{"id":16686,"date":"2021-11-22T12:24:42","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T17:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=16686"},"modified":"2021-11-22T12:47:25","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T17:47:25","slug":"the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Biden Crackdown on Thought Crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Biden Crackdown on Thought Crimes<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

by James Bovard<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Biden administration is seeking to radically narrow the boundaries of respectable American political thought.<\/strong> The administration has repeatedly issued statements and reports that could automatically castigate citizens who distrust the federal government. We may eventually learn that the new Biden guidelines spurred a vast increase in federal surveillance and other abuses against Americans who were guilty of nothing more than vigorous skepticism.<\/p>\n

What if government is the most dangerous extremist of them all?<\/span>
\n[Click to Tweet]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Biden is Nixon on steroids<\/b><\/h2>\n

The Biden team is expanding the federal Enemies List perhaps faster than any time since the Nixon administratio<\/strong>n. In June, the Biden administration asserted that guys who are unable to score with women may be terrorist threats due to \u201cinvoluntary celibate\u2013violent extremism.\u201d That revelation was included in the administration\u2019s National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism, which identified legions of new potential \u201cdomestic terrorists\u201d that the feds can castigate and investigate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The White House claims its new war on terrorism and extremism is \u201ccarefully tailored to address violence and reduce the factors that \u2026infringe on the free expression of ideas.\u201d But the prerogative to define extremism includes the power to revile disapproved beliefs. The report warns that \u201cnarratives of fraud in the recent general election \u2026 will almost certainly spur some [domestic violent extremists] to try to engage in violence this year.\u201d If accusations of 2020 electoral shenanigans are formally labeled as extremist threats, that could result in far more repression (aided by Facebook and Twitter) of dissenting voices. How will this work out any better than the concerted campaign by the media and Big Tech last fall to suppress all information about Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop before the election? And how can Biden be trusted to be the judge after he effectively accused Facebook of mass murder for refusing to totally censor anyone who raised doubts about the COVID-19 vaccine?<\/p>\n

The Biden administration is revving up for a war against an enemy which the feds have chosen to never explicitly de<\/strong>fine. According to a March report by Biden\u2019s Office of the Director of National Intelligence, \u201cdomestic violent extremists\u201d include individuals who \u201ctake overt steps to violently resist or facilitate the overthrow of the U.S. government in support of their belief that the U.S. government is purposely exceeding its Constitutional authority.\u201d But that was the same belief that many Biden voters had regarding the Trump administration. Does the definition of extremism depend solely on which party captured the White House?<\/p>\n

The Biden report writers were spooked by the existence of militia groups and flirt with the fantasy of outlawing them across the land. The report promises to explore \u201chow to make better use of laws that already exist in all fifty states prohibiting certain private \u2018militia\u2019 activity, including \u2026 state statutes prohibiting groups of people from organizing as private military units without the authorization of the state government, and state statutes that criminalize certain paramilitary activity.\u201d Most of the private militia groups are guilty of nothing more than bluster and braggadocio. Besides, many of them are already overstocked with government informants who are counting on Uncle Sam for regular paychecks. Some politicians and pundits might like to see a new federal crime that labels any meeting of more than two gun owners as an illegal conspiracy.<\/p>\n

The Biden report promises that the FBI and DHS will soon be releasing \u201ca new edition of the Federal Government\u2019s Mobilization Indicators booklet that will include for the first time potential indicators of domestic terrorism\u2013related mobilization.\u201d Will this latest publication be as boneheaded as the similar 2014 report by the National Counterterrorism Center entitled \u201cCountering Violent Extremism: A Guide for Practitioners and Analysts\u201d?<\/p>\n

