“Did this prove to be a big problem?” Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) said.
Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) Said that “in the absence of data”, people were at risk of making “wild assumptions based on our ideological background”.
“It looks like we don’t have an agreed baseline,” said Gallagher, adding to his dismay that there are no representatives of the Department of Defense on the list of witnesses.
The difficulty of quantifying the influence of hate groups and extremist ideologies has plagued the Pentagon for years, and others present at Wednesday’s hearing also said the military needed to better understand the extent of the problem.
“DoD officials repeatedly claim that the number is small, [yet] nobody really knows. ”Testified Audrey Kurth Cronin, director of the Center for Security, Innovation and New Technology at American University. “No serious plan can be built without defining the scope of the problem.”
Cronin suggested that the military was left behind in universities and private employers when tracking social media activity for warning signs, and that the armed forces need to reshape the way they investigate possible extremism.
A survey last year found that more than a third of active duty troops and more than half of minority service members reported witnessing examples of white nationalism or another racist ideology.
The presence of several ex-servicemen among the protesters who took over the country’s Capitol on January 6 has heightened concerns about the presence of white supremacy, anti-government and other radical ideologies in the ranks.
“We are not sure how big the problem is, which is why we are having an audience [and] that’s why we’re talking, ”said President Adam Smith.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin promised to make the eradication of extremism one of his priorities and ordered a day of “withdrawal” from all military personnel to discuss the threat of extremism and other odious feelings.
The Committee’s Republicans argued that it was unfair to say that the insurrection points to a major problem in the armed forces and warned that trying to eradicate extremism could infringe on the military’s freedom of expression rights and potentially undermine public morale and public confidence in the military. .
“Anecdotes and online surveys should not be our guide, nor should we rush to create large-scale government surveillance programs to monitor political trends in service members,” said Rogers.
Smith said that this line of thinking was a “false choice” and “logically absurd” and risked losing sight of the larger issue.
At times, the audience has also bled in the debate over “canceling culture” and whether institutions are being stacked against conservative or republican views.
“I’m very concerned that we’re seeing people from all walks of life losing their jobs and stuff just because of a Facebook post or some other post that was made when someone was mad,” Rep. Austin Scott (R- Ga.) Said.
Several Republicans on the committee chased a Southern Poverty Law Center representative invited to testify at Wednesday’s hearing about the center’s practice of labeling groups – including several prominent conservative organizations – as hate groups.