Twitter does not discriminate against conservative viewpoints. That’s the story the social media giant desperately wants to tell — from their CEO Jack Dorsey’s interviews, to their employees tasked with outreach to conservatives in their Washington offices. Literally, it’s true. The complete picture, however, is less flattering to the social media giant.
Why are conservatives complaining? About a year ago, many of us on the political right saw impressions of our tweets drop precipitously — sometimes in the millions per month — while follower counts were increasing or remaining stagnant. With our visibility on the platform reduced, our ability to grow our Twitter presence has flatlined completely. Because of Twitter’s importance to the political debate in America, this is no trivial matter. Our ability to influence the debate in real-time has been squelched.
While it does not outright censor expressions of conservative views, Twitter has admitted to using a complex and opaque Quality Filter algorithm that has the effect of disproportionately restricting the voices of conservatives under the guise of limiting harmful or abusive users. Many Twitter users refer to this throttling as a “shadowban.” Rather than policing content per se — which would open Twitter to credible accusations of explicit viewpoint discrimination — the company focuses on accounts with certain behaviors that would trigger attention.
Sitting back and observing the current civil war happening within the Republican party should come as no surprise to anyone who resides outside the beltway of Washington, D.C. Pundits, thinkers, writers, and radio hosts who I once admired, have now lost credibility as they have bestowed upon themselves the bastion of what is and isn’t “true conservatism”. Yet, while the civil war wages within the party, the party itself does a disservice to this nation for fighting the wrong battle at the wrong time as the war for the heart of this country wages on.
To myself, this has always been the main issue in regards to the Republicans. For far too long they’ve fought for the soul of conservatism as they’d like it to be, but not for the soul of the nation as it truly is. I highly doubt that the very pundits, thinkers, writers, and hosts whom I’ve come to follow are malevolent in their intent for overlooking this point but I have come to realize that they’ve overlooked it completely. I find it flat out astounding that they fail to recognize the zeitgeist of the times as America has reached a point in which the majority of the voters not only couldn’t give a damn about what is and isn’t conservatism, but have no idea what the word even means. Why? Because year after year, representative after representative, and election after election the elites within the Republican establishment repeatedly betray their constituency as they immediately capitulate on their promises.
Each time a Republican, supporting conservative principles, promising to fight once elected into office, gets elected and then turns on those very principles, it damages the cause of conservatism. The main issue that is always overlooked, sometimes innocently but more often deliberately, by those in power within the Republican party is this; As they wage a civil war between themselves and their base, the nation itself is confronted with a larger civil war between two America’s. David Kupelianin his book The Snapping of the American Mind: Healing a Nation Broken by a Lawless Government and Godless Culture, explains these two America’s succinctly. Kupelian writes that, “on one side we have those who basically still reverence god, common sense, reason, morality, natural law, and the laws of economics and of human nature — in general, the proven principles of Western civilization. On the other side are people who are confused, intimidated, or brainwashed — or else so covetous of power that they’ve abandoned all principle for the sake of power.” The war for America is being waged by those in the former against those in the latter.
The latter, those so covetous of power that they’ve abandoned all principle for the sake of power is what I’d define as America’s ruling class. Our ruling class’s agenda is power for itself. It follows the tenet that Americans are retrograde, racist, and dysfunctional unless properly constrained. As Angelo Codevilla of The American Spectatorelaborates on the ruling class’s agenda, “while it stakes its claim through intellectual-moral pretense, it holds power by one of the oldest and prosaic means: patronage and promises thereof. Like left-wing parties always and everywhere, it is a ‘machine’ based on providing tangible rewards to its members.”
This ‘machine’ functions by “transferring money or jobs or privileges — civic as well as economic — to the party’s clients, directly or indirectly. Hence our ruling class’s standard approach to any and all matters, its solution to any and all problems, is to increase the power of the government — meaning of those who run it, meaning themselves, to profit those who pay with political support for privileged jobs, contracts, etc.,” writes Codevilla. Moreover, the crux of the issue is summed up by Codevilla as he notes that all the while the ruling class’s machine operates at full speed, “no prominent Republican challenges the ruling class’s continued claim of superior insight, nor its denigration of the American people as irritable children who must learn their place.” The Republican Party does not disparage the ruling class, because most of its officials either are or would like to be a part of it.
