Principled conservatives and civil libertarians have warned for decades that the national security surveillance state would eventually be turned inward to target American citizens. The warnings took on extra urgency with the passage of the Patriot Act and the police state measures that were enacted as part of the “War on Terror.” And now that the US government has left Afghanistan and Iraq and no longer has external enemies to fight (unless you count Russia), it is turning its massive intelligence apparatus inwards.
That means that the government is no longer interested in fighting radical Islam or snuffing out terrorist movements around the world. Instead it is looking to combat what it characterizes as “domestic extremism” at home. And just what constitutes domestic extremism?
Well, if you expressed skepticism about COVID vaccines or if you question the integrity of the American electoral system then you might qualify as an extremist. In fact, the US government is mobilizing the very same tools it used to try to counteract Islamist propaganda in an attempt to shut down dissent on hot button issues.
The government is working together with Big Tech and academia to fund an artificial intelligence (AI) censorship algorithm. These people evidently believe that they’re doing something good by engaging in this attempt at censorship. But that just shows how effectively the media has spread its propaganda, that there are actually people at high levels who believe that skepticism and dissent should be shut down.
Of course, the revelation of such a program should spur even more outrage, skepticism, and dissent… if people are paying attention. But with inflation running high and recession around the corner, most people are probably paying more attention to their pocketbooks than to what the government is doing to try to censor them. By the time they wake up and realize what’s happening, it may be too late.
