.
That may be illiberal of me. But my reading stack was already larger than I have years left before anyone even heard of CT, CRT, or DEI.
Levi Strauss lived in the Amazon. He kicked around the world on a tramp steamer. He was called up to the Army when the Nazi's rolled up France. He knew being a Jew was a bad fit with Hitler's boys and fled to New York City.
His refugee status kept him out of military service (we were worried he was a spy) and he was a handsome bachelor loose on the isle of Manhattan. His wartime service, and escape from France were romantic, and he lived in a New York where there were no other young men, and hundreds of thousands of hot ladies. Good times.
We have had over 20 years of our leadership in government, academia, and the media aggressively ignoring, or flat out lying about, the fundamental beliefs of our enemies with ideas such as, "Islam is a religion of peace". We project our own interest and measures of such onto enemies that could not care less about the sanctity of life, schools, water wells, parliamentary governance, and so on. Any officer that attempted to mentions it (such as myself) was swiftly shut down, ignored or worse unceremoniously shown the door.
Theory drives the right wing insane. I understand why. At its worst, Theory is psudo-intellectual bullshit couched in impenetrable jargon.
But, Theory is useful. At its best it is interdisciplinary research; applying tools from one discipline to another. Lawyers do it all the time to great effect. For example, we use cutting edge concepts from neurological psychology to persuade juries in personal injury cases. We talk about getting clients “closure” which is pure Gestalt psychology. It can be as simple as using an economist to prove the need for alimony in a divorce case; or as complicated as Becker and Posener’s Chicago School law and economics theory. (The late Gary Becker proves that Theory is not an exclusively left-wing concept.)
Do you want to see a real world example of folks who embrace Critical Theory? Fox News. They have digested, and mastered, semiotic theory and use it to drive up ratings. When we called Critical Theory what it is, “interdisciplinary research,” it is way less scary. It is just a way to look at problems from a different perspective.
The problem is that Critical Theory isn't interdisciplinary research. From the notoriously partisan right-wingers at the Encyclopedia Britannica:
"Marxist-inspired movement in social and political philosophy originally associated with the work of the Frankfurt School. Drawing particularly on the thought of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud, critical theorists maintain that a primary goal of philosophy is to understand and to help overcome the social structures through which people are dominated and oppressed. Believing that science, like other forms of knowledge, has been used as an instrument of oppression, they caution against a blind faith in scientific progress, arguing that scientific knowledge must not be pursued as an end in itself without reference to the goal of human emancipation. Since the 1970s, critical theory has been immensely influential in the study of history, law, literature, and the social sciences."
When I was a Chief on neutral duty for 39 months, I went to night school to earn a college degree. I was lucky to find an easy professor. Took 5 poli-sci classes and 1 in ethics that he taught. He was a starving hippie in his 50s who'd gotten his PhD under Herbert Marcuse. Yeah, that Marcuse, Tom. I did learn a lot in those classes, but my reason for attending was an easy "A" just by turning in a short paper that spelled our type of government as a "Republik". He ate it up and I had time to write serious papers and study in the harder classes. 39 months wasn't much time to earn enough credits for 3 degrees, which were good enough for promotion or a career in pizza delivery. So, yes, I whored myself out. It even helped me getting hired as an asphalt inspector after I retired. The county loved hiring a college boy in a grunt billet. I parsed me some eloquent daily inspection reports. Egad, it paid well. Paid off my house and put 2 daughters through 15 years of college to earn real degrees. Critical Theory sucks. I know this because a Marine Major stood up in class and dressed down that professor for being "a damn commie". The professor, wisely, had no snappy come-back.
"critical theorists maintain that a primary goal of philosophy is to understand and to help overcome the social structures through which people are dominated and oppressed."
Critical theory views everything through the lens of oppressor and oppressed. This is worth knowing and worth opining on, even if you aren't a member of the Critical Theorist of the Month book club.
That’s a too narrow view, and even there, there are two different schools. A Marxist analysis is going to be different from a Freudian consideration. Everybody want to blow their own horn, but Theory is just using tools from one discipline to analyze problems in another. In Law, one school, is treating judicial opinions life fiction texts. Another is the always popular Critical Race Theory, which analyses how historical racial inequality persists today.
I just completed JPME 1 via distance learning. The TSDM course did not have any of this. I took it just a few months ago in September/October. A search of the syllabus for constructivism or feminism returns nothing. Not doubting there's some syllabus that has this, but I'm not sure which one or how many people are using it.
Chief, d'ye see how gentlemen take the high road? Remarkable, innit? A lesser man might have snarked it "Dood!" instead of "Dude." Maybe even with 2 umlauts. It's not exactly a skill, but more like they were born to it. Bet his fingers were on the keyboard before he even had to break a sweat thinking and composing.