The new Red Guard<\/b><\/h2>\n

As the Intercept<\/i> summarized, that report \u201csuggests that police, social workers and educators rate individuals on a scale of one to five in categories such as \u2018Expressions of Hopelessness, Futility,\u2019 \u2026 and \u2018Connection to Group Identity (Race, Nationality, Religion, Ethnicity)\u2019 \u2026 to alert government officials to individuals at risk of turning to radical violence, and to families or communities at risk of incubating extremist ideologies.\u201d The report recommended judging families by their level of \u201cParent-Child Bonding\u201d and rating localities on the basis in part of the \u201cpresence of ideologues or recruiters.\u201d Former FBI agent Mike German commented, \u201cThe idea that the federal government would encourage local police, teachers, medical, and social-service employees to rate the communities, individuals, and families they serve for their potential to become terrorists is abhorrent on its face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s \u201cNational Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism\u201d report also declared that \u201cenhancing faith in American democracy\u201d requires \u201cfinding ways to counter the influence and impact of dangerous conspiracy theories.\u201d In recent decades, conspiracy theories have multiplied almost as fast as government lies and cover-ups. While many allegations have been ludicrously far-fetched, the political establishment and media routinely attach the \u201cconspiracy theory\u201d label to any challenge to their dominance.<\/p>\n

According to Cass Sunstein, Harvard Law professor and Oba- ma\u2019s regulatory czar, a conspiracy theory is \u201can effort to explain some event or practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people, who have also managed to conceal their role.\u201d Reasonable citizens are supposed to presume that government creates trillions of pages of new secrets each year for their own good, not to hide anything from the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cConspiracy theory\u201d is a magic phrase that expunges all previous federal abuses.<\/strong> Many liberals who invoke the phrase also ritually quote a 1965 book by former communist Richard Hofstadter, The Paranoid Style in American Politics.<\/i> Hofstadter portrayed distrust of government as a proxy for mental illness, a paradigm that makes the character of critics more important than the conduct of government agencies. For Hofstadter, it was a self-evident truth that government was trustworthy because American politics had \u201ca kind of professional code \u2026 embodying the practical wisdom of generations of politicians.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

The rise of conspiracy theories<\/b><\/h2>\n

In the early 1960s, conspiracy theories were practically a non-issue because 75 percent of Americans trusted the federal government. Such credulity did not survive the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Seven days after Kennedy was shot on November 22, 1963, President Lyndon Johnson created a commission (later known as the Warren Commission) to suppress controversy about the killing.<\/p>\n

Johnson browbeat the commission members into speedily issuing a report rubber-stamping the \u201ccrazed lone gunman\u201d version of the assassination. House Minority Leader Gerald Ford, a member of the commission, revised the final staff report to change the location of where the bullet entered Kennedy\u2019s body, thereby salvaging the so-called \u201cmagic bullet\u201d theory.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After the Warren Commission findings were ridiculed as a whitewash, Johnson ordered the FBI to conduct wiretaps on the report\u2019s critics. To protect the official story, the commission sealed key records for 75 years. Truth would out only after all the people involved in any coverup had gotten their pensions and died.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The controversy surrounding the Warren Commission spurred the CIA to formally attack the notion of conspiracy theories. In a 1967 alert to its overseas stations and bases, the CIA declared that the fact that almost half of Americans did not believe Oswald acted alone \u201cis a matter of concern to the U.S. government, including our organization\u201d and endangers \u201cthe whole reputation of the American government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The memo instructed recipients to \u201cemploy propaganda assets\u201d and exploit \u201cfriendly elite contacts (especially politicians and editors), pointing out \u2026 parts of the conspiracy talk appear to be deliberately generated by Communist propagandists.\u201d The ultimate proof of the government\u2019s innocence: \u201cConspiracy on the large scale often suggested would be impossible to conceal in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Times,<\/i> which exposed the CIA memo in 1977, noted that the CIA \u201cmustered its propaganda machinery to support an issue of far more concern to Americans, and to the C.I.A. itself, than to citizens of other countries.\u201d According to historian Lance deHaven-Smith, author of Conspiracy Theory in America, <\/i>\u201cThe CIA\u2019s campaign to popularize the term \u2018conspiracy theory\u2019 and make conspiracy belief a target of ridicule and hostility must be credited \u2026 with being one of the most successful propaganda initiatives of all time.\u201d In 2014, the CIA released a heavily-redacted report admitting that it had been \u201ccomplicit\u201d in a JFK \u201ccover-up\u201d by withholding \u201cincendiary\u201d information from the Warren Commission. The CIA successfully concealed a wide range of assassinations and foreign coups it conducted until congressional investigations in the mid-1970s blew the whistle.<\/p>\n

