Is This the Start of an American Stasi?

TomKlingenstein ^ | 05/15/24 | Mollie Hemingway

[PoliticallyShort]

Last fall, a congressional report revealed that I was on a secret list of public figures compiled by agencies within the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, in conjunction with Stanford University, that was used to pressure social media companies into suppressing and censoring my public statements.

This was all part of an “Election Integrity Project” that was created in the summer of 2020. Ostensibly, the goal was to prevent the spread of so-called “disinformation,” which the Washington establishment considers a threat to “democracy”—words that in recent years have become political weapons divorced from any meaning. In reality, this project was nothing more than unelected bureaucrats engaging in extreme violations of the First Amendment in order to meddle in an election and oust an incumbent president.

On a personal level, the idea that I was being surveilled and my public statements suppressed is disturbing. But what should be disturbing to all of us is that there are still so many people—even self-professed conservatives—heavily invested in denying that this is happening. This is the core of Schoenfeld’s argument: the laughable assertion that none of the major characteristics social scientists have traditionally used to define a totalitarian regime can be plausibly identified in contemporary America.

As someone who was inspired from an early age by the works of Solzhenitsyn and Havel, I know I have not earned the high honor of being called a dissident. But as one of the only journalists who debunked the Russia collusion lie put forth by Democrats and intelligence operatives, I’ve had some fights with the government I never dreamed possible in America. And as the author of a bestselling book highlighting some of the indefensible corruption of the 2020 election, I obviously haven’t earned any friends in the censorship industrial complex.

[Gaffer]

Back of the envelope, at a minimum, the NSA/CIA compile that amount every two days on Americans. The Stasi were complete pikers compared to America’s police state.

They didn't build that Mega-Memory Death Star installation out in Utah for nothing. There is not one bit/byte of electronic information in this country (or planet for that matter) that isn't collected by NSA. EVERYTHING is captured, preliminarily sifted, and stored for later reinspection/use/prosecution.

[mrmeyer]

Promoting marxist ideals.

[woodpusher]

The Gazpacho (Gestapo)

The soup nazi?