I guess when I think about how ideological rot might be reducing the effectiveness of our military, one important factor is who is exposed and for how long. The fact that I just took the distance learning course in September and this wasn't part of the syllabus suggests that at least for this particular item, it is either brand new or not part of the more compressed distance learning course which I suspect (but do not know) is taken by a larger number of officers than the in-person course or master's programs. I thought this point might be of interest to readers of your blog.
There is some truth there, and they might also be worse in person. How many "tracks" for lack of a better word are there to choose in the course of study? I'm afraid I've been out of the loop for quite some time.
The fact this nonsense is available in any of them 100+ days in the current Presidential term is a problem, but it IS worth considering if different tracks have a more useful emphasis, and also if every officer gets the same distance learning, or if certain courses of study are tailored for certain audiences perceived to be receptive.
“Critical Theory”? Damn DEI is a stubborn cancer. The most direct approach to eradicating cancer is to remove it. Surgery appears to be in order for all cancerous tumors in the Naval War College.
Cancer can be eliminated through surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy. Since the latter two options are probably against the law in this case, radical surgery is called for.
This is relatively new - it wasn't in the curriculum when I took this course almost 10 years ago. I don't see a problem teaching this stuff, but it depends on HOW it is taught. Just like we were taught about communism during the Cold War - it's important to understand your enemy.
The problem, however, is that this pseudo-intellectualist gobbledygook isn't what motivates our enemies, but rather many of our fellow citizens.
The Wall Street Journal (on May 8) joined the chorus criticizing USNA for removing books from the Nimitz Library. For what it's worth, below is a copy of my written submission to USNA's Board of Visitors which reportedly prompted a vigorous debate during the May 5 BOV meeting. Putting aside the clear First Amendment implications of USNA's action, I stand by my position that the decision to remove books should be acknowledged as a correctible mistake; and should be reversed. Here's the submission, which speaks for itself:
Please consider the following as my written submission for consideration by the U. S. Naval Academy Board of Visitors during their upcoming meeting on May 5. It relates to the reported removal of 381 books from the Nimitz Library.
First, please note that this is not intended as criticism of our Superintendent. In fact, it is clear to me that she has been placed in an untenable situation. For example, while I am not privy to the details that surrounded this book removal project, the BOV should seek answers to these questions:
Who directed the Academy to review books contained in the Nimitz Library?
What guidelines, if any, were provided to the Academy regarding this project?
Who was principally tasked with carrying out this project? (E.g., civilian and/or military faculty? USNA JAG personnel? Others?)
What justifications, if any, were provided in support of the removal of specific books (e.g., by way of example only, what justifications were offered in support of removing works by noted authors Maya Angelou and Carol Swain)?
In my humble view, the Superintendent should immediately order the return of all the removed books to the Nimitz Library. It is important to note that she can do so while remaining in full compliance with the Commander-in-Chief's and SECDEF's directives to end DEI and race preference policies throughout our military. Neither of these worthy goals -- which I wholeheartedly endorse -- is advanced by removing books from the Nimitz Library. In fact, I and many of our fellow alumni think the removal of these books has proven to be an unnecessary distraction and contrary to the task of preparing midshipmen to fully understand and rationally counter the objectionable positions promoted by many of the authors of the books in question. If individuals inside the Pentagon believed otherwise, I submit they were mistaken.
It also is my sense that the Naval Academy and our Superintendent have been poorly served by those who put this project in motion without providing Academy leadership clear and explicit guidance as to how the project was to be carried out. Perhaps even more guilty are those unnamed persons who submitted the list of books targeted for removal and who, in my opinion, exercised inexplicably poor judgment (or, worse, demonstrated malicious intent) when assigning many of the books to the list.
To repeat: This project has created an avoidable and unhelpful distraction that, in the end, has done nothing to advance the CiC's and SECDEF's goals of ending DEI and race preference policies throughout our military.
CONCLUSION As a graduate of the Naval Academy, I urge the Superintendent, with the BOV's encouragement and support, to publicly announce the restoration of the removed books to the Nimitz Library. At the same time, I urge the Academy to continue to take steps in furtherance of the CiC's and SECDEF's goals by reviewing and revising the curriculum to ensure courses offered to the midshipmen are not promoting harmful ideologies that are inimical to our Nation's unity, and ultimately damaging to our national defense.
"Perhaps even more guilty are those unnamed persons who submitted the list of books targeted for removal and who, in my opinion, exercised inexplicably poor judgment (or, worse, demonstrated malicious intent) when assigning many of the books to the list"
Very good submission. Removing books from an academic isn't just oppressive, it was clownish in this case. Whoever made the list and approved it isn't well educated.
