Right-wing figures are attacking “woke ideology” in the U.S. military and using anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in their tirades against the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, including spreading the false claim that the U.S. embassy in Kabul flew a LGBTQ pride flag on its rooftop ahead of the Taliban's takeover.

Conservative outlets have seized on the current media fixation on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and its fallout to attack the Biden administration and Afghan refugees, and they are also criticizing the so-called “woke agenda” in their commentary over the Taliban’s takeover of the country. (Right-wing media have co-opted the term “woke” from Black activists and now use it as a derogatory catch-all term to encompass their grievances against social justice initiatives.)

Right-wing media’s narrative of a culture war claims that American values are threatened by the rise of critical race theory (CRT), identity politics, and the LGBTQ rights movement. In the past year, right-wing actors have turned CRT into a cultural war by attacking school boards, corporations, and even the military in an effort to gin up their conservative base ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. After recently spending weeks attacking the military and Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chief Gen. Mark Milley for their alleged “wokeness,” right-wing media are now roping anti-LGBTQ rhetoric into their coverage of the Afghanistan war:

• New York Post columnist Miranda Devine published an op-ed on August 15 accusing President Joe Biden of “wokifying the military” and leading the country into a defeat that “will echo for eternity.” Devine claimed that Biden has been “busy making us less safe” by “injecting the poison of critical race theory and transgender ideology to divide the troops.”
• Daily Wire Editor Emeritus host Ben Shapiro tweeted his disapproval of what he considered to be “priorities of our military leadership.”

• Appearing on Fox & Friends, Fox Nation host Lara Logan critiqued a Biden comment that the U.S. can pressure Afghanistan to enforce rights of women by “putting economic, diplomatic, and international pressure” by referencing a false claim that the U.S. embassy had put a pride flag on its rooftop. “Why was the U.S. embassy in Kabul flying the pride flag, gay pride flag, if what you can do is through diplomatic pressure?” Logan rhetorically asked. “That is not a message that was well-received by millions of Afghans who do not see the world that way and are not really lockstep with woke ideology.” 

• Daily Wire podcast host Matt Walsh sarcastically called the absence of rainbow flags in Afghanistan “the greatest tragedy of all.”

• After thanking gold star families for their sacrifices in Afghanistan, Fox News contributor Joey Jones suggested that addressing people by their correct pronouns is “petty”, saying, "Because of your sacrifice, this world is a better place, and this country is a safe place. We get to argue about what pronoun we want rather than who has to wear something over their head or who gets to drive and who doesn’t. We get to argue about things that a lot of us would consider to be petty.”

• Right-wing media figure Kyle Becker mocked the U.S. military for being “humiliated on the world stage” by sarcastically advocating for “more LGBTQ sensitivity training, free transgender surgeries, and CRT indoctrination.”

• On August 16, Fox News host Tucker Carlson criticized what he called the U.S. administration’s “radical gender politics” in Afghanistan. He cited a U.S. Agency for International Development classified report, saying American-funded advisers implementing gender quotas in Afghanistan “caused revolts” among “these Stone Age people they were going to educate.” 

• Appearing on Steve Bannon’s War Room, New York Post columnist Miranda Devine chastised the U.S. State Department over the false claim that the embassy in Kabul flew a rainbow pride flag, which she called a “provocation.” Devine characterized the American project as “transporting the worst kind of cultural, sort of, fringe ideas,” claiming, “No one wants pregnant men and transgender ideology being taught to four year-olds.”

• James Woods, actor and prominent right-wing voice, ridiculed CNN and the Biden administration in a now-deleted tweet, saying, “I'm guessing CNN anchors in Afghanistan won't be sharing their pronoun choices anymore... #BidenDisaster”

• Right-wing provocateur Dinesh D’Souza claimed on Newsmax’s Greg Kelly Reports that the United States “have our eye off the ball” while the Taliban “have their eye on the ball.” D’Souza went on to criticize Milley, saying he was “trying to understand white rage” while the Taliban was “planning their final coordinated assault on Kabul.” D’Souza then went on to accuse Milley of “having fantasies of -- I don’t know what -- putting troops in high heels, maybe transgender surgeries, transgender bathrooms.” 

• Anti-Muslim activist Brigitte Gabriel appeared on Newsmax’s Eric Bolling the Balance to discuss her frustration with the U.S. military and diplomatic leadership. Gabriel said, “It's so frustrating to see Milley talk about gender and critical race theory and transgender rights and equality in the military. It’s frustrating to see our embassy in Afghanistan, just last month, instead of posting about how we’re going to win against the Taliban, … posting about LGBTQ rights as a month and how they celebrate diversity in the military.”

• Speaking on the decline of U.S. power, The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh criticized the U.S. for being too caught up on social issues to maintain its diplomatic power. He continued, “A government waving rainbow flags and a military indoctrinated into LGBT and critical race theory propaganda cannot be an imperial force, even if it wants to be. Most of the people defending American imperialism abroad seem to want to pretend that we're still the country we were one hundred years ago. We're not.”