TERRORIST* AND NSPM-7

Last year, Donald Trump signed National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7). While reporting on the memo, the ACLU provided historical context, noting that in 2001, the Patriot Act “defined domestic terrorism as acts that are dangerous to human life and already criminal (emphasis mine).” NSPM-7 does not rewrite that law. Instead, it directs Joint Terrorism Task Forces to broaden the scope of domestic-terror investigations to include beliefs whose expression is constitutionally protected.

We have officially arrived at thoughtcrime.

NSPM-7 considers the following attitudes as “common threads” behind “political violence”:

* Anti-Americanism,

* Anti-capitalism,

* Anti-Christianity, and

* Hostility towards traditional views on family, religion, and morality.

What does “Anti-Americanism” mean? What constitutes “hostility”? NSPM-7 doesn’t specify. In our current un-reality, words mean whatever the government says they mean, and any word can be applied to anyone at any time for any reason.

That’s the reality reflected by Terrorist*.