A state attorney general is advocating for