Wednesday, October 08, 2025

How Did Vzglyad Know That Trump’s Meeting with the Generals Was a Loyalty Test? 

Because Russians Remember Hitler’s Führerreid of 1935?


Fuhrer fascism


For the first time, the White House has issued a piece of paper (lead image, top), signed by the President, attempting to install a form of fuhrer fascism to deter, arrest, and if need be shoot to kill any form of expression which amounts to disloyalty to the President and to his MAGA doctrine.

The paper defined that as “targeted intimidation, radicalization, threats, and violence designed to silence opposing speech, limit political activity, change or direct policy outcomes, and prevent the functioning of a democratic society.”  This includes public expression of the terms “fascist” and “anti-fascist”.

According to the White House paper, those who speak in such language are hiding under “the umbrella of self-described ‘anti-fascism.’  These movements portray foundational American principles (e.g., support for law enforcement and border control) as ‘fascist’ to justify and encourage acts of violent revolution.  This ‘anti-fascist’ lie has become the organizing rallying cry used by domestic terrorists to wage a violent assault against democratic institutions, constitutional rights, and fundamental American liberties…anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity…and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.”

The paper, drafted by Stephen Miller, deputy chief of the White House staff, was signed by Trump on September 25. It is titled “NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM/NSPM-7”. Its subject is “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence.” Read the Miller Memorandum in full here.

It was followed by the Pentagon order for all US forces commanders and their staffs to assemble at the Quantico base in Virginia on September 30 to be addressed by Trump and Peter Hegseth, the Defense Secretary.

Since May 6, they have been under the direct threat of purge. Hegseth announced he was commencing to cut by 20% the 3 and 4-star general ranks of the main forces, by 10% in other flag officers of the main forces, and a 20% cut in the general ranks of the National Guard. No time line was announced for the cuts to be decided in two phases.

He was starting, Hegseth also claimed, “the most comprehensive review” of headquarters and operational command structures and areas of responsibility since 1986. When that takes place, there will be “a minimum of an  additional ten percent reduction of general and flag officers throughout the DOD, in conjunction with the realignment of the unified command plan.”

The sword of Damocles wasn’t a stab in the back. “This is not a slash and burn exercise meant to punish high ranking officers, nothing could be further from the truth,” Hegseth claimed in anticipation of resistance from the generals.

None of these proposed cuts or reorganizations of commands were confirmed in the four months before Trump ordered the generals to assemble. None of the mainstream media journalists at the Pentagon nor of the alt-media military podcasters has reported a general source as admitting the link between the purge plan, the Miller Memorandum, and Trump’s summons to Quantico. The President then made this obvious.

In his speech to the assembled flag officers (lead image, bottom), Trump declared:

we are under invasion from within. We’re stopping it very quickly. After spending trillions of dollars defending the borders of foreign countries, with your help, we’re defending the borders of our country from now on. We’re not going to let this happen… San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, they’re very unsafe places and we’re going to straighten them out one by one. And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That’s a war too. It’s a war from within. Controlling the physical territory of our border is essential to national security. We can’t let these people live… If it’s OK with you generals and admirals…I say, they spit, we hit. Is that OK? I think so. They spit — it’s a new thing. They spit, we hit… This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room because it’s the enemy from within and we have to handle it before it gets out of control. It won’t get out of control, once you’re involved…With leaders like we have right here in this beautiful room today, we will vanquish every danger and crush every threat to our freedom in every generation to come, because we will fight, fight, fight and we will win, win, win.

Trump also issued the loyalty warning: “I’ve never walked into a room so silent before. This is very — don’t laugh! Don’t laugh, you’re not allowed to do that! You know what, just have a good time. And if you want to applaud, you applaud. And if want to do anything you want, you can do anything that you want. And if don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank, there goes you future.”

That was at the beginning of Trump’s hour-long speech.  Then at the end, the warning was repeated: “I’ll tell you, Pete and General Caine and all of the people that I’ve met that have been lifted up in rank. And we got many of them out of here. To be honest with you, I didn’t like doing it, but we got many of you out of here because we weren’t satisfied.”

