A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (November 2022), the folks at Wired Magazine warned their readers that a new totalitarianism was coming to the Land of the Free. They were right, although not in the way they wanted the sheeple to imagine:
Authoritarian societies depend on people ratting each other out for activities that were recently legal—and it’s already happening in the US.
“There’s a knock at the door. Local authorities have received a tip that you’ve broken the moral code—a new set of laws banning your once-accepted lifestyle. You’re being called in for questioning, and it’s unclear when you’ll return home.
“In an authoritarian state, neighborhood trust is a thing of the past. Citizens are often encouraged to report any perceived wrongdoing in their communities to the government. There are countless examples of this in history—and around the world today. It happens in Russia, and there’s even an app for it in Saudi Arabia.
“The United States appears to be creeping toward this culture of community surveillance. Texas’ SB 8 deputized everyday Americans to sue anyone who has had an abortion or assisted with one. Texans are reporting the parents of transgender children to authorities. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin set up a tip line and encouraged parents to report teachers who are teaching “divisive” subjects. Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law encourages parents to monitor teachers. With the Republican Party increasingly embracing authoritarianism, this is likely just the start.
Tom Ginsburg, a professor of international law at the University of Chicago, says these kinds of policies are an American version of what you might see in authoritarian states.
“It incentivizes private enforcement of moral norms,” Ginsburg says. “That’s very corrosive. It’s a process that is undermining the ability of society to function in the traditional way that societies do.”
“…. Consuelo Amat … says those who support the new regime can essentially become informants for it.
“When that starts happening, the dynamic for communities and neighborhoods is extremely bad,” Amat says. “The distrust that people have is huge, so people start not sharing information at all. One of the cores of democracy is neighborhood trust. You need to trust others in your society and in your community for democracy to work. Period. When there’s a very high level of distrust, you will see a fracturing of community.”
“If the US moves further toward authoritarianism, you can imagine states passing more laws to disempower, criminalize, or otherwise marginalize certain groups. Anyone you encounter on a regular basis who doesn’t agree with politically could be encouraged to report you for violations of these laws as some sort of act of civic duty. They’ll have more ways to do it than ever before, considering modern technology allows us to monitor people’s social media feeds, watch them through Ring cameras, report them through community-watch apps like Citizen, and more.
“If the rule of law starts breaking—and especially if there’s a regime that is supportive of those actions—that’s really giving space for people to take actions that are illegal,” Amat says. “Knowing you will not be prosecuted is a big thing.”
”All of these sorts of things create a culture of fear in authoritarian countries. People are afraid of their neighbors, afraid to speak freely, and afraid of what might happen next.”
Okay, that was Wired, then. This is reality, now:
“NEIGHBORS SNITCHING ON NEIGHBORS IS A HALLMARK OF LIFE UNDER TOTALITARIAN REGIMES. That’s why it’s so concerning that these bias response hotlines have leaked out from college campuses and are quickly being adopted by state and municipal governments.”
“Neighbors reporting neighbors for speech that is protected under the First Amendment is textbook totalitarianism, and it must not be tolerated
“Additionally, Washington Free Beacon journalist Aaron Sibarium has also published a piece on bias reporting systems with examples you wouldn’t believe if they weren’t corroborated by links, screenshots, and even quotes from bias reporting system administrators themselves:
“In January 2020, the top law enforcement agency in the state of Oregon launched a “Bias Response Hotline” for residents to report “offensive ‘jokes.’”
Staffed by “trauma-informed operators” and overseen by the Oregon Department of Justice, the hotline, which receives thousands of calls a year, doesn’t just solicit reports of hate crimes and hiring discrimination. It also asks for reports of “bias incidents”—cases of “non-criminal” expression that are motivated, “in part,” by prejudice or hate.
Oregonians are encouraged to report their fellow citizens for things like “creating racist images,” “mocking someone with a disability,” and “sharing offensive ‘jokes’ about someone’s identity.” One webpage affiliated with the hotline, which is available in 240 languages, even lists “imitating someone’s cultural norm” as something “we want to hear” about.
It is not entirely clear what the state does with these reports. While the hotline cannot “sanction a bias perpetrator,” according to its website, it does share “de-identified data” with the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission, a body that develops “public safety” plans for the state, and connects “survivors” with “resources” like counseling and rent relief.
“You read that last part right. In Oregon, the purveyors of these systems are using taxpayer money to provide “victims” of these “non-crime hate incidents” with “resources” that include therapy, help buying security cameras, and even assistance with paying their bills. Sure sounds like setting up a number of very tempting incentives to snitch on your fellow Americans for protected speech, doesn’t it? What could possibly go wrong?
“It gets worse, too. Bias reporting systems in some states, like Connecticut, let you report things you weren’t even there to witness yourself. In Philadelphia, bias reporting systems literally collect your personal information and reach out to you to recommend sensitivity training:
Connecticut’s system lets users flag “hate speech” they “heard about but did not see.” Vermont tells residents to report "biased but protected speech" directly to the police. Philadelphia has an online form that asks for the "exact address" of the "hate incident," as well as the "name" and gender identity of the offender—information the city uses to contact those accused of bias and request that they attend sensitivity training.
“If it is not a crime, we sometimes contact the offending party and try to do training so that it doesn’t happen again,” Saterria Kersey, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, told the Washington Free Beacon. The offender is free to decline, she said.
“One more section from Sibarium’s article:
California, Illinois, and New York all set up systems to report not just hate crimes but “bias incidents,” defined as any expression of bias against a protected class that does not rise to the level of a crime. Washington state will launch its own system this year. Local-level systems exist in Westchester County, N.Y., Montgomery County, Md., Eden Prairie, Minn., and Missoula, Mont.
By the end of 2025, nearly 100 million Americans will live in a state where they can be reported for protected speech.
“I encourage you to read Sibarium’s piece in full to get all the frightening details, but suffice it to say that this campus cancer has metastasized into our country as a whole, and it is a free speech killer.”
