The Key words in this document are extremism and violence.
What'cha supposed to do when those in charge of protecting your rights start punching ya in the nose.
I think Orwell nailed it.
"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever."
Good points, both. I don't necessarily have a problem with DHS investigating and cataloging information on the host of ideological groups that inhabit this country. And I agree that the key words in almost every definition include,
"members have been known to advocate or engage in criminal activity and plot acts of violence and terrorism in an attempt to advance their extremist goals."
What I do have a problem with is that, of course, these very definitions are being generated by an arm of an institution that routinely
"advocates or engages in criminal activity and plots acts of violence and terrorism in an attempt to advance their __________ goals."
Our government doesn't view its goals as extreme. Only the goals of those who are in "aboveground" disagree with the current gaggle of elected officials and bureaucrats can possibly be "extremist". And extremists are all the same in their eyes. Who do we think we are to disagree with them anyway, their
bosses or something?
Then, what happens next is
those who peacefully defend certain beliefs about issues such as abortion, illegal immigration, governmental infringement on our constitutional rights, etc.
are automatically lumped in with the handful of nut jobs who think it's fine to bomb Planned Parenthood clinics, set up concentration camps for Mexicans, set off fertilizer bombs in front of federal buildings, etc. And of course
this lays the foundation for the concept of Orwellian
"Thought Crimes". The snowball just keeps getting bigger and keeps rolling faster ...
It is very sobering to think about how much America has changed just in the last 30 years, and it is truly frightening to imagine what the next 30 years have in store for us.