The Pentagon Says Shut Up, Or Else!

The official politicization of our military is upon us. It’s impossible for anything related to government to be completely apolitical, although throughout our history our Armed Forces have tried hard to be. Not any more.

The Pentagon, ordered by the new Secretary of Defense, will now screen members for their political views. The Pentagon is preparing to launch a program that will screen the social media posts of military members for "concerning behaviors" amid a broader crackdown on domestic extremism, according to a report on Tuesday. Of course, how “extremism” is defined is the true tricky widget.

The program will reportedly utilize keyword searches to identify potential extremist views. Officials are attempting to compile a list of keywords that would not violate freedom of speech protections. More alarmingly, it has been reported that a lot of this surveillance will be performed by artificial intelligence.

If this is allowed to stand, eventually the military will become the military wing of politicians to empower their political positions. Those who oppose these positions will be silenced or worse.