Army moves to ban "Extremism"
Extremism as a catch-all phrase for ideas and interpretations that are threatening
The issue by the Army of a directive entitled “Handling Protest, Extremism, and Criminal Gang Activities” on June 14, 2024, essentially forbids the discussion of any issues that the military designates at “extremist” by any member of the army, even when off duty.
The directive applies to the reserve and national guard, and most likely will be expanded to cover all armed services, and then the entire federal government
Two detailed memorandums were sent out by Army Secretary Christine Wormuth.
All such activities, including bumper stickers on cars and posts on social media when off duty, that are deemed to be “extremist” must be reported to commanders who are, in turn, required to report to the US ARMY Criminal Investigation Division. What is and what is not “extremist” is left to the commander to determine.
If the main concern was criminal gangs and racist ideology, it would be one thing, but a careful reading of the directive shows that this blanket prohibition can be, and will be, applied to COVID-19 truth, 9/11 truth, discussions of the illegal or criminal actions of officers and politicians, corruption within the army, and all discussion concerning whether directives and orders are legal, or constitutional, or even consistent with US Army policy.
Army Directive 2024-07
“Handling Protest, Extremism, and Criminal Gang Activities”
June 14, 2024
4-12. Extremist activities
Military personnel are prohibited from actively participating in extremist activities. Active
participation in extremist activities by Servicemembers is inconsistent with the responsibilities
and obligations of military service, as well as the oaths of office and enlistment. Active
participation in extremist activities can be prohibited even in some circumstances in which such
activities would be constitutionally protected in a civilian setting. Enforcement of this policy is a
responsibility of every command, is vitally important to unit cohesion and morale, and is
SUBJECT: Anny Directive 2024-07 (Handling Protest, Extremist, and Criminal Gang
Activities)
essential to the Anny's ability to accomplish its mission. It is the commander's responsibility to
maintain good order and discipline in the unit. Every commander has the inherent authority to
take appropriate actions to accomplish this goal. This paragraph identifies prohibited actions by
Servicemembers involving extremist activities, discusses the authority of the commander to
establish other prohibitions, and establishes that violations of prohibitions contained in this
paragraph or those established by a commander may result in punitive or administrative action.
a. Extremist activities. The term "extremist activities" means
b.
(1) Advocating or engaging in unlawful force, unlawful violence, or other illegal means to
deprive individuals of their rights under the United States Constitution or the laws of the United States, including those of any State, Commonwealth, Territory, or the District of Columbia, or any political subdivision thereof.
(2) Advocating or engaging in unlawful force or violence to achieve goals that are
political, religious, discriminatory, or ideological in nature.
(3) Advocating, engaging in, or supporting terrorism within the United States or abroad.
(4) Advocating, engaging in, or supporting the overthrow of the Government of the United
States or any political subdivision thereof, including that of any State, Commonwealth, Territory, or the District of Columbia, by force or violence, or seeking to alter the forms of these governments by unconstitutional or other unlawful means (such as sedition).
(5) Advocating or encouraging military, civilian, or contractor personnel within the DoD
or United States Coast Guard to violate the laws of the United States, or any political subdivision thereof, including that of any State, Commonwealth, Territory, or the District of Columbia, or to disobey lawful orders or regulations, for the purpose of disrupting military activities (such as subversion), or personally undertaking the same.
(6) Advocating widespread unlawful discrimination based on race, color, national origin,
religion, sex (including pregnancy), gender identity, or sexual orientation.
b. Active participation. The term "active participation" means the following, except where
such activity is within the scope of an official duty (for example, intelligence or law enforcement operations)-
(1) Advocating or engaging in the use or threat of unlawful force or violence in support of
extremist activities.
2
SUBJECT: Army Directive 2024-07 (Handling Protest, Extremist, and Criminal Gang
Activities)
(2) Advocating for, or providing material support or resources to, individuals or
organizations that promote or threaten the unlawful use of force or violence in support of
extremist activities, with the intent to support such promotion or threats.
(3) Knowingly communicating information that compromises the operational security of
any military organization or mission, in support of extremist activities.
(4) Recruiting or training others to engage in extremist activities.
( 5) Fundraising for or making personal contributions through donations of any kind
(including but not limited to the solicitation, collection, or payment of fees or dues) to, a group or organization that engages in extremist activities, with the intent to support those activities.
