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It's not named the Department of War because Congress didn't rename it. Other than that, good on ya.
by alangibson 7mo ago
It's not named the Department of War because Congress didn't rename it.
Other than that, good on ya.
- hirako2000 7mo agoBut it sets the tone.
- henrikschroder 7mo ago[flagged]
- junofan 7mo agoDude we had an election and this is what we’re doing. Maybe that’s not how you do things in the Kingdom of Sweden. Here it’s e pluribus unum.
- hirako2000 7mo agoThere is a good share of collusion in Europe too, let's keep all continents open to critics. Elections doesn't imply unlawful dictates and corruption.
- krapp 7mo agoIt is called the Department of War because we live under fascism and Congress no longer matters. All that matters is that everyone calls it the Department of War, and regards it as such, which everyone does.
- dumpsterdiver 7mo ago> All that matters is that everyone calls it the Department of War, and regards it as such, which everyone does. What you just described is consensus, and framing it as fascism damages the credibility of your stance. There are better arguments to make, which don’t require framing a label update as oppression.
- krapp 7mo agoI'm not framing consensus as fascism, I'm pointing out what the consensus is within the current fascist framework, and that consensus is that Congress doesn't make the rules anymore. And that consensus is shared by Congress itself.
- jibal 7mo agoBeing honest increases credibility, not damages it. > framing a label update as oppression That strawman damages credibility.
- RIMR 7mo agoThe president has no authority to rename the Department of Defense, but he and his administration demand consensus under the threat of legal consequences. Just as one example, they threatened Google when they didn't immediately rename the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America" on their maps. Other companies now follow their illegal guidance because they know that they will be threatened too if they don't comply. There is a word for when the government uses threats to enforce illegal referendums. That word is "Fascism". Denying this is irresponsible, especially in the context of this situation, where the Government is threatening to force a private company to provide services that it doesn't currently provide.
- drstewart 7mo ago[flagged]
- 7mo ago
- FrankBooth 7mo ago[flagged]
- wyre 7mo agoHelp me understand how a firm grip on tells that living in America is not fascism? It's definitely checking the boxes.
- redwall_hp 7mo agoBasically all of Eco's Ur-Fascism boxes are checked. And he'd know, having lived under Mussolini's regime. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ur-Fascism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ur-Fascism
- throwaway76375 7mo agoHe was 11 when Mussolini's government fell...
- FrankBooth 7mo agoThe Biden administration met seven of the requirements on the list. Do you seriously believe this essay offers any value at all? It’s pop culture trash.
- 1024core 7mo agoIt's addressed to Hegseth, who insists on calling it that. If they had called it DoD, then that would have been another finger in his eye.
- inigyou 7mo agoMaybe this is the DoW Pam Bondi was referring to.
- moogly 7mo agoThis. They even put a "wArFiGhTers" in there.
- garciasn 7mo agoRemember, this is the same administration that barred the AP from the Oval Office because they wouldn't rename the Gulf of Mexico. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/11/associated-press-oval-office-gulf-of-america https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/11/associated-p... While this action may indeed cause the DoD to blacklist Anthropic from doing business w/the government, they probably were being as careful as they could be not to double down on the nose-thumbing.
- furyofantares 7mo agoI don't think it's addressed to Hegseth, but to anyone who might be sympathetic to Hegseth. Which I think actually strengthens your point, the goal appears to be to make it so the only possible complaint with the letter for someone sympathetic to the administration is "but mass domestic surveillance / fully autonomous weapons are legal" and not "look at this lunatic leftist who calls it the department of defense".
- 63 7mo agoWhile I agree the name change has not (yet) been made with the proper authority, I'm quite partial to the name and prefer to use it despite its prematurity. I think it does a better job of communicating the types of work actually done by the department and rightly gives people pause about their support of it. Though I'm sure that wasn't the administration's intention.
- inigyou 7mo ago[flagged]
- esafak 7mo agoBrevity.
- scottyah 7mo agoThat's a separate department, DoE actually controls the nukes.
- dragonwriter 7mo agoDoD controls them when they are actually going to be used, DoE only is responsible for the securing and maintaining them to be ready for use.
- ReptileMan 7mo agoLess hypocritical than Defense. US has never been on the defense, always offense since it was renamed in 1947.
- nrb 7mo agoOften offensive and also often defensive of others.. so if renaming is on the table, it’s probably most apt to call it the Dept of Security since the vast majority of what it does is maintaining the security umbrella that has helped suppress world war since the last one. Of course, facts or opinions on whether it succeeds on the security front depend on which side of the umbrella you’re on.
