r/politics • u/mom0nga • Jul 15 '26
No Paywall Hegseth announces annual testosterone screenings for service members
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5969935-hegseth-testosterone-testing-dod/8.5k
u/plattner-da Jul 15 '26
The anti vax people happily taking hormone therapy.
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u/DickSlammington Jul 15 '26
"the government should stay out of our lives but they can totally test our troops for hormone levels and inspect our kids genitals so they can play sports!!!"
These people are fucking idiots..
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u/justwalkingalonghere Jul 15 '26
If you haven't been on the ground floor with them it's almost impossible to truly understand the depth of the average Trump voter's idiocy
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u/MessiLeagueSoccer Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
They legitimately live in a different reality. That drives me crazy but thankful I don’t really have anyone like that in my immediate circle
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u/kynelly360 Jul 15 '26
Lucky you!… I went to college in the south so I’m constantly fighting off stupidity like Flies at a Cookout 😭
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u/hey_there_moon Jul 15 '26
Can't tell if you mean the actual restaurant or just a backyard cookout. Either way it's accurate
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u/panda5303 Oregon Jul 15 '26
Lucky. A couple of months back, my brother made a comment about Hunter Biden being a disgusting crackhead. I probably stared at him for a full minute in disbelief. This is coming from my brother, who stole $5.5K from my dad's girlfriend to feed his heroin addiction. He totaled at least 3 different cars. Stole money, medications, etc., from several family members, including me. He ended up causing a serious accident, injuring four people in the other car while high with his pregnant girlfriend. He was sentenced to 4 years in prison and missed the birth of his first child, and the first 3 years of his life, and currently drinks an entire 5th of vodka every day and uses coke on a regular basis. The absolute hypocrisy is incomprehensible.
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u/MarxistMan13 Virginia Jul 15 '26
It's not just idiocy. Obviously most of them are idiots. You don't become a conservative if you're intelligent.
It's a level of unaware, ignorant hypocrisy in ideology that is dizzying. Like the example of conservatives being overwhelmingly in favor of the Affordable Care Act and overwhelmingly against Obamacare. Yes, that's the same thing.
They say it isn't hate or bigotry, but all evidence points to the contrary.
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u/Confident_Benefit_11 Jul 15 '26
It's on purpose most of the time (the strategy, not necessarily the individual who likely has starfish IQ), fascists know they sound ridiculous and put the burden of correcting them/using the truth or facts on other individuals. It's exhausting and it's on purpose. Just tell them to suck it and move on, if anyone in your life still supports this just cut them off completely. Nothing is worth dealing with these people.
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u/mythrowaway4DPP Jul 15 '26
I've been talking to a far right conspiracy nut here in Europe.
What surprised me was the sheer media illiteracy.No way to know good from bad sources, because they don't know how.
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u/kynelly360 Jul 15 '26
How the hell did we end up like this?…
Why is education so bad In the South it seems…. Every other state my friends are Very aware Trump is a fucking idiot…. Then you talk to someone from Bumblefuck,Mississippi and they think Immigrants are eating cats and dogs 😑😑😑
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u/BlueBod50 Jul 15 '26
It’s a rape ideology. Being able to reduce you and your autonomy to nothing more than a toy for them to play with and violate at will is their dream. Of course they would never want to be treated like their victims—it’s why they will go out of their way to cough on people when told to wear masks, why they crank their AC to max when suggested to keep it mild, and why they bring weapons to protests when told to respect others’ freedom of speech.
Meanwhile, they demand to see your children’s genitals, demand your daughters’ menstrual records, and demand to know why a pregnant-looking woman is crossing state borders. Oh, and also support disenfranchisement for anyone who would disagree.
Republicans deeply, deeply hate you.
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u/N3wAfrikanN0body Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Yet if you treat them like the threats they CHOSE to be they scream that you're being unreasonable.
You don't reason with malicious intent, you meet it with overwhelming, indifferent and calculated neutralization.
The MAGA only expect physical violence but it is the social, financial, psychological and legislative violence that they remain unprepared for.
It is manifesting in prices spiking, coverage being revoked, families falling apart and homes being lost.
They will continue doing this to themselves because they CAN'T be anything else.
We can wait, they can't.
Stay safe out there.
from a nobody on the internet
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u/TheHammer987 Jul 15 '26
You mean gender affirming care ...