The Republican party can cannibalize their own base all they want, but what it cannot do is stop the momentum that is only beginning to build in support of Americans from both sides of the political aisle who want to see the ruling class in Washington, D.C. utterly destroyed. The reason is simple, Americans have been betrayed by their elected leaders in both political parties and are finally coming to recognize this harsh realization. Speaking about this betrayal in his 1838 Lyceum address, Abraham Lincoln stated, “If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
Both Republicans and Democrats, our ruling class, have utterly failed this nation for far too long and have betrayed their supporters, the Constitution, and the rule of law with outright impunity. My advice to all Americans in regards to this coming election is to be no longer the dupes and property of the hypocrites and traitors to our country who make up the ruling class. We must conserve what we have left before it is soon gone as whatever the betrayers of our country get, we the people must lose; and what is worse, must lose a great deal more than the others can get; for the ruling class cannot successfully remain in power without destroying, perverting, and corrupting that which is left of our America.
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Delivering remarks on domestic terrorism at an event co-sponsored by the George Washington University’s program on extremism and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Assistant Attorney General John P. Carlin announced on Wednesday the creation of a new position within the Department of Justice (DOJ) aimed at investigating violent extremism.
“We are here to talk about combating domestic terrorism, which the FBI has explained as ‘Americans attacking Americans based on U.S.-based extremist ideologies.’ The threat ranges from individuals motivated by anti-government animus, to eco-radicalism and racism,” stated Carlin. He continued, “Homegrown violent extremists can be motivated by any viewpoint on the full spectrum of hate. Anti-government views, racism, bigotry, anarchy and other despicable beliefs. When it comes to hate and intolerance, no single ideology governs. Carlin then went on to mention the following, “as our SPLC colleagues can attest, racial hatred motivates many of the violent extremist attacks. The Attorney General noted this summer that these kinds of hate crimes are the original domestic terrorism. Among domestic extremist movements active in the United States, white supremacists are the most violent.”
The new position at the Justice Department, dubbed the “Domestic Terrorism Counsel,” will serve as the main point of contact for U.S. attorney offices nationwide and will identify “trends across cases, help shape strategy and analyze legal gaps that need to be closed,” stated Carlin. Yet, as Leo Hohmann writes, “while the FBI has confirmed it has active ISIS investigations in all 50 states and Islamic-inspired attacks have occurred in recent years in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Garland, Texas, and Fort Hood, the Justice Department sees Islamic jihadists as no more dangerous than mentally ill actors such as Dylann Roof, the Charleston, South Carolina, church shooter who killed nine black Christians.” In fact, Hohmann notes “Justice officials have indicated that home-grown ‘right wingers’ are possibly more numerous and dangerous than the jihadists. In announcing the new position Wednesday, Carlin referred to a study by the New America Foundation that found nearly twice as many Americans have been killed by ‘right-wing’ extremists since Sept. 11 than by Islamic terrorists.”
The New America Foundation lists the Charleston church shooting among 19 right-wing terrorist attacks while the study only lists seven jihadist attacks that killed 26 people since Sept. 11. “Nowhere to be found on the foundation’s list is the Chattanooga shooter, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, who killed five U.S. servicemen. Also absent on the list is John Muhammad, the Washington, D.C., sniper who killed at least 10 people in 2002 with his young accomplice, Lee Malvo,” points out Hohmann. The reason for this is because the New America Foundation, like the Southern Poverty Law Center, defines threats not by reality but by a false narrative that selectively targets conservatives groups.
