Yves here. This article is useful as far as it goes, in that it reminds the great unwashed public that the Trump Administration has defined a huge swathes of beliefs as incipient terrorism under a National Security Presidential Memorandum known as NSPM-7. However, it is far behind the curve as far at the nature and severity of coming protests. Trump and his water-carriers at Fox News focus on the traditional enemies of the hard right, such as environmental activists (and now, data center opponents), advocates of gender and racial equality, opponents of Israel’s genocide. What happens when in six months, the US has markedly higher energy and food costs, with even higher food prices baked in for 2027? And what if we have the global depression that so many worry about? The hungry and desperate often turn violent (see Arab Spring and the food riots during the 1997 Asian crisis as a few of many examples). What then?
But back to the immediate issue.
Even though legally, NSPM-7 amounts to a Presidential throat-clearing, it is intended to have a chilling effect on speech and activism that the increasingly paranoid President does not like. Moreover, in demonizing large swathes of mainstream opinion, NSPM-7 is also a very loud dog whistle to private businesses to act as enforcers. Most American employment is at will; a company can fire you for no reason at all, or a trivial one like they decided they don’t like your white shirt. So engaging in wrong-think or wrong-action could make finding employment in an already tough job market even more difficult.
When the president refers in the memo to “designation” of groups as “domestic terrorism organizations,” that rhetorical label is dangerously stigmatizing and harsh, but it does not in itself have legal force and the president does not cite any authority for it. That is because, unlike for “foreign terrorism,” there is no “domestic terrorism” labelling or designation regime. Congress has passed no law creating any such domestic designation regime, and for very good reason: it would inevitably sweep in First Amendment-protected beliefs, associations, and speech. No matter where civil society groups and activists might fall across the ideological spectrum, from far left to far right, nonpartisan to partisan, religious or not, everyone’s First Amendment rights would be at risk. For that reason, there is also no standalone crime of “domestic terrorism.”
Put another way, any political, legal, or social definition of “terrorism” includes ideological motivation, and there are very serious First Amendment problems with attaching criminal or other sanctions to people or groups based on ideology or belief as opposed to actual, serious criminal conduct—which is already unlawful….
The memo is a fever dream of conspiracies, outright falsehoods, and the president’s distorted equation of criticism of his policies by real or perceived political opponents with “criminal and terroristic conspiracies.” It stitches together a few disparate, serious acts of actual or attempted criminal conduct with First Amendment-protected beliefs and protests against the president and his policies, and wrongly conflates them as “political violence.” It ignores what any responsible understanding of actual political violence would make clear: political violence does not fit into neat ideological buckets and while increasing in frequency, it remains rare. After all, the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by the president’s supporters is a paradigmatic example of actual political violence, but NSPM-7 pointedly fails even to mention it.
Perhaps the most chilling rhetorical move the president makes is to use vague, broad labels that, even if true—and there’s good reason to question the truth of virtually all of the memo’s assertions—encompass First Amendment-protected beliefs unconnected to any actual criminal conduct. These labels include: “Anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity,” “support for the overthrow of” the federal government, “extremism on migration, race, and gender,” and opposition to “traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.” The president even bizarrely imagines that “support for law enforcement and border control” are “foundational American principles” that his political opponents paint as “fascist” to encourage violence. No wonder many in civil society see NSPM-7’s rhetoric as a threat to human rights, civil liberties, and democracy-building work.
Through the memo, the president instructs federal departments and law enforcement agencies to use authorities they already have and focus them on investigations of civil society groups — including nonprofits, activists, and donors—to “disrupt” and “prevent” the president’s fever-dream version of “terrorism” and “political violence.”
Now to the main event.
By Kyle Schmidlin, a freelance writer who also runs the Third Rail News blog. Originally published at Common Dreams
One of the secret strengths of right-wing propagandists is their ability to say a few words that are so wrong on so many levels that they take an essay to untwist. Case in point: a recent Fox News post on Facebook. Summarizing a longer article on contemporary political movements, the post reads in full:
Anti-Israel agitators. Climate activists. Communist groups.
Experts warn a growing activist network united by anti-American sentiment—and in some cases China-linked funding networks—is now targeting America’s AI infrastructure and industrial power.
