1984: Thread

[grarpamp]

Danger Signs: From Totalitarian Paranoia To Authoritarian Madness

The danger signs were everywhere in 2022.

https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/2022s_danger_signs_from_totalitarian_paranoia_to_authoritarian_madness

https://www.usdebtclock.org/
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/personal-finance/u-s-national-debt-surpasses-30-trillion-what-this-means-for-you/
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/484285-how-the-23-trillion-debt-crisis-in-america-affects-your-own-money
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/on_the_front_lines/rutherford_institute_warns_police_are_carrying_out_warrantless_home_invasions_in_order_to_seize_guns_as_part_of_community_caretaking_duties
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-national-debt-is-high-and-growing-congresss-infrastructure-bill-must-keep-that-in-mind/2021/03/11/dadb2dd2-804a-11eb-ac37-4383f7709abe_story.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/05/opinion/capitol-attack-cellphone-data.html

With every new law enacted by federal and state legislatures, every
new ruling handed down by government courts, and every new military
weapon, invasive tactic and egregious protocol employed by government
agents, we were reminded that in the eyes of the government and its
corporate accomplices, “we the people” possess no rights except for
that which the Deep State grants on an as-needed basis.

Totalitarian paranoia spiked. What we have been saddled with is a
government so power-hungry, paranoid and afraid of losing its
stranglehold on power that it has conspired to wage war on anyone who
dares to challenge its authority. In a Machiavellian attempt to expand
its powers, the government unleashed all manner of dangers on an
unsuspecting populace in order to justify its demands for additional
powers to protect “we the people” from emerging threats, whether
legitimate, manufactured or overblown.

The state of our nation suffered. The nation remained politically
polarized, controlled by forces beyond the purview of the average
American, and rapidly moving the nation away from its freedom
foundation. The combined blowback from a contentious presidential
election and the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in Americans being
subjected to egregious civil liberties violations, invasive
surveillance, martial law, lockdowns, political correctness, erosions
of free speech, strip searches, police shootings of unarmed citizens,
government spying, and the criminalization of lawful activities.

Thought crimes became a target for punishment. For years now, the
government has used all of the weapons in its vast
arsenal—surveillance, threat assessments, fusion centers, pre-crime
programs, hate crime laws, militarized police, lockdowns, martial law,
etc.—to target potential enemies of the state based on their
ideologies, behaviors, affiliations and other characteristics that
might be deemed suspicious or dangerous. In other words, if you dare
to subscribe to any views that are contrary to the government’s, you
may well be suspected of being a domestic terrorist and treated
accordingly. In 2022, those who criticized the government—whether that
criticism manifested itself in word, deed or thought—were flagged as
dangerous alongside consumers and spreaders of “mis- dis- and
mal-information.”

Speech was muzzled. Those who want to monitor, muzzle, catalogue and
censor speech continued to push for social media monitoring,
censorship of flagged content that could be construed as dangerous or
hateful, and limitations on free speech activities, particularly
online. Of course, it’s a slippery slope from censoring so-called
illegitimate ideas to silencing truth. Eventually, as George Orwell
predicted, telling the truth will become a revolutionary act. If the
government can control speech, it can control thought and, in turn, it
can control the minds of the citizenry.

Kill switches aimed to turn off more than just your car. Vehicle “kill
switches” were sold to the public as a safety measure aimed at keeping
drunk drivers off the roads, but they were a perfect metaphor for the
government’s efforts to not only take control of our cars but also our
freedoms and our lives. For too long, we have been captive passengers
in a driverless car controlled by the government, losing more and more
of our privacy and autonomy the further down the road we go.

Currency went digital. No matter how much money the government pulls
in, it’s never enough, so the government came up with a new plan to
make it even easier for its agents to seize Americans’ bank account.
In an Executive Order issued in March 2022, President Biden called for
the federal government to consider establishing a form of digital
money. Digital currency will provide the government and its corporate
partners with a mode of commerce that can easily be monitored,
tracked, tabulated, mined for data, hacked, hijacked and confiscated
when convenient.

The government spoke in a language of violence. Police violence killed
three people a day. Warrior cops—trained in the worst-case scenario
and thus ready to shoot first and ask questions later—did not make us
or themselves any safer. Despite this, President Biden’s pledged to
expand law enforcement and so-called crime prevention through a $30
billion “Fund the Police” program.

Cancel culture became more intolerant. Cancel culture—political
correctness amped up on steroids, the self-righteousness of a
narcissistic age, and a mass-marketed pseudo-morality that is little
more than fascism disguised as tolerance—shifted us into an Age of
Intolerance, policed by techno-censors, social media bullies, and
government watchdogs. Everything has now become fair game for
censorship if it can be construed as hateful, hurtful, bigoted or
offensive provided that it runs counter to the established viewpoint.

Homes were invaded. Government agents routinely violated the Fourth
Amendment at will under the pretext of public health and safety. This
doesn’t even begin to touch on the many ways the government and its
corporate partners-in-crime used surveillance technology to invade
homes: with wiretaps, thermal imaging, surveillance cameras, and other
monitoring devices.

Political theater kept the public distracted. Having devolved into a
carefully calibrated exercise in how to manipulate, polarize,
propagandize and control a population, the political scene provided
ample diversions with its televised Jan. 6 committee hearings, the
Russia-Ukraine crisis, the Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation
hearings, and more.

Bodily integrity was undermined. Caught in the crosshairs of a
showdown between the rights of the individual and the so-called
“emergency” state, concerns about COVID-19 mandates and bodily
integrity remained part of a much larger debate over the ongoing power
struggle between the citizenry and the government over our property
“interest” in our bodies. This debate over bodily integrity covered
broad territory, ranging from abortion and forced vaccinations to
biometric surveillance and basic healthcare. Although the Supreme
Court overturned its earlier rulings recognizing abortion as a
constitutional right under the Fourteenth Amendment, it did nothing to
resolve the larger problem that plagues us today: namely, that all
along the spectrum of life—from the unborn child to the aged—the
government continues to play fast and loose with the lives of the
citizenry.