Viewed in Moscow, the Kremlin-supported security analysis platform Vzglyad has reported the political significance of the loyalty oath assembly in Quantico when most US experts have missed it.  This is because the Russians remember Adolf Hitler’s loyalty oath (Führereid) and what followed for Russia. Between 1934 and 1935, first for military personnel and then for civilians, Hitler ordered the state loyalty oath to be changed from the secular language, “I swear loyalty to the Reich’s constitution” to: “I swear by God this holy oath that I shall render unconditional obedience to the Leader of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler, supreme commander of the armed forces”.

According to Vzglyad’s writer, Gevork Mirzayan, “hundreds of American generals were offered a choice. In the understanding of liberals, the choice is between personal loyalty to Trump and loyalty to the American state. [In] July 1935, the German generals were summoned to an extraordinary meeting in Berlin and informed that their previous oath of allegiance to the Weimar Constitution was invalid and that they must take a personal oath to the Fuhrer. ‘Most of the generals have taken a new oath to retain their positions,’ retired General Ben Hodges commented on the Quantico meeting.”

The Russian interpretation is not placed between the lines. This is a message directed by a leading policy medium at the Kremlin, not a message from the Kremlin to the audience outside the Kremlin wall.

The message is that Trump is running a fuhrer fascist state and this is as dangerous for everybody, Americans and Russians, as Hitler was. The implication of Vzlgyad’s message is the reminder of the Russian precedent. It is likening Josef Stalin’s decision to accept Hitler’s terms in the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact of August 1939,  which in Stalin’s calculation was necessary to buy time to prepare for the expected German invasion, to President Vladimir Putin’s “understandings” with Trump at the Anchorage summit meeting of August 2025, and then his response to Trump’s subsequent threats to escalate the military and economic war against Russia, inside Russia and on the high seas.


August 23, 1939, at the Kremlin: Joachim von Ribbentrop, Josef Stalin, and Vyacheslav Molotov at the signing of the non-aggression pact.


August 16, 2025, at Anchorage, Alaska: Yury Ushakov, Sergei Lavrov, Putin, Trump, Mario Rubio, Steven Witkoff.

Questioned for his reply to the Tomahawk missile threat, Putin had said last Thursday:

this is a very powerful weapon, even if, truth be said, it is not exactly up to date, but it is still a formidable weapon that does pose a threat. Of course, this will do nothing to change or affect in any way the situation on the battlefield…Will this damage our relations considering that we have finally started seeing light at the end of tunnel? Of course, this would be detrimental to our relations. How can it be otherwise? You cannot use the Tomahawks without the US military personnel’s direct involvement.

About the military attacks on Russian oil tanker movements, Putin said he was not going to be provoked. “This is akin to piracy. And what do you do with pirates? You eliminate them. How can you deal with pirates in any other way? This does not mean that a war will ravage the entire World Ocean, but this would of course substantially heighten the risk of clashes. Judging by the example of the French Republic, I believe that this is what is happening. I believe that today, this effort to ramp up tension and increase the level of escalation is primarily driven by the attempts to distract people in their own countries from the snowballing challenges the countries doing this have been facing domestically. They want us to retaliate – this is what they are waiting for, as I have been saying all along.”


September 30, 2025: French troops board the Boracay, a Benin-flagged oil tanker carrying Russian oil off St. Nazaire on the French coast. The Chinese captain was arrested and taken to Brest where he was charged with refusing to comply with naval orders and failing to justify the nationality of the ship's flag.

“This would instantly change the political focus by enabling them to cry wolf and claim that they are under attack. Who is after you? – The horrifying Russia! Everyone must close ranks and coalesce around their political leaders.” This is the main objective, and people in these countries must know that this is what they are after – they want to mislead their people, to defraud them and prevent them from taking part in protests rallies, including from taking into the streets, while also suppressing civic engagement while retaining their grip on power.”

Putin said he meant this to apply to the politics of the European states. He did not mean US politics and Trump.Vzglyad is warning Putin to change his mind.


Source: https://vz.ru/world/2025/10/2/1363856.html
In the text which follows, the translation  is verbatim without editing. The US opinion poll charts have been added for the English reader.  

