In its most recent terror threat bulletin, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not worry much about foreign terror organizations. Instead, it highlights domestic false narratives as the greatest danger.
On the surface, the bulletin is politically neutral. It states that “the United States remains in a heightened threat environment fueled by several factors, including an online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information (MDM) introduced and/or amplified by foreign and domestic threat actors.”
It seems this is something upon which both sides of the aisle can agree. The left believes Trump supporters are spreading misinformation. In contrast, the right believes the radical left is co-opting the institutions and spreading disinformation through schools, the media, Hollywood, and various government agencies.
DHS refers to the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) for details. The mission statement explains that its guiding principle “is the protection of privacy, free speech, and civil liberties.” However, when looking at the details of what the DHS means by a terror threat, a massive political bias emerges.
Bias
The bulletin expands on the “key factors contributing to the current heightened threat environment.” These include “unsubstantiated widespread election fraud and COVID-19.” It adds that “COVID-19 mitigation measures […] have been used by domestic violent extremists to justify violence since 2020 and could continue to inspire these extremists to target government, healthcare, and academic institutions that they associate with those measures.”
Here are threats to national security that were explicitly not included in the bulletin: Critical Race Theory, Critical Pedagogy, and gender ideology taught in pre-schools and elementary schools, riots instigated by Black Lives Matter and Antifa, and collusions between billionaires and government officials to “fortify elections” as documented by Time Magazine, and widespread political censorship in social media and search engines.
Every domestic threat highlighted by DHS is exclusively based on the narrative by one political faction in the U.S. against its political rival. Similarly, none of the issues that more than half of America considers a threat is mentioned. Thus, behind the veil of neutral language hides blatant, radical political bias.
Against America
(Photo by Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
A Rasmussen Surveys poll shows that 58% of voters, including 37% of Democrats, agree that “the media is the true enemy of the people.” It “a bad thing for democracy” that “Mark Zuckerberg spent hundreds of millions of dollars to influence the outcome of the 2020 election,” according to 62% of Democrats. Cheating was likely, 59% of voters believe, and 60% agree that people who oppose voter I.D. are trying to make it easier to cheat in elections.
It means the views DHS identifies as “misinformation” are bipartisan across all demographic groups and are held or believed by most voters. In practice, it labels the American people as a potential terror threat.
The delineation between countries is often reflected in their attitudes toward the people. Governments of free nations view themselves as protectors of citizens against threats; authoritarian regimes view the people as the threat against the state. Some may find it disconcerting that DHS is more aligned with the attitudes of the latter than with the Founding Fathers of the United States.
~ Read more from Caroline Adana.
