Cris Weisbecker, Education Services Officer at the Wiesbaden Education Center, gives a presentation to U.S. Army Signal Soldiers about higher education opportunities and Army services during the 102nd Strategic Signal Battalion, 2nd Theater Signal Brigade, quarterly Soldier Development Program Jan. 18, 2018 in Wiesbaden, Germany. The Soldier Development Program provides Soldiers with information on a wide variety of personal and professional topics, including higher education, designed to grow junior Soldiers into future leaders. (U.S. Army photo by William B. King) (Photo Credit: William King)
In a recent open letter to Microsoft President Brad Smith and CEO Satya Nadella, a group of Microsoft workers demanded that Microsoft cancel its $479 million contract with the United States Army. Established last year, this contract committed Microsoft to supply technology for the Army's Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), leveraging its HoloLens augmented reality technology to design headsets for use in combat and training. The letter is the workers' refutation of creating technology for "warfare and oppression," arguing that the contract is Microsoft's foray into weapons development.
Rather than provide insight or commentary on the ethics of corporate cooperation with government, the letter lays bear the signatories' ignorance of warfare and combat trauma.
It is virtue signaling masquerading as thought leadership.
Nike recently picked Colin Kaepernick as the new face of it's iconic 'Just Do It' campaign, sparking a fiery backlash among fans who disagree with the national anthem protests he sparked back in 2016.
The Government Accountability Office announced today that it has denied a protest from Glock to reconsider its decision to award Sig Sauer the 10-year, $580 million contract for the Army’s new service pistol.
They arrived in groups, many of them arm in arm with the brothers they'd served with on the front lines across Europe. Many sported their uniforms and carried the gear that had saved their lives in wartime. Just as they'd done before, they were fighting for a righteous cause. This time, however, they weren’t marching against the Germans. They were marching on Washington, and the year was 1932.
Not long after the votes were counted in the 2016 presidential election, officials at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, decided to lower the American flag that waved above their campus to half-mast. The gesture came in response, they later explained, to the wave of hate crimes and violence that followed the election.
It's a problem that spans politics and principles: Veterans donning their old military gear and going out in public in support of their political cause.
