The latest eye-rolling development in the current administration is that Defense Secretary, or is it War Secretary?, Pete Hegseth is very concerned about testosterone levels among the troops.
NY Times, yesterday: Hegseth Plans to Screen All Troops, Including Women, for Low Testosterone, subtitled “Pete Hegseth, as defense secretary, has sought to cultivate an image as a manosphere-friendly leader.” [gift link from a Fb friend]
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday a new mandatory screening program to test all service members age 30 and older, including women, for testosterone deficiency annually.
Hormone treatment for troops with low testosterone will be voluntary.
“Our most decisive tactical advantage will always be the individual warfighter,” Mr. Hegseth said in a video from his Pentagon office. “We have a sacred duty to maintain that advantage.”
The goal, he said in a social media message accompanying the video, was a “High-T Department of War,” Mr. Hegseth’s preferred name for the Defense Department.
Also:
The Atlantic, Tom Bartlett, yesterday: Pete Hegseth Wants YOU to Test Your Testosterone, subtitled “The secretary of defense has a questionable plan to monitor the hormone levels of every service member over 30.”
Pete Hegseth wants a manly military. And he really, really wants you to know how badly he wants a manly military. In his 2024 book, The War on Warriors, Hegseth worried that the military risked becoming “effeminate, and apologetic”; he insisted that what liberals really want is “soft men, and a weak military,” and he scolded “Pentagon pussies” who refuse to stand up for soldiers on the battlefield. As secretary of defense, Hegseth has blocked the promotion of female military officers, removed the first woman to lead the Navy, and ordered a review of women’s “effectiveness” in ground-combat roles. He has also used the Defense Department’s social-media channels to post a steady stream of tougher-than-thou videos.
And
The Daily Beast, today: Doctors Torch Pentagon Pete’s ‘Ridiculous’ Testosterone Plot, subtitled “The Defense Secretary’s macho-macho makeover at the Pentagon is getting a little weird.”
Does he believe soldiers are literally fighting on the battlefield, these days? Like in The Odyssey?
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Then this today:
Slate, Fred Kaplan, today: Hegseth Wants to Test Troops’ Testosterone Levels. It’s Absurd—and Dangerous., subtitled “I can’t believe his testosterone testing proposal isn’t a parody.”
When I read on Wednesday that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will start testing U.S. service members for testosterone deficiency, I thought it was an internet joke, maybe a post from the Onion, a play on Dr. Strangelove‘s Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper ranting against fluoride as a Communist plot to sap our precious bodily fluids.
But no, it turns out there’s a video, which seems to be real, of the former Fox News host and Army major announcing annual tests of all members of the armed forces over the age of 30—and testosterone shots for those who score low—as a way of “restoring and optimizing your natural capabilities” and retaining our military’s “leading edge of lethality.” He claims that “our most decisive tactical advantage will always be the individual Warfighter.” Hence his new slogan: “The High-T Department of War.”
Hegseth has spouted a lot of rubbish in his 18 months as the Pentagon’s top civilian and the Trump administration’s keenest war hawk, but this one may top the pile: It’s ill-informed on every level and, in some ways, dangerous.
One more bit:
But the main fallacy in Hegseth’s latest campaign is that, even if his assumptions about testosterone were correct, they have little to do with the nature of modern warfare or the talents, abilities, or “lethality” of a modern “warfighter.”
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For the record, I have some experience with low testosterone and testosterone injections, from about 15 years ago, when I was in my mid-50s. A body-builder neighbor of ours, in Woodland Hills, on hearing I’d had a check-up and gotten blood work done, asked to look at the results. My T level was low, and he advised T injections to improve my gym results. Mmm, OK. I took T injections for several months, maybe a year. Shots in the butt.
There were positive and negative consequences. The negative consequence was that my PSA level, a blood indicator of potential prostate disease, went up dramatically, to the point where I visited a couple urologists, including one at UCLA, who did two rather painful prostate biopsies, and found nothing. Anyway, I stopped the T injections. On the other hand… That period back in 2010 and 2011 when I was getting those shots did actually help me build some muscle, at the gym. Much more significantly, they somehow gave me more ambition, more drive, more focus. Those were the years when I bought my M3, when I started posting on Locus Online every single day, when I finished the upgrade from my awards database on Locus Online to an independent site, at sfadb.com, and when I began this blog. And those drives… have never gone away. Perhaps because I lost my day job at the end of 2012, and could focus on those new focuses.
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Briefly noted items. The tribalist right.
The Bulwark, Matt McManus, today: Who’s to Blame? Ask the Far Right—They Have a List., subtitled “Feminists, immigrants, professors, and just about everyone else: a look at the movement’s ever-expanding catalogue of villains.”
The intellectuals especially, since knowledge undermines religious myths. Just below the top three: LGBTA+ people.
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Right Wing Watch, Kyle Mantyla, yesterday: MAGA Cultist Shane Vaughn Says Former Trump Supporters Are Being ‘Selfish’ By Thinking For Themselves
Don’t think for yourself! Conform to the tribal myths!
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Without addressing Reich’s 10 points, my point is: the right has no plans, just grievances. (Trump changes his mind every day, depending only on popular feedback.) The left has plans. Here’s a plan.
Robert Reich, today: A 10-Point Plan to Make America Affordable, subtitled “Every candidate should pledge their support”
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This afternoon’s music. Cliff Martinez’ score for the 2002 George Clooney version of Solaris.
