Ever wondered how it was that the internal security apparatus of Communist countries like the Soviet KGB, the effectively efficient East German STASI, or the Cuban G2, were (is) so effective in identifying non-conformists and dissents? People. Family, neighbors, co-workers, spying and snitching on other people.
According to The Washington Post, residents of the elite Adams Morgan neighborhood in Washington, D.C. took to the Next Door app – a hyper localized social media network described as a cross between Facebook and Craigslist – to accuse a vehicle’s driver of engaging in domestic terrorism, honing in on the color of the driver’s skin (white) and the truck’s Gadsden Flag, “Don’t Tread on Me” license plate as evidence of impending doom.
One user even made the claim that the truck was part of a plot to assassinate former President Barrack Obama, who lives in the nearby Kalorama neighborhood, while others claimed that the “insurrectionist” vehicle was part of the latest right wing conspiracy to violently takeover Washington, D.C. “I just want the police to be aware,” another user said.
When police arrived on the scene, they found the vehicle to be occupied by its owner, who was doing nothing wrong and was part of a construction project in the area.
One of the thread’s posters, told the Washington Post that he, and other Adams Morgan residents, have remained “vigilant” in recent months, keeping an eye open for out-of-town license plates, bumper stickers conveying conservative messages and people who aren’t wearing masks. “The mere presence of a MAGA or Trump-Pence sticker in the area, is all that I need to speed dial the police since you know you are dealing with insurrectionists and violent radicals,” another said.
This is disturbing at so many levels. Americans of the Liberal-progressive persuasion, are becoming the lowest form of collaborator, “Snitches.” It’s recorded history that in all previous or current despotic totalitarian regimes of the world, “concerned citizens”routinely passed on information about their neighbors, friends, love rivals, and even family, to the respective internal security forces. The reasons are many. Ranging from true believers to those would denounce others to improve their own living conditions, advance their careers, or curry favor with the authorities.
It’s hard to know how many people have been arrested, falsely accused, tortured, imprisoned, or executed over the years, but in the former Soviet Union alone, the number of people who died ranges between 1.5 and 1.8 million souls. And that’s not counting the other millions which survived labor camps were they were repeatedly raped and tortured. People, who would never be the same.
The information passed on by informants typically accused someone of breaking the law, being a criminal in some way, or worse of all, being a dissident. The information provided was not always based on fact, and could often be rumor, suspicion, or a personal vendetta. But once singled out, once you were an object of interest, the consequences were inevitable. If nothing deemed inappropriate was found, it was fabricated, to save face and justify the expenditure of limited State resources.
In the Communist psychic, everyone was a criminal. As everything was illegal, everyone would eventually become a criminal. For sooner or later, you would break the law intentionally, or otherwise inadvertently. Many of those falsely accused, became informants to save themselves from punishment. And they in turn falsely accused others of improprieties. And the cycle was repeated. Is this where America is headed? I’m afraid it is.
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