\u201cConspiracy theory\u201d allegations sometimes merely expose the naivete of official scorekeepers.<\/strong> In April 2016, Chapman University surveyed Americans and announced that \u201cthe most prevalent conspiracy theory in the United States is that the government is concealing information about the 9\/11 attacks with slightly over half of Americans holding that belief.\u201d<\/p>\n

That survey did not ask whether people believed the World Trade Centers were blown up by an inside job or whether President George W. Bush secretly masterminded the attacks. Instead, folks were simply asked whether \u201cgovernment is concealing information\u201d about the attacks. Only a village idiot, college professor, or editorial writer would presume the government had come clean.<\/p>\n

Three months after the Chapman University survey was conducted, the Obama administration finally released 28 pages of a 2003 congressional report that revealed that Saudi government officials had directly financed some of the 9\/11 hijackers in America. That disclosure shattered the storyline carefully constructed by the Bush administration, the 9\/11 Commission, and legions of media accomplices. (Lawsuits continue in federal court seeking to force the U.S. government to disclose more information regarding the Saudi government role in the attacks.)<\/p>\n

Conspiracy theories a tool for control<\/b><\/h2>\n

\u201cConspiracy theory\u201d is often a flag of convenience for the political-media elite. In 2018, the New York Times<\/i> asserted that Trump\u2019s use of the term \u201cDeep State\u201d and similar rhetoric \u201cfanned fears that he is eroding public trust in institutions, undermining the idea of objective truth and sowing widespread suspicions about the government and news media.\u201d However, after allegations by anonymous government officials spurred Trump\u2019s first impeachment in 2019, New York Times<\/i> columnist James Stewart cheered, \u201cThere is a Deep State, there is a bureaucracy in our country who has pledged to respect the Constitution, respect the rule of law\u2026. They work for the American people.\u201d New York Times<\/i> editorial writer Michelle Cottle proclaimed, \u201cThe deep state is alive and well\u201d and hailed it as \u201ca collection of patriotic public servants.\u201d Almost immediately after its existence was no longer denied, the Deep State became the incarnation of virtue in Washington. After Biden was elected, references to the \u201cDeep State\u201d were once again labeled paranoid ravings.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Much of the establishment rage at \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d has been driven by the notion that rulers are entitled to intellectual passive obedience. The same l\u00e8se-majest\u00e9 mindset has been widely adopted to make a muddle of American history. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., the court historian for President John F. Kennedy and a revered liberal intellectual, declared in 2004, \u201cHistorians today conclude that the colonists were driven to revolt in 1776 because of a false conviction that they faced a British conspiracy to destroy their freedom.\u201d What the hell is wrong with \u201chistorians today\u201d?! Was the British imposition of martial law, confiscation of firearms, military blockades, suspension of habeas corpus, and censorship simply a deranged fantasy of Thomas Jefferson? The notion that the British would never conspire to destroy freedom would play poorly in Dublin, where the Irish suffered centuries of brutal British oppression. Why should anyone trust academics who were blind to British threats in the 1770s to accurately judge the danger that today\u2019s politicians pose to Americans\u2019 liberty?<\/p>\n

How does the Biden administration intend to fight \u201cconspiracy theories?\u201d The Biden terrorism report called for \u201cenhancing faith in government\u201d by \u201caccelerating work to contend with an information environment that challenges healthy democratic discourse.\u201d Will Biden\u2019s team rely on the \u201csolution\u201d suggested by Cass Sunstein: \u201ccognitive infiltration of extremist groups\u201d by government agents and informants to \u201cundermine\u201d them from within?<\/p>\n

