Historically, every totalitarian state has established, as the ultimate instrument of control, some form of 'secret police'. And of course, every nation on earth has, under many different names, some form of state security apparatus. Often, they are one and the same. In 'the west', we already have an unknown number of unaccountable three and four letter alphabet agencies. Many with overlapping, often fuzzy, mandates. Many with 'black budgets'. Few accountable. To anyone - or anything. And all of them charged with some aspect of "security". (As defined by whom? Or what? I wonder). This latest initiative is merely the next step in a well thought out strategy. 'They' have eliminated most of our basic freedoms. Our freedoms of speech, religion, movement, association, and assembly have been severely curtailed. And they're coming for our guns. They're purging the military of members who are aware their oath was defend the constitution. That was thrown in the trash two years ago. Now we have yet another agency. An agency spun off of the DHS. And we can all see how effective that agency has been. Or not been. Society is disintegrating at an ever increasing rate. And our rulers have formally announced that they are putting an as yet undisclosed amount of money and resources in yet another mechanism to control the peons. Not, you will note, to deal with inflation, the southern border, demographic challenges, the disaster that is our woefully inadequate educational system, health care, or the dysfunctional legal systems. One is minded of the frog in the pot analogy. We're in the pot. Have been for a while. The water is getting hotter than hell. Nearly at a boil. Very soon we'll be cooked. Frog legs anyone?
The idea of secret police goes back a long time, at least to the 1700s. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had a secret police force, which would suggest that other contemporaneous empires probably did too. I wouldn't be surprised if it goes further back than that, though. Regardless of secret police forces' long history, it's undeniably true that the powers that contemporary governments have to continually and intensively surveil their citizens is unimaginably greater now than it ever has been in the past.
Linsey McGoey's work on ignorance helped me navigate how anyone could genuinely believe this is a good idea, without just being evil.
McGoey's latest "The Unknowers, How Strategic Ignorance Rules the World" goes into Elite Ignorance - which they themselves are blind to, and Strategic Ignorance - which is deliberately using ignorance to retain power. Studies have even found the poorer, the more empathetic - as the poor have to be able to read others in order to have a better chance of survival. Perhaps Elites own ignorance hold the seeds to their downfall, if we could just figure out how to exploit their ignorance.
"Deliberate ignorance has been known as the ‘Ostrich Instruction’ in law courts since the 1860s. It illustrates a recurring pattern in history in which figureheads for major companies, political leaders and industry bigwigs plead ignorance to avoid culpability. So why do so many figures at the top still get away with it when disasters on their watch damage so many people’s lives? Does the idea that knowledge is power still apply in today’s post-truth world? A bold, wide-ranging exploration of the relationship between ignorance and power in the modern age, from debates over colonial power and economic rent-seeking in the 18th and 19th centuries to the legal defences of today, The Unknowers shows that strategic ignorance has not only long been an inherent part of modern power and big business, but also that true power lies in the ability to convince others of where the boundary between ignorance and knowledge lies."
Once they achieved limitation of liability, accountability was over and done with. "Education" serves mostly to instill servility. After WWII all of the radicals that understood what was going on were run out of the unions and the political parties, and corruption increased exponentially. Corruption is what keeps this rotten system afloat. Eliminate it and the establishment quickly collapses. The nut that needs to be cracked is convincing the "stakeholders" that they're slaves living in guilded cages. Hyperinflation is helpful to that end, but the masses need to be able to visualize a practical alternative that they can grab onto as the bottom falls out, or they'll panic.
Oh for the love of God, we know the end game here. “In February 2021, in recognition of the gravity of the threat, Secretary Mayorkas designated for the first time domestic violent extremism as a ‘National Priority Area’ in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant programs...” The feds pass out buckets of cash to state and local agencies as long as they agree to play along, hire LGBTUVWXYZers and people of color to fill these commissions, and charge folks with federal crimes for discussing the wrong brand of politics online or maybe for going to future Trump rallies. Riots and mass looting in the usual urban areas don’t count. Those are necessary forms of expression. 😆
Ministry of Truth, here we come. Don't forget the DHS is the agency that, on February 7, issued a Summary of Terrorism Threat to the U.S. Homeland that included Covid mis/mal/disinformation as a threat:
"Key factors contributing to the current heightened threat environment include: The proliferation of false or misleading narratives which sow discord or undermine public trust in US government institutions. For example, there is widespread online proliferation of false or misleading narratives regarding unsubstantiated widespread election fraud and COVID-19. Grievances associated with these themes inspired violent extremist attacks during 2021."