Fox News Digital found many of the same movements protesting side-by-side across the country, including groups opposing new AI data centers over energy and environmental concerns.
“What all of these protests have in common… is that anti-American trend within them,” Hudson Institute fellow Zineb Riboua told Fox News Digital.
While disguised as serious findings from a scholarly exposé about subversive trends in America, the article mostly just lumps together all the usual enemies of corporate, far-right interests and labels them all “anti-American.” Even as pure propaganda, it’s unsubtle and uncreative.
But with the Trump administration’s recent issuance of National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7)—a sweeping memo that tries to connect beliefs like these to terrorism and calls upon law enforcement to treat them accordingly—such propaganda now carries more sinister implications.
Taken together, the groups in question make up a significant majority of the American population. What unites them is not anti-American sentiment. What unites them is that they are enemies of one aspect or another of the fascist techno-petro-state the Trump administration is attempting to cement. And they all have very real, very valid reasons to hold their positions.
Anti-Israel Agitators
Labeling critics of US-Israeli policy “anti-Israel agitators” is meant to dismiss them as irrational, antisemitic extremists—and, according to Fox News, anti-American. While there’s no room in this article to litigate the issue of Israel-Palestine, suffice it to say the reality is far more complex.
Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza over the last two and a half years, combined with decades of abuse of Palestiniansleading up to the terror attacks of October 7, has made them a global pariah. Making matters worse, the US government has given billions of dollars to fund that genocide and provided bipartisan diplomatic cover for it. In addition, many believe—because Trump administration officials have suggested as much—that Israel goaded President Donald Trumpinto our unpopular, costly, disastrous war with Iran.
All this adds up to a steadily worsening public perception of Israel, with 60% of US adults now having an unfavorable view, according to Pew. Which begs the question: Can 60% of Americans be anti-American?
Climate Activists and Communists
Perennial foes of the big business interests Fox News and the Republican Party represent, neither climate activists nor communists, sadly, have a significant presence in contemporary American politics. But Fox News would never miss an opportunity to put such scary words in front of their audience.
The idea here, to the extent that there is one, is that concern for the climate limits our energy and defensive options, weakening us as our biggest rival, China, is ascendent. Of course there are ulterior motives. One of the biggest goals of the right-wing project is to simply shut down all green energy, as President Trump essentially did in 2025, so that he and the oil tycoons who prop him up can benefit.
There’s nothing anti-American about wanting clean or renewable energy. The Constitution doesn’t mandate that we be a petrostate. It’s also largely agnostic on the question of economic organization. Labeling environmentalism or leftist economic beliefs anti-American is an attempt to shut down the debate before it can happen—lest the American people choose a path that inconveniences the mega rich who are harming the environment and hoarding all the money.
AI Data Center Opponents
Tech oligarchs and corporate pundits repeatedly insist that America needs to win the AI race against China, virtually no matter the cost. But the American people are not yet on board. According to Gallup, 70% of Americans oppose AI data center construction in their communities. And this is largely a bipartisan consensus, with Republicans being only slightly more supportive of data center construction.
Either way, sticking the anti-American label on data center opposition is a tough sell for Fox News. The environmental cost and resource drain of data centers is already impacting communities. At the same time, tech oligarchs like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are frighteningly candid about how AI, which compiles our accumulated knowledge and then sells it back to us in the form of slop, is intended to permanently displace the workforce. There is no serious plan in place to support the millions of people they’re threatening to make unemployed.
No surprise, then, that the massive push for this technology is meeting resistance all over the country. Even in conservative states like Utah, not widely known as a hotbed for political activism, residents are demanding that Big Tech be held accountable for their reckless AI ambitions.
The Chinese Anti-American Subversion Theory
The full article throws together more scary bad guys: “Agitators united by Chinese money, hate for America target data centers… linking environmental, Islamist, and far-left political movements… Climate activists, anti-Israel protesters, and other activist movements with very different agendas have become strange bedfellows united by a shared disdain for America and funding from China.”