The threats are defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which is working in conjunction with the Department of Justice to target those they label apart of the “radical right.” The SPLC labels organizations with conservative views as hate groups and has enjoyed premier access to our DOJ. The government watchdog agency Judicial Watchfirst exposed this in 2013 as they obtained emails from the Obama DOJ that revealed SPLC co-founder Morris Dees had conducted a “diversity training event” for the agency back in 2012. Furthermore, the Family Research Council along with a coalition of conservative groups exposed the wide ranging influence of the SPLC as they have also provided the U.S. military with training supplies and briefings as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In fact, the FBI actually endorsed the SPLC as a source and listed it as a resource on its “hate crime web page.”
The relationship between the SPLC and it’s influence on shaping who the federal government investigates as a “domestic terrorist” was fully disclosed in a 2014 Annual Report on the Southern Poverty Law Center. In part, the report boasts that the SPLC “investigative team exposed the growing threat from the radical right, trained thousands of law enforcement officials to counter the threat, and pushed the federal government to open its eyes to domestic terrorism.” The report specifically highlights that the SPLC “successfully pushed the federal government to reinstate a high-level task force on domestic terrorism.”
Under the title of “Fighting Hate“, the SPLC report notes the following work done by their very own Intelligence Project which monitors hate groups and extremist activity in all 50 states and provides comprehensive updates to law enforcement, government agencies, the media, scholars and policymakers. The following is an excerpt from the report:
In 2013, the Project documented 939 hate groups and 1,096 antigovernment “Patriot” groups, including armed militias. In addition, it fought the mainstreaming of hate and extremist propaganda by shining a spotlight on public officials who help legitimize groups such as the Family Research Council (FRC) and the American Family Association (AFA).
In October, the Intelligence Project and a coalition of human rights groups called on members of Congress and other public officials not to speak at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., because the event host and its key co-sponsor – the Family Research Council (FRC) and the American Family Association (AFA) – have long records of vilifying the LGBT community
After the coalition sent letters urging speakers to forego the event, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal backed out. U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes of Virginia also canceled his appearance at the Values Voter Summit, where he was set to headline a fundraising luncheon for the AFA.
The Intelligence Project also provides in-person training sessions to law enforcement officers to ensure they not only understand hate-related issues but are equipped with the latest intelligence on the radical right. In 2013, the Project provided training to more than 5,000 officers. Its staffers traveled extensively to share their expertise on hate groups and domestic terrorism with local, state and federal government agencies.
To get an idea of the role played by the SPLC within the DOJ’s new position on the Domestic Terrorism Counsel look no further than this October 12, 2015 headline that ran on the SPLC website, “Fifteen Confederate ‘flaggers’ indicted for terroristic threats and gang activity in Georgia.” The article highlights the role that the SPLC will be playing in future investigations working in conjunction with the DOJ. An excerpt reads:
A Georgia state prosecutor today announced the indictments of 15 people who threatened African Americans and used racial slurs when they stopped at a family party while cruising around in a convoy of pickup trucks flying Confederate flags. Ten men and five women were charged with issuing terroristic threats and participating in gang activity. Two of the men were also charged with battery for hitting a man at a gas station on the same day.
The SPLC launched an investigation immediately after the July 25 incident and turned over videos and other evidence to Douglasville District Attorney Brian K. Fortner. SPLC attorneys also brought witnesses to the prosecutor and have been representing some of the people at the party.
Knowing that the SPLC will now be given a larger role in our government to target “domestic extremists” is troubling, particularly when you look at the history under the Obama administration as they’re primarily focused on targeting “domestic right-wing extremists.” You may not think of yourself as a “domestic right-wing extremist” but the truth is that patriotic Americans and conservative Christians as well as returning veterans have been repeatedly labeled as “potential terrorists” since Barack Obama became president.
Michael Snyder of The Truth Wins,writes that in regards to this administration history of targeting those of us on the right had “just happened one time, it would be easy to dismiss. Sadly, there has been a steady pattern of this happening over the past several years. Large groups of people that are the heart and soul of this country have been systematically demonized over the past four years. When you consider what history has taught us, it is absolutely chilling to think about what this could eventually lead to.”