October 2, 2025
American liberals will be eradicated by the army
By Gevorg Mirzayan, Associate Professor at the Financial University

It seems that a fundamentally new stage is coming in the political confrontation within the United States – the split between Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives. US President Donald Trump is dragging the Armed Forces into this conflict – and wants the army to fight his internal enemies. What are we talking about and what will be the consequences?

In the last days of September, US President Donald Trump and the head of the Military Department, Pete Hegseth, gathered hundreds of generals and admirals at the Marine Corps base in Quantico and forced them to listen to the new vision of the American army. In particular, according to Hegseth, the US Armed Forces are returning to the old normality. To an army that should look exactly like an army.

Hegseth condemned fat soldiers, generals and admirals. He announced his intention to purge the army of LGBT propaganda and everything related to it, including all kinds of “sensitivity days” and “men in dresses” (which were already in the Armed Forces by the time Trump came to power – for example, trans Admiral Rachel Levin, who is actually Richard). Well, he added that there would be no exemptions for soldiers based on their race or gender (for example, the right to wear a beard or less severe tests for women). “Standards should be uniform, gender-neutral and high.… We will not be politically correct when it comes to defending American freedom,” he said.

And Trump went even further. He identified new enemies for the US Armed Forces – the Americans.

“In recent decades, for some reason, politicians have come to believe that our task is to protect the far corners of Kenya and Somalia while America is being invaded from within,” Trump said. According to him, this invasion is no different from a situation with an external enemy, but in many ways it’s even more complicated because these enemies don’t wear uniforms. And by intruders, of course, Trump means liberals, Democrats and other antisocial elements who spread an ultra-liberal agenda and condone the development of banditry on the streets of American cities.

And Trump intends to defend these cities, including with the help of the Armed Forces. Trump has already sent National Guard units to metropolitan Washington, as well as Los Angeles and Portland. According to him, Memphis, Chicago, San Francisco, New York and Baltimore are next in line. Moreover, Trump made it clear that the army cannot stand on ceremony there. “I told Pete that we could use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military,” the US president said. He has already signed a decree on the training of rapid reaction forces that can help quell civil unrest.

All of these are liberal cities run by liberal mayors and located mostly in liberal states (in Washington, less than 10% of residents vote for Trump). Therefore, it is not surprising that the local authorities do not want to be dealt with.

“Our troops and our country deserve better than your behaviour as a petty tyrant,” said Illinois Governor Jay Pritzker. Democrats sharply criticize Trump for dividing America.

“His reckless proposal to use American cities as ‘training grounds’ for American troops is a dangerous attack on our democracy, as it treats our own communities as war zones and our citizens as enemies”, Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois is indignant.

“No American should ever be viewed as an ‘internal enemy’ or as a target for the US military,” echoes House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. And now, most likely, the Democrats will challenge the legality of Trump’s actions in court.

“That’s what dictators do. We must not turn a blind eye to how un-American it is for the President of the United States to order our military to use force against the American civilian population,” says Congressman Gregory Meeks.

However, the judicial prospects are not so clear. Indeed, the Posse Comitatus law, passed back in 1878, prohibits the use of soldiers to enforce law and order. It applies to the army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Air Force, but it applies only to federal military personnel. The National Guard or Coast Guard forces, nominally subordinate to the states, do not fall under it – except when they are subordinated to the president and become “feds.”

However, the President has the right to use the Armed Forces to enforce federal law, suppress an uprising, or protect civil rights in a situation where the state government is unable or unwilling to do so. This, in turn, gives a very wide space for interpretation. In general, there are about two dozen exceptions to the law, which Trump uses in order, in his opinion, to “restore order” in the country.

The problem, however, is that this restoration of order could bring the country to the brink of civil war. If the majority of US residents supported or did not support Trump’s actions, then everything would be fine – however, society turned out to be deeply divided. Based on party and racial principles.

92% of Democrats oppose the practice of sending National Guard forces into cities. At the same time, this figure is 59% among independents,  and 11% among Republicans. If we take it by race, 84% of blacks (who have the largest proportion of criminals) and 42% of whites are against entering.