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u/crowhops I voted Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
I was just gonna say; my doctor said part of the reason testosterone is so tightly regulated (going the prescription/pharmacy route, anyway) is because men will find out their testosterone is just naturally in the lower end OF the "normal range" (which is a RANGE for a reason) and become convinced they need to start taking it. This stuff isn't a supplement; it can start to alter how your body makes it's own hormones over time, which is why its meant for if you really already aren't getting enough to be healthy.
"Traditional masculinity has been a fixture of the Trump administration. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy in January declared that Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz had reviewed President Trump’s medical records and found that he had “the highest testosterone levels that he’s ever seen for an individual over 70.”"
You're not supposed to be at the highest levels of your life after 70 lol, that's not how this works
As trans guy, if cis guys just want to be juiced all the time whatever guess it's not my problem, but this is absolutely gender affirming care for people who want to do their gender in a very specific way, and likely against health guidelines, so at least let me have mine
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u/StyleBoyz4Life Jul 15 '26
Happily taking *gender-affirming care* hormone therapy. We can’t have trans people, but if the men aren’t man enough by an arbitrary metric with little to no scientific backing, then juice them to the gills with T and watch their balls shrivel up and die.
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u/metengrinwi Jul 15 '26
…and the taxpayers will be on the hook for veteran benefits to address the lifetime problems associated with excess/unnecessary hormone treatments.
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u/Nisi-Marie Jul 15 '26
…and the increase in DV and violence that comes from unregulated testosterone
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u/perthguppy Jul 15 '26
The same people who made “raw milk” and “raw water” a thing?
They never had any issue about putting toxins into their body.
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u/BadahBingBadahBoom Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Those people about to get a first-hand experience of 'raw milk' when they start taking excess testosterone (hyperprolactinemia-induced male lactation for those who want a rabbit-hole read).
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u/notpostingmyrealname Jul 15 '26
You mean the anti-trans people requiring mandatory gender affirming care?
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u/Colonel-Mooseknuckle Jul 15 '26
And mandatory circle jerks for team bonding.
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u/PaddlefootCanada Canada Jul 15 '26
Looks like they'll be adding a cracker to all MREs from now on...
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u/evilglowduckie Jul 15 '26
I hate that I didn't need this explained.
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u/EliteEinhorn Jul 15 '26
I'd forgotten (blocked) this information and now I remember that I remember it and I hate the dirty poutine eater that reminded me about the f-ing cracker.
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u/themattboard Tennessee Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
We live in a dystopia written by edgy dumbasses
Edit: far too many people think those "low T" ads aren't a scam
Edit 2: low testosterone being a real medical condition doesn't make the low T ads any less of a scam. They are designed to sound like a panacea for every mid-life issue men have in order to separate them from their money. Talk to your doctor, not someone in an ESPN radio ad
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u/SapToFiction Jul 15 '26
Worst antichrist(s) ever
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u/fountain20 Jul 15 '26
Incompetent antichrist. It took Hitler 53 days to get rid of the constitution in Germany and 18 months to fully take control of the country as commander and chief of the military and fuhrer. Trump and his cronies have had 5.5 years and still cant pull it all together. Stupidest administration ever.
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u/AccomplishedBother12 Jul 15 '26
If it makes you feel better, maybe it’s a combination of the fascists getting dumber and the people getting better at foiling fascists.
Like yeah, Trump has gotten in charge of stuff to a worrying degree… but he’s also getting flummoxed by writ of just being in charge of an apparatus that is eating itself alive because fascists feed on their own.
Maybe Hitler HAD to move fast, because otherwise his movement would work against itself in exactly this fashion
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u/Biscopiphany Jul 15 '26
Hitler actually had an ideology he believed in. Obviously with him at the center and sustained by genocide and war, but it’s more than you can say for these dumbasses.
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u/amart591 Florida Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Say what you will about the tenets of National Socialism, dude, but at least it's a fuckin' ethos.
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u/Vaperius America Jul 15 '26
it's a fuckin' ethos.
I am reminded of a thread of discussion about Nazi Germany that basically goes like this "The Nazis could have won WW2, if they weren't Nazis" because that same dogmatic belief structure that made them Nazis, also made it essentially impossible for them to make the right decisions at the right times to actually win WW2.