The accusation that any of these causes are backed by “Chinese money” is loose and largely unsubstantiated. The article names one accused funder, as if supporting causes was a crime in and of itself: Neville Roy Singham, an American expat who now lives in China. And the only justification that any of this is “anti-American” comes from vague warnings about falling behind China (which, by many metrics, we did long ago) and the fact that China dominates much of the green energy market—all the more reason, one would think, to invest in our own.
Guilt by association can be an effective propaganda technique, though. If Fox can connect all these disparate causes under the banner of anti-Americanism and Chinese subversion, they can encourage their audience to reject any sympathies they may be tempted to feel with such movements—in case they don’t want a data center in their county, say, or they see what’s been done to Gaza.
The Danger of Being Labeled Anti-American Under NSPM-7
In declaring all these causes and the people who support them anti-American, Fox News is essentially designating the majority of Americans as official enemies under NSPM-7. According to NSPM-7, “anti-Americanism” is part of a cabal of threats, along with anti-capitalism; anti-Christianity; “extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.” Each of these beliefs is now treated as an indicator of violent, terroristic inclinations. As such, falling under any such label carries with it the threat of surveillance, investigation, prosecution, and other potential law enforcement actions.
Exactly how, where, and when NSPM-7 has been or will be used is still tough to know. That’s part of what makes it so dangerous: The language is so sweeping that, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of New York, it could target “pretty much anyone who isn’t a MAGA faithful.” The purpose here is to clearly define what a proper American ought to believe, to chill any dissent with that agenda, and to lay the groundwork for criminal investigations of any American who’s uncooperative.
As things continue to break down in this country, and as Trump continues to become more emboldened even as his approval rating tanks, it’s not hard to imagine him weaponizing his corrupt FBI to go after, say, a data center protestorganizer. Actually, this may already be happening: leaked reports, covered extensively by Wired, claim that multiple US agencies are already monitoring what they call “anti-tech extremism.” Such so-called extremism apparently includes activities as banal as photography and other constitutionally protected activities.
It’s awfully bold of Fox News to declare the majority of Americans anti-American. Such is the potency of right-wing propaganda’s complete disregard for nuance, truth, or morality. To untangle the minds of the people who consume this stuff on a regular basis, and actually believe it, is a thoroughly challenging project that will likely take generations.
With politics as heated as they are right now, and so close to getting even further out of hand with directives like NSPM-7, it’s important to reiterate the obvious: Not only are environmental protection, support for Palestine, and anti-AI activism legitimate and well-reasoned, they’re also all perfectly American.
As an anarchist degrowther who hates the American Empire and is critical of aspects of Christianity, I figure I score a “4” or “5” on the NPSM-7 terrorism scale, making me a regular Weatherman.
I’m beginning to understand more and more what Grace Slick meant:
Grace Slick, “Greasy Heart”
The Empire’s attempts to hold together a crumbling worldview are getting more and more ridiculous.
I’m in Utah and the opposition to the new Box Elder data center is bi-partisan
As someone who has never eaten a “Big Mac” and who has a Library card I am clearly a “Potential Domestic Violent Extremist”.
Need further evidence?
I carry a bottle of Nitroglycerine in my pocket wherever I go.
I’ve been assuming my media consumption habits identified me as subversive decades ago. Always figured it was better to “hide in plain sight” than to try to obscure myself (which I again assume would implicitly id me as a Person Of Interest, as the cop shows put it).
Here’s hoping the move to S. Vermont may give us some safety among the burned out hippies I call neighbors.
“Are you now or have you ever been a reader of Naked Capitalism? Is it true you stream non commercial community radio and TV? Our records indicate you pay a lot of attention to coverage of protests… etc.”
“Most American employment is at will; a company can fire you for no reason at all….engaging in wrong-think or wrong-action could make finding employment in an already tough job market even more difficult.”
Although that is by far the way things have been going the past 20+ years, we may be seeing the pendulum swinging back the other way now.
https://atlantablackstar.com/2026/06/03/jd-vance-convinced-hundreds-of-employers-to-do-trumps-dirty-work-and-crush-free-speech-now-the-courts-are-making-every-single-one-of-them-pay/
‘What started as a Republican pressure campaign is now turning into one of the most expensive First Amendment reckonings in recent memory and the employers who thought they were doing the right thing by listening to Vice President JD Vance are the ones being made to pay for it.’