This split is reflected in the interpretations of terms like “restoring order” used by Trump. According to sociologists, about 70% say that the level of crime and violence in American cities is at an unacceptable level. If faced with a choice between a crime-ridden city and the risk of “Trump sending troops to intimidate opponents,” 87% of Democrats and 75% of blacks would prefer the former option. For comparison, the numbers among Republicans and whites in favour of the first option are 13% and 45%.

 


September 22-26, 2025: NPR, PBS Marist poll   

And finally, this concerns everything Trump does in general.  Only 36% of Americans believe that the country is moving in the right direction. But the main thing here is not the total figure, but the positions of individual segments of society. For example, only 8% of blacks (and 23% of the non-white electorate as a whole) and 4% of Democrats think so.

Until recently, the army was considered the structure that stands above this split. However, Trump is now actually dragging the Armed Forces into a political conflict.

“In one speech, Trump destroyed decades of restraint in relations between the civilian and military and proclaimed the Armed Forces his favourite weapon against domestic ‘enemies,’” writes Axios. Moreover, the president openly places the military in opposite to the inherently liberal segments of society (journalists, university professors, etc.). “Ivy League professors will never understand us, and that’s okay… the media will misrepresent us, and that’s okay,” says Hegseth. “They didn’t show you any respect… They’re Democrats. They never do that,” Trump echoes him.

In fact, hundreds of American generals have been offered a choice. In the understanding of liberals, the choice is between personal loyalty to Trump and loyalty to the American state.

“July 1935. The German generals were summoned to an extraordinary meeting in Berlin and informed that their previous oath of allegiance to the Weimar Constitution was invalid and that they must take a personal oath to the Fuhrer. Most of the generals have taken a new oath to retain their positions,” retired General Ben Hodges commented on the Quantico meeting.

In Trump’s understanding, the choice is between whether the army – the new Hegseth army, which has rejected ultra–liberal innovations – is ready to restore order in the country or whether it will watch from the sidelines as America decays.

The generals at Quantico did not give their response to Trump. They listened in silence and left in silence. Apparently, they will respond with deeds – when Trump begins to fulfill his promises and sends troops to democratic cities.

John Helmer is an Australian-born journalist and foreign correspondent based in Moscow, Russia since 1989. He has served as an adviser to government heads in Greece, the United States, and Asia, and has also worked as professor of political science, sociology, and journalism. Read other articles by John, or visit John's website.

 

Real Deal: A Manifesto for All Working Americans


The story of humanity is a story of struggle, not just between classes, but against all forms of oppression. We face a rigged system where the powerful exploit us as workers and consumers, as well as based on our differences of identity. Further, the cultural parts of our political economic system socialize us to internalize greed, selfishness, hierarchies, authoritarianism, oppression, and violence, directing them at others and ourselves, thereby increasing alienation, antagonism, low self-esteem, and loneliness. Our society experiences many forms of poverty.

The super-rich get richer while wages for most of us stagnate and prices increase. The elite maintain and increase their wealth, status, and power by dividing us, using race, gender, sexuality, age, background, nationalism, cultural issues, and whatever else they can to justify low pay, low benefits, and bad treatment for the majority, while using the slogans of freedom and democracy. The system isn’t broken; it was built this way. It uses racism, sexism, homophobia, religious bigotry, and xenophobia as weapons to keep working people from uniting and demanding what’s ours.

When a Black woman is paid less than a white man for the same job, it’s not just unfair to her; it drives down wages for everyone. When a corporation exploits immigrant workers with low pay and no benefits, it’s an attack on all of our wages and benefits. When gender identity or sexual orientation are used to discriminate in hiring or housing, it weakens our entire community.

We are told that hard work leads to prosperity, but this is a myth for most of us. Many of the hardest working people are the least paid. The system has become a trap, a vicious cycle of debt from student loans, medical bills, and mortgages, while a handful of billionaires own more wealth than the bottom half of the country. At the same time, the elite are sabotaging unions (the only organizations that look out for the interests of workers), rolling back our rights and protections, defunding Social Security and Medicare, charging us more for less, politicizing education and science, cutting taxes for the wealthy, and giving free reign to mega-corporations. This exploitation is not accidental; it is by design, it is anti-democratic, and it is disastrous.