The government’s fiscal insanity reached new heights. The national
debt (the amount the federal government has borrowed over the years
and must pay back) hit $30 trillion. That translates to roughly
$242,000 per taxpayer. It’s estimated that the amount this country
owes is now 130% greater than its gross domestic product (all the
products and services produced in one year by labor and property
supplied by the citizens). That debt is also growing exponentially: it
is expected to be twice the size of the U.S. economy by 2051.

Surveillance got creepier. On any given day, the average American
going about his daily business was monitored, surveilled, spied on and
tracked in more than 20 different ways, by both government and
corporate eyes and ears. In such a surveillance ecosystem, we’re all
suspects and databits to be tracked, catalogued and targeted. With
every new AI surveillance technology that was adopted and deployed
without any regard for privacy, Fourth Amendment rights and due
process, the rights of the citizenry were marginalized, undermined and
eviscerated.

Precrime became more fact than fiction. Under the pretext of helping
overwhelmed government agencies work more efficiently, AI predictive
and surveillance technologies were used to classify, segregate and
flag the populace with little concern for privacy rights or due
process. All of this sorting, sifting and calculating was done
swiftly, secretly and incessantly with the help of AI technology and a
surveillance state that monitors your every move. Where this becomes
particularly dangerous is when the government takes preemptive steps
to combat crime or abuse, or whatever the government has chosen to
outlaw at any given time.

The government waged psychological warfare on the nation. The
government made clear in word and deed that “we the people” are
domestic enemies to be targeted, tracked, manipulated, micromanaged,
surveilled, viewed as suspects, and treated as if our fundamental
rights are mere privileges that can be easily discarded. Aided and
abetted by technological advances and scientific experimentation, the
government weaponized violence; surveillance, pre-crime and
pre-thought campaigns; digital currencies, social media scores and
censorship; desensitization campaigns; fear; genetics; and
entertainment.

Gun confiscation laws put a target on the back of every American. Red
flag gun laws (which authorize government officials to seize guns from
individuals viewed as a danger to themselves or others) gained
traction as a legislative means by which to allow police to remove
guns from people suspected of being threats. Red flag gun laws merely
push us that much closer towards a suspect society where everyone is
potentially guilty of some crime or another and must be preemptively
rendered harmless.

The burden of proof was reversed. Although the Constitution requires
the government to provide solid proof of criminal activity before it
can deprive a citizen of life or liberty, the government turned that
fundamental assurance of due process on its head. Each and every one
of us is now seen as a potential suspect, terrorist and lawbreaker in
the eyes of the government. The groundwork has been laid for a new
kind of government where it won’t matter if you’re innocent or guilty,
whether you’re a threat to the nation, or even if you’re a citizen.
What will matter is what the government—or whoever happens to be
calling the shots at the time—thinks. And if the powers-that-be think
you’re a threat to the nation and should be locked up, then you’ll be
locked up with no access to the protections our Constitution provides.

The Supreme Court turned America into a Constitution-free zone.
Although the Court’s rulings on qualified immunity for police who
engage in official misconduct were largely overshadowed by its
politically polarizing rulings on abortion, gun ownership and
religion, they were no less devastating. The bottom line: there will
be no consequences for cops who brutalize the citizenry and no justice
for the victims of police brutality.

The FBI went rogue. The FBI’s laundry list of crimes against the
American people ran the gamut from surveillance, disinformation,
blackmail, entrapment, and intimidation tactics to harassment and
indoctrination, governmental overreach, abuse, misconduct,
trespassing, enabling criminal activity, and damaging private
property, and that’s just based on what we know.

The government waged war on political freedom. In more and more cases,
the government declared war on what should be protected political
speech whenever it challenges the government’s power, reveals the
government’s corruption, exposes the government’s lies, and encourages
the citizenry to push back against the government’s many injustices.

The military industrial complex waged more wars. America’s part in the
showdown between Russia and the Ukraine conveniently followed on the
heels of a long line of other crises which have occurred like
clockwork in order to keep Americans distracted, deluded, amused, and
insulated from the government’s steady encroachments on our freedoms.

The Deep State went global. We’ve been inching closer to a new world
order for the past several decades, but COVID-19, which saw
governmental and corporate interests become even more closely
intertwined, shifted this transformation into high gear. This new
world order—a global world order—made up of international government
agencies and corporations owes its existence in large part to the U.S.
government’s deep-seated and, in many cases, top-secret alliances with
foreign nations and global corporations. This powerful international
cabal, let’s call it the Global Deep State, is just as real as the
corporatized, militarized, industrialized American Deep State, and it
poses just as great a threat to our rights as individuals under the
U.S. Constitution, if not greater.

Authoritarian madness escalated. You didn’t have to be a conspiracy
theorist or even anti-government to recognize the slippery slope that
starts with well-meaning intentions for the greater good and ends with
tyrannical abuses no one should tolerate. When any government is
empowered to adopt a comply-or-suffer-the-consequences mindset that is
enforced through mandates, lockdowns, penalties, detention centers,
martial law, and an utter disregard for the rights of the individual,
there should be reason for concern.

The takeaway: the more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the
American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair
Diaries, if there is any means left to us for thwarting the government
in its relentless march towards outright dictatorship, it rests—as it
always has—at the local level, with “we the people."

Unless we work together to push back against the government’s
overreach, excesses and abuse, 2023 will be yet another terrible,
horrible, no good, very bad year for freedom.