The American NKVD
By 
There’s been a lot of recent discussion, including here, about the value of routine pro-democracy protests. They matter for a lot of reasons, but a lot of these boil down to letting the majority of Americans know that they are not alone. Much of the mainstream media, along with too many Democratic officials, continues to prevaricate. The entire Republican apparatus — from elected officials to the right-wing media ecosystem — is committed to aiding and abetting the destruction of the Republic. Part of that assistance comes in the form of relentlessly gaslighting the American people about the world around them.
This is also why it’s important that anyone with a platform — no matter how large or small — chronicle the myriad ways in which the Trump administration is constructing authoritarian infrastructure. We should praise, and amplify, media outlets when they rise to the challenge. The most recent, best example of this is ProPublica‘s recent piece on how the Trump administration is transforming the Department of Homeland Security into a textbook authoritarian internal security service — loyalist, unaccountable, and happy to violate rights.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, the official rattled off scenes that once would’ve triggered investigations: “Accosting people outside of their immigration court hearings where they’re showing up and trying to do the right thing and then hauling them off to an immigration jail in the middle of the country where they can’t access loved ones or speak to counsel. Bands of masked men apprehending people in broad daylight in the streets and hauling them off. Disappearing people to a third country, to a prison where there’s a documented record of serious torture and human rights abuse.”
The former official paused. “We’re at an inflection point in history right now and it’s frightening.”
You should read it. You should send it to people. Not because you will learn anything new. But because it will remind you’re not insane. It’s really happening — and it’s obvious to anyone with basic knowledge of how authoritarian regimes operate.
