Make no mistake about it: Pete Hegseth is unfit for his job. But he did publicly take the stand that militaries exist to be good at fighting, and there is a “warrior ethos.”
And so it goes, I think: when an institution abandons or downplays something essential to the institution, it leaves a vacuum to be filled.
I see this in academia and science. Some abandon rigor in the name of some social justice cause and opens up the academy to legitimate right wing criticism. It leaves a vacuum to be filled…often by people even worse (e. g., anti-intellectuals, creationists, etc.)
We are really doing ourselves no favors.
Life of an old goat 