Americans Should Be Very Skeptical Of Calls For New “Terrorism” Laws
Two mass shootings have rocked the United States in less than 24 hours, leaving dozens dead and many more wounded. The first in El Paso, Texas was allegedly perpetrated by a white supremacist whose racist motives are outlined in a rambling "manifesto", the second allegedly by a self-described "leftist" whose motives, like the 2017 Las Vegas shooter, are presently unknown. These incidents occurred a week after another mass shooting in Gilroy, California.
All the usual US gun control debates have of course reignited, which is understandable. Alongside this debate, however, we are seeing another, far more pernicious agenda being raised that I would like to address here.
https://twitter.com/LaF3mm3Nikita/status/1158045942857261056
In an interview with MSNBC's Joy Reid, notorious liar and propagandist Malcolm Nance claimed that existing laws aren't sufficient for prosecuting the El Paso shooter, because there are no laws designating his act of mass murder as "domestic terrorism".
"I think that Congress needs to take up right away a series of domestic terrorism laws," Nance said. "It'd be very simple: just match them to the words 'international terrorism', so that a member of al-Qaeda and a member of a white nationalist terrorist cell or a militia that thinks they're going to carry out international acts of terrorism are equal all the way around. Right now there are no laws called 'domestic terrorism law'. They can get you for firearms, they get you for hate crimes, but you are not treated as a terrorist. This act in El Paso was clearly by all definitions a terrorist attack in the United States, but of course by the nature of the person being white and American he can't be treated like a member of ISIS or al-Qaeda. He can't even be detained, he can only be treated as a murderer."
(The accused, for the record, is in fact under arrest currently, and prosecutors say that they are treating it as a domestic terrorism case for which they are seeking the death penalty. This is in Texas, so he'll be dead before the next Fast & Furious movie. Nance's notion that prosecutors' hands are somehow tied here is silly.)
"But he's a murderer with a political intent who is spreading an ideology," Nance continued. "So Congress should take that up immediately. And let's see if the White House won't sign that legislation. That would be very revealing."
In other words, shove the legislation through and call anyone who opposes it a Nazi lover.
Political commentary is flooded with the word "terrorism" today. People are demanding that the El Paso shooter in particular and white supremacists in general be labeled terrorists by the narrative-making commentariat, and you know what? I totally get it. The push since 9/11 to tar Muslims as "terrorists" has been extremely obnoxious and fueled by hate and bigotry, so it makes sense for progressive-minded people to push for the egalitarian usage of that term. But before doing so, please reflect on what lessons we learned from the post-9/11 "Islamic terrorism" scare.
"Years of misguided alarmism over 'Islamic terrorism' resulted in the erosion of civil liberties, militarization of police, and a host of other bad outcomes. Applying the same alarmist logic to 'white nationalist terrorism' is likely to produce a host of similarly bad outcomes," tweeted independent journalist Michael Tracey in response to the chatter.
"I am telling you now that the government will use the violence that Trump himself has rallied as an excuse for more militarization, more surveillance, more violations of civil liberties -- and a lot of people are going to welcome these things because they are afraid," tweeted Truthout's Kelly Hayes. "I'm not guessing or being creative here. This is about having a sense of history and a sense of how these systems function in the present. I would love to be wrong. I would celebrate being wrong. But I'm not."
Indeed, it is an established fact that the US power establishment will use the narrative about needing to protect itself from terrorism to advance pre-existing agendas. The first draft of the massive USA Patriot Act was introduced a week after the 9/11 attacks, far too fast for anyone to have gathered the necessary information from all the relevant government bodies about what changes were necessary and typed out the hundreds of pages of the bill. Legislators later admitted that they didn't even have time to read through the densely worded bill before passing it the next month, so to believe that it could have been written in a week would be childish.
https://twitter.com/caitoz/status/1157502864614313984
In 2011 then-Congressman Ron Paul told Politico that "the Patriot Act was written many, many years before 9/11,” adding that the attacks simply provided "an opportunity for some people to do what they wanted to do." Paul was serving in Congress when the Patriot Act was passed. The Act has since been used to erode human rights at home and abroad by destroying Fourth Amendment protections and legalizing Orwellian surveillance, and it's safe to assume that the opaque and unaccountable government agencies who were greatly empowered by it had already wanted this to happen.