- dragonwriter 7mo agoThe Department of Defense was named in 1949, not 1947, and the thing that it was renamed from was the National Military Establishment, which was newly created in 1947 to be put over the two old military departments (War, which was over the Army only, and Navy, which was over the Navy including the Marine Corps) At the same time as the NME was created, the Army was split into the Army and Air Force and the Department of War was also split in two, becoming the Department of the Army and the Department of the Air Force.
- curiousgal 7mo agoAnd losing at that offense while at it.
- ReptileMan 7mo agoUSA has never lost a war so far. They just ... get bored and leave eventually.
- helaoban 7mo agoIt SHOULD be called the Department of War, as it was originally, since it makes its function clear. We are a society that has euphemized everything and so we no longer understand anything.
- scottyah 7mo agoDoublespeak, so to speak.
- greycol 7mo agoNaming is important because it intuits what we expect to do with a thing. The Department of Defense invading Greenland is more invocative to inquiry than the Department of War invading Greenland because that's what a department of war would do. It's one of the reasons why people get annoyed at jargon or are pissed off about pronouns, because it highlights that they should be putting mental effort into understanding why they're current mental model doesn't fit. It's much easier to ignore and be comfortable if there's not glaring sirens saying you've got some learning to do. Most of us can't (or won't) be aware of everything that should be important to us, having glaring context clues that we should take notice of something incongruous is important. It's also why the Trump media approach works so well it's basically a case of alarm fatigue as republicans who would normally side against any particular one of his actions don't listen because they agreed with some of the actions that democrats previously raised alarms about.
- alt187 7mo ago> It's one of the reasons why people get annoyed at jargon or are pissed off about pronouns, [...] It's worth noting there's an overabundance of legitimate reasons people get annoyed at these two thing, making them bad examples.
- greycol 7mo ago>one of the reasons Also while there is an abundance of reasons of varying legitimacy they're both good examples because people often run in to them and are annoyed by the use of the words out of proportion to running into the actual legitimate reasons to be annoyed by the concept. The number of people annoyed, by words like rizz or are angry that doctor can refer to a female, far out weigh the people legitimately trying to figure out if rizz is something they need to protect their kids from or getting delayed medical care because they needed to wait because they only feel comfortable with their own sex.
- fluidcruft 7mo agoIt's really not the right thing to be bikeshedding. The people calling the shots call themselves the Department of War. No need to die on hills that don't matter.
- garciasn 7mo agoTIL of Bikeshedding, or Parkinson’s Law of Triviality. Defined as the tendency for teams to devote disproportionate time and energy to trivial, easy-to-understand issues while neglecting complex, high-stakes decisions. Originating from the example of arguing over a bike shed's color instead of a nuclear plant's design, it represents a wasteful focus on minor details. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_triviality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_triviality --- I deal with this day in and day out. Thank you for informing me of the word that describes the laughable nightmares I deal with on the regular.
- baq 7mo agoGet a prop with difficulty/importance quadrants and silently tap sign on meetings
- epistasis 7mo agoIt's actually a good thing to point out, because it shows that those people are out of control and exceeding their authority, and need to be reined in. No need to die on the hill, but point out that there's a consistent pattern of lawless power-grabbing.
- 0xbadcafebee 7mo ago> it shows that those people are out of control and exceeding their authority No, the concentration camps and gangs of masked thugs violating civil rights are that sign. Threatening to treat a domestic private corporation like an enemy combatant during peacetime for not immediately caving to military demands is that sign. Trying to take over the Federal Reserve, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is that sign. The Executive attempting to freeze funds issued by Congress for partisan reasons is that sign. Department of War is just little boys being trolls.
- noosphr 7mo agoAnd what if congress renames it tomorrow? They have the votes. These sort of procedural gotchas are as stupid as they are boring.
- dragonwriter 7mo ago> And what if congress renames it tomorrow? Then tomorrow it will be the Department of War. Just like When Congress voted to split the old Department of War into the Department of the Army and the Department of the Air Force, and to take both of those and the previously-separate Department of the Navy under a new National Military Establishment led by the newly-created Secretary of Defense (and when it later to voted to rename the NME as “Department of Defense”), things changed in the past. > They have the votes. Perhaps, but the law doesn't change because the votes are in a whip count on a hypothetical change, it changes because they are actually cast on a bill making a concrete change.
- justin66 7mo agoThis is a willfully ignorant misreading of what's actually going on. They've decided to use the "Department of War" moniker in part because they think it sounds cool, but more significantly because it demonstrates they can break the law with impunity. Hence, there has not been a vote on the matter.
- noosphr 7mo agoWhat law?
- tempestn 7mo agoThe name is extremely off-putting, but I can see how they would want to be diplomatic toward the administration in using their chosen name. Save the push-back for where it really matters.