Then there was the cancellation of the Ryan Holiday talk at USNA about the broad reading and education of ADM James Stockdale, which was an implicit criticism of the book removals.
It took about 20 years for the military to come back into cultural esteem after Vietnam. This is just going to put them back to where they were in 1973, the image of drooling murderers.
I don't like to imagine that I am close-minded, but nothing on that list excited me enough to check one of them out of the library. But I don't suppose any of them could cause me harm by reading them.
Even my far, far, left Haight-Ashbury, granola eating sister renounced her as an idiot well over 25 years ago.
Perhaps the War College should be looking at women leaders like Indira Ghandi and Margaret Thatcher rather than angry lesbian octogenarians who have never held a job outside academia.
I think there will be a few opening on the senior leadership team in Newport. I’ve since moved away from the Ocean state, but willing to fill in for this soon to be stricken course remotely. Here’s my course outline:
1. Electricity, your deadly shipmate
2. Preservation tips, tools, techniques, and inspections
3. Proper Screening methodologies with DIVTACS lab
4. AN/SQQ 89 Detect to engage practice labs
5. Sonar Karate, TMA techniques, and refresher lofargram analysis
6. Proper liberty party attire, grooming standards and the responsibility of the import OOD
Seems like we’re missing something…
Oh yeah, UCMJ articles and the general court martial proceedings for willful violation of the CiNCs written orders.
When I was an RD2, 19 and the division training PO, I'd check out VD training videos. Lots of good info, and giggles for both the prudes and crudes. More entertaining than teaching pipology on an A-scope or beating Lissajous patterns on an OS-8.
This post is a good example of how these anti-DEI orders have become means of oppression by people who really don't know what the hell they're talking about, like in the USNA book purge. They're a source of future intellectual weakness.
So, what you define as DEI "Wrongthink" has to be rooted out from all teaching, academic publishing, informal discourse, and other cultural products? That does not sound like freedom to me.
I got a "Celebrate Black History" bookmark at my last visit to a DOD MWR base library; perhaps that can be the subject of your next Diversity Thursday outrage essay, since you're now down to editing course content at USNA.
Critical Theory is, in fact, worth knowing about. We all accumulate factual assumptions and attitudes through our background. There are assumptions which become "hegemonic" and embedded in the majority view of the world. Critical Theory is just a way of examining these assumptions through the lenses of class, ethnicity, and economic and political power. A lot of the ideas of Critical Theory would not surprise you. An academic friend once told me that the method of analysis is "like a toolbox, you can pull them out to look at whatever you want." You can apply Critical Theory and come to conservative or right wing conclusions, for example relations between capitalism, feminism, and the destruction of traditional family structures. Some people think Foucault is a right-wing thinker.
Critical Theory would be also useful in examining political, economic and social relations in other countries. You could avoid some whopping mistakes in intelligence analysis, for example. Herbert Marcuse worked for the OSS and then the State Department in the 1940s and 50s.
DEI could be illiberal by imposing attitudes and forcing speech and "struggle sessions" on people. This anti-DEI is also illiberal, or "post-liberal" by limiting the scope of expression and imposing narrow anti-intellectualism.
Critical Theory is, in fact, worth knowing about so we know how to combat it. Not sure how anyone in America could think this is some kind of grand idea unless they are a child, have never been outside of the US or never cracked an elementary school history boo....thank the dunce cap wearing academics for that too. This BS has failed and cost countless millions of lives every place it has been implemented. You make mention of a book purge at the USNA...GOOD...shit can the HMIC in Annapolis and the Newport wizard needs to go as well.
I live in the real world not a theoretical façade. This nonsense has infiltrated American society and culture at almost every level and needs to be eradicated. At this point on the timeline it is not about leftists or conservatives or political parties. This is about good vs. evil
There's the right wing for you; combat. Critical Theory is thinking; can't have that now, can we?
Do you live in the real world? How do you know? What you claim to experience as "the real world" may actually be a simulated reality. You know what you can use to figure that out? Critical Theory.
Sorry bud...not right wing or a leftist...just looking at right and wrong. I suppose you could spend a lifetime pondering what is real or not...I'm thinking there is probably a diagnosis for that followed by meds. You do you. I will believe my eyes and ears and act accordingly.
That's all Critical Theory is, a way of looking. When you apply a Marxist lens to a problem, certain factors are apparent. When you apply a different lens, you get a different view. To bring it down to navy terms, you can analyze a contact many different ways, by studying electronic signals, by radar return, by radio or visual.
