Road to 350: What Does the US Navy Do Anyway?

[Swanee]

Caveat that I'm an ANG/USAF dual status AGR type now. There's a lot going on right now. (Some could argue that this is what happens when a leader surrounds themself with nothing but yes men.)

We have to be careful- as has been relayed to me by our SJA- even though something may be inflammatory, telling someone to remove a post on social media *may* be violating their first amendment rights, depending on how you say it, how they said what they said, whether you're in the person's chain-of-command or not, what kind of orders that they are in that day (or even if they are on orders) and a bunch of other legal language stuff that I don't understand.

So if we see something online that we thing could be against the UCMJ, we let the SJA know and move on. If someone says something that may be against the UCMJ, we can correct them, and follow up with paperwork as necessary.


At the deck plate level I don't see this changing anything. We don't have time for it. But I'd be ignorant to think that some people are going to lose their jobs over something (fairly innocuous) they posted online, especially if it can be made for political points and favor.

Again, we should be careful.

 

[CommodoreMid]

Monitor is not quite the right word. As far back as the first Obama administration we (meaning the national guard) were instructed to elevate complaints the command received from the public about Spec. 4 Timmy’s social media commentary. So, if some one complained that Timmy said Obama was a commie, or Trump was a nazi, or COVID is a Chinese attack on the U.S. (all real cases) it was simply elevated to further consideration. I don’t recall anyone being punished beyond maybe the Marine noted below and I was never instructed to tell Timmy to toe the line, but maybe someone else did.

Marines discharge sergeant for anti-Obama Facebook posts

The Marine Corps. has decided to discharge Sgt. Gary Stein for criticizing President Barack Obama

www.cbsnews.com

There’s a difference between Obama (or Trump) and Charlie Kirk.

 

[Griz882]

There’s a difference between Obama (or Trump) and Charlie Kirk.

I agree and I’m not making a comparison, simply noting when I first remembering it starting and the only case I can recall being actionable.

 

[Lawman]

There’s a difference between Obama (or Trump) and Charlie Kirk.

The question is the fact that applause to an actual act of political violence can be construed as everything from tasteless humor to incitement dependent on your political spectrum and we’re seeing wide examples of all types in the cesspool of social media like Reddit and TikTok. Nobody is getting fired over not showing reverence to Kirk or Obama or anybody else. They are getting in trouble for outright comments condoning or even encouraging future actions and making the killer out to be a hero. That would go very differently for one who affirmed an oath towards the constitution and the civil discourse it protects for the people not subject to UCMJ. If Joe is just now figuring out they can get in trouble for dumb stuff they put on public sphere they are catching up to something we all should have known by now.

I remember getting to shut down for 48 hours and do mandatory training where we talked about extremism with somebody from outside our CoC because an Air Force veteran got shot in the head for her own dumb actions.