this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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Summary

The U.S. Department of Defense removed the webpage honoring Maj. Gen. Charles C. Rogers, a Black Vietnam War hero awarded the Medal of Honor in 1970.

The page now returns a “404” error, and its URL was changed to include “DEI.” Rogers, the highest-ranking African American to receive the medal, was awarded by President Nixon in 1970 for heroism during the Vietnam War.

The deletion follows Trump’s efforts to roll back DEI initiatives in the federal government, including an executive order terminating diversity programs.

The Defense Department has not commented on the removal.

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[–] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 150 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (2 children)

His Wikipedia page which details the events that led to his being awarded the Medal of Honor.

I hope this absolutely enrages every military member, but especially every non-white military member. This is a slap in the face.

[–] TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee 53 points 15 hours ago (1 children)
[–] TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee 62 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

He was blown to the ground by an artillery shell, popped back up, rallied his men to repell an onslot, then got wounded again, ignored that shit, killed seven men attacking his position, then directed artillery to blow apart a enemy troops position. All while seriously wounded and definitely concussed.

Abolute beast and hero. He saved many lives that day.

[–] qprimed@lemmy.ml 46 points 15 hours ago

now think about the quality of men (e.g. old bonespurs and the fauxnews taking head) that are dishonoring him and so many others.

[–] MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world 21 points 13 hours ago

I'm ashamed for having served this country. It feels like I helped these fuckers do this by putting in the uniform.

My brothers and sisters in uniform, the actual people, deserve better than this. We're watching our family of millions get destroyed with the only hope of salvation being literal mutiny. Slap in the face doesn't even begin to describe the pain these fuckers have caused.

[–] Tezzerets_Tea_Time@lemmy.world 148 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

"The URL was also changed, with the word “medal” changed to “deimedal”." JFC. This is just the most blatant fucking racism. I don't think I'm legally allowed to say what I want to see done to everyone involved with this, but it ain't pretty.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 36 points 14 hours ago (2 children)
[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

It does now, yesterday it 404'd.

[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

They’ve changed it in the last 2 hours. When I clicked the link before, it redirected to the DEI link that had a 404. Now you click the link and it works just fine.

So as of now they fixed it, but it’s absolutely crazy that they did this.

Edit: Just worth noting that the DEI url now redirects to the non DEI url. This is just the leftover evidence of what they did. They have to do the redirect so Google SEO will update.

[–] Thrashy@lemmy.world 33 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

What I will say about them publicly is that if we are afforded another shot at democracy after all this, they and their fellow travelers cannot be permitted to have a voice in the political process. Just about any system of government can work if everybody involved is commited to making it work, but if 1/3+ of voters hold pluralistic, representative democracy in active disdain there is no system that can protect itself against those people engaging with the system in bad faith. This was the fundamental failing of reconstruction, and it's shaping up to be the undoing of freedom in the US now.

I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that just letting the "marketplace of ideas" play out is tantamount to throwing the gates open to any demagogue with a big enough megaphone. Participation in the political process must be restricted to good-faith actors in some fashion, be that at the "supply side" of media and content creation or at the voting booth. Anything else is akin to a basketball team kicking, biting, and throwing punches on the court and the referees shrugging and insisting they have to be allowed to play anyway.

[–] melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

the thing is, the 'marketplace of ideas' was very strictly controlled. when was the last time you heard a communist or socialist talk on a major platform? do you even know what anarchism IS?

there was no 'fair marketplace of ideas' there was liberals and fascists jacking each other off, murdering everyone else, and telling you they're all that can exist.