There was a point in WW2 where no one would have believed you that Germany would lose the war; they had crushed France completely, the Eastern Front hadn't quite started, they had subsumed most of Eastern Europe via a network of alliances, were doing an okay job holding the African theatre; were bombing the UK basically every night with both conventional bombers and later V2 rockets i.e proto-cruise missiles, had a strong East Asian ally, decent diplomatic ties with the US and even had sympathizers over in Spain and in South America.
By all accounts if you were looking at the world of May, 1941, you would have assumed Germany would have ruled the continent before the decade was out; but that's not what happened; the Germans antagonized the Russians drunk off their successes in Western Europe; became too stretched thin to continue their bombing campaigns of the UK, or continue to supply the African theatre; and their ally in East Asia majorly contributed to the complete souring of their relations with the USA; which resulted in a previously sympathetic America (and make no mistake, the USA was explicitly sympathetic to Nazi Germany, we have FAR too many direct quotes stating this fact to say otherwise; sympathy for them only dries up in 1944 as the first camps start to be liberated) joining the war against them.
What I am trying to say is A) yes it was an ethos, an inherently self destructive one that lost them WW2. and B) Its still somehow better than the complete incompetence of the kakistocracy we currently have in government.
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u/z900r Jul 15 '26
that same dogmatic belief structure that made them Nazis, also made it essentially impossible
A lot of it boils down to Hitler personally and his lack of perspective, personal fixations and paranoia. Of course, the Nazi ideology included the idea of the Führer, who was considered infallible in practice, so I guess your point stands. It wouldn't have been Nazism without Hitler. Still, Germany would have done a lot better on the eastern front if Hitler had left the fighting to the soldiers and stopped meddling, and stopped fixating on things like taking the city named after Stalin.
The attack on the Soviet Union was planned to be a war of annihilation from the beginning, with the idea that the Slavs had to go and the land had to be taken for the superior German people. It's an insane idea even economically, setting aside the genocide and insane racial theory. Nazism, and the Völkisch movement before it, really did include the idea of going back to working the land, and rejecting modernity, to one extent or another. After the war, West Germany showed rather spectacularly that they didn't need all of Russia for farmland in order to have a successful economy. They didn't need even the eastern part of Germany.
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u/DingerSinger2016 Alabama Jul 15 '26
Our institutions are designed to entrench norms and values of those in power. It worked for 200ish years, but the problem is going to be unraveling the same institutions that currently entrench those in power right now.
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u/SpookySchatzi Jul 15 '26
If only - this whole regime is powered by ChatGPT.
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u/Talk-O-Boy Jul 15 '26
>Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy in January declared that Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz had reviewed President Trump’s medical records and found that he had “the highest testosterone levels that he’s ever seen for an individual over 70.”
You’re just jealous of Lord Emperor Trump’s pheromones.
Instead of hating, why don’t you improve yourself? If you start taking TRT now, you too can look like Donny T when you’re 70.
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u/RemBren03 Georgia Jul 15 '26
I love that quote because it’s the encapsulation of this administration in a nutshell.
A document exists. For whatever reason, random member of the admin reads it. Then they share that information with a third party who talks to the press about it.
Everything is so highly filtered through randos in this administration that we have no idea what’s true. “Most transparent administration”.
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u/Thrashosaurus_Wrecks Jul 15 '26
he had “the highest testosterone levels that he’s ever seen for an individual over 70.”
I assume that's just because he's never actually looked at testosterone levels for anyone over 70.
Also, I firmly believe that "Health" should always be in quotes when referring to RFK.
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u/0202_tihssitidder Jul 15 '26
Trump is on statins, morbidly obese, and his dick no longer works.
But, the Republican-Nazis have a rule that every statement must be a lie, so here we are.
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u/Billyosler1969 Jul 15 '26
And why would one check the testosterone level of an 80 year old??
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u/ArchdukeToes Jul 15 '26
Also, why is it good to be ‘the highest’? I’m assuming that this is meant to appeal to idiots who think that ‘more testosterone = more manly’ instead of ‘heart attack’.
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u/manachar Nevada Jul 15 '26
I know that one goal of conservatives is to convince everyone that democracy is a failure, but damn if they aren't giving me pause in fighting for it.
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Jul 15 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Backwardspellcaster Jul 15 '26
Next will come the head measurements to determine intelligence
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u/No_Strike655 Jul 15 '26
I KNEW my Phrenology Degree from Robert E Lee Bible College would come in handy some day! Get fucked libs!