[Never mind they're conflating election fraud with COVID-19 as causes of riots during 2021. Do you recall any violent Covid riots?]
And the tagline: If You See Something, Say Something.
lol-- yes! Well, technically, DHS was developed primarily to combine Customs, INS and other agencies that look for external threats to the country that want to come in...domestic security and crime prevention is more of an FBI thing? So it may be even more of a soup burger than it first appears...DHS will protect the country from it's own employees who may be partaking of misinformation. LMAO.
Growing threat? They were making movies about white/redneck militia men overthrowing the gov't with their stealthily Daniel-Boone dark arts back in the 80s (Debra Winger in "Betrayed" is a fun one). I think this threat waxes and wanes depending on how many people are starting to fantasize about white/redneck militia-men overthrowing the gov't again.
N.B. during the '00s we were told to be scared about Middle Eastern men overthrowing the gov't with their plastique-fantastique ways, it is just mad libs.
Historically, every totalitarian state has established, as the ultimate instrument of control, some form of 'secret police'. And of course, every nation on earth has, under many different names, some form of state security apparatus. Often, they are one and the same. In 'the west', we already have an unknown number of unaccountable three and four letter alphabet agencies. Many with overlapping, often fuzzy, mandates. Many with 'black budgets'. Few accountable. To anyone - or anything. And all of them charged with some aspect of "security". (As defined by whom? Or what? I wonder). This latest initiative is merely the next step in a well thought out strategy. 'They' have eliminated most of our basic freedoms. Our freedoms of speech, religion, movement, association, and assembly have been severely curtailed. And they're coming for our guns. They're purging the military of members who are aware their oath was defend the constitution. That was thrown in the trash two years ago. Now we have yet another agency. An agency spun off of the DHS. And we can all see how effective that agency has been. Or not been. Society is disintegrating at an ever increasing rate. And our rulers have formally announced that they are putting an as yet undisclosed amount of money and resources in yet another mechanism to control the peons. Not, you will note, to deal with inflation, the southern border, demographic challenges, the disaster that is our woefully inadequate educational system, health care, or the dysfunctional legal systems. One is minded of the frog in the pot analogy. We're in the pot. Have been for a while. The water is getting hotter than hell. Nearly at a boil. Very soon we'll be cooked. Frog legs anyone?
The idea of secret police goes back a long time, at least to the 1700s. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had a secret police force, which would suggest that other contemporaneous empires probably did too. I wouldn't be surprised if it goes further back than that, though. Regardless of secret police forces' long history, it's undeniably true that the powers that contemporary governments have to continually and intensively surveil their citizens is unimaginably greater now than it ever has been in the past.
Linsey McGoey's work on ignorance helped me navigate how anyone could genuinely believe this is a good idea, without just being evil.
McGoey's latest "The Unknowers, How Strategic Ignorance Rules the World" goes into Elite Ignorance - which they themselves are blind to, and Strategic Ignorance - which is deliberately using ignorance to retain power. Studies have even found the poorer, the more empathetic - as the poor have to be able to read others in order to have a better chance of survival. Perhaps Elites own ignorance hold the seeds to their downfall, if we could just figure out how to exploit their ignorance.
