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Originally posted by googolplex
eat them after you kill them, so you don't lose weight.
Originally posted by Jean Paul Zodeaux
Would the vast majority of Americans acquiesce to this rounding up and control? Questions, questions, questions.
I am dismayed, heartbroken, over the number of Americans who think protesters are "troublemakers" "anarchists" "thugs" and the response to the idea of the US government assassinating citizens went over pretty well too.
1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
The events of 9/11 justified the war on (al-Qaeda, Islamist) terror. The U.S. is fighting them abroad with guns and bombs and fighting them at home by being suspicious of everyone and rewarding informants.
2. Create a gulag system
Perhaps the most indicative of all the steps because it causes frightened people to tolerate what would otherwise be intolerable: A prison system outside the rule of law and in defiance of well-settled principles of due process; torture is permissible in this system. At first, the "enemies of the people" are paraded into these houses of horror for all to see. Soon, however, sympathizers, community and opposition leaders, journalists and clergy are sent there—without due process—and subjected to torture.
3. Develop a thug caste
Police power becomes absolute and roving bands of armed, uniformed bullies in the employ of the state are encouraged to maintain order by brutalizing the public.
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
Monitor everyone and everything, make people suspicious of one another and make them feel as if their every move is being watched and their every thought recorded—and that their thoughts and actions can and will be used against them.
5. Harass citizens’ groups
By infiltrating and harassing dissenting groups, opposition is stifled and people become too frightened to assemble. Dissidents can be identified, listed and visibly targeted for abuse to further suppress public displays of opposition.
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
Journalists, peace activists and others attempting to travel are arrested, then released. Even non-dissidents are arrested on hearsay or on mistaken identity, treated badly and then released, sometimes with petty charges and court dates. This creates a generalized fear among the people that state-sanctioned terror can strike anyone at any time.
7. Target key individuals
Government employees, academics, police, soldiers, artists, journalists who do not toe the line are purged, sometimes violently, and those remaining are kept in line by example.
8. Control the press
The press is controlled by major corporate advertisers who enjoy "preferred customer" status with government. In this environment, a steady stream of lies and deceptions keep people confused, disinformed and distracted.
9. Dissent equals treason
Once the external and internal enemy has been identified, any words or actions (real or imagined) that can be construed as aiding or comforting the enemy is tantamount to terrorism, which is treason, and punishable accordingly
10. Suspend the rule of law
Civil authority is relieved of duty and armed military personnel patrol the streets, enforce quarantines and curfews, police civil conduct, staff detainment facilities conduct tribunals and dispense military justice (This should be the most obvious of the 10 steps, but it is already happening piecemeal in America. At this time, defacto martial authority has expanded from border crossings and military installations to include schools, hospitals, airports, government buildings and areas where disasters and emergencies have been declared. The president now supersedes the authority of the governor in the deployment of national guard units outside their specific states upon the presidential declaration of an emergency).