Speaking of the system, another manifesto sagely says that “This Machine shapes us so deeply it feels like brainwashing. Biases, prejudices, and snap judgments often take hold before we’re even aware of them. The outer world shapes and reflects the inner; the inner shapes and reflects the outer. External oppression produces internal oppression; internal oppression produces external oppression.” It feels like brainwashing because it is. We are socialized from birth by family, friends, teachers, coaches, media, politicians, corporations, advertisements, etc. and they brainwash and domesticate us, making us willing and unwilling cogs in the machine. This is how the system successfully reproduces itself and keeps us divided and down.

This must change. Working people of America, it’s time to unite for fairness, becoming more aware and spreading awareness. And because this country is so culturally, politically, economically, and militarily powerful, changing America will also change the world.

Our power lies in our solidarity. We are the ones who build the houses, grow the food, and provide the services. Without us, the whole system grinds to a halt. We must stand together, regardless of our race, gender, background, or any other characteristic. Our shared struggle is greater than any difference that they use to divide us.

We need a Real Deal, a new political economy where the people, not corporations, are in control and where the people, not corporations, benefit the most.

This means demanding for a system that benefits the overwhelming majority, not simply a privileged few.

  • Democratic ownership: The workers who produce the goods and services should collectively own, control, and operate the businesses. Democracy, meaning that the people affected by decisions should participate in making those decisions, should be extended into as many spheres as possible.
  • Equal pay: Everyone should receive a living wage that reflects the true value of their labor, with no pay gaps based on race, gender, or other characteristics unrelated to work.
  • Economic security: No one should go bankrupt from medical bills, be crushed by student debt, or be unable to access the necessities of life. Housing, healthcare, food, internet, education, and public transportation should be rights for all, not commodities sold for profit.
  • Basic Fairness: We must dismantle the systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, and religious bigotry that have been used to divide us, spread hate and violence, increase discrimination and mistrust, and create unequal opportunities.
  • Environmental justice: We need to protect our environment, leaving it at least as good for our children and grandchildren as we had it for ourselves. Without a clean and stable environment, the rest of society, including our political economy, cannot be stable.
  • True democracy: The government should work for the people and their needs, not for corporate lobbyist and billionaire greed. All policies and programs should primarily serve the needs of living beings, not things, governments, organizations, corporations, or systems.
  • Self-improvement: Along with these other changes, we can change ourselves for the better, too. Alongside a more kind, caring, and compassionate political economy, we can become more kind, caring, and compassionate people, helping ourselves to live better lives while helping others.

We have a wonderful world and meaningful lives to win. Working people of America, unite!

Dan Brook is Senior Lecturer Emeritus in the Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences at San Jose State University, from where he organizes the Hands on Thailand program. His recent books include Harboring Happiness: 101 Ways To Be HappySweet Nothings, about the nature of haiku and the concept of nothing, and Eating the Earth: The Truth About What We EatRead other articles by Dan, or visit Dan's website.

 

New data analysis finds significant wage disparities for Latinas across California counties



The wage gap is even greater in some of the state’s wealthiest counties, UCLA researchers find




University of California - Los Angeles




Key takeaways:

  • In California, Latinas earn less than half of what non-Hispanic white male workers do, at 49 cents for every dollar.
  • In wealthier counties such as San Mateo, Santa Clara, Latinas earn just 38, 37 and 34 cents per dollar, respectively.
  • The analysis covers 35 California counties and looks at median household incomes above and below $100,000.

In some of California’s wealthiest counties, Latinas tend to experience an extreme wage gap when compared to non-Hispanic white men, a new analysis from UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center and the Latina Futures 2050 Lab shows.

The researchers discovered disparities in pay for Latinas across California. Overall, Latinas in California receive 49 cents for every dollar earned by non-Hispanic white men. In San Mateo, Santa Clara and Marin counties, where median household incomes are above $100,000, Latinas earn just 38, 37 and 34 cents per dollar, respectively. 

