The Biden administration this week signaled that criticizing the government – one of America’s founding principles and a fundamental right of Americans for more than two centuries – is now akin to terrorism.
The Department of Homeland Security on Monday issued its latest summary of the terrorism threat facing the U.S.
The big problem, according to the DHS, are “threat actors [who] seek to exacerbate societal friction to sow discord and undermine public trust in government institutions to encourage unrest, which could potentially inspire acts of violence.”
The primary culprit in this is “an online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information,” which now bears the acronym MDM.
Continuing, the DHS claimed that “mass casualty attacks and other acts of targeted violence” could result from a “heightened threat landscape” made more intense in part by “the proliferation of false or misleading narratives, which sow discord or undermine public trust in U.S. government institutions.”
Although DHS admits that conditions on this front have not changed in a year, the department added, “The convergence of violent extremist ideologies, false or misleading narratives, and conspiracy theories have and will continue to contribute to a heightened threat of violence in the United States.”
“The proliferation of false or misleading narratives, which sow discord or undermine public trust in U.S. government institutions,” was identified as the first “key factor” contributing to the current situation.
“For example, there is widespread online proliferation of false or misleading narratives regarding unsubstantiated widespread election fraud and COVID-19,” the bulletin says.
“Some domestic violent extremists have continued to advocate for violence in response to false or misleading narratives about unsubstantiated election fraud. The months preceding the upcoming 2022 midterm elections could provide additional opportunities for these extremists and other individuals to call for violence directed at democratic institutions, political candidates, party offices, election events, and election workers.”
Of course, the DHS did not provide any examples, although it is President Joe Biden and other top Democrats who are now sowing distrust of the election process ahead of what promises to be a disastrous midterm election for Democrats.
“A small number of threat actors are attempting to use the evacuation and resettlement of Afghan nationals following the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan last year as a means to exacerbate long-standing grievances and justify attacks against immigrants,” the DHS added, apparently not noticing some of these Afghan “refugees” have been arrested for attacking their own or Americans.
“Call me crazy, but I thought we had this First Amendment,” conservative commentator Dan Bongino said on his podcast. “We now have the Department of Homeland Security putting out a memo that may indicate a shift in resources towards investigating … you.”
Libertarian columnist Elizabeth Nolan Brown of Reason magazine noted that not only was the DHS again crying wolf – this is the 10th such bulletin in just 22 months – the agency was “sowing narratives” of its own.
Chief among those narratives is that “MDM” is “fueling social unrest and anti-government sentiment” – “not, you know, actual government policies and legitimate grievances with them.”
“Second, that anti-government criticism should necessarily be viewed as suspicious and potentially dangerous,” Brown wrote this week.
“These broadsides – which may influence local law enforcement action and tend to get widely and uncritically amplified in the press – help to delegitimize protests against government policies by casting them as the product of a misinformed populace that should be seen as threat.”
And, she added, that our government is turning its citizens against each other, by reminding Americans, “If you see something, say something.”
Especially, if you see it online.
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