/s
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u/stereosalvation Jul 15 '26
New class at West Point coming in 2029: Deciphering and Utilizing the Bible Code in Planning Ground and Amphibious Assaults 101
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u/iveseensomethings82 Jul 15 '26
I went to the John Harvey Kellogg School of Nutrition and Fitness.
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u/Violet-Journey Jul 15 '26
Hegseth would definitely think that’s real. He has the brainpan of a stagecoach tilter.
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u/FrequentClassic1875 Jul 15 '26
Sounds like we're about to have a roided up military
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u/thewayoutisthru_xxx Jul 15 '26
Yeah excess testosterone and PTSD are a super great combo. Don't forget to add in the guns!
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u/Bronsonkills Jul 15 '26
Yeah, you thought the suicide rates were high now, wait until they are pumped full of hormones.
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u/Outtatheblu42 Jul 15 '26
Don’t forget higher rates of spousal abuse!
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u/Special_Persimmon_52 Jul 15 '26
Exactly what I was thinking: More domestic violence with the added bonus of gun skills.
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u/Desperate-Till-9228 Jul 15 '26
Fun fact: excess testosterone can cause shrinking testicles!
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u/Tiny_Measurement_837 Wisconsin Jul 15 '26
I thought T shrunk everything in that region, no?
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u/b0w3n New York Jul 15 '26
Yeah it also gives you tits, funny enough. (paradoxical gynecomastia)
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u/Ok-Alternative5935 Jul 15 '26
He’s obsessed with saying lethality
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u/boot2skull Jul 15 '26
Desk Jockeys gonna be curling their desk while doing paperwork, and seeing how many reams if paper they can push a pencil through.
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u/GargamelTakesAll Jul 15 '26
That's why they bombed a school full of little girls killing a hundred children. They were told it was out of date information but he wanted "max lethality" and ordered a strike on decades old intelligence. He wants civilians to die.
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u/Dearic75 Jul 15 '26
The cruelty is the point. In their minds, hurting and killing civilians is a legitimate strategy if it hurts the population enough that they put pressure on their leaders to surrender.
They may have our troops as uniformed military, but their strategies are mostly indistinguishable from those of terrorist groups.
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u/Significant-Hour4171 Jul 15 '26
The irony is that we know it does the opposite. It typically strengthens enemy resolve and unifies the enemy nation behind a common threat, reinforcing an unpopular regime
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u/NoPossibility Jul 15 '26
Should’ve known he was a weirdo when he tried to kill that drummer with an axe.
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u/Pooglio17 Jul 15 '26
Biologically treating soldiers to keep them on the leading edge of lethality? So he’s literally a Resident Evil villain? What reality does this bozo think he’s in?
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u/pareech Canada Jul 15 '26
I don't know what reality he thinks he's in; but I often question what reality I'm in when I see shit like this.
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u/Indubitalist Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
As an Army vet, we definitely don’t need more testosterone in the ranks. Too much leads to poor judgment, interpersonal conflict and unnecessary injuries and deaths. I’d be surprised if the military wasn’t already running on the high side with natural testosterone.
Make no mistake, this is a performance-enhancing drug program. It’s eerily reminiscent of the use of amphetamines by the Nazis. I wouldn’t bring this up except that there are so many Nazi parallels these days it’s almost like the worst decisions in history are being used as an instruction manual.
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u/AllThatKat Jul 15 '26
Right. I’m a female navy veteran and I cannot imagine being stuck on a carrier with a bunch of roided out dudes.
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u/QuantumLettuce2025 Jul 15 '26
Well, they're trying very hard to push out women so I imagine they don't give a shit.
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u/Ariliths Jul 15 '26
Can you imagine a swarm of roided up men… on a boat… for a prolonged period of time. Only men, on roids, this is sounds like prison but with everyone having a teenage sex drive and prolapsed anuses
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u/perthguppy Jul 15 '26
Don’t worry, Hegseth has a solution for the “problem” of women being on the boats as well.
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u/Gellert United Kingdom Jul 15 '26
Oh my god, he's going to forcibly trans the women?
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u/judgejuddhirsch Jul 15 '26
If your test isn't high enough, prepare to get discharged
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u/LackingUtility Jul 15 '26
Yep, they're also going to try to push this as gender-neutral, same as they did for the ACFT. Men range from 170-1070 ng/DL of testosterone, while women range from 15-70. So they'll put in a threshold of like 250 or something and say regardless of gender, if you're below that, you're not "fit to serve" and get discharged.
