RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/05/house_passes_domestic_terrorism_prevention_act_targeting_americans_thought_speech.html

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a new bill that would greatly enhance the federal government’s ability to spy on Americans in an alleged effort to combat “domestic” terrorism.

H.R. 350, or the “Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act,” passed by a margin of 222-203. The vote was almost entirely along party lines, with every single House Democrat and a lone House Republican– the reprehensible RINO Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois– voting to approve the measure.

The proposal would reportedly create “domestic terrorism offices” within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Justice (DOJ), and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), according to The Hill. The offices would be tasked with “monitoring and scrutinizing potential terror activity,” with a heavy emphasis on terror activity deemed motivated by “white supremacist” or “neo-Nazi” sentiments.

Democrats have predictably framed the bill as a necessary response to the mass shooting perpetrated by an avowed white supremacist at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store last week. The perpetrator, however, characterized himself online as being in the “mild-moderate-authoritarian Left category.”

Many Republicans have slammed the bill as a frightening example of government overreach. Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy, for example, said the bill constitutes the “empowerment of the federal bureaucracy to target Americans.” He added, “This is nothing more than empowering the federal government to police thought and speech in the United States of America, and we should oppose it roundly.”

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/05/24/republicans-for-biden-owe-the-nation-heck-the-world-an-apology/

In the run-up to the 2020 election, the Biden campaign was gleeful about the flood of prominent Republicans who’d crossed the aisle to support Joe’s candidacy. These Never-Trumpers weren’t just expressing their disdain for President Donald Trump, they were heartily, lovingly, making the case for Joe Biden.

Back then, they were lauded as heroes by the establishment. Today, everyone knows the truth.

These Biden-supporting Republicans were utterly, embarrassingly, dangerously wrong about the man they were touting for president. And we are all now paying an enormous and rapidly increasing price for their arrogant stupidity.

Nothing better encapsulates the “Republicans for Biden” mindset than the statement issued by nearly 500 former national security officials in the fall of 2020 backing Biden.

Forget about the fact that they trafficked in anti-Trump lies such as the “Russian bounty” story and sided against Trump on China, climate change, and other issues of importance to conservatives.

What stands out today is when they claimed that Biden “is the leader our nation needs.”

“It is unthinkable,” these “experts” said in their statement, “that [Biden] would ever utter the phrase ‘I don’t take responsibility at all.’”

Would anyone make such a claim today?

Do a Google search of “Biden blames” and you’ll be flooded with examples of his refusing to take responsibility for anything.

https://glennloury.substack.com/p/unravelling-the-spiral-of-silence?s=r

Recently, I appeared on the podcast of Lex Fridman, a computer scientist who has worked on AI at places like MIT and Google. He’s a virtuosic interviewer who seems to be interested in pretty much everything. Go check out his YouTube channel, and you’ll likely be impressed by his range of guests and his ability to engage them in deep conversations about their lives and areas of expertise.

I made the trip out to Lex’s studio in Austin, Texas, and it was well worth the journey. Our conversation ranged from my own personal experiences to economics to race and politics to the really big questions, like death and the meaning of life. We talked for four hours, and he posted almost the entire thing. I must say, I think it’s one of the best recorded conversations I’ve ever engaged in.

The excerpt below is taken from that conversation, and in it Lex asks me about the effectiveness of accusations of racism. We see this everywhere. A professor or politician or some other public figure is accused of racism, and before the charges can even be investigated, poof. Their career goes up in smoke, whether or not they’ve actually done anything worthy of censure. Often it turns out they’re guilty of little more than choosing their words carelessly, and just as often they’re guilty, at least in my view, of nothing at all. This state of affairs is untenable, and I have no problem saying so. Others feel the way I do, and you’re now seeing more of them speak out against specious accusations of racism.

But there are still many, many people who recognize the terrible injustice of these accusations but fear the repercussions of defending the accused. It’s understandable. They don’t want the mob to direct its ire at them, and they may be in a position where they have much to lose and little to gain by speaking out. I worry that this widespread suppression could create conditions ripe for exploitation by some canny demagogue who could harness the resentments of a stifled electorate and, in the process, unleash something very ugly on this country. The political scientist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann theorized the mechanisms that could bring this state of affairs about. She called it “the spiral of silence,” which I explain below.

We know the costs of remaining silent in the face of injustice. When that silence is broken, as it inevitably will be broken, are we prepared for what else may break along with it?