This latest data is part of the Latina Wage Gap Disparities Across California counties report, co-authored by Veronica Terriquez, director of the center and co-founder of its Latina Futures 2050 Lab initiative.

“On this Latina Equal Pay Day, it is important to drive this message: we cannot ignore existing pay gaps endured by Latinas—the largest ethnic racial group among California’s female workers,” Terriquez said. “Disparate earnings not only affect Latinas and their families, their comparatively low earnings negatively impact their communities and local economies. When it comes to quality of life, this means they have less income to pay for groceries, housing, childcare and healthcare needs.”

Terriquez, a professor of urban planning and Chicana/o and Central American Studies, analyzed 2019-2023 American Community Survey data that looked at counties with more than 125,000 residents. Of the counties included in this study, Latinas comprise the largest share of the female workforce in 14 of the 35 counties.

Focusing on the Latina experience is essential because historically, Latinas have been left out of research studies, creating knowledge gaps for legislators and other officials responsible for making and amending laws for all California residents, Terriquez said. 

The wage gap for Latinas varies across the state. For example, in some counties where the median household income was below $100,000, the disparity is not as wide, with Latinas earning 80 cents in Humboldt, 78 cents in Shasta, and 74 cents in Imperial County for every dollar. Still, in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties, which also fall within the same median household income category and where female workers are predominantly Latina, their per-dollar earnings drop to 48 and 46 cents, respectively. 

Terriquez emphasized that closing the wage gap across the board requires statewide enforcement of pay equity laws, greater wage transparency, stronger support for collective bargaining, expanded educational and training pathways to higher-paying careers, and proactive hiring and promotion practices, as well as reflecting local realities.

“In an era of heightened immigration enforcement that fuels labor market instability, local government and employer strategies that safeguard human and constitutional rights are critical,” said Terriquez. “By combining statewide reforms with locally tailored approaches, California can better ensure that Latinas leverage opportunities for mobility and build a more robust economy for all.”

 

 

Global analysis shows hidden damage from men’s alcohol use




La Trobe University




A global analysis led by La Trobe University has highlighted the hidden harms to women and children caused by men's alcohol use and calls for urgent gender-responsive and alcohol policy action worldwide and in Australia. 

The paper, Harms to Women and Children from Men’s Alcohol Use: An Evidence Review and Directions For Policy, analyses findings including three recent reviews of 78 papers. 

Globally, up to one in three women in some countries report living with a heavy-drinking partner and children exposed to men's harmful alcohol use face increased risk of violence, neglect, poor health and reduced life opportunities.  

The harms are most severe in low- and middle-income countries and in societies with high levels of gender inequality. 

The review, led by Professor Anne-Marie Laslett from La Trobe’s Centre for Alcohol Policy Research (CAPR) and published by global non-profit research institute RTI International, shows that men drink more heavily than women and are more likely to engage in behaviours that harm others when they drink.  

Women and children are disproportionately impacted, often experiencing physical injury, mental health challenges, financial hardship and disruption to education and family stability. 

“Research shows that the consequences of men's alcohol use extend far beyond the individual that drinks,” Professor Laslett said.  

“Women and children pay a heavy price, yet policies rarely take their experiences into account. This is a major gap in international public health and social policy.” 

International data also reveals wide gender disparities between countries, with prevalence and patterns of alcohol use differing sharply. In some regions, these disparities make harms to women and children especially pronounced.  

“Globally there has been poor recognition that others’ drinking, and particularly men’s drinking, contributes to many harms to women and children,” Professor Laslett said. 

“Social, cultural and economic policies, as well as alcohol-specific policies, need to change to ensure that they are responding to the harms to women and children highlighted in this review.” 

In Australia, the findings are particularly timely given growing national attention to domestic and family violence.  

Alcohol’s role in driving partner violence has been recognised in recent government reviews, with calls to strengthen regulation and prevention strategies.  

Australia’s Federal Government last year commissioned a rapid review that recommended addressing alcohol’s regulatory environment. 

The review emphasises that while proven policies such as raising alcohol taxes, restricting availability, and limiting marketing remain essential, they should be paired with interventions that tackle harmful gender norms and empower women and children.  

