The New Domestic War on Terror is Coming | Glenn Greenwald:
January 18, 2021 - " The last two weeks have ushered in a wave of new domestic police powers and rhetoric in the name of fighting 'terrorism' that are carbon copies of many of the worst excesses of the first War on Terror that began nearly twenty years ago.... We have witnessed an orgy of censorship from Silicon Valley monopolies with calls for far more aggressive speech policing, a visibly militarized Washington, D.C. featuring a non-ironically named 'Green Zone,' vows from the incoming president and his key allies for a new anti-domestic terrorism bill, and frequent accusations of 'sedition,' 'treason,' and 'terrorism' against members of Congress and citizens. This is all driven by a radical expansion of the meaning of “incitement to violence'.....
"The Wall Street Journal reports that 'Mr. Biden has said he plans to make a priority of passing a law against domestic terrorism, and he has been urged to create a White House post overseeing the fight against ideologically inspired violent extremists and increasing funding to combat them.' Meanwhile, Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) ... has had a bill proposed since 2019 to simply amend the existing foreign anti-terrorism bill to allow the U.S. Government to invoke exactly the same powers at home against 'domestic terrorists'....
"Why would such new terrorism laws be needed in a country that already imprisons more of its citizens than any other country in the world...? What acts should be criminalized by new 'domestic terrorism” laws that are not already deemed criminal? They never say, almost certainly because — just as was true of the first set of new War on Terror laws — their real aim is to criminalize that which should not be criminalized: speech, association, protests, opposition to the new ruling coalition....
"First, much of the alarmism and fear-mongering is being driven by a deliberate distortion of what it means for speech to 'incite violence.' The bastardizing of this phrase was the basis for President Trump’s rushed impeachment last week. It is also what is driving calls for dozens of members of Congress to be expelled and even prosecuted on 'sedition' charges for having objected to the Electoral College certification, and is also at the heart of the spate of censorship actions already undertaken and further repressive measures being urged....
"To illustrate this point, I have often cited the crucial and brilliantly reasoned Supreme Court free speech ruling in Claiborne v. NAACP. In the 1960s and 1970s, the State of Mississippi tried to hold local NAACP leaders liable on the ground that their fiery speeches urging a boycott of white-owned stores 'incited' their followers to burn down stores and violently attack patrons who did not honor the protest.... But the Supreme Court rejected that argument, explaining that free speech will die if people are held responsible not for their own violent acts but for those committed by others who heard them speak and were motivated to commit crimes in the name of that cause... that if speech is classified as 'incitement to violence' despite not explicitly advocating violence, it will sweep up any political speech which those wielding this term wish it to encompass. No political speech will be safe from this term when interpreted and applied so broadly and carelessly.
"And that is directly relevant to the second point. Continuing to process Washington debates of this sort primarily through the prism of 'Democrat v. Republican' or even 'left v. right' is a sure ticket to the destruction of core rights. There are times when powers of repression and censorship are aimed more at the left and times when they are aimed more at the right, but it is neither inherently a left-wing nor a right-wing tactic. It is a ruling class tactic, and it will be deployed against anyone perceived to be a dissident to ruling class interests and orthodoxies no matter where on the ideological spectrum they reside....
"If you identify as a conservative and continue to believe that your prime enemies are ordinary leftists, or you identify as a leftist and believe your prime enemies are Republican citizens, you will fall perfectly into the trap set for you. Namely, you will ignore your real enemies, the ones who actually wield power at your expense: ruling class elites, who really do not care about 'right v. left' and most definitely do not care about 'Republican v. Democrat' — as evidenced by the fact that they fund both parties — but instead care only about one thing: stability, or preservation of the prevailing neoliberal order. Unlike so many ordinary citizens addicted to trivial partisan warfare, these ruling class elites know who their real enemies are: anyone who steps outside the limits and rules of the game they have crafted and who seeks to disrupt the system that preserves their prerogatives and status.
"That a new War on Terror is coming is not a question of speculation and it is not in doubt. Those who now wield power are saying it explicitly. The only thing that is in doubt is how much opposition they will encounter from those who value basic civic rights more than the fears of one another being deliberately cultivated within us."
Read more: https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-new-domestic-war-on-terror-is
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