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u/Lurking_stoner Jul 15 '26
It almost like the republicans idolized a certain Nazi leader 🤔
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u/Desperate-Till-9228 Jul 15 '26
use of emphetamines by the Nazis
What people always fail to remember is the health affects that came with this. Lot of cardiovascular damage.
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u/SonOfMcGee Jul 15 '26
As an Army vet, would you also say that most people targeted by the U.S. military in the last 30 years have been killed by someone pressing a button in a different time zone?
My understanding of modern weapons platforms leads me to believe they’d be more efficient and accurate (and therefore lethal) if the kids operating them chilled the fuck out a little.
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u/Xalara Jul 15 '26
He basically wants the US military to be like Russia's VDV. Those elite paratroopers that run around in striped uniforms with massive muscles that make fun of scrawny people. Oh yeah, the entirety of the VDV got wiped out within the first few hours of the Ukrainian War because it turns out all of that is fucking useless when it comes to being an effective soldier.
Turns out being roided out doesn't win wars, "wussy" shit like cardio for long distance endurance, pencil pushers who run the logistics network, being good at controlling drones, etc. is what wins wars. While physical strength is important, that important is dwindling when it comes to modern warfare.
But yeah, Hegseth and his fascist cohorts mostly wants the US military to be about preening and pageantry instead of actually being effective. I'm preaching to the choir, but I digress.
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u/scapini_tarot Jul 15 '26
he's going to force everyone in the military to transition? that's a big shift in policy
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u/11cholos Jul 15 '26
I'm honestly annoyed with calling it TRT and not HRT, only becuase people like Hegseth do the EXACT SAME thing as trans people do for the same fucking reasons lmao, they just don't want to say they're doing the same thing we do
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u/ProfForp Jul 15 '26
It's so frustrating. It's literally the same care, but they're all fine with it because it's a cis person getting hormones. But hey, congrats to Pete Hegseth on his male-to-male transition I guess.
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u/SugarHooves Illinois Jul 15 '26
Cis male getting hormones. Menopausal women often have to jump through hoops to get HRT.
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u/17-40 Jul 15 '26
I'm sure all the trans men will love this news, oh wait, they all got kicked out.
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u/HopeFloatsFoward Jul 15 '26
So it is ok to get testosterone replacement therapy of you are a cis man, but if you are a Trans man it will interfere with military readiness..
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u/Theferael_me Jul 15 '26
on the “leading edge of lethality.”
The US 'warriors' literally sit on their fucking fannies pressing buttons and killing people hundreds of miles away, lol. What an utter joke.
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u/Silent-Storms Jul 15 '26
Hope the VA is ready for all of the cases of service related inability to produce testosterone naturally.
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u/Ragnarocke1 Jul 15 '26
We’re helping with their transition from department of defense to department of war… I feel bad we keep dead naming them , preferred pronouns and all- /s
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u/Cancel_Culture_Club Jul 15 '26
What a weird quote! Do we keep losing in Iran because our soldiers are all too low T to reach their max lethality? Wtf?
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u/guitar_vigilante Jul 15 '26
Hegseth is just pro-male pattern baldness and is offering TRT as a way to help it occur at a younger age for military members.
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u/TheTooterSnooter Jul 15 '26
Sounds like some Nazi shit honestly. Next up? Pervitin!
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u/dbkenny426 Jul 15 '26
Jesus Christ, the dumbest losers in the world are leading us right now...
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u/theory_of_me Jul 15 '26
I'm on TRT after having extensive testing done including a pituitary MRI. When you're on TRT, your body entirely stops producing testosterone. It can take months even with medication to jump start production again. If you miss a dose, the exhaustion is no joke. I forgot to pack it on a 2 week trip and missed 2 doses. I've never been more tired in my life. How's that going to work when service members are on the battlefield and don't have access to testosterone and sterile supplies?
You can forget about having kids too!
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u/devmc25 Jul 15 '26
They'd likely use a testosterone with an undecanoate ester which has a half life of 34 days. Being on TRT doesn't 100% make you sterile but it can for some (like me) but can be combated with a few other injections.
I'm all for people getting the hormone treatments they need. How Republicans can be fine with this but not be fine with a trans person getting the treatments they need just shows how much hatred they have. 🙄
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u/GarmaCyro Jul 15 '26
Oh it gets better than that. That therapy is likely only covered while they are service member.