An intersectoral approach involving health, legal and social services is critical for meaningful change. 

Professor Siri Hettige, a researcher from Sri Lanka’s University of Columbo who collaborated on the project, said targeted, community-level interventions that addressed the realities faced by women and children were essential. 

“Given the nature of the social context in which the harm to women and children from men’s drinking occurs, interventions to reduce such harms might have to go beyond current alcohol policies,” Professor Hettige said. 

DOI: 10.3768/rtipress.2025.op.0098.2509 

TOXIC MASCULINITY IS THE NORM

Domestic violence impacts nearly two-thirds of Californians



Majority support jail alternatives for perpetrators and state-funded survivor support



The Reis Group




SAN FRANCISCO (OCTOBER 8, 2025) ­ Nearly two-thirds of Californians (63%) say they are affected by domestic violence, either directly or indirectly through a family member or friend and nearly one-third (31%) identify as survivors, according to new statewide survey commissioned by Blue Shield of California Foundation.

Additionally, three-quarters of Californians believe that domestic violence is preventable and back alternative strategies to jail, such as turning to programs that educate and rehabilitate those who caused harm and relying on mental health practitioners as first responders in non-violent incidents. The desire for jail alternatives was shared by the majority of those who identified as survivors, 70% of whom declined to report their abuse to the police.

The report also demonstrated widespread support for state-funded resources with 84% of respondents saying they support increased state investment in domestic violence services, expanded mental health care, assistance with benefit enrollment, job protections, and paid cash assistance for survivors.

“These findings make it clear that domestic violence is not only widespread—it is personal for far too many Californians,” said Debbie I. Chang, MPH, the Foundation’s president and CEO. “But they also highlight a hopeful truth: most people understand that supporting state-funded resources and alternatives to jail that go beyond punishment can create safer, healthier communities for every Californian.”

The research, which used a mixed-methods approach including focus groups and a survey of 2,459 adults 18 and over, was conducted in May, 2025 and provided a broad portrait of Californians facing challenging times: 42% said their households faced a negative life event such as job loss or serious illness in the last year; 82% want the state to help low-wage Californians access basic needs like health care, nutrition and housing; and strong majorities said they feel racism is on the rise, with immigrants, LGBTQ+ individuals and people of color facing increased discrimination.

This research was commissioned as part of an ongoing effort to document trends, attitudes, and barriers in Californians’ needs and experiences with domestic violence, economic insecurity, racial equity, and gender-based harm. The methodology was carefully created to capture diverse perspectives, including those of women, LGBTQ+ individuals, racial and ethnic minorities, economically insecure adults, and mixed-immigration status households. There was intentional oversampling to ensure representativeness from California’s diverse population. The survey included respondents (31%) who self-identified as survivors of domestic violence and those (10%) who self-identified as having committed abuse against a partner.

“This poll is not just a measurement tool—it’s a beacon and a reminder that even in turbulent times, it’s crucial to listen to one another,” said Chang. “Our mission is to end domestic violence and make California the healthiest state in the country. To achieve that, we know that we need to hear from Californians including those most affected by violence so we can create tangible positive change that is lasting.”

The findings also showed gaps in how Californians define domestic violence. Most Californians recognized domestic violence includes a range of behaviors including gaslighting (69%), financial control (68%), verbal (74%) and physical violence (76%). However, nearly one in four (24%) did not identify physical abuse (pushing, slapping, blocking or preventing one from leaving a room, punching the wall, or throwing things) as domestic violence. Similarly, 26% did not recognize sexual coercion or forced sex as abuse.

The poll, conducted by PerryUndem and the Center for Advancing Innovative Policy, was the third survey commissioned by the Foundation in the past decade on these topics. More information about the survey is available on the Foundation website.

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About Blue Shield of California Foundation

Blue Shield of California Foundation supports lasting and equitable solutions to make California the healthiest state and end domestic violence. When we work together to remove the barriers to health and well-being, especially for Californians most affected, we can create a more just and equitable future. For more information, visit blueshieldcafoundation.org, sign up for our monthly newsletter Intersections, and please join us on TwitterLinkedIn, and Facebook.