The Most Ridiculous Things Caught up in Pete Hegseth's 'DEI' Purge
Pete Hegseth's Department of Defense has marked an image of the USAAF B29 bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima for deletion—and the reason why,may be the perfect illustration of why right now really isn't a good time to be closing the Department of Education.
That historical image was among 26,000 others that were marked for deletion as part of the DOD's rushed efforts to weed out any traces of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion by Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. The photograph was marked for removal because it prominently features the name of the aircraft: Enola Gay, for the pilot Colonel Paul Tibbetts's mother.
The Associated Press published a database Thursday of thousands of images marked for deletion. While some of the photographs were still visible Thursday, it's not clear if they will remain so. One official told the Associated Press that close to 100,000 files could be deleted as part of the Pentagon's latest purge.
It's not surprising that the sweep for DEI has consequently targeted the records and achievements of women and minorities in the military, removing mentions of Women's History Month and Black History Month. One collection of images titled 'Women's History Month: All-female crew supports warfighters' saw its main page removed, though one photograph of an all-female C-17 crew remained. Another photograph titled 'Engineering pioneer remembered during Black History Month' was deleted, as well.
Other photographs swept up in the purge included other service members with the last name Gay, war heroes such as Marine Corps World War II Medal of Honor recipient Private First Class Harold Gonsalves, and a photograph of a group of Army Corps biologists, who appeared to have earned their spot on the chopping block because they were collecting data about fish including, among other things, their gender.
Online, people weren't at all impressed by the Pentagon's thoughtless CTRL-F style of searching for woke.
Former Pentagon spokesperson Chris Meagher called the report 'bonkers' in a post on X Thursday.
Rick Pearson, a political reporter for the Chicago Tribune, called the Pentagon's purge 'complete lunacy and literally an attempt to whitewash history' in a post on X.
'Republicans spent years complaining about cancel culture and then took office and banned photos of the Enola Gay because it has the word gay in it,' posted Skyler Johnson, a candidate for New York State Senate.
'These fuckers are bigots and fucking idiots too,' wrote Army veteran Fred Wellman, who hosts the podcast On Democracy.
'What a piece of shit you are @SecDef,' he added in a second post.
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