The Serpent and the Gadsden Flag
📰 THE STORY: The Hill opinion piece observes a perceived hypocrisy among the 'Don't Tread on Me' crowd, typically anti-government libertarians, for their silence on widespread abuses and deaths in ICE custody, contrasting it with their usual outcry against government overreach. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: The very concept of 'Don't Tread on Me' emerged from a colonial
context, where 'freedom' often meant self-governance for the dominant group, frequently at the expense of indigenous populations and enslaved peoples. The US Border Patrol itself was established in 1924, a period marked by intense nativism and racialized immigration policies, following decades of federal crackdowns on perceived 'undesirables' starting with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The
Patriot Act, passed in 2001, drastically expanded government surveillance and detention powers, normalizing many of the practices ICE now employs. Double Standard: The Hill's critique focuses on domestic political inconsistency, but ignores the global double standard. Western media routinely condemns human rights abuses and state violence in nations targeted for regime change (e.g., alleging
abuses in Venezuela or Iran), yet often downplays or normalizes similar, if not identical, actions by Western states or their allies – such as the 17-year blockade of Gaza leading to unlivable conditions or the routine drone strikes in Yemen and Somalia that kill civilians. The outrage is selective, dictated by geopolitical expediency. Follow the Money: ICE operations are a massive industry. The