From the moment a resentful Hillary Clinton put half of America in a “basket of deplorables,” thus beginning a more vicious and deadly phase of political warfare and noxious division during the 2016 election, it was predictable those on the “left” opposed to the state, the “anarcho-socialists” (an oxymoron) and more radical black nationalists, would become threats after they outlived their usefulness.
It’s not simply the “alt-right” or its supposed antipode, the “alt-left,” that the national security state has marked for destruction. It is any group or individual that may actually present a challenge or vanguard political and social change threatening the neoliberal “rules” status quo imposed upon “democracy.”
All of the alts (alternatives to the neoliberal status quo) eventually receive the same treatment. As the founder of the state’s political police, the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover declared back in the 1960s the mission was to neutralize and destroy opposition to oligopolistic control of society and the economy and also stamp out antiwar and civil rights brushfires.
In the current context, domestic political threats are the work of Russia. “According to the U.S. government, some of the left-wing groups are being funded by Russian influence operations to ‘sow discord, spread pro-Russian propaganda, and interfere in elections within the United States,’” according to a report by The Epoch Times.
National security analysts, scholars, and a federal indictment reveal that threats from left-wing extremist groups in the United States are more dangerous than right-wing and “MAGA Republican” groups recently cited by the Biden administration as “threats to democracy.”
During the 2016 election and all through the Trump years in the White House, the threat came from MAGA “alt” republicans, all of whom were said to be “fascist” and “white supremacist,” although, during normal and more sane times, such would be dismissed as manipulative rhetoric, devoid of a standing within reality. Now, millions of credulous Americans believe political ideas and activity outside the neoliberal “rules” of “democracy” paradigm, pounded into them constantly by corporate “news” and social media, are on par with al-Qaeda terrorism.
The national security state has secured a Russian patsy: Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov. This nefarious character, according to the DOJ, is “a resident of Moscow, together with at least three Russian officials, engaged in a years-long foreign malign influence campaign targeting the United States” according to a government indictment.
“Ionov’s activities were not in support of right-wing groups, the operation was allegedly funding left-wing groups that promoted socialism, defunding police, and California secession, according to multiple reports,” the Epoch Times article continues.
At the time of the BML and Antifa riots, looting, assaults, and assassinations, I wrote that it was politically expedient for the state to allow the arson of police stations, the murder of cops, the massive destruction of private property, and other acts of violence and intimidation. The arson and violence, presented as “mostly peaceful protest” by the corporate media, painted a picture of resistance to the “fascism” of republicans and white people in general, that is to say, the MAGA political threat. So far, this has resulted in a sham “sedition” kangaroo court-style indictment of “extremists” (peppered with agents provocateurs) gathered on January 6 to protest the result of the 2020 election.
Now “anarcho” (sic) Antifa and other violent “far left” groups are being added to the list of groups that must be neutralized and destroyed, as notated by agencies (DOJ, DHS, FBI) of the national security state and its crony capitalist oligopoly.
The state claims it is “Anarcho-socialist militias which explicitly glorify Martyr narratives, classic authoritarian narratives, and revolutionary narratives are now formally organizing—and are growing...”
The Miller Center cited leftist groups such as the Youth Liberation Front, John Brown Gun Club, Redneck Revolt, and the Socialist Rifle Association, among others, which claim 10,000 to 40,000 members on social media accounts.
The Miller Center report says these groups use social media to promote violence: “Extreme anarcho-socialist fringe online forums on Reddit use memes calling for the death of police and memes for stockpiling munitions to promote violent revolution.”
“As the U.S. 2022 mid-term elections approach, malign foreign actors could bolster their messaging to sow discord and influence U.S. audiences in keeping with practices during previous election cycles,” warns the Department of Homeland Security.
As Hitler knew, sitting in his comfortable time-out cell after a failed putsch and writing his manifesto, “Mein Kampf,” that the Big Lie works better than any number of small lies. The Big Lie here is that Russia can actually influence “democratic” elections, that it can skillfully manipulate “misinformation” and magically make you vote for “extremist” candidates (anyone outside the neoliberal orbit).
Facts dispel this nonsense. The corporate media, now more than ever a war propaganda media, has brainwashed millions of Americans into believing Vladimir Putin possesses a shamanistic power to “influence” voter zombies and determine the outcome of elections that are rigged in favor of neoliberal vetted candidates.
For the corporate state, it makes no difference if you’re a conservative, libertarian, anarchist, or “anarcho-socialist”—if you oppose the state, its politics, its economic scams, and its endless wars, you are an “extremist” taking orders from Putin and the Russians.
