Threat Inflation and "Secrets"

KT writes an interesting column at AOSHQ discussing "threat inflation" and Government secrets.  Interesting side-note:  Angelo Codevilla worked for Daniel Patrick Moynihan (who today would be a Trump supporter.)

Anyhow.

..."Secrecy is an institution of the administrative state that developed during the great conflicts of the twentieth century. It is distinctive primarily in that it is all but unexamined," the scholar and American statesman Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote toward the end of his long career in public life, when he turned his attention to the power in the shadows. . .

Though he never wavered on the righteousness of the anti-Communist cause, Moynihan argued that the effort had been weakened and warped by the growth of a bureaucratic culture of secrecy. He delivered a measured but devastating attack on the underworld of administrative institutions better known today as "the deep state".

In Secrecy: The American Experience, published in 1999, Moynihan argued that US policy had been systematically distorted by intelligence agency assessments that exaggerated the economic and military power of the Soviet Union. Because the agencies operated in secret, the exaggerations were not only shielded from scrutiny but had the perverse effect of fuelling their own growth. Over time, this process fundamentally transformed the American political system. "Secrecy is a form of regulation," Moynihan wrote in the book's opening line. . .--quoting Siegel's piece

That 'distortion' is Threat Inflation.  It is echoed today by the claims that 1/6 was 'an attack on democracy comparable to the Civil War,' except that the 1/6 claim is clearly delusional--a reflection on the effects of massive alcohol consumption on Pelosi's now-pickled brain.

Codevilla knew how dangerous secrecy is:

...Secrecy, he argued, is the most-abused privilege in government, because it allows intelligence agencies to cover up their errors....

And they do, of course, meaning that you will NEVER know what actually happened.

And we are now at the apotheosis:

 ...The FBI has a record of hyping up threats and encouraging terrorists plots that it can then bust to justify its mission. . .

And yet these dubious pseudo-events, which never posed any immediate threat to America's democracy or its security establishment, are compared to the worst attacks in American history. At the January 6 commemoration last week, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi brought out liberal godhead Lin-Manuel Miranda along with the cast of Hamilton to perform a virtual performance. This moment of supreme kitsch was only scarcely more ridiculous than Vice President Kamala Harris, in her commemorative remarks, comparing the largely symbolic riot to Pearl Harbor and 9/11.

The purpose of these gross exaggerations is to demand that Americans forfeit their rights in the name of security and convince the public, or some electorally significant fraction of it, that it is wise and just for the US government to prosecute a counterterrorism campaign against Trump supporters. The project uses the full power of the American security establishment as a get-out-the-vote arm for the Democratic party....

It's worse than just "Trump supporters."  The prosecution of the Covid Campaign was levied against ALL Americans, but towards the same end.  Give up (informed) liberty in the name of Vaccinated Security.  Never mind that you will NEVER see the trial results of the Pfizer vaxx, never mind that CoV id 19 is only a twitch more fatal than Flu-B.....

Threat Inflation.  It's what's for Fascism!!