American Autocracy
Or the Hell State We Currently Find Ourselves In
Anyone who claims that we live in a democratic and free society is a liar, or stupid.
Anyone who claims that Donald Trump will usher in an era of fascism and an end to our democracy is a liar, or stupid.
We already live in an undemocratic police-surveillance state.
When I was a kid, I remember a discussion in class.
Security or Liberty?
Growing up in a post-9/11 world, I thought (stupidly) that this would be a mature and measured discussion we would have as a country. Lines would be drawn, teams taken, and ideas debated. It was only when I got older that I realized this question had already been answered.
The American Government will always choose its own security over the security and even liberty of the American people.
With the advent of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson (may he burn in hell) signed several pieces of legislation to “bolster” (read criminalize any critique of) the American war effort. He signed the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918.
The Espionage Act does what you think it does. You can’t be giving away secrets to the enemy. I’ll get back to this later. The Sedition Act is the center of attention right now.
The Sedition Act criminalized any critique of the American government, the War effort, or our armed forces. The American Government chose the security of itself and the interest of the Merchant’s of Death, war profiteers, over our basic freedom of speech. You can’t call bullshit; you can't say the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes, because then the whole apparatus is at risk.
Eugene V. Debs was imprisoned for ten years under the act. Marie Equi was arrested and convicted after the war was over.
200 people were convicted under this law. Woodrow Wilson (may the fucker rot in hell) had to be told by the Attorney General to release or reduce the sentences of the people convicted. Debs had his sentence commuted under the next president, Warren G. Harding.
I do not fucking care if this is standard for early 20th-century nations during wartime. I do not fucking care.
I do not fucking care if this was actually a smart move. I don't; go fuck yourself. I personally think a set of ideals and principles is more important than morale during a bullshit war. Especially when it sets an evil precedent for the future.
One of Eisenhower’s biggest failings was warning us about the military industrial complex when it was already here.
Fascist dictatorships have a secret police. Germany had the Gestapo and the SS. Russia had the NKVD and the KGB. Italy had the OVRA (fascists and communists love their acronyms)
You might think that the United States has no secret police. But we have lots of secret police. We even give them acronyms too. The CIA, the NSA, and even the FBI (Truman compared the FBI with the Gestapo). (With how the FBI operates, I don’t blame him)
Our secret police is worse. They have a global reach. No corner of the globe is safe from their eyes. The CIA isn’t supposed to operate on US soil, but they do. We know they do, but there are no consequences for this. They conducted mind-control experiments that only failed by the grace of Divine Providence.
Edward Snowden and Julian Assange proved that our secret police act maliciously. They spy on us and torture people. They have had people in Somalia assassinated, foreign governments overthrown, and drugs sold into our own communities to destabilize them and finance these horrors.
Our secret police is more evil and more powerful than the Gestapo or SS could ever hope to be.
They get around the Bill of Rights, not as flagrantly, as the Sedition and Espionage Act, but they still do it. Private companies suck up your data while you browse online and sell it to them.
A big thank you to everyone who says, "The Bill of Rights doesn’t apply to companies." This is where your line of reasoning has gotten us. Fuck you.
When Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, and Julian Assange let the world know what our secret police do, they were imprisoned or forced to flee to foreign countries to avoid imprisonment.
It gets worse.
The Patriot Act. Designed from the ground up to increase the powers of the Surveillance State. It was meant to sunset, or die, in 2005. But Bush extended it. Then it was meant to die in 2011, but Obama Extended it. When did the Patriot Act finally die?
In 2020. 19 years after the incident. 9 years after the guy who organized it died.
The American Government Will Always Choose the Security of Itself over the Security or Freedom of You, and they will laugh the whole time.
If you sit and worry that Trump will usher in an age of fascism, but either don’t know or aren’t worried about the Police-Surveillance state we currently live in.
Shut The Fuck Up.
If you think Democrats are ushering in transgender communism but don’t care about the powers of the alphabet agencies.
Shut The Fuck Up.
If you think this is the most important election of our lives. Vote blue, no matter who, or red, no matter what.
Shut The Fuck Up.
If you lick the boots of the Duopoly and listen to your ideological commissars like the bitch you are.
Shut The Fuck Up.
I don’t want to hear your stupid fucking opinion.
This is Michael Vincent Hawthorne. Don’t be dumb