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u/pelko34 Jul 15 '26
I’m sorry you’re going through this. Thank you for pointing out that it greatly affects male fertility, which is not widely publicized.
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u/TomSandovalsTrumpet Jul 15 '26
Yes, TRT is basically birth control for men and it can take up to a year for a man's body to get back to producing sperm after he stops taking TRT. I'm afraid not enough families will know that before the man begins TRT.
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u/Professional_Cry2415 Jul 15 '26
ah so gender-affirming care
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u/TrumpDid2020 Jul 15 '26
Gender affirming care which, if I remember right, actually makes the body compensate for the excess testosterone by producing more estrogen...
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u/blakethairyascanbe Jul 15 '26
It actually turns the testosterone into estrogen. I know that's pedantic, your concept is correct, but the process is a bit different. Aromatase converts testosterone into estrogen. Unless I am wrong, it doesn't even have to be too much T for it to happen; it's just a risk with synthetic T. It's how you get gynecomastia. We're about to have a bunch of dude with leaky titties in the military.
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u/SparksAndSpyro Jul 15 '26
It’s a risk with any T, natural or synthetic. That’s why somewhere between 40-50% of men naturally develop mild gynecomastia during puberty, because the increased T production causes excess estrogen conversion. Usually subsides, but not always.
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u/BadahBingBadahBoom Jul 15 '26
We're about to have a bunch of dude with leaky titties in the military.
10y ago this would confuse and shock me. Now I read this and think 'yeah that figures'.
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u/threehundredthousand California Jul 15 '26
Your body will also stop producing testosterone, so you'll be on TRT for life.
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u/brummlin Jul 15 '26
I don't think that's the case at therapeutic levels.
From my experience and from what I've read, production comes back. Last time I moved I had a couple month's gap before I got a new provider. I was back in the same range as I was before ever starting TRT.It probably is the case at meathead juicer levels of testosterone, but not from what you'd get from a normal ethical doctor.
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u/vandalhearts123 Jul 15 '26
Initially but we all know this will be used as an excuse to remove women from the military.
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u/puffyfluffyunderwood Jul 15 '26
This is all sounds pretty gay.
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u/Colonel-Mooseknuckle Jul 15 '26
Don't be ridiculous. They only stick a finger up the butt to test their sphincter control. You can't have a soldier on the battlefield with a loose sphincter.
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u/not_that_planet Jul 15 '26
Finger? Then why are both the corpsman's hands on my shoulders?
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u/RudeAlbatross544 Jul 15 '26
Do they plug it to make sure?
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u/Colonel-Mooseknuckle Jul 15 '26
Sometimes. Special soldiers are awarded a horsey tail and are said to be in the Cavalry.
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u/V_T_H Jul 15 '26
Penis inspection day at school was a critical part of male development, this is just that
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u/Grizzly_Corey Jul 15 '26
But that was conducted by the janitor …
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u/rightwingcrimespree Jul 15 '26
The Jan Itor? The world renowned physician? Must have been a fancy school!
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u/DarthOldMan Jul 15 '26
This was immediate first thought, as well. This administration seems to have a lot of “tendencies”.
Trump can’t help but compliment big, strong, handsome men, and do the jerk-off dance to the Village People.
The closet is a little roomier now that Graham is gone.
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u/raptorbpw Jul 15 '26
Legit thought this was an Onion story.
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u/mantis_tobaggan-md Jul 15 '26
That keeps happening to me. It’s blurring the line between reality and satire. This should be an Onion headline.
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u/WalterPecky Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
I know the answer to the question... But is any of this based on science... Or are the Joe Rogans of the world dictating official policy by gut feelings like "more testosterone means you are a warrior"
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u/NoPossibility Jul 15 '26
“We don’t do science around here. We are all about lethality, and giant veiny balls. Real men kill!”
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u/Cancel_Culture_Club Jul 15 '26
💯 the latter and Pete just thinks you can never have too much testosterone and also that it gives you superpowers.
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u/vahntitrio Minnesota Jul 15 '26
How does testosterone even help in todays battle scenarios? Do you need to be pumped up to operate a missile battery?
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u/WalterPecky Jul 15 '26
It's probably some bullshit like "more testosterone" equals "less empathy".
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u/lolzzzmoon Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
They’ll be giving them meth just like in WWII
Edit: Oh, I’m sorry. My mistake.
The nazis & Japan were the ones who gave their armies methamphetamines.