Oh, we’re starting to talk about the notion of holding officials personally liable for the money cost of their political theatrics now? That’s excellent news!
Out of touch with the mainstream, but my bet is that a majority of Americans are anti-Empire, not anti-American. It may be a narrow majority, because we certainly have numerous “USA! USA! USA!” and “glass the towel-heads!” types. But my sense is many Americans on both the supposed right and supposed left would like to see the US return to being a democratic republic that does not try to run the world (as Biden claimed he was doing) and stays out of foreign military conflicts and is extremely stingy with “foreign aid” in all but the most dire humanitarian crises (meaning famines or earthquakes, not Yugoslavia or Libya or other fake R2P crises like that). But no party will articulate that position, because they are both Empire-captured parties that no longer do more than a shallow pretense of wanting to benefit non-billionaire Americans. Outlier politicians like Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders have articulated some of that sentiment, but they fall down on making that central by pushing other minority viewpoints that don’t have the same kind of appeal. And that’s why we need a clear anti-Empire party that focuses just on that: free the occupied USA from the Empire, oust the corrupt duopoly politicians and prosecute them, end foreign entanglements, and redirect America’s economy to benefit the American people. Those should be the only issues, no more laundry list of divisive interest group wants. And this party, of necessity, must skip all the red tape of getting on the ballot against duopoly legal challenges and run approved candidate write-in campaigns in all 50 states.
The Empire must perish that the nation may live.
That about sums it up.
So a 20something from Morocco knows more about whats anti-American than the unwashed masses who happened to be born and live their entire lives in the US. According to Fox News.
Of course he does. He’s paid well to have those views. If you don’t like his principles, he has other ones for sale too. Everything is a grift in America. That’s all there is to it. No mystery.
Great on the part of Fox News. One question: who are they going to find that will clean their toilets? I know True Americans won’t.
rfk jr. will always be on hand to lick the toilet seat, if there might be something left on it for him.
After he thoroughly rubs his gums on it first.
I’ve frequently posted here that I believe that human over-population is the driver of pretty much everything that’s going haywire in our world — from climate change, globalization of capital and labor, to every sort of commodity shortage, but a few touch-points. I’ve also posted that I find it morally repugnant to “cull the herd” in order to bring our world back to its human carrying capacity.
Let’s be real — others see the same problem but are less morally fastidious than I but they have the problem of deciding who gets “culled.” The MAGA crowd are quite far along in this thinking. Recall that the mass-shooting at a Christchurch NZ mosque was carried-out by an eco-terrorist with views not unlike many of the January 6 mob.
Obama’s “it turns out that I’m really good at killing people” set the precedent for presidential fiat replacing the Bill of Rights. Every one of NSPM-7 “anti-American” and “terrorist” canards were hurled at Renée Good and Alex Pretti without even a whiff of due process, while not one of their murderers have been held accountable in the slightest. As the Clash sang in “Guns of Brixton,” When they kick-in your front door, how you gonna come?…
I’ve been having some thoughts around this recently and how war is a great way to cull the herd. There’s so many young men that feel hopeless, without opportunity, and have been radicalized. They can be offered opportunity and structure through military, and if there’s not enough then the new draft rules come into effect in the US.
I’ve been trying to find any connection with past wars and population control. There’s some examples of conscious culling in ancient Greece where they would kill slaves who outnumbered the free people quite a bit. I also recall seeing a documentary about chimpanzees who go to war when resources don’t meet the troops needs. I kind of wonder if there’s a subconscious component to it, we feels the squeeze of lack of resources and we go ape mode and start destruction to get what we need or die in the process.
Considering food and gas prices I could sure use some of that Chinese $ .
Maybe they could send me a suitcase full of Benjamins delivered by a Hottie who could seduce me into having bad thoughts Trump..
It would take a lot of convincing…
We’ve heard all this before. In the peace movement back during the Vietnam War we used to say “If you haven’t been called a communist three times a week, you aren’t working hard enough.” What’s different today is that what was then the John Birch Society has now gone mainstream.
