In recent years, Stephen Shepherd (a pseudonym) has witnessed other servicemen being threatened, officially reprimanded, or given career-ending evaluations over their social media posts. In one example, the Army soldier discloses that he has seen “high-level commanders threaten career-ending reprisal for liking a social media post by Tucker Carlson, who was being critical of Army social justice efforts, claiming that ‘liking’ such a post would constitute an EO (Equal Opportunity) violation.”
[Editor's note: Shepherd emphasizes his views do not reflect those of the Department of Defense or Department of the Army. He spoke to American Family News using a pseudonym because of concern over possible reprisals.]
In an older example, Shepherd notes “drastic reprisals were carried out [by commanders], even against soldiers’ families for social media posts that were merely described as ‘critical of George Floyd/Black Lives Matter (BLM).’”
The punishment, he says, included “banning them from military installations where most soldiers are housed and work, [where] their children attend school, and [where] they receive medical care.
“[This occurred] without distinguishing if such statements were in fact gross racial attacks or criticism of the leftist ideology and wave of rioting under the banner of BLM,” Shepherd adds.
It didn't stop there, says the military veteran. He explains that in "anti-extremism" training, soldiers were subjected to "draconian threats for being affiliated with ‘anti-government’ extremism which was couched in obviously leftist-coded language, and threatened [with] revocation of clearance, criminal charges, and bad conduct discharge.”
He adds: “Lists were alleged to be in existence of extremist organizations which would trigger punitive action, but soldiers were not told what or who was on the list.”
Considering all this, it’s interesting to Shepherd that following the first assassination attempt on Trump, “a Master Sergeant, a senior level NCO (non-commissioned officer), including a Brigade Command Sergeant Major, felt comfortable posting or liking a meme that expressed that if Trump had been in jail, he wouldn’t have been shot at.” (See below)
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This post followed a New York judge’s decision to delay sentencing the former president on felony criminal charges until November 26.
While Shepherd cannot confirm the true intention of the post, he states that it's clear to him that “the same draconian threats do not apply to everyone who posts on social media.” And to his knowledge, neither the individual who posted the meme nor those who liked it have been reprimanded.
In addition to the controversial social media post, he has observed mandatory "leadership training" sessions with civilian authors who were "highly partisan" and who stated that individuals who supported Trump, or had issues with COVID policies or with social justice policies "were suffering from a mind virus.”
“Soldiers have been told that they are 'privileged' because they are white,” Shepherd adds. “Moreso, if they are white and the children of a law enforcement or military family, they are 'certainly privileged.'”
In addition, because of their alleged special rights and advantages, those individuals are often told “they need to listen to, and be supportive of, soldiers who were sympathetic to, or part of, protests or riots” typically associated with a highly partisan and leftist ideology, like the anti-Israel protests of today or Black Lives Matter riots of years past.
When soldiers speak out against this line of thinking in unit reviews, he adds, staff officers have been known to alter their reports or delete their complaints.
The overall result, according to Shepherd, is akin to the wokeness infiltrating the U.S. military across the board.
“The combination of partisan narratives being mandated to attend, in the guise of leadership training, and severe examples made of those who criticize ‘social justice’ policies, with leftist political violence being treated as deserved, has created the impression of leftist thought-crime policies being installed as shadow policies,” Shepherd laments.
