That used to be merely a bad joke in the Sixties, when the sense of "turn on" mutated from "rebel against your brother" to "get your brother high." But that's not what is happening now in the federal bureaucracy, and not just in the apparatus of the security state (FBI, NSA, CIA, etc.), but also in agencies and departments you would never think of as urging their employees to rat out their coworkers whom they suspect of, well, improbably enough, treason (FDA, USDA, etc.).
Digby bases her post, "This really is Big Brother: the leak nobody's noticed" on a McClatchy article, "Obama’s crackdown views leaks as aiding enemies of U.S.." Together, the post and the McClatchy article are among the most deeply frightening things I've read this week, and it's been a week of stuff hitting the fan. Set your coffee down before you read any of it.
(H/T Avedon for the Digby ref. You may not want to inflict this material on any federal employee or contractor via their work email, and I'm not talking about its pr0n content, because there is none. The obscenity is of a different nature, but your friend who works for or contracts for the feral gummint could well get in trouble just for receiving it.)
ADDENDUM: Bryan of Why Now? has a post on a closely related subject.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
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Don't turn on your brother. Turn *in* your brother. It's the American way.
ReplyDeleteSo it seems, BadTux; so it seems. I never thought I'd live to see the day...
ReplyDeleteThey are offering everyone the opportunity to become the American version of Pavlik Morozov, a propaganda idol for turning in their family and friends for political crimes. The counter-revolutionaries should all be quaking in their boots.
ReplyDeleteSo, when does Obama issue his 'Little Red Book'?
I guess that since the US 'won' the Cold War, there should be no problem with adopting all of the Soviet policies and procedures. ;)
Bryan, for two centuries, most if not all of the flaws introduced in American government were at least original. Now we can't even claim that. Remember the line from the John Birch Society Song, "If your mommy is a Commie, you gotta turn her in"? In its day, that was humorous to many Americans including me. But when I think back on it, my Mom and Dad were both schoolteachers, and both usually voted for liberal Democrats in just about every partisan race. Of course there were attempts to tar Democrats with alleged Communist thinking back then, but not until approximately Richard Nixon and eventually Ronald Reagan did the shit they slung actually stick. Now just substitute "terrorist" for "Communist"; it's the GOP's stock in trade ... AFAICT, their entire stock. And that stock sticks. As I said to BadTux, I never thought I'd live to see the day.
ReplyDeleteBryan, I wrote a reply to your comment last night, but this morning it's gone. No, it's not a case of "old-man memory": I really did write it, and it really is gone this morning. I'll tap something to you when I've awakened a bit... and when Blogger maybe is working a bit better.
ReplyDeleteBryan... the comment did turn up in my email, though never in the thread. Here it is...
ReplyDelete==========
Bryan, for two centuries, most if not all of the flaws introduced in American government were at least original. Now we can't even claim that. Remember the line from the John Birch Society Song, "If your mommy is a Commie, you gotta turn her in"? In its day, that was humorous to many Americans including me. But when I think back on it, my Mom and Dad were both schoolteachers, and both usually voted for liberal Democrats in just about every partisan race. Of course there were attempts to tar Democrats with alleged Communist thinking back then, but not until approximately Richard Nixon and eventually Ronald Reagan did the shit they slung actually stick. Now just substitute "terrorist" for "Communist"; it's the GOP's stock in trade ... AFAICT, their entire stock. And that stock sticks. As I said to BadTux, I never thought I'd live to see the day.