Responding to some reaction to my posts
Let's see, who did I blame? Whose head is in the sand? I am asking questions, examining things that don't add up, advocating that my fellow citizens resist accepting propaganda and lies but do some checking and figure out why our country is going the way that has marked despotic regimes everywhere, even in our own lifetimes. Naomi Wolf
[ http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2064157,00.html ]
recently released a book in which she iterates ten steps that characterize a government trying to take a society from democracy to dictatorship.
These steps are:
1. Invoking a terrifying internal and external enemy - real or imaginary. Al Qaeda is a CIA creation, tailor made for the GWOT.
2. Creating a gulag - a prison system outside the rule of law.
3. Develop a thug caste - Blackwater and private security firms and the new "militarized" police that reach for the taser first and often.
4. Set up an internal surveillance system. A characteristic of every communist regime and every fascist regime - spying on citizens.
5. Harrass citizen's groups - Herding protesters into "free speech zones" and arresting anyone who speaks out. Infiltrating citizen groups and expanding the definition of "terrorist" to include people opposed to the government policies.
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release. An anti-war march will get you on the list targeted for searching at airports. (Correction, Jasamc - I have not tried to fly since going public. I strongly suspect I am on a list because several of my acquaintances who have engaged in public dissent are on the list. There are 70,000 + American Citizens on that list. That's some list!)
7. Target key individuals. Purges of U. S. Attorneys? Harassment of whistleblowers.
8 Control the press. Buying pundit opinions, going after those who offer opposition. Outing Valerie Plame.
9. Dissent equals treason. Conflating opposition to war and raising of questions about 9/11 with lack of patriotism and aiding the enemy.
10. Suspend the rule of law. Start with the neutering of the Justice Department by appointing a toady to the job and purging those who are more committed to the law than their party. Ignore efforts to apply checks and balances.
This government has taken all ten steps. We are probably more resilient than Italy and Germany in the '30's but these steps are working with some. You can read some of them on these very pages.
Think about it.
[ http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2064157,00.html ]
recently released a book in which she iterates ten steps that characterize a government trying to take a society from democracy to dictatorship.
These steps are:
1. Invoking a terrifying internal and external enemy - real or imaginary. Al Qaeda is a CIA creation, tailor made for the GWOT.
2. Creating a gulag - a prison system outside the rule of law.
3. Develop a thug caste - Blackwater and private security firms and the new "militarized" police that reach for the taser first and often.
4. Set up an internal surveillance system. A characteristic of every communist regime and every fascist regime - spying on citizens.
5. Harrass citizen's groups - Herding protesters into "free speech zones" and arresting anyone who speaks out. Infiltrating citizen groups and expanding the definition of "terrorist" to include people opposed to the government policies.
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release. An anti-war march will get you on the list targeted for searching at airports. (Correction, Jasamc - I have not tried to fly since going public. I strongly suspect I am on a list because several of my acquaintances who have engaged in public dissent are on the list. There are 70,000 + American Citizens on that list. That's some list!)
7. Target key individuals. Purges of U. S. Attorneys? Harassment of whistleblowers.
8 Control the press. Buying pundit opinions, going after those who offer opposition. Outing Valerie Plame.
9. Dissent equals treason. Conflating opposition to war and raising of questions about 9/11 with lack of patriotism and aiding the enemy.
10. Suspend the rule of law. Start with the neutering of the Justice Department by appointing a toady to the job and purging those who are more committed to the law than their party. Ignore efforts to apply checks and balances.
This government has taken all ten steps. We are probably more resilient than Italy and Germany in the '30's but these steps are working with some. You can read some of them on these very pages.
Think about it.
posted by Maturin42 at
11:55 AM
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