Does the Biden administration also propose banning Americans from learning anything from the history of prior federal debacles? Nixon White House aide Tom Charles Huston explained that the FBI\u2019s COINTELPRO program continually stretched its target list \u201cfrom the kid with a bomb to the kid with a picket sign, and from the kid with the picket sign to the kid with the bumper sticker of the opposing candidate. And you just keep going down the line.\u201d A 1976 Senate report on COINTELPRO demanded assurances that a federal agency would never again \u201cbe permitted to conduct a secret war against those citizens it considers threats, to the established order.\u201d Actually, the FBI and other agencies have continued secretly warring against \u201cthreats,\u201d and legions of informants are likely busy \u201ccognitively infiltrating\u201d at this moment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Permitting politicians to blacklist any ideas they disapprove won\u2019t \u201crestore faith in democracy.\u201d Extremism has always been a flag of political convenience, and the Biden team, the FBI, and their media allies will fan fears to sanctify new government crackdowns. But what if government is the most dangerous extremist of them all?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This article was originally published in the October 2021 edition of<\/em> Future of Freedom<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Biden Crackdown on Thought Crimes by James Bovard The Biden administration is seeking to radically narrow the boundaries of respectable American political thought. The administration has repeatedly issued statements and reports that could automatically castigate citizens who distrust the federal government. We may eventually learn that the new Biden guidelines spurred a vast increase […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[253,3092,3094,3093,476,47,290,2899,473,26,935,2898],"class_list":["post-16686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cointelpro","tag-conspiracy-biden","tag-counterterrorism-center","tag-deep-state-cia","tag-extremism","tag-fbi","tag-gerald-ford","tag-lance-dehaven-smith","tag-lyndon-johnson","tag-terrorism","tag-thomas-jefferson","tag-warren-commission"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Biden Crackdown on Thought Crimes - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Biden & FBI launch new war on extremism. But what if government is the most dangerous extremist of them all?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Biden Crackdown on Thought Crimes - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Biden & FBI launch new war on extremism. But what if government is the most dangerous extremist of them all?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-22T17:24:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-22T17:47:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/census-illustration-total-awareness.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"375\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/22\\\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/22\\\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"The Biden Crackdown on Thought Crimes\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-22T17:24:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-22T17:47:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/22\\\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":2190,\"commentCount\":28,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/22\\\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/census-illustration-total-awareness.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"cointelpro\",\"conspiracy Biden\",\"counterterrorism center\",\"Deep State CIA\",\"extremism\",\"FBI\",\"Gerald Ford\",\"Lance deHaven-Smith\",\"Lyndon Johnson\",\"Terrorism\",\"Thomas Jefferson\",\"Warren Commission\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/22\\\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/22\\\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/22\\\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Biden Crackdown on Thought Crimes - James Bovard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/22\\\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/22\\\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/census-illustration-total-awareness.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-22T17:24:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-22T17:47:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"description\":\"Biden & FBI launch new war on extremism. But what if government is the most dangerous extremist of them all?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/22\\\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/22\\\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/22\\\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/census-illustration-total-awareness.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/census-illustration-total-awareness.jpg\",\"width\":500,\"height\":375},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/11\\\/22\\\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Biden Crackdown on Thought Crimes\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Bovard\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"description\":\"Bovard's homepage is at http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/jim.bovard\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/jimbovard\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Biden Crackdown on Thought Crimes - James Bovard","description":"Biden & FBI launch new war on extremism. But what if government is the most dangerous extremist of them all?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Biden Crackdown on Thought Crimes - James Bovard","og_description":"Biden & FBI launch new war on extremism. But what if government is the most dangerous extremist of them all?","og_url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\/","og_site_name":"James Bovard","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","article_published_time":"2021-11-22T17:24:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-11-22T17:47:25+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":375,"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/census-illustration-total-awareness.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jimbovard","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"headline":"The Biden Crackdown on Thought Crimes","datePublished":"2021-11-22T17:24:42+00:00","dateModified":"2021-11-22T17:47:25+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\/"},"wordCount":2190,"commentCount":28,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/census-illustration-total-awareness.jpg","keywords":["cointelpro","conspiracy Biden","counterterrorism center","Deep State CIA","extremism","FBI","Gerald Ford","Lance deHaven-Smith","Lyndon Johnson","Terrorism","Thomas Jefferson","Warren Commission"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\/","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\/","name":"The Biden Crackdown on Thought Crimes - James Bovard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/census-illustration-total-awareness.jpg","datePublished":"2021-11-22T17:24:42+00:00","dateModified":"2021-11-22T17:47:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"description":"Biden & FBI launch new war on extremism. But what if government is the most dangerous extremist of them all?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/census-illustration-total-awareness.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/census-illustration-total-awareness.jpg","width":500,"height":375},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/the-biden-crackdown-on-thought-crimes\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Biden Crackdown on Thought Crimes"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/","name":"James Bovard","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Jim"},"description":"Bovard's homepage is at http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16686"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16689,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16686\/revisions\/16689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}