Looking at some examples of government documents released under this administration that identifies who and what this regime considers to be domestic terrorist, one can begin to realize why these reports are so frightening given the creation of the DOJ’s Domestic Terrorism Counsel.
The report claimed that a belief in “Bible prophecy could motivate extremist individuals and groups to stockpile food, ammunition, and weapons.” Among other things, here are some of the key highlights of the report in which the DHS was extremely concerned about:
“Rightwing extremists”
“Returning veterans”
Those concerned about “illegal immigration”
Those that “believe in the right to bear arms”
“Fear of communist regimes and related conspiracy theories”
In describing the ideological motivation of “Extreme Right-Wing” groups in their profile of perpetrators of terrorism in the United States, the report notes the following:
Extreme Right-Wing: groups that subscribe to aspects of the following ideals: they are fiercely nationalistic (as opposed to universal and international in orientation), anti-global, suspicious of centralized federal authority, reverent of individual liberty (especially their right to own guns, be free of taxes), believe in conspiracy theories that involve grave threat to national sovereignty and/or personal liberty and a belief that one’s personal and/or national “way of life” is under attack and is either already lost or that the threat is imminent (sometimes such beliefs are amorphous and vague, but for some the threat is from a specific ethnic, racial, or religious group), and a belief in the need to be prepared for an attack either by participating in paramilitary preparations and training or survivalism.
In 2013, an internal FBI intelligence report on the “National Threat Assessment for Domestic Extremists” was obtained by the Washington Free Beaconin which the FBI concludes that the threat to U.S. internal security from extremists is limited to attacks and activities by eight types of domestic extremist movements — none motivated by radical Islam. They include anti-government militia groups and white supremacy extremists, along with “sovereign citizen” nationalists, and anarchists.
Then in 2014, another report was penned by START, which is the same cadre of professors at the University of Maryland who advised the DHS in their 2012 “Hot Spots of Terrorism” report mentioned earlier. The 2014 report titled “Understanding Law Enforcement Intelligence Processes” attempts to equivocate the threat posed by foreign terrorists being the same as that of people who love the Constitution, want to observe their Second Amendment rights, and love the flag and think America is a great nation. The report can be read below.
The FBI assesses militia extremist interest in Islam as a target is a product of ideology that views Muslims collectively with suspicion. Salient perceptions within militia extremism that contribute toward an anti-Muslim bias include the following: Islam represents a foreign threat, equivalent to those which emanate from illegal immigration or international terrorism; The President of the United States not only sympathizes with Islamic extremists but directs US Government policy to align with their goals.
The report goes on to cite two instances of “militia” leaders implying their anger at Muslims and that they may target them. No actual instances of this desire to attack Muslims has been seen, though. Yet, with this FBI assessment we finally see the agenda of this administration come full circle as intelligence agencies have warned since 2009 that the real threat to America is the one posed by conservative groups, tea partiers, military veterans, and militias. It has gotten to the point in which Islam is now the victim of a threat that literally does not even exist while the threat posed by Islamic jihadists is more real than we could ever imagine.
In fact, in a new report from the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee it is noted that there has been a sharp rise in jihadi terror attempts inside the USA, from the 38 that were identified in 2010 to 127 today. According to the Chairman of the Committee Michael McCaul, as of early October, the terrorist organization known as ISIS has inspired or directed 61 terror attack plots against Western targets, including 17 in the United States. There have been more than twice as many ISIS-linked attack plots against Western targets in 2015 (41) than in 2014 (20). To see the Committee’s latest Terror Threat Snapshot, click on the map below.
As the Committee notes, “there have been more U.S.-based jihadist terror cases in 2015 than in any full year since 9/11. The number today is more than a three-fold increase in just five years.” Yet, with the creation of the Domestic Terrorism Counsel by the DOJ, Islamic terrorism is flat out denied as they have now become the victims of a fantasy of right-wing extremism that is now endorsed as reality aided by radical groups such as the SPLC. As Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch concludes, “if a totalitarian leftist had to write a description for a government operation to suppress his enemies, this would be it.”
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