( 6) Creating, organizing, or taking a leadership role in a group or organization that engages
in or advocates for extremist activities, with knowledge of those activities.
(7) Actively demonstrating or rallying in support of extremist activities (but not merely
observing such demonstrations or rallies as a spectator).
(8) Attending a meeting or activity with the knowledge that the meeting or activity
involves extremist activities, with the intent to support those activities:
(a) When the nature of the meeting or activity constitutes a breach of law and order.
(b) When a reasonable person would determine the meeting or activity is likely to result in
violence; or
(b) In violation of off-limits sanctions or other lawful orders.
(9) Distributing literature or other promotional materials, on or off a military installation,
the primary purpose and content of which is to advocate for extremist activities, with the intent to promote that advocacy.
(10) Knowingly receiving material support or resources from a person or organization that
advocates or actively participates in extremist activities with the intent to use the material
support or resources in support of extremist activities.
(11) When using a government communications system and with the intent to support
extremist activities, knowingly accessing internet websites or other materials that promote or
advocate extremist activities.
3
SUBJECT: Army Directive 2024-07 (Handling Protest, Extremist, and Criminal Gang
Activities)
(12) Knowingly displaying paraphernalia, words, or symbols in support of extremist
activities or in support of groups or organizations that support extremist activities, such as flags, clothing, tattoos, and bumper stickers, whether on or off a military installation.
(13) Engaging in electronic and cyber activities regarding extremist activities, or groups
that support extremist activities-including posting, liking, sharing, re-tweeting, or otherwise
distributing content-when such action is taken with the intent to promote or otherwise endorse extremist activities. Military personnel are responsible for the content they publish on all personal and public internet domains, including social media platforms, blogs, websites, and applications.
(14) Knowingly taking any other action in support of or engaging in extremist activities,
when such conduct is prejudicial to good order and discipline or is service discrediting.
c. Command authority. Commanders have the authority and responsibility to prohibit
Servicemembers from actively participating in extremist activities and any other activities that
the commander determines will adversely affect readiness, good order and discipline, or morale within the command. This includes, but is not limited to, the authority to order the removal of symbols, flags, posters, or other displays from military-controlled areas; to place areas or activities off-limits (see AR 190 -24); or to order Servicemembers not to participate in those activities that are contrary to good order and discipline or morale of the unit, or pose a threat to health, safety, and security of military personnel or a military installation.
d. Command options. The policy rules and prohibitions regarding participation in extremist
activities apply to members of the Army Reserve and the ARNG regardless of whether the
prohibited activity occurs while on or off orders under Title 10 or 32 of the USC. As
appropriate, commanders may pursue adverse administrative in addition to or in lieu of punitive action in response to a Servicemember's active participation in extremist activities. A commander's options for dealing with a Servicemember' s violation of the prohibitions include, but are not limited to:
(1) UCMJ action, subject to jurisdictional limitations requirements set forth in the Manual
for Courts-Martial.
(2) Adverse administrative action which may include, but is not limited to:
(a) Involuntary separation.
(b) Reassignment.
(c) Loss of security clearance.
4
SUBJECT: Army Directive 2024-07 (Handling Protest, Extremist, and Criminal Gang
Activities)
(d) Bar to continued service.
(e) Other administrative or disciplinary action deemed appropriate by the commander,
based on the specific facts and circumstances of the particular case.
e. Command responsibility. Military personnel actively participating in extremist activities
could threaten the good order and discipline of a unit. As such, and in an effort to minimize the risk of future active participation in extremist activities, commanders should remain alert and should intervene early, primarily through counseling, when observing signs of future extremist activities that may not rise to the level of the prohibitions in paragraphs 3-12a and 3-12b.
The goal of early intervention is to minimize the risk of future extremist activities. In these situations, commanders will take positive actions to educate Soldiers, putting them on notice of the potential adverse effects that participation in violation of Army policy may have upon good order and discipline in the unit and upon their military service.
How ironic that the examples and definitions re: extremism are actions the government has, does and will commit against the people every day.
Federal courts have recognized the uniqueness of the military and the need to limit these freedoms. In Parker v. Levy, 417 US 733, in 1974 the court said: "The different character of the military community and of the military mission requires a different application of (First Amendment) protections."
But it is all you can be mercenary and brainwashing uniformed disservices.
