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Demeter

(85,373 posts)
Wed May 13, 2015, 01:26 AM May 2015

A Nation of Snitches By Chris Hedges

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/a_nation_of_snitches_20150510

A totalitarian state is only as strong as its informants. And the United States has a lot of them. They read our emails. They listen to, download and store our phone calls. They photograph us on street corners, on subway platforms, in stores, on highways and in public and private buildings. They track us through our electronic devices. They infiltrate our organizations. They entice and facilitate “acts of terrorism” by Muslims, radical environmentalists, activists and Black Bloc anarchists, framing these hapless dissidents and sending them off to prison for years. They have amassed detailed profiles of our habits, our tastes, our peculiar proclivities, our medical and financial records, our sexual orientations, our employment histories, our shopping habits and our criminal records. They store this information in government computers. It sits there, waiting like a time bomb, for the moment when the state decides to criminalize us.

Totalitarian states record even the most banal of our activities so that when it comes time to lock us up they can invest these activities with subversive or criminal intent. And citizens who know, because of the courage of Edward Snowden, that they are being watched but naively believe they “have done nothing wrong” do not grasp this dark and terrifying logic.

Tyranny is always welded together by subterranean networks of informants. These informants keep a populace in a state of fear. They perpetuate constant anxiety and enforce isolation through distrust. The state uses wholesale surveillance and spying to break down trust and deny us the privacy to think and speak freely.

A state security and surveillance apparatus, at the same time, conditions all citizens to become informants. In airports and train, subway and bus stations the recruitment campaign is relentless. We are fed lurid government videos and other messages warning us to be vigilant and report anything suspicious. The videos, on endless loops broadcast through mounted television screens, have the prerequisite ominous music, the shady-looking criminal types, the alert citizen calling the authorities and in some cases the apprehended evildoer being led away in handcuffs. The message to be hypervigilant and help the state ferret out dangerous internal enemies is at the same time disseminated throughout government agencies, the mass media, the press and the entertainment industry.

“If you see something say something,” goes the chorus...

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A Nation of Snitches By Chris Hedges (Original Post) Demeter May 2015 OP
Kick DJ13 May 2015 #1
This paragraph PuraVidaDreamin May 2015 #2
No. Because it is a deeply seeded mindset FlatBaroque May 2015 #4
From the UK “For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: as lon jakeXT May 2015 #8
Best Editorialist On DU billhicks76 May 2015 #3
What a mishmash! Hedges has really lost his edge struggle4progress May 2015 #5
We were told in the 1950's communist were everywhere and we needed to be watched mrdmk May 2015 #6
Why watch them? Just FIRE them! Demeter May 2015 #7

PuraVidaDreamin

(4,094 posts)
2. This paragraph
Wed May 13, 2015, 04:24 AM
May 2015

Totalitarian states record even the most banal of our activities so that when it comes time to lock us up they can invest these activities with subversive or criminal intent. And citizens who know, because of the courage of Edward Snowden, that they are being watched but naively believe they “have done nothing wrong” do not grasp this dark and terrifying logic.

Is there a way to change this naive belief?

FlatBaroque

(3,160 posts)
4. No. Because it is a deeply seeded mindset
Wed May 13, 2015, 07:44 AM
May 2015

Have you tried to reason with the DU authoritarians? They could call themselves Democrats or Republicans; it doesn't matter because above all they are Statists. The power of the state is paramount in their minds. And you can bet your life that political discussion boards are a Tier 1 environment to tag and bag "subversives".

jakeXT

(10,575 posts)
8. From the UK “For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: as lon
Thu May 14, 2015, 07:01 AM
May 2015

“For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone.”
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11339407

mrdmk

(2,943 posts)
6. We were told in the 1950's communist were everywhere and we needed to be watched
Thu May 14, 2015, 01:53 AM
May 2015

In the 1960's we were told there are dirty hippies everywhere and we needed to be watched

In the 1970's we were told there are drug addicts everywhere and we needed to be watched

In the 1980's we were told the government was everywhere and we needed to be watched

In the 1990's we were told there are poor people everywhere and we needed to be watched

In the 2000's we were told there are terrorist everywhere and we needed to be watched

Now in 2010's we are being told all of the above are everywhere and we still need to be watched

When will we be officially told, "the people who watch us need to be watched!"

A cold day in hell is suspect...

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