The Verge: “The Trump administration declared war on the “terrorist organization” of “antifa” and the supposed “networks” associated with it last week. Antifa is not so much a vast national conspiracy as it is simply an abbreviation for anti-fascism — but don’t point out that anti-anti-fascism looks a lot like fascism. That would make you antifa, too. The plain intent of the memo is to make Americans afraid to call fascism what it is — or worse, to say fascism is bad. President Donald Trump first signed an executive order purporting to classify antifa as a domestic terrorist organization — a designation that doesn’t actually exist. This was followed by a national security presidential memorandum (NSPM) a few days later. According to the memo, calling things fascist “justif[ies] and encourage[s] acts of violent revolution,” which is why anti-fascism is terrorism, actually. There is no such thing as a domestic terror group designation, or a federal domestic terrorism charge, which is part of what renders the executive order and memo so perplexing. That is lucky for Trump and his supporters, since a domestic terrorism charge might have applied to the violent insurrection on January 6th, 2021. But it is anti-fascism that is the problem, clearly. This upside-down treatment of the English language is not novel. The George W. Bush administration coined such unforgettable phrases as “they hate our freedoms” and “enhanced interrogation techniques.” Historical authoritarian regimes repurposed words as part of their assault on collective social reality, a theme that George Orwell returned to many times in his works. Trump’s anti-anti-fascism orders work similarly. They distort not just words like terrorism, violence, and fascism, but also the law, how the federal government is organized, and what the Constitution establishes as the foundational principles of this country. The orders do not make sense logically, they do not match up with reality, and they are not designed to be enacted effectively.

The current level of surveillance — both online and in real life — means that it is easier than ever for the government to blacklist people for speech. Any reasonably intelligent person can read past the Trumpist doublespeak and euphemisms. The White House has issued a naked threat, attempting to use right-wing agitator Charlie Kirk’s death as a pretext to reenact the excesses of the post-9/11 Patriot Act and more — to leverage the government’s sophisticated surveillance apparatus, its many forms of legal exceptionalism, and its punitive controls on financial activity when it comes to international terror groups. The Trump regime will watch the internet and punish wrongthink. It also now has an excuse to put jackboots on American soil…”