I have no easy answers for America's mass shooting epidemic, and as an Australian I see the gun control debate as outside my sovereign territory. I will simply suggest, as I so often do, that if Americans really want to address the problem then the best place to start is to do the first ever honest and in-depth study on the effects of domestic propaganda on the American mind, particularly war propaganda. There are only so many times a certain type of mind can be told violence-glorifying lies before it snaps; if anyone researches mass shootings in the light of the constant psychological abuse that Americans suffer at the hands of their mass media, I guarantee they'll find a connection. Americans are the most propagandized people on earth because of their proximity to the most strategically crucial part of the empire; it's not a coincidence that they're also by far the most prone to mass shootings.
One thing I can tell you won't fix your problems, America, and that's listening to the propagandists who want you to hand over even more control to a government that has already begun floating high-altitude surveillance balloons over your country without your permission.
Don't let them bully you with fear.
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With every manmade tragedy, the outcome is to give the government more power to control the masses.
Great write up Caitlin, I also love when you let your humor shine it's fullest...
Thank you, Caitlin Johnstone, for the heads up! You may be Australian but you are certainly a very good friend of America.
IMO, many mass shootings in the US such as San Bernardino, Orlando, Parkland, and Las Vegas were false flags orchestrated by the CIA and FBI. These attacks are part of the US government's agenda to disarm the American populace who, when awakened, represent its greatest threat.
At first blush, the El Paso attack does not appear to be a false flag because the perp apparently wasn't brainwashed or confused, knew what he was doing, surrendered peacefully, and is talking. In a false flag, the perp usually dies, or if he lives, he has been brainwashed. For example, in the Parkland attack, the patsy, Cruz, apparently had been brainwashed to the point where he didn't know what had happened. Hired guns actually did the shooting at Parkland and San Bernardino. Eye witnesses saw multiple shooters and said they were black-clad paramilitary types. Orlando and Las Vegas also look like multiple shooters, but occurred in the dark of night and eyewitness accounts are sketchy. Hopefully, the modern day Sherlock Holmes, Ole Dammegard, will look into El Paso.
However, this El Paso hate crime (also Gilroy and Dayton) advances the government's surveillance state agenda even better than a false flag. Now the pretext has been created for the government to go after these 'domestic terrorists', but in reality, they are going after the truth tellers.
El Paso shooting eyewitnesses saw 3-4 shooters dressed in black starting at about 15:00
Looks like another false flag. Apparently, the "radical muslim jihadist" type false flag had run its course. Now, we have a new boogie man: the radical white supremacist.
It's no secret that the CIA is running covert psychological operations (psyops) in countries such as Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Hong Kong, etc designed to destabilize the economy, society, and government. And yes, you can be sure it's also running psyops here in American society as well. These operations are behind much of the civil unrest, riots, racial division, Islamophobia, hate crimes, false flags, etc that we are experiencing today. The CIA wants to keep us fighting among ourselves to keep us distracted because an awakened, informed, and united American populace represents the greatest threat to the organized crime syndicate that passes for our government. So, wake up to the real danger people, stop believing the MSM propaganda, and for God's sake, STOP THE HATING! We are being played like a cheap fiddle.
Well, Uncle Sam is, without question, the world's largest and most virulent state-sponsor of terrorism in the history of the human race, if that's what you mean. Of course, Uncle Sam claims he's fighting the so-called global war on terror (GWOT). That's why he has to be everywhere acting as "the world's policeman," "spreading freedom and democracy," protecting the world from muslim terrorists and evil dictators. This is all pure, unadulterated propaganda bullshit designed to serve as a cover story or smokescreen for US regime change operations. The truth is the US is wielding its economic and military power to circumvent international law and pursue a global hegemonic agenda to control the world's resources. Any country, like Iran, Venezuela, Syria, N. Korea, etc, that does not kowtow to US interests becomes a target for a US regime change operation. The US is recruiting, training, and arming ISIS and Al Nustra fighters to serve as proxy forces for its regime change operations. Don't believe what you see and hear (except for local news) on the MSM channels if you want the truth.
The El Paso shooting looks like another false flag. At least two eyewitnesses, who were standing in line at checkout, said they saw a group of 3 to 4 men, moving as a group, come rushing past them into the store. The men were wearing all black and carrying long guns and then they started shooting. If we don't hear about the surveillance video evidence, which should tell the whole story, it will be a another solid indication that this is a false flag. San Bernardino, Paris, and Parkland, at very least, were carried out by similar group of shooters, according to eyewitnesses. We are being played like a cheap fiddle!