Sounds good. The abstract:
"Deliberate ignorance has been known as the ‘Ostrich Instruction’ in law courts since the 1860s. It illustrates a recurring pattern in history in which figureheads for major companies, political leaders and industry bigwigs plead ignorance to avoid culpability. So why do so many figures at the top still get away with it when disasters on their watch damage so many people’s lives? Does the idea that knowledge is power still apply in today’s post-truth world? A bold, wide-ranging exploration of the relationship between ignorance and power in the modern age, from debates over colonial power and economic rent-seeking in the 18th and 19th centuries to the legal defences of today, The Unknowers shows that strategic ignorance has not only long been an inherent part of modern power and big business, but also that true power lies in the ability to convince others of where the boundary between ignorance and knowledge lies."
https://www.amazon.com/Unknowers-Strategic-Ignorance-Economic-Controversies/dp/1780326351
Once they achieved limitation of liability, accountability was over and done with. "Education" serves mostly to instill servility. After WWII all of the radicals that understood what was going on were run out of the unions and the political parties, and corruption increased exponentially. Corruption is what keeps this rotten system afloat. Eliminate it and the establishment quickly collapses. The nut that needs to be cracked is convincing the "stakeholders" that they're slaves living in guilded cages. Hyperinflation is helpful to that end, but the masses need to be able to visualize a practical alternative that they can grab onto as the bottom falls out, or they'll panic.
Not familiar with Linsey McGoey -- will check this out. Thanks!
Check this out from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency:
https://www.cisa.gov/mdm
"Malinformation is based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate."
Oh, what you wrote was true? Yes but the context is that it's awkward for us for people to know that, so you're still a terrorist.
Oh for the love of God, we know the end game here. “In February 2021, in recognition of the gravity of the threat, Secretary Mayorkas designated for the first time domestic violent extremism as a ‘National Priority Area’ in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant programs...” The feds pass out buckets of cash to state and local agencies as long as they agree to play along, hire LGBTUVWXYZers and people of color to fill these commissions, and charge folks with federal crimes for discussing the wrong brand of politics online or maybe for going to future Trump rallies. Riots and mass looting in the usual urban areas don’t count. Those are necessary forms of expression. 😆
Ministry of Truth, here we come. Don't forget the DHS is the agency that, on February 7, issued a Summary of Terrorism Threat to the U.S. Homeland that included Covid mis/mal/disinformation as a threat:
"Key factors contributing to the current heightened threat environment include: The proliferation of false or misleading narratives which sow discord or undermine public trust in US government institutions. For example, there is widespread online proliferation of false or misleading narratives regarding unsubstantiated widespread election fraud and COVID-19. Grievances associated with these themes inspired violent extremist attacks during 2021."
[Never mind they're conflating election fraud with COVID-19 as causes of riots during 2021. Do you recall any violent Covid riots?]
And the tagline: If You See Something, Say Something.
https://www.dhs.gov/ntas/advisory/national-terrorism-advisory-system-bulletin-february-07-2022
Good stuff! Sharing
Once this new bureaucracy is put into place, it will never, ever go away. Its budget will increase by 5-8% annually, year after year after year.
It sounds like DHS is only going to look for the TBD threat among it's own workforce?
I mean, it would save a lot of travel and expense.
It is interesting that all the named examples of offices within DHS that look for domestic extremism are internal.
lol-- yes! Well, technically, DHS was developed primarily to combine Customs, INS and other agencies that look for external threats to the country that want to come in...domestic security and crime prevention is more of an FBI thing? So it may be even more of a soup burger than it first appears...DHS will protect the country from it's own employees who may be partaking of misinformation. LMAO.
Take my money. I love how you can incorporate history into an analysis of current events. That is so vital right now.
Growing threat? They were making movies about white/redneck militia men overthrowing the gov't with their stealthily Daniel-Boone dark arts back in the 80s (Debra Winger in "Betrayed" is a fun one). I think this threat waxes and wanes depending on how many people are starting to fantasize about white/redneck militia-men overthrowing the gov't again.
N.B. during the '00s we were told to be scared about Middle Eastern men overthrowing the gov't with their plastique-fantastique ways, it is just mad libs.
I have an inkling that 10% of the budget for the ministry of allowable thought will get kicked up to “the big guy”
McCarthyism part deux.
Snipe hunt! Hard to find hard to shoot!
An aw moment, that is why berry Obama said he needed to create a national security force, bet allot of people missed that one. https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/10/remember_obamas_civilian_national_security_force.html
Hi Chris, I see that you're a former soldier, is there any way I can contact you offline?
chrisabray at yahoo.