this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2026
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Political Memes

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[–] Texas_Hangover@lemmy.radio 173 points 1 week ago (5 children)
[–] GreenBeard@lemmy.ca 196 points 1 week ago (16 children)

It's a wild thing. So the term grew out of the manosphere actually, it was mainly a term for present fathers who steered their boys away from that garbage because they recognized it was only going to hurt them. It kind of grew from there to encapsulate everything they hate. Now, they associate beards with hipsters, dads, LGBT+, nerds who like games, music, books, theatre, and basically any man with a soul and two brain cells to rub together, which is precisely who they see as the enemy because they're so transparently evil.

[–] killea@lemmy.world 151 points 1 week ago (3 children)

So basically a wholesome father with a big bushy beard.

[–] GreenBeard@lemmy.ca 100 points 1 week ago (12 children)

Exactly. They've been working real hard to make it about gas masks in the military, which is a thing, but that's not why they're going off about it. "Beardos and Weirdos" specifically is a dog-whistle for men who actually have honestly held values, don't consider sex, violence, and substance abuse the point of life, and try to be a mentor, a partner, a part of a community or who otherwise contradicts their narrow, machismo-laced, lecherous and reductive definition of "Man."

[–] JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca 51 points 1 week ago

Look here now, a man can enjoy sex, violence, and substance abuse(not necessarily in that order) a whole lot without it becoming a part of their personality. Plenty of us are happy to be degenerates in private

[–] killea@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Oh ya I get it, just wanted to shorten your more complex definition for some folks. I can hardly comprehend the amount of fucking idiocy and blind hate occurring in the us gov right now. They shit all over the so-called values they very vaguely pretend to support.

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[–] Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago (2 children)

No it’s just a racist dog whistle. By far the group that gets the most facial hair waivers in the military are black men. They just don’t want blacks in the military anymore.

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[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Has anyone told them that they can take estrogen to lose those peaky beards?

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[–] cinoreus@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How active is this hegseth on 4chan? How come he knows this stuff but I don't?

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[–] crunchy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Specifically in the military it refers to those in favor of loosening facial hair standards beyond just tiny mustaches, plus some service members that discovered and successfully exploited the "Heathen loophole."

Really it's just Pete's preference toward big burly white hairless men that will follow his commands.

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[–] E_coli42@lemmy.world 43 points 1 week ago (5 children)

A beard or long hair for men has always been a sign of rejection of conforming to social authority.

Hair is the best symbol of rebellion as it is difficult to defect from, takes a long time to grow long, and is accessible to everyone. You can recognize a hippie with their tie-dye shirt and reflective sunglasses. They signal to themselves and others that they are opposed to the Vietnam war and the establishment in general. But when they go to the office, for a swim, to the gym, etc. they go back to conforming to the rest of society. The hippie with long hair is at all times signaling their rejection to the establishment and is also signaling that they have been rejecting this for many years. The hippie who only commits to the tie-dye shirt and sunglasses can take it off when under scrutiny and put it back on when convenient.

Hair has no nerve cells. Cutting hair is completely painles. If someone won’t even listen to authority telling them to cut their hair, what makes you think they’ll listen to authority for anything else? Long hair subconsciously scares authority because the legitimacy of said authority is constantly challenged. This is my hypothesis for why being clean shaven and short hair has become a requirement in many militaries, but never a militia. It is the easiest way to get someone to subconsciously be comfortable with submitting to authority.

Some examples of "beardos" who use their hair as a symbol of rebellion:

  • Koreans during Japanese Imperialism
  • The Khalsa
  • Indian saints, regardless of religion
  • Hippies in the US
  • Brazilian communists during the dictatorship
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[–] baronvonj@piefed.social 30 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Jesus. Jesus was a beardo. A real socialist hippie kind of guy in sandals and robes and long hair and a beard.

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[–] Mantzy81@aussie.zone 92 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Is part of Hegseth's mental health problems that he can't grow a beard. It wouldn't be the first time in history (Alexander the Great famously count grow a beard and forced his troops to be clean-shaved).

[–] RaoulDuke25@lemmy.dbzer0.com 46 points 1 week ago (14 children)

From my understanding, it's to keep black people from serving. They have to be clean shaven and unfortunately black people tend to get really bad razor bumps which isn't accepted.

[–] Archer@lemmy.world 55 points 1 week ago

There was in fact an exception process that Hegseth removed

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[–] W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com 64 points 1 week ago
[–] Casuls_Die_Thrice@lemmy.zip 58 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again: Satire is nigh-impossible when reality is already this ridiculous.

[–] TheJesusaurus@piefed.ca 21 points 1 week ago

Satire has to be believable

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[–] im_fine_sandy@nord.pub 54 points 1 week ago (14 children)

Isn't war in 2026 mostly about logistics and maintenance and signal tech?