[–] Thrashy@lemmy.world 14 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (2 children)

Yes, and I was one of that generation who believed broad adoption of the Internet would cut out the gatekeepers and lead to a better-informed electorate that would give more radical ideas a shot. And I guess it did, but the problem is that it's primarily allowed the worst of bad actors direct, unfiltered access to a vast swathe of the most credulous, easily-manipulated idiots in the world. Arguably it's massively tilted the field towards authoritarianism because before the Internet, left-wing activists were better-educated, and more capable of organizing and communicating. Now, though, it takes no special knowledge or effort for a right-wing conspiracy theorist or authoritarian demagogue to jump on X or Facebook or whatever other platform you like and immediately blast their message out to vast numbers of their followers -- who are largely passive consumers of this stuff, waiting to given their party line and marching orders. Before the Internet, they had mostly-mainstream ideas because that was what the filter of the mainstream media gave them. Now they're getting sucked into the far right because social media is biased for shareable outrage-bait propaganda and against validated facts and nuanced discussion.

[–] melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

you're acting like the problem here is the nature of not just the internet, but any hypothetical internet, but you give the game away right in your comment:

jump on x or facebook or whatever

big monopolized platforms controlled by megacorps that use algorithmic curation to decide what the products/hogs/rubes see. use a new computer-it can be a VM; I won't tell. use it from a new connection-VPN is fine. create a fresh youtube account. search for a video of a random thing you don't think is super politically polarized. space exploration, typography, taylor swift.

now click on the first recommendation. keep doing that. count how long it takes to start showing you literal nazi shit. if you need a bright line for that, maybe keep an eye out for the phrases "BLOOD AND SOIL" or "FUTURE FOR WHITE CHILDREN".

see, the problem here is, it did actually work how you thought. briefly. it wasn't clean or perfect. we got to see a lot of distended assholes in the process. some people ended up going down some crazy fucked up rabbit holes. pro-ana groups did not start on facebook. but this shit was, provably, not structural.

but, generally, the internet was moving things left. that had to be stopped. had to be butchered and dominated by a corporation. it was just a little less obvious what was happening at the time than when they did it for united fruit, with a smaller immediate body count.

[–] Thrashy@lemmy.world 1 points 47 minutes ago* (last edited 42 minutes ago)

I'd argue the internet was moving things left, while the bar for entry was at least nominal. When the bar for sharing your ideas was at least as high as "learn to code HTML and find a place to put your site up" the Time Cube cranks were few and far between, and most people participating on the web could be assumed to have some modicum of intelligence. However, the defining factor of the Internet as it stands, dominated by social media platforms, is that it's frictionless by design. And yes, the platforms are pushing right-wing content, but to a certain extent that's accidental, or at least was when engagement algorithms first became a part of the experience. Left wing content, reality-based as it tends to be, is generally full of nuance, equivocation, and explanation that takes time and (critically) doesn't reach down into the basal structures of the brain and squeeze the amygdala quite like a right-wing fearmonger shouting "TRANS PEOPLE ARE SNEAKING INTO YOUR DAUGHTER'S SCHOOL RESTROOM TO ASSAULT HER BE AFRAID!"

Could social media be designed to put the brakes on reactionary content and boost thoughtful, well-researched opinions? Yeah, probably. But that requires expensive and time-consuming human intervention in the form of fact-checking, and doesn't boost engagement like content that just pushes all the fight-or-flight buttons way down in the lizard brain. Making the Internet easy and frictionless only turbocharged Terry Pratchett's idea that "A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on," because technology makes the lie spread faster than ever, but the process of getting to the truth never got easier at quite the same rate.

[–] theangryseal@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago

I just wasted my time going into a spiel about this very same thing on YouTube. Comment was immediately removed.

[–] Helvetica@sh.itjust.works 62 points 10 hours ago (3 children)

General Bone Spurs has decided to erase the accomplishments of every non white military figure. Tell me what possible reason there is for this aside from racism. Any reason. Make up the most ridiculous bullshit you can imagine. You can't do it. You can't justify this.

Trump is a racist. MAGA is racist.

[–] punksnotdead@slrpnk.net 18 points 7 hours ago

America is racist.

Not every American, obviously.

But as a nation, institutionally, America is racist.

Some times it's more so than others, but it always is, to varying degrees throughout its history.

[–] Freshparsnip@lemm.ee 12 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

That's what I've been wondering. These heinous acts are supposed to have good faith excuses, aren't they? Some way to try and pretend it isn't racist? "The people being deported are dangerous criminsls" (I don't believe that, but that's the excuse). What is the non-racist justification for erasing the accomplishments of black people?

