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The word to denote virtue it refers to offensive moral abuse that has less to do with politics than self-gratification. It is the dinner guest who feels compelled to comment on the climatic impact of each course. He is a person who annoys his colleagues during meetings and frequent public meetings. (Author Richard Russo, in a 1990s satire of academic life, created a character whose nickname was “Orshee” because when anyone at a faculty meeting used it. he as a general pronoun, the colleague would type “Or he” as a modifier.)
But Donald Trump and his administration have embraced it Mirror Universe virtue signaling version. They have developed the practice of “bad-marking,” or saying abusive or offensive things as an attention-seeking behavior and as a way to express their allegedly extreme political views. They aim to show power by being ready to shock other people, just as bullies at school bully their classmates to gain the approval of the other bullies. It’s the same peacock, but with worse feathers.
Few people other than the president himself have done more to advance the cause of vice-signaling than Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a man who honed his communication skills at Fox News, where anchors regularly say offensive things as a way to show their audience how much they want to own the libs. Hegseth, for example, has long emphasized the fact that women hold leadership positions in the United States military, and has emphasized the idea of “property” as a way of pointing out that few officers have been promoted because of their race rather than their talent. He put those beliefs into action as soon as he got to the Pentagon by pushing for the shooting of a black man and several others. senior female officers who were replaced by whites.
A few weeks ago, he did it again: According to New York TimesHegseth seized the Army’s promotion list, which is overwhelmingly white, and fired four officers—two Black men and two women—to prevent them from advancing from colonel to brigadier general. Hegseth did not make a public statement about his decision, but military officials did Times that one officer was singled out for writing a paper on the career choices of African American officers, and another was targeted because he served while leaving Afghanistan.
Normally, the secretary of defense does not participate in that level of the process. Such promotions, for one and two stars, are generally routine, decided by promotion boards within the military and then submitted to the Senate for approval. (Promotions to three- and four-stars are subject to more scrutiny; the generals and admirals may lead the command and become part of the civilian military leadership in Washington.) Hegseth should have known that cutting the four colonels off the list would seem misogynistic and racist, and he chose to send a clear message to the rest of the military: I will deliberately harm the jobs of honest American officials in a show of blatant bigotry just to show that I am a tough guy..
Meanwhile, every time he takes the stage, Hegseth wants not to reassure or inform the American people but to push hot buttons that will please Trump and the MAGA faithful. He rap he gave a slogan instead of giving actual information: “Higher hostility, not higher legitimacy. Violent effect, not politically correct.” He says that America will show “no quarter, no mercy for our enemies”—the dialogue of the movie villains that exemplifies Hegseth’s attempts to show confidence. (Perhaps he has noticed that some in the Pentagon are now reportedly referring to him as “Stupid McNamara,” comparing him—unfavorably—to the late Robert McNamara, his predecessor who aided America in the swamps of Vietnam.)
But nowhere is Hegseth’s embrace of evil more evident than in his efforts to combine his youthful, gung-ho excitement about war with Christian prayer. When Hegseth tries to don the armor of a warrior priest, the result is a huge mess that should annoy believers and non-believers alike.
Praying for the safety of soldiers is not controversial in America, nor should it be. In my faith (I am a Greek Orthodox Christian), we pray every week for “world peace” and “for our country, the president, all those in public service, and for our armed forces everywhere.” Nor is prayer to the Almighty uncommon in times of war: In 1944, General George Patton ordered application to God to stop the bad weather that was preventing his attacks against the Nazis. His priest begged the Lord to “stop these excessive rains” and allow the Third Army, “armed with Your power,” to “advance from victory to victory, and crush the injustice and evil of our enemies, and confirm Your justice among men and nations.”
But even Patton’s climactic prayer seems timid next to Hegseth’s vicious rage. Last week—during Lent, no less—he he asked in the same way that the jihadists he hates can have: “Let each side find its mark against the enemies of justice and our great nation,” Hegseth said, asking God to grant the American forces “wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trials ahead, unbroken unity, and great violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”
Christianity—whose founder preached peace and mercy and was later persecuted to death—has struggled for centuries with moral questions about the permissibility of war for people of faith, and how they should conduct themselves if armed conflict is inevitable. Underneath it all, a group of thought called the “just war tradition” – which serves as the basis for the laws of war in the United States and in other nations – has always recognized the sanctity of human life and the spiritual risk of taking it. This realization is one of the reasons “no mercy” and “no quarter” orders are usually violations of the laws of war—and why they are also against US law.
Christian thinkers have always insisted that princes and generals go to war with a sense of responsibility. Hegseth, however, sees war as another opportunity to display depravity as if it were a military virtue. (During Trump’s first term, Hegseth reportedly urged the president to give forgiveness for two men convicted of war crimes.) As Greg Sargent noted today in New Republic, Hegseth’s wartime prayers—rooted in his apparent adherence to right-wing evangelical sects—not only contradict the traditional Christian aversion to war but also show that “God fully approves of as many murders as possible.” A Baptist minister told Sargent that the secretary reaches that conclusion by picking various bloody passages from scripture, using in a “Mad Libs kind of mixture of biblical violence.”
Shows of vice are common in the Trump administration because the president’s appointees know that the boss likes subordinates who emulate his rudeness. But when someone in charge of the Department of Defense dumps this kind of toxic waste, it goes into the underground waters of military culture. It tells young service members — and men, in particular — that racism, sexism, and masculinity are signs of a true hero.
Whether Pete Hegseth is truly a man of faith, I cannot say. His form of Christianity is unknown to me, but it seems that we worship the same God, and of course we read the same Bible. So perhaps I can suggest that he repeat Matthew 6:5, in which Jesus encourages his followers about the show of piety: “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites;
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Today’s news
- President Trump he said that there had been “significant progress” in the talks with Iran ending the war but again threatening to blow up critical infrastructure in Iran if negotiations fail; The announcement shook the oil market. Iran has denied that direct talks are taking place with the US and also accused Washington yesterday planning an attack in secret time to continue the conversation.
- Trump allowed the Russian tanker to carry about 730,000 barrels of oil arrived in Cuba yesterday, easing his regime’s oil restrictions on the island; The tanker arrived at the Cuban port of Matanzas earlier today. Cuba’s oil shortage has caused blackouts and disruptions to basic services.
- Tom Homan, the border king of the White House, said yesterday that ICE agents will continue to assist at airports “until the airports feel like they are 100 percent” and can conduct “normal operations.” Trump signed an executive order last week to begin paying TSA officers, but the agency said at least 500 agents have been out of a job since the Department of Homeland Security shutdown began.
Dispatches
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Evening Read
Don’t get into the War on Lice
By Daniel Engber
The human head louse has the quality of the soul. It tends to flash in and out of view, leaving only subtle signs and symptoms of its presence. Is that round piece an egg sac or a dander? What? was that a burner in your head? Is it normal for your son to scratch behind his ear? Maybe you have lice and he has lice, and you’ve both had lice for weeks. The possibility is terrifying. Uncertainty breeds madness.
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Rafaela Jinich contributed to this magazine.
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