For every 1 masculine man man with epic guns surely there needs to be 10 or 20 other mild mannered technicians and cooks and geeks to pilot the drones and what not.

[–] felixwhynot@lemmy.world 31 points 1 week ago

WE NEED HOTTIES WITH ROCKHARD ABS AND HARDER BONERS TO SLOBBER OVER 🤤 🇺🇸 🫡

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[–] TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca 44 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Because when you are losing a war, the sort of facial hair you have really matters. Reality doesn't back them up, so they have to go for crass appearance. Not "weak" my ass.

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[–] nonentity@sh.itjust.works 43 points 1 week ago

Authoritarianism is an admission of abject weakness.

White supremacists are the weakest and most brittle snowflakes.

[–] binary45@lemmy.blahaj.zone 41 points 1 week ago (8 children)

Hey, Pete, you know what happens when you decide to kick all those people out? You lose all the people running the cybersecurity division. Funny how that stuff works.

[–] Bahnd@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago

As the old saying goes. A plane crash returning from a furry convention would put the software and cybersecurity industries back decades.

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[–] late_pessimistic@slrpnk.net 38 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Okay "no longer the weak department", how is Iran thingy going for ya

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[–] Padit@feddit.org 38 points 1 week ago (11 children)

What is a beardo? A man with a beard? I thought they wanted the tough manly guys? Hä?

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[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 35 points 1 week ago

Man is showing his kinks

[–] mercano@lemmy.world 33 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I’m sure the recruitment numbers are doing great with that kind of leadership.

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 1 week ago

Sadly the economy they enshitified into an affordability crisis are driving recruitment. All the branches are meeting their quotas.

This despite the conditions on the Lincoln. This despite that Hegseth is denying advancement to non-white, non-male non-MAGA officers.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 32 points 1 week ago (8 children)

Yeah no trans people means your dumb ass just crippled military intelligence.

Also aren't special forces super into having beards? I'm glad if we're cutting back on them, especially the seals, the psycho bastards. And of course he's a weirdo himself

[–] ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's a dog whistle. Everyone who's been in the army with an ethnically mixed population knows many black people (think West African mostly) have severe skin issues if they shave fully. I had two guys in my section (so I assume more in the company but I can't recall) with exemptions and, of course, they were black.

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[–] Lanske@lemmy.world 32 points 1 week ago (1 children)

And then he puts fucking Elon Fatty Musk wimpy nazi in charge. Yanks - please kick out this administration

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[–] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 30 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I guess warriors don't know logistics. It's that how he managed to lose the Iran war?

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[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 30 points 1 week ago (1 children)

OK but why you're getting cucked in Iran?

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[–] Jhex@lemmy.world 29 points 1 week ago (2 children)

the USA is circling the drain ane these are the priorities of the clown in charge… lol

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's circling the drain because these are the priorities of the clowns in charge. As desired by the people who elected said clowns.

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[–] BigBoyShuanzee@aussie.zone 28 points 1 week ago (3 children)

He definitely goes to Turkish bathhouses and sucks dick.

It's like 4chan... Used to be a fun place to talk shit and look at regular porn.. then all the right wingers took it over more every board is full of whining about Christianity and every porn board is full of trans and gay porn..

Right wingers ruin everything.

[–] dektep@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago (3 children)

reminds me of voat. for a while the site was doing very well taking in those tired of Reddit. and it was pretty great. and then Reddit banned the most rascist subreddits and voat was suddenly full of christians. strange coincidence lol

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[–] flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Says the guy that has his own makeup people.

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[–] groucho@retrolemmy.com 26 points 1 week ago

All I'm hearing is Pete can't grow a beard and resents beards in others.

[–] dektep@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago (1 children)

did he make this announcement after thirty minutes hair & makeup as usual?

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[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Didn't Iran just kick his warrior ass? Do we not have to personally and sincerely apologize to the entire world because we elected these bozos, and let them trash the global economy?

I want my woke military back. I want my DEI federal government back.

(Actually I want them to be way more woke and DEI than they were.)

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[–] fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk 23 points 1 week ago (3 children)

What a great idea Pete. It's a good job that no future war will ever involve computers, electronics or creative problem solving.

/s

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[–] UsernamesAreForSuckers@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago (4 children)

So beards aren’t masculine enough for “warriors” now? They keep narrowing this bizarre definition.

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 20 points 1 week ago

Um if there are no weirdos allowed why is Hegseth the main dude?

[–] lemmylump@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago (4 children)
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[–] Fontasia@feddit.nl 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Bro got his entire education of Vietnam from 80's B movies and didn't even watch First Blood

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