That's all Theory is, a change of perspective. You are not going to find a more conservative economist than Gary Becker. His using the tools of economic theory to explain crime and punishment opened up an entirely new analysis of an old problem. The Chicago School, which Becker founded is nothing but Theory, and nobody would consider that philosophy anything but conservative. Theory is a tool. Tools are not ideological. (Well, maybe Adam Smith's hammer, but that's really an idea, and not a tool.)
God gave us the gift of reason, he wants us to think, to use our brains. If a feminist analysis can give us a good reason to build Ardleigh Burkes until the crack of doom, then have at it.
Thanks for bringing it down to navy terms for us simpletons. I am quite confident that I have probably spent more time analyzing contacts using the tools of the trade you mentioned more than most. I will not change my convictions because of a "lens"...but thanks for your dose of pablum.
I don't analyze contracts, but I could see some applications of literary Theory to these texts.
The "Reptile Theory", is a trial strategy used by plaintiff attorneys to evoke primal survival instincts in jurors. The theory suggests that by framing cases as violations of basic safety rules and portraying defendants as threats to public safety, jurors' "reptilian" brains will be triggered, leading to emotionally driven verdicts. Some of my personal injury brothers are as right-wing as they come, yet they successfully apply Theory to win cases.
I have begun to get the strong impression that somebody in the administration, perhaps a few somebodies, are paying attention to this substack and others.
Pardon this on subject but slight digression...
Am doing my biennial Flight-Instructor-Renewal-Course [FIRC] and yesterday's lesson revealed that, three months ago, the FAA was ordered [by the Trump Admin] to undo every Biden Admin political kommissar order, for example, NOTAM, which since hallowed antiquity meant Notice-To-Airmen, had been changed to Notice-to-Air-Mission and now is back to Notice-To-Airmen.
Thank you DJT.
Frank: I'm not a pilot, but this is fantastic news. Language distortion is an insidious tool of Marxists.
WTFO?!!. Call Pete Hegseth!
The "O" in "WTFO?!!" implies you want a response, Rocco. (Yes, I know that "O" here means "Over". But in R/T, the prosign for "Over" is "K". In a sane world, the acronym would be "WTFK". And in this case it would act as a force multiplier to the letter F. I know my ACP's.) Don't see anyone else picking up the handset, so....
Rocco DE Dale, SecDef hiring goons, issuing cattle prods, assigning "Double O" numbers w/ license to impart painful but necessary life lessons to the recalcitrant. The Sec'y thanks you, BZ, IMI BZ, K. (You would now respond: DE Rocco, RAR.)
If only the Dean of Academic of the Naval War College could stop this insanity….
MEMORANDUM FOR SECRETARY OF DEFENSE AND PENTAGON LEADERSHIP, UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR PERSONNEL AND READINESS, USD (P&R) EO 13950 IMPLEMENTATION TASK FORCE
SUBJECT: Restoring America's Fighting Force, SecDef Memorandum from SecDef 29 January 2025
In reference to your Memorandum of the above date to the Commanders of the Combatant Commands, Defense Agency and DOD Field Activity Directors directing the creation and tasking of the USD(P&R) Task Force to enact the directives of Executive Order (EO) 13950 of January 20, 2025, please be advised:
THEY ARE IGNORING YOUR DIRECTIVES AND ORDERS.
That is all,
Signed,
The US Public
"THEY ARE IGNORING YOUR DIRECTIVES AND ORDERS.” I must be an old-school, Cold War era naval officer, back when we obeyed our superiors and followed order. What the hell got into these people who scoff at the UCMJ? Firing people is one thing, but a clear message needs to be sent, especially at the Flag level: Disobey orders and you WILL be court martialed!
Everything changed because the "The Orange Man is Bad!" Try to keep up, Gundog:)
Orwell, I used to be a CWO Surface Op-Tech, SWO. Let me please explain. Gundog is old-school. Nothing has changed but the wind and sea state. "Orange man bad" is just the siren song of the carping harpies. You cannot put yourself into the Neanderthal mind set of a Surface CWO, especially the explosive type, which is no fault of yours. Most of us are still subject to recall, as unlikely as that is. Beholden to our oath, we try to stay ready, keep up, even not fudge overly much on our daily or quarterly PT. Maybe, in an abundance of caution, you ought to back off a smidge when a CWO goes CAPLOCKS. I know I do. ☺
Good Advice!
Thing is, learning about constructivism might actually be useful, because it introduces you to the idea that different cultures might respond to the same actions in different ways--i.e., if we do X, people from culture Y will respond this way, while people from culture Z will respond in another, and so we should prepare different follow-on plans depending on whether we're dealing with culture Y or culture Z.
Now, the probability that the professor teaching this course actually has a clue about how people will react in practice rather than theory is low, but the concept is fine.