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 2 points 33 minutes ago

They are at the very least implying the medals were improperly awarded.

[–] kwedd@feddit.nl 2 points 6 hours ago

Perhaps like the gays they are too precious and we shouldn't encourage them to fight?

[–] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 54 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Friendly reminder that Trump described military personnel who got captured or killed in action as "suckers" and "losers". He and his lackeys have zero respect for military honor, bravery, and sacrifice.

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 11 points 9 hours ago

he specifically said i dont like captured or dead people.

[–] Llewellyn@lemm.ee 6 points 12 hours ago

respect for military honor, bravery, and sacrifice

All these things are barely applicable to the USA in Vietnam war.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 52 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Rogers, the highest-ranking African American to receive the medal, was awarded by President Nixon in 1970 for heroism during the Vietnam War.

When NIXON is less reflexively racist than you, you KNOW you're fucked up!

Reminder for those who might be unaware or forgot:

Nixon started the War On Drugs specifically to hurt the two groups of people he hated more than anyone else in the world: black people and hippies.

[–] MisterOwl@lemmy.world 46 points 15 hours ago (3 children)

So, vets and active military who voted for trump.. how ya feeling about this?

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 19 points 14 hours ago (1 children)
[–] MisterOwl@lemmy.world 12 points 14 hours ago

Hm good point. I guess to them this would be a case of "hurting the right people".

[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 17 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

To be blunt, a lot of those voters are not paying attention to the news or they are in the MAGA disinformation bubble. If the latter group hears about this story at all, they’re going to be fed lies and they’re going to feel fine about this.

[–] sfxrlz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 10 hours ago

Business as usual.

…Don’t wanna stoke envy Among the Proletariat…

  • Tucker Carlson

If i had to take a shot in the dark

"Fake news" is what i would assume

[–] CowsLookLikeMaps@sh.itjust.works 33 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

The URL was also changed, with the word “medal” changed to “deimedal”.

What. The. Fuck.

[–] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 7 points 12 hours ago

But they're not racist! No no no! /s

[–] kn0wmad1c@programming.dev 32 points 13 hours ago

Nothing says you're a coward louder than trying to erase a hero.

[–] MuskyMelon@lemmy.world 29 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

If you were raised right, this is one of the things you'd know is wrong to do. Absolutely shameful.

All minorities should quit the military service right now in protest.

[–] CowsLookLikeMaps@sh.itjust.works 16 points 14 hours ago

Please keep your non-MAGA soldiers in service.

Signed, a Canadian.

[–] kautau@lemmy.world 8 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

~~All minorities~~ everyone who doesn't want to be part of a racist fascist regime should quit their military service right now in protest. It should be obvious at this point that Comrade Krasnov doesn't give a fuck about military service members, veterans, etc. Especially minority veterans, that just makes it worse. And that follows a long line of the republicans who have consistently voted against VA benefits and yell about supporting our troops while they are comfortable having them succumb to treatable injury or commit suicide once they leave the military. They're only valuable when they’re making billionaires more wealthy or killing enemies of the state.

[–] Freshparsnip@lemm.ee 29 points 7 hours ago

History is too "woke" and full of "forced diversity"

[–] N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 14 hours ago

This is a deeper problem than race. Being willing to erase the record of a Medal of Honor recipient so haphazardly in an attempt to be racist shows how little the DoD is paying attention to details versus letting Dark MAGA/DOGE take over the country and potentially alter history in the process.

[–] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 10 points 14 hours ago

Every day it is one more shame after another. It is clear the worst people in the world are running America.

[–] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 5 points 15 hours ago
[–] TacoEvent@lemmy.zip 2 points 18 minutes ago (1 children)

By this logic we should remove Clarence Thomas from his seat by executive order and call his tenure deijustice.

[–] BuckenBerry@lemmy.world 1 points 4 minutes ago

He's one of the "good ones"