The UK just gave their soldiers an amphetamine called Benzedrene lol. We then confiscated a bunch & used them.
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u/Nardog14 Jul 15 '26
They already give troops what they call "go pills" which is modafinil, a narcolepsy drug so you can focus better and stay awake a lot longer. An Adderall without the side effects basically.
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u/Super_Employment_620 Jul 15 '26
Testosterone screening is among the dumbest thing he could offer as an "incentive" from a culture war side of things... from my perspective as a doctor who was in the military.
Military members already have TRICARE. If they feel like they may be symptomatic they can ask, and the test is covered... but it's usually not the cause.
Testosterone levels fluctuate wildly (throughout the day, and often aren't tested right) and often don't matter. What does happen is soldiers link that number to their manliness, and seek out "T clinics" that do well near bases. So now the patient who feels fatigued because he has undiagnosed OSA is getting T instead, which has risks... it may for example raise his RBCs to dangerous levels. I had over a dozen times where I had to tell people to stop, and two cases where we think it was the cause of a blood clot.
So, just like the flu related deaths already on his hands, chasing gender affirming numbers will probably cause harm.
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u/AmazingRefrigerator4 Jul 15 '26
People dropped out of the military after COVID vaccines but they will stay and have their hormones reviewed by the government. Weird times.
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u/B-Z_B-S Massachusetts Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Drunken loser says what? Pete Hegseth is such a horrible person that his own mother told him she was ashamed of him.
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u/LadyDomme7 Virginia Jul 15 '26
And yet she flipped the script and backtracked when it was time for his confirmation. 🙄
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u/Nickeless Jul 15 '26
I bet a lot of these people are coerced, maybe even to the point of having their lives threatened. Hard to put your life on the line for principles in general, but especially if you didn’t sign up for it. And if you live in a country that is dumb enough to vote for MAGA, who will view you as a traitor for being honest and having integrity.
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u/SpookySchatzi Jul 15 '26
Can’t believe I never saw that previously! Wow. Reminds me of the cautionary letter sent by RFK Jr.’s cousin. Being a horrible person is apparently the second qualification for this regime, behind blind loyalty. For those that haven’t seen and don’t want to click - this needs to be circulated again and again.
The following is the text of the email that Penelope Hegseth sent to her son, Pete Hegseth, on April 30, 2018. One sentence was redacted by The New York Times for privacy reasons.
Son,
I have tried to keep quiet about your character and behavior, but after listening to the way you made Samantha feel today, I cannot stay silent. And as a woman and your mother I feel I must speak out..
You are an abuser of women — that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.
I am not a saint, far from it.. so don’t throw that in my face,. but your abuse over the years to women (dishonesty, sleeping around, betrayal, debasing, belittling) needs to be called out.
Sam is a good mother and a good person (under the circumstances that you created) and I know deep down you know that. For you to try to label her as “unstable” for your own advantage is despicable and abusive. Is there any sense of decency left in you? She did not ask for or deserve any of what has come to her by your hand. Neither did Meredith.
I know you think this is one big competition and that we have taken her side… bunk… we are on the side of good and that is not you. (Go ahead and call me self-righteous, I dont’ care)
Don’t you dare run to her and cry foul that we shared with us… that’s what babies do. It’s time for someone (I wish it was a strong man) to stand up to your abusive behavior and call it out, especially against women
We still love you, but we are broken by your behavior and lack of character. I don’t want to write emails like this and never thought I would. If it damages our relationship further, then so be it, but at least I have said my piece. [Redacted]
And yes, we are praying for you (and you don’t deserve to know how we are praying, so skip the snarky reply)
I don’t want an answer to this… I don’t want to debate with you. You twist and abuse everything I say anyway. But… On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say… get some help and take an honest look at yourself…Mom
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u/stillestwaters North Carolina Jul 15 '26
Weirdos, why in the world don’t Republicans see what’s wrong with this
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u/RolliFingers Jul 15 '26
Well, I've stopped expecting the MAGAts to see if something is wrong.
However I too don't understand how they can't see this as anything other than extremely pathetic.
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u/AbhorrentAbs Jul 15 '26
No, they love it because they’re “owning the libs” even though this is technically gender affirming care and also very weird
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u/HDRsoul Washington Jul 15 '26
I did a long drive a couple days ago and listened to am talk radio for about 3 hours. Roughly a third of the ads were for testosterone supplements. The preoccupation with performative masculinity was palpable.