The codes, the sickness of drill Sgt.s demanding oral sex from male and female recruits. Code of silence. Crimes, man, the military is.
Ahh, told to shoot anyone in a room, even with hands up in the air, well well, Fallujah, and those Marines were cranked up on speed and juiced up on steroids, you betcha, the mercenary soldiers of fortune US military is one fucking cartel protection racket, so, freedom of speech? The right to have indpendent ideas?
Remember?
A West Point cadet who wore a Che Guevara T-shirt to his graduation and posted a message online saying “communism will win” has been discharged from the US army.
The images Spenser Rapone posted on Twitter from his May 2016 West Point graduation were meant to shock: in one, he opens his dress uniform to expose a T-shirt with a red image of the socialist icon Che Guevara. In another, he raises his fist and flips over his cap to reveal the hand-scrawled message: “Communism will win.”
The images, posted later in 2017, drew vitriol and even death threats. Now the second lieutenant who became known as the “commie cadet” is out of the army with an other-than-honorable discharge.
...
“I consider myself a revolutionary socialist,” the 26-year-old said. “I would encourage all soldiers who have a conscience to lay down their arms and join me and so many others who are willing to stop serving the agents of imperialism and join us in a revolutionary movement.”
Rapone said his journey to communism grew out of his experiences as an army ranger in Afghanistan before he was accepted into the US Military Academy. And those views only hardened during his studies of history as one of the academy’s “Long Gray Line”.
He explained that he took the offending selfies at his May 2016 West Point graduation ceremony and kept them to himself until last September, when he tweeted them in solidarity with the NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who was taking heat for kneeling for the national anthem to raise awareness of racism.
Many other military personnel also tweeted in favor of Kaepernick, although most were supporting free speech, not communism.
West Point released a statement after Rapone posted the photos, saying his actions “in no way reflect the values of the US Military Academy or the US Army”. And the US senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, called on the secretary of the army to remove Rapone from the officer ranks.
+--+
Q: Why go into the army in the first place?
A: At a young age, you’re inundated with propaganda and patriotism, and I thought I could make a difference joining the Army. But then I got deployed to Afghanistan, and my experience overseas showed me that if anything, I was making a difference for those with power and wealth. In fact, I didn’t really find what we were being told in America to be reflective of what was really going on in Afghanistan. In the simplest of terms, I felt like we were the big bully and the purveyor of violence. I was just using all of this expensive equipment in one of the poorest places on earth to serve the interests of a capitalist class.
Q: But you felt like you couldn’t do anything about what you were experiencing.
A: At the time, I was a 19-year-old private, so I feel like I couldn’t voice anything without being told, “Shut the fuck up and execute your task.” But I guess I was slowly radicalizing. I wasn’t quite a socialist yet, but I knew I was against the war. I still had this liberal idea that I could affect change from the inside, so I applied and got accepted to West Point and thought, “I won’t fail my men, like leadership failed me.
Soon after getting to West Point, I saw that this was a structural problem across the military and that the military itself, its material relation to power, serves the capitalist class. At West Point, I realized I might be a socialist. So, I started reading theory. I was a history major, and I studied Middle Eastern history specifically. When you study the role of the United States and the British and the French pre-dating them, you start to understand what imperialism really is. You start to see why these wars are endless. They’re designed to be profitable. They’re not designed to achieve any sort of objective.
But I was kind of stuck at that point because after your second year, you have to do what’s called “affirmation.” If I dropped at that point, I would either be kicked back into the enlisted ranks or be forced to find a way to pay for West Point. I graduated and went to officer training, but once Trump got elected, I thought this was a particular political moment when I was like, “Ok, now more than ever, it would be inauthentic of me to continue.”
So I started to think of what I could do and then 10 months after Trump was elected, Colin Kaepernick lost his job essentially. He lost his career for speaking truth to power. I figured if he could put his skin in the game on a national stage, then I could do my small part and it kind of took off from there.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/commie-cadet-spenser-rapone-socialism-dsa-army-military
Q: Could you explain the type of discharge they gave you?
A: It’s the worst administrative discharge. Obviously this didn’t go to court martial. My attorney told me they wanted to get a pound of flesh from me, but I didn’t do anything illegal. It’s not illegal to be a communist in the military, but since I was in uniform, and in their mind, making a political statement and posted on social media, they lumped it all together as this nebulous “unbecoming conduct” charge and said I was advocating for violence.