> On Apr 29, 2016, at 1:55 AM, grarpamp <grarp...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> On 4/29/16, Александр <afalex...@gmail.com> wrote: >> In the 60's/70's it was "the communist threat/spying for the bloody >> russians", now it's "child porn/terrrrorism"... they change their masks >> (that always seem so "beautiful"), BUT they can't change their ugly faces. > > The "distrust, spy on, and rat out your neighbor theme" is always popular, > be it for commies or whatever. A handful of years ago they recruited postal > workers for that role too. Now... > > https://theintercept.com/2016/04/28/letter-details-fbi-plan-for-secretive-anti-radicalization-committees/ > Of the plans put forward by the federal government to identify and > stop budding terrorists, among the least understood are the FBI’s > “Shared Responsibility Committees.” > The idea of the committees is to enlist counselors, social workers, > religious figures, and other community members to intervene with > people the FBI thinks are in danger of radicalizing — the sort of > alternative to prosecution and jail time many experts have been > clamoring for. But civil liberties groups worry the committees could > become just a ruse to expand the FBI’s network of informants, and the > government has refused to provide details about the program. > The Intercept has obtained a letter addressed to potential committee > members from the FBI... >
This sounds exactly like how the inform-on-your-neighbor system worked in Stalinist regimes and in fascist Germany before that. There were never enough actual secret police to keep an eye on everyone - the system relied on the willingness of average citizens to vociferously out their neighbors and friends who may have spoken or implied a line of thought outside the state approved ideology. -- John