During Occupy the various government/corporate/police forces were already identifying us as “multi-issue extremists” just for, like, not even having an exact platform or any particular goals or asks and still trying to figure out what we were about, just while camping in public places. And you’ll notice the homeless are still camping in public places, maybe they’ll be called “anti-capitalist extremists” for not having housing.
Come to think of it, during Occupy I saw every political viewpoint under the sun, from far left to far right, all under the same heading.
The point of these designations is to allow administration to punish people without any legal process. A good example is what EU has been able to do to Hüseyin Doğru whose life has been destroyed with no formal charges or judicial process.
Now US is able to do the same, by designating people and organization “terrorist” based on the new definition and forcing them out of the civil society by blocking their access to the financial and commercial system. If people are not allowed to provide you with any aid, lest they be accused of “supporting terrorism”, it makes it difficult to impossible to challenge these decisions and, at best, it imposes a massive financial cost to opposing the administration.
“and forcing them out of the civil society by blocking their access to the financial and commercial system.”
And don’t forget about the number of states and communities that are passing laws criminalizing homelessness. Essentially, “they’re” (TPTB) are creating a system that makes it impossible to live if you think or behave differently than what their Overton window allows. People have no idea just how horrific the system they’re creating will be once it’s fully in place. It will make 1984 look like a children’s book.
I used to think that the term “fascist pig” was a bit of obnoxious hyperbole. However I think it’s entirely appropriate when describing Mr. Trump.
Considering they actively call other states* to rise and overthrow their leaders, pardon certain homegrown protesters,this is pretty cute, in a very ugly way.
The whole idea of the Trump administration’s recent issuance of National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7) has been lifted, nearly verbatim, from 1930s fascists.
Like them, Trump now promotes the threat of the enemy within, domestic terrorists, Americans who are anti-American, protests are by definition anti-American and enemies of American values. It all resembles Hitler’s playbook. This should be taken seriously.
Moreover, instead of untwisting their remarks, make your own assertions, that are basically true, for the right wingers to untwist. Instead, say Israel is not a good ally. Tax cuts for the wealthy means unaffordable healthcare. Trump and Wall Street grifting is why China is ahead of the US. Stock buybacks means you’ll never afford to buy a home. Trump said the Constitution (First Amendment) is anti-American.
I’m sure clever people can invent better ideas but, I think, good political slogans, repeated often, can gain political momentum.
Another lifted feature from 1930’s fascism are migrant detention centers – formerly known as concentration camps. There will be 100,000+ beds available by years end in the USA. If you think they will only be used to house illegal migrants, think again.
Sure. Why not? The real Americans know what “American” really really means. (Until, to mix it up, the leopards eat their faces.)
James T, the vegan candidate from Texas who believes in six genders isn’t a real Texan, but Ken Paxton is a real Texan because Davey Crockett also wasn’t born in Texas (which didn’t exist when he was born.)
But, from a fascist regime prosecuting under NSPM-7, the process is the punishment (q.v. Yves). So, beware. We have already seen that in Texas.
From Glenn Greenwald:
IT’S REAL: Department of Justice Starts 15-City Tour to Combat “Antisemitism”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WTJWPgj4FU
This is clearly the most pressing question for govts; not the economy, not the endless war, not the supply chain disruptions. Don’t think about those things. Those things just aren’t important. right….???
(Same thing happened after the subprime mortgage economic crash. Sudden big upswings in MSM reporting about the rise of r*ism in the country. See, that was the real problem, not the economic destruction of working and middle classes.)
Waste of money. I think that dog don’t hunt no more.
In the context of the defense merger, Palantir’s loyal data gatherers on tour is a proposition even more foul.
Thought crime and the Two Minutes Hate.
Someone let me offa this ride, would ya?
Zineb Riboua. That’s not an American name.
Newt Gingrich is?
On Wednesday evening I marched in a small anti data center demonstration through the walking mall of Winchester, Va. Nice spring evening. All the diners in outdoor restaurant seating politely applauded and gave thumbs up. Everybody approved.
After long planning commission meeting with numbers exceeding large room capacity, the planning commission denied the data center application. One down, many to go.
Time to just show up. Better late than never.
No to Technofeudalusm.