President Joe Biden’s administration is exploring ways for Americans to snitch on “radicalized” friends, family members, and colleagues to the government, in what they say is an effort to fight domestic terrorism.
In a conversation with reporters, for which the Republican administration would be torched by the media and domestic “social justice” terr… er, activists, one unidentified senior administration official explained the importance of stopping potential politically motivated violence before it starts.
“We will work to improve public awareness of federal awareness of federal resources to address concerning or threatening behavior before violence occurs,” the official said.
The official cited the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) “If you see something say something” campaign to help stop radical Islamic terror after the September 11 attacks.
“This involves creating contexts in which those who are family members or friends or co-workers know that there are pathways and avenues to raise concerns and seek help for those who they have perceived to be radicalized and potentially radicalizing towards violence,” the official said.
In other words, the Biden administration is actively encouraging American citizens to report their friends and family to the government if they “perceive” them to be “potentially” radical.
What exactly constitutes radical behavior? The official did not clarify that crucially important question. An impartial bystander could assume that “radicals” could be those who demonstrated their radicalism and potential for violence in full bloom during the summer of riots and beyond. The radicals would be the Marxist Black Lives Matter organization, anarchist Antifa, and other groups who burned and ravaged 200 American cities, causing record-high economic damage. Those who marched the streets chanting “Death to America!”, who were looting, destroying, burning, harassing, and assaulting those who waved the American flag were called “social” and “racial justice” warriors and allowed to proceed with their tactics.
The image of the “enemy” is critically important for the political mythology of the left. It is the threat posed by the “enemy” that motivates “victims” to unite behind a leader, allowing them to channel dissatisfaction and anger over the poor conditions of their lives, and successfully diverts attention from the true causes of their discontent.
Biden began his presidency with a warning in his inauguration speech about the “rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat.” He repeated the message in his address to Congress, when he said “the most lethal terrorist threat to the homeland today is from white supremacist terrorism.” On June 1, Biden again described the threat from “white supremacy” as the “most lethal threat to the homeland today.”
Just recently, the Biden administration unveiled a plan to combat that “threat.” The plan — outlined on the website of the White House (here and here) — includes training for men and women leaving the military to prevent them from becoming radicalized “domestic terrorists” practicing “violent white supremacy.” The plan also calls for purging the Internet of extremist content.
As The New American wrote: “So, the Biden administration sees veterans as potential threats and wants to censor the Internet. And the plan includes $100 million for the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security for analysts, investigators, and prosecutors.”
Now, it is only “logical” for an anonymous and voluntary army of citizen informants to join the effort.
Use of informants to disrupt opposition activities and target opponents, or, using Biden’s terms, “potential extremists,” is as ancient practice as the government itself.
Informants were used against Jews and Christians in ancient Rome, non-Catholics during the Inquisition, Catholics in the 1600s in England, and colonists in the 1700s in America by the British Crown. Snitches have ratted out the enslaved seeking refuge in 1800s America, infiltrated British trade union movements in the 1800s, and in Ireland, exposed those struggling for independence. Informants were a staple of Czarist regimes in Russia, then later in Communist Russia, and against Jews and Communists in Nazi Germany.
America was not shy to use its own tattlers, either. For example, the military began conducting civil affairs in the United States as far back as 1917, when it used citizens to neutralize dissidents during World War I. During this time, the Military Intelligence Division (MID) had the cooperation of federal, state, and local government agencies, as well as “private vigilante networks” of citizens. This network actively surveilled civilians who were considered “unpatriotic.”
Domestic spies assisted the MID, Department of Justice, Navy, Treasury Department, and other government agencies in conducting investigations on civilians. The practice was used throughout the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Surveillance State implemented cutting-edge advanced technologies and became truly omnipresent.
It comes as no surprise that the age-old tactic of tattling is working within our current culture. The combustible mix of self-righteousness and political correctness in this technologically-wired age has certainly helped to foment a kind of mass psychosis. And keeping American “rule breakers” in check is one way to keep them in a perpetual state of fear, which is exactly what the Biden administration is hoping to accomplish.
