Text from article:
But here’s where it gets truly Orwellian. The document identifies “common recurrent motivations” that supposedly unite all this “terrorism”:
"Common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality."
Read that again. “Extremism on migration, race, and gender” and “hostility towards traditional American views” are now markers of terrorism?!? Supporting comprehensive immigration reform? Terrorist. Advocating for LGBTQ+ rights? Terrorist. Criticizing discriminatory policies? Terrorist.
This has nothing to do with stopping political violence—if it did, it would address the vastly more prevalent cases of right-wing extremist violence. It doesn’t mention the Trump supporter who assassinated a Democratic politician in Minnesota and had a target list of other Democrats, or the firebombing attempt on Pennsylvania’s governor. Trump had already forgotten about that anyway.
The memorandum is a roadmap for weaponizing federal law enforcement against political dissent, dressed up as counter-terrorism.
I mean, the same day this came out, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, claimed that calling out actual government authoritarianism somehow constitutes “incitement to violence.”