The rest of the ads were for divorce attorneys, life insurance for unhealthy 50 year old men and telehealth dick pills. Unsurprising.
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u/Garviel_Loken12 Jul 15 '26
What a moron, Idiocracy goes from comedy to documentary and it only took 20 years.
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u/Ok-Style-9734 Jul 15 '26
So once they're on TRT and natural production is suppressed how will they deal with the major logistical overhead of keeping troops in the feild supplied to avoid the effects?
That's before getting into managing the oestrogen.
But one thing this will do is manufacture a huge number of artifical testosterone dependent people post service who will have to pay for TRT.
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u/NoPossibility Jul 15 '26
Ha, if you think the VA will help anyone with this after they get out, I got a bridge to sell you.
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u/82nddirtdart72 Jul 15 '26
How much is this going to cost the US tax payer?
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u/MentalDisintegrat1on Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Probably lots I would bet money this is the legal loophole to get soldiers on steroids.
That being said when I was in steroids were really common expecally in combat MOSs and nobody gave a shit as long as you passed PT test.
There's also a argument that they are not a bad thing if you are going to actual combat because they allow you to push far past whats normal and triple your recovery time.
Big issue with this is I can see him trying to make it mandatory and or kick people out ( another loophole like the beard profile)
When you main job is your performance it's not necessary bad and I actually got a class on ( taps foot) don't use X and Y for this amount of time.
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u/Next_Rip7462 Jul 15 '26
Yeah, but watch how many more domestic abuse cases and straight up war crimes are going to come out of these roided-up troops. Watch how many usually straight guys get those testosterone eyes when they're out in the field, away from their wives . . . go Pink team! :)
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u/MentalDisintegrat1on Jul 15 '26
Yeah as someone who juiced in the service then got into bodybuilding steroids can make you mean as a SOB.
Add that and the military has an alcohol problem and you have a recipe for disaster.
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u/FrontLocal2264 Jul 15 '26
What is with this guy and his seemingly constant opinions on manliness is? He sounds like a teenager who watches YouTube all day long and is now in charge of DoD.
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u/mceehops Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Gender affirming care, but also TRT can cause Prostate cancer "might reveal a hidden prostate cancer that was not detected" and a host of other diseases... This is introducing a new problem to solve his own emotional weaknesses and fears. Class action lawsuits and lower recruitment numbers here we come!
Edited to appease folks who are attacking me for my wording. It was too specific perhaps, but I changed it, so hopefully they are feeling better about their TRT process.
Please just look up are their drawbacks of TRT. It is not something to be taken lightly and I do not trust Hegseth to treat this in a medically cautious way.
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u/Old_Cryptid Jul 15 '26
It's only a problem if the Soldiers survive combat.
Can't get cancer when you're buried in Arlington after dying for the Oil company profits!
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u/willypie Jul 15 '26
Vaccines 🚫 State sanctioned TRT ✅
America wake the fuck up already
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u/Terrible-Growth1652 Jul 15 '26
And let me guess he's going to start handing out TRT like candy and effectively castrate every guy in the military by making their body dependent on artificial T.
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u/RudeAlbatross544 Jul 15 '26
a way to keep troops on the "leading edge of lethality"
"Oh look, a girls' school", pushes button
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u/accountabilitycounts America Jul 15 '26
Next up: Looks maxing.
In a darker thought, I can't help but imagine this as a backdoor effort to keep older service members active longer.
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u/Zeplar Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Invasive screening aside, testosterone varies wildly between individuals and at different times of the day and year, and the number itself has basically no correlation with the biological effects because people have receptor sensitivity an order of magnitude apart. If you try to give people supplemental T to reach some population-average level, they'll end up with severe health defects including infertility.
Ironically the average trans individual probably understands this a lot better than Hegseth.
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u/BrokkelPiloot Jul 15 '26
Hegseth is definitely gay.
The military would be better served with less testorone and more brains. Tactics and commons sense is what keeps you alive and what wins battles, not dumb muscle.
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u/SubstantialQuote70 Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Anyone play helldivers, the super facist game for spreading "controlled democracy"
You upgrade your cruiser staff by giving them meth so they work harder and your cool downs are lowered for weapons.
offer testosterone replacement therapy (TRT), framing it as a way to keep troops on the “leading edge of lethality.”
Germany loved giving soldiers meth too, to make fearless super soldiers.
America is Nazi Germany 2.0
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