I can't say the same for a feminist interpretation of things, though.
That's where my thoughts ran as I was reading as well.
The fact that We have a hard time understanding, much less empathizing with, other cultures has long been a problem. At a minimum it creates the Ugly American caricature. But it also creates things like Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. And probably China to come.
Being inside potential adversaries heads is a good thing. But it seems that Critical Theory isn't that. It's designed to teach you to be a good Marxist and embrace Good Think in all things. The irony is that those who embrace it are the most intolerant of all.
Which Critical Theorists have you read?
None actually. I have to rely on the review of others who have.
Not optimum for full understanding, but it will have to do.
You are not alone in not having any knowledge other than the opinions of others.
Maybe you should read some before you have an opinion yourself on what "it's designed to teach you."
I recommend Foucault's "The Birth of the Prison" and "The Birth of the Clinic" and bell hooks's "All about Love." There's also a recent survey, "Critical Theory: the Basics" by Martin Schuster.
You are not wrong.
That said, no one can onboard all the world's knowledge, or even the knowledge of a certain discipline. In my working life I never read the full canon of the profession(s). One relies on trusted sources and experts to distill some of that for us and take it on in that fashion.
That may be illiberal of me. But my reading stack was already larger than I have years left before anyone even heard of CT, CRT, or DEI.
Amen. The size of my reading queue is growing taller as the years remaining lowers.
"Tristes tropiques" is an adventure story by a man who lived a wild life. It is the best written, and most entertaining of all the high Theory masters. Some of that crap is ponderous. "Tristes tropiques," on the other hand, is a good story. https://www.amazon.com/Tristes-Tropiques-Penguin-Classics-Levi-Strauss/dp/0143106252
Levi Strauss lived in the Amazon. He kicked around the world on a tramp steamer. He was called up to the Army when the Nazi's rolled up France. He knew being a Jew was a bad fit with Hitler's boys and fled to New York City.
His refugee status kept him out of military service (we were worried he was a spy) and he was a handsome bachelor loose on the isle of Manhattan. His wartime service, and escape from France were romantic, and he lived in a New York where there were no other young men, and hundreds of thousands of hot ladies. Good times.
We have had over 20 years of our leadership in government, academia, and the media aggressively ignoring, or flat out lying about, the fundamental beliefs of our enemies with ideas such as, "Islam is a religion of peace". We project our own interest and measures of such onto enemies that could not care less about the sanctity of life, schools, water wells, parliamentary governance, and so on. Any officer that attempted to mentions it (such as myself) was swiftly shut down, ignored or worse unceremoniously shown the door.
Yep. And if the leadership had been more influenced by constructivism, they would have understood that not everyone is an American or a Westerner.
"Inside every _________ there is an American trying to get out!"
Theory drives the right wing insane. I understand why. At its worst, Theory is psudo-intellectual bullshit couched in impenetrable jargon.
But, Theory is useful. At its best it is interdisciplinary research; applying tools from one discipline to another. Lawyers do it all the time to great effect. For example, we use cutting edge concepts from neurological psychology to persuade juries in personal injury cases. We talk about getting clients “closure” which is pure Gestalt psychology. It can be as simple as using an economist to prove the need for alimony in a divorce case; or as complicated as Becker and Posener’s Chicago School law and economics theory. (The late Gary Becker proves that Theory is not an exclusively left-wing concept.)
Do you want to see a real world example of folks who embrace Critical Theory? Fox News. They have digested, and mastered, semiotic theory and use it to drive up ratings. When we called Critical Theory what it is, “interdisciplinary research,” it is way less scary. It is just a way to look at problems from a different perspective.
The problem is that Critical Theory isn't interdisciplinary research. From the notoriously partisan right-wingers at the Encyclopedia Britannica:
"Marxist-inspired movement in social and political philosophy originally associated with the work of the Frankfurt School. Drawing particularly on the thought of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud, critical theorists maintain that a primary goal of philosophy is to understand and to help overcome the social structures through which people are dominated and oppressed. Believing that science, like other forms of knowledge, has been used as an instrument of oppression, they caution against a blind faith in scientific progress, arguing that scientific knowledge must not be pursued as an end in itself without reference to the goal of human emancipation. Since the 1970s, critical theory has been immensely influential in the study of history, law, literature, and the social sciences."
https://www.britannica.com/topic/critical-theory
When I was a Chief on neutral duty for 39 months, I went to night school to earn a college degree. I was lucky to find an easy professor. Took 5 poli-sci classes and 1 in ethics that he taught. He was a starving hippie in his 50s who'd gotten his PhD under Herbert Marcuse. Yeah, that Marcuse, Tom. I did learn a lot in those classes, but my reason for attending was an easy "A" just by turning in a short paper that spelled our type of government as a "Republik". He ate it up and I had time to write serious papers and study in the harder classes. 39 months wasn't much time to earn enough credits for 3 degrees, which were good enough for promotion or a career in pizza delivery. So, yes, I whored myself out. It even helped me getting hired as an asphalt inspector after I retired. The county loved hiring a college boy in a grunt billet. I parsed me some eloquent daily inspection reports. Egad, it paid well. Paid off my house and put 2 daughters through 15 years of college to earn real degrees. Critical Theory sucks. I know this because a Marine Major stood up in class and dressed down that professor for being "a damn commie". The professor, wisely, had no snappy come-back.
This quote is key:
"critical theorists maintain that a primary goal of philosophy is to understand and to help overcome the social structures through which people are dominated and oppressed."
Critical theory views everything through the lens of oppressor and oppressed. This is worth knowing and worth opining on, even if you aren't a member of the Critical Theorist of the Month book club.
One specific branch does that, others don’t. Structuralists are not Freudians.
That’s a too narrow view, and even there, there are two different schools. A Marxist analysis is going to be different from a Freudian consideration. Everybody want to blow their own horn, but Theory is just using tools from one discipline to analyze problems in another. In Law, one school, is treating judicial opinions life fiction texts. Another is the always popular Critical Race Theory, which analyses how historical racial inequality persists today.
I just completed JPME 1 via distance learning. The TSDM course did not have any of this. I took it just a few months ago in September/October. A search of the syllabus for constructivism or feminism returns nothing. Not doubting there's some syllabus that has this, but I'm not sure which one or how many people are using it.
Dude. It is on their website
Can we like this response multiple times?
Chief, d'ye see how gentlemen take the high road? Remarkable, innit? A lesser man might have snarked it "Dood!" instead of "Dude." Maybe even with 2 umlauts. It's not exactly a skill, but more like they were born to it. Bet his fingers were on the keyboard before he even had to break a sweat thinking and composing.
I guess when I think about how ideological rot might be reducing the effectiveness of our military, one important factor is who is exposed and for how long. The fact that I just took the distance learning course in September and this wasn't part of the syllabus suggests that at least for this particular item, it is either brand new or not part of the more compressed distance learning course which I suspect (but do not know) is taken by a larger number of officers than the in-person course or master's programs. I thought this point might be of interest to readers of your blog.
There is some truth there, and they might also be worse in person. How many "tracks" for lack of a better word are there to choose in the course of study? I'm afraid I've been out of the loop for quite some time.
The fact this nonsense is available in any of them 100+ days in the current Presidential term is a problem, but it IS worth considering if different tracks have a more useful emphasis, and also if every officer gets the same distance learning, or if certain courses of study are tailored for certain audiences perceived to be receptive.
“Critical Theory”? Damn DEI is a stubborn cancer. The most direct approach to eradicating cancer is to remove it. Surgery appears to be in order for all cancerous tumors in the Naval War College.
Cancer can be eliminated through surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy. Since the latter two options are probably against the law in this case, radical surgery is called for.
…or park them in front of an Aegis SPY-1 radar. ;-)
Or an older Talos AN/SPG-49 @ 3MW or an AN/SPS-30 @ 2.5MW?
SPY-6 would be faster.
DEI is a stubborn cancer. So why not include chemo and radiation for the trifecta? That'd be fittingly inclusive and diverse.
This is relatively new - it wasn't in the curriculum when I took this course almost 10 years ago. I don't see a problem teaching this stuff, but it depends on HOW it is taught. Just like we were taught about communism during the Cold War - it's important to understand your enemy.
The problem, however, is that this pseudo-intellectualist gobbledygook isn't what motivates our enemies, but rather many of our fellow citizens.
The Wall Street Journal (on May 8) joined the chorus criticizing USNA for removing books from the Nimitz Library. For what it's worth, below is a copy of my written submission to USNA's Board of Visitors which reportedly prompted a vigorous debate during the May 5 BOV meeting. Putting aside the clear First Amendment implications of USNA's action, I stand by my position that the decision to remove books should be acknowledged as a correctible mistake; and should be reversed. Here's the submission, which speaks for itself:
Please consider the following as my written submission for consideration by the U. S. Naval Academy Board of Visitors during their upcoming meeting on May 5. It relates to the reported removal of 381 books from the Nimitz Library.
First, please note that this is not intended as criticism of our Superintendent. In fact, it is clear to me that she has been placed in an untenable situation. For example, while I am not privy to the details that surrounded this book removal project, the BOV should seek answers to these questions:
Who directed the Academy to review books contained in the Nimitz Library?
What guidelines, if any, were provided to the Academy regarding this project?
Who was principally tasked with carrying out this project? (E.g., civilian and/or military faculty? USNA JAG personnel? Others?)
What justifications, if any, were provided in support of the removal of specific books (e.g., by way of example only, what justifications were offered in support of removing works by noted authors Maya Angelou and Carol Swain)?
In my humble view, the Superintendent should immediately order the return of all the removed books to the Nimitz Library. It is important to note that she can do so while remaining in full compliance with the Commander-in-Chief's and SECDEF's directives to end DEI and race preference policies throughout our military. Neither of these worthy goals -- which I wholeheartedly endorse -- is advanced by removing books from the Nimitz Library. In fact, I and many of our fellow alumni think the removal of these books has proven to be an unnecessary distraction and contrary to the task of preparing midshipmen to fully understand and rationally counter the objectionable positions promoted by many of the authors of the books in question. If individuals inside the Pentagon believed otherwise, I submit they were mistaken.
It also is my sense that the Naval Academy and our Superintendent have been poorly served by those who put this project in motion without providing Academy leadership clear and explicit guidance as to how the project was to be carried out. Perhaps even more guilty are those unnamed persons who submitted the list of books targeted for removal and who, in my opinion, exercised inexplicably poor judgment (or, worse, demonstrated malicious intent) when assigning many of the books to the list.
To repeat: This project has created an avoidable and unhelpful distraction that, in the end, has done nothing to advance the CiC's and SECDEF's goals of ending DEI and race preference policies throughout our military.
CONCLUSION As a graduate of the Naval Academy, I urge the Superintendent, with the BOV's encouragement and support, to publicly announce the restoration of the removed books to the Nimitz Library. At the same time, I urge the Academy to continue to take steps in furtherance of the CiC's and SECDEF's goals by reviewing and revising the curriculum to ensure courses offered to the midshipmen are not promoting harmful ideologies that are inimical to our Nation's unity, and ultimately damaging to our national defense.
Very respectfully submitted,
Larry Purdy, USNA Class of 1968
"Perhaps even more guilty are those unnamed persons who submitted the list of books targeted for removal and who, in my opinion, exercised inexplicably poor judgment (or, worse, demonstrated malicious intent) when assigning many of the books to the list"
I'm glad I read your whole letter:)
Very good submission. Removing books from an academic isn't just oppressive, it was clownish in this case. Whoever made the list and approved it isn't well educated.
Then there was the cancellation of the Ryan Holiday talk at USNA about the broad reading and education of ADM James Stockdale, which was an implicit criticism of the book removals.
It took about 20 years for the military to come back into cultural esteem after Vietnam. This is just going to put them back to where they were in 1973, the image of drooling murderers.
Darn! Three hundred and eighty one books and not a single one written by ATM.
https://media.defense.gov/2025/Apr/04/2003683009/-1/-1/0/250404-LIST%20OF%20REMOVED%20BOOKS%20FROM%20NIMITZ%20LIBRARY.PDF
Oh! The humanity!
I don't like to imagine that I am close-minded, but nothing on that list excited me enough to check one of them out of the library. But I don't suppose any of them could cause me harm by reading them.
Funny they should stumble on Enloe.
The critique section is a nice primer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthia_Enloe
Even my far, far, left Haight-Ashbury, granola eating sister renounced her as an idiot well over 25 years ago.
Perhaps the War College should be looking at women leaders like Indira Ghandi and Margaret Thatcher rather than angry lesbian octogenarians who have never held a job outside academia.
The Naval War College has lost its collective mind. It was an excellent institution when I graduated in Newport, but now it is an embarrassment.
As a two time NWC graduate, I am--yet again--appalled. Please assure me that this crap[ is being winnowed out and discarded. Anybody?
When adjusting the aperture on my gender lens, what f-stop should I use?
Tough question, Bill. Depends on whether that gender lens is acting as a check valve or facilitating an overboard discharge.
I think there will be a few opening on the senior leadership team in Newport. I’ve since moved away from the Ocean state, but willing to fill in for this soon to be stricken course remotely. Here’s my course outline:
1. Electricity, your deadly shipmate
2. Preservation tips, tools, techniques, and inspections
3. Proper Screening methodologies with DIVTACS lab
4. AN/SQQ 89 Detect to engage practice labs
5. Sonar Karate, TMA techniques, and refresher lofargram analysis
6. Proper liberty party attire, grooming standards and the responsibility of the import OOD
Seems like we’re missing something…
Oh yeah, UCMJ articles and the general court martial proceedings for willful violation of the CiNCs written orders.
Alpha X-ray out!
Those things had better be taught at DIVOFF and Department Head schools for my money. You might have a point that they seem to need refreshing at NWC.
Start with the basics, then see how they do. It is a “war” college for god sakes!
Well, it was when I went there.
When I was an RD2, 19 and the division training PO, I'd check out VD training videos. Lots of good info, and giggles for both the prudes and crudes. More entertaining than teaching pipology on an A-scope or beating Lissajous patterns on an OS-8.
This post is a good example of how these anti-DEI orders have become means of oppression by people who really don't know what the hell they're talking about, like in the USNA book purge. They're a source of future intellectual weakness.
So, what you define as DEI "Wrongthink" has to be rooted out from all teaching, academic publishing, informal discourse, and other cultural products? That does not sound like freedom to me.
I got a "Celebrate Black History" bookmark at my last visit to a DOD MWR base library; perhaps that can be the subject of your next Diversity Thursday outrage essay, since you're now down to editing course content at USNA.
Critical Theory is, in fact, worth knowing about. We all accumulate factual assumptions and attitudes through our background. There are assumptions which become "hegemonic" and embedded in the majority view of the world. Critical Theory is just a way of examining these assumptions through the lenses of class, ethnicity, and economic and political power. A lot of the ideas of Critical Theory would not surprise you. An academic friend once told me that the method of analysis is "like a toolbox, you can pull them out to look at whatever you want." You can apply Critical Theory and come to conservative or right wing conclusions, for example relations between capitalism, feminism, and the destruction of traditional family structures. Some people think Foucault is a right-wing thinker.
Critical Theory would be also useful in examining political, economic and social relations in other countries. You could avoid some whopping mistakes in intelligence analysis, for example. Herbert Marcuse worked for the OSS and then the State Department in the 1940s and 50s.
DEI could be illiberal by imposing attitudes and forcing speech and "struggle sessions" on people. This anti-DEI is also illiberal, or "post-liberal" by limiting the scope of expression and imposing narrow anti-intellectualism.
Critical Theory is, in fact, worth knowing about so we know how to combat it. Not sure how anyone in America could think this is some kind of grand idea unless they are a child, have never been outside of the US or never cracked an elementary school history boo....thank the dunce cap wearing academics for that too. This BS has failed and cost countless millions of lives every place it has been implemented. You make mention of a book purge at the USNA...GOOD...shit can the HMIC in Annapolis and the Newport wizard needs to go as well.
I live in the real world not a theoretical façade. This nonsense has infiltrated American society and culture at almost every level and needs to be eradicated. At this point on the timeline it is not about leftists or conservatives or political parties. This is about good vs. evil
There's the right wing for you; combat. Critical Theory is thinking; can't have that now, can we?
Do you live in the real world? How do you know? What you claim to experience as "the real world" may actually be a simulated reality. You know what you can use to figure that out? Critical Theory.
Sorry bud...not right wing or a leftist...just looking at right and wrong. I suppose you could spend a lifetime pondering what is real or not...I'm thinking there is probably a diagnosis for that followed by meds. You do you. I will believe my eyes and ears and act accordingly.
That's all Critical Theory is, a way of looking. When you apply a Marxist lens to a problem, certain factors are apparent. When you apply a different lens, you get a different view. To bring it down to navy terms, you can analyze a contact many different ways, by studying electronic signals, by radar return, by radio or visual.
That's all Theory is, a change of perspective. You are not going to find a more conservative economist than Gary Becker. His using the tools of economic theory to explain crime and punishment opened up an entirely new analysis of an old problem. The Chicago School, which Becker founded is nothing but Theory, and nobody would consider that philosophy anything but conservative. Theory is a tool. Tools are not ideological. (Well, maybe Adam Smith's hammer, but that's really an idea, and not a tool.)
God gave us the gift of reason, he wants us to think, to use our brains. If a feminist analysis can give us a good reason to build Ardleigh Burkes until the crack of doom, then have at it.
Thanks for bringing it down to navy terms for us simpletons. I am quite confident that I have probably spent more time analyzing contacts using the tools of the trade you mentioned more than most. I will not change my convictions because of a "lens"...but thanks for your dose of pablum.
Admiral Burke...the E is silent, but it is there.
I don't analyze contracts, but I could see some applications of literary Theory to these texts.
The "Reptile Theory", is a trial strategy used by plaintiff attorneys to evoke primal survival instincts in jurors. The theory suggests that by framing cases as violations of basic safety rules and portraying defendants as threats to public safety, jurors' "reptilian" brains will be triggered, leading to emotionally driven verdicts. Some of my personal injury brothers are as right-wing as they come, yet they successfully apply Theory to win cases.
I have begun to get the strong impression that somebody in the administration, perhaps a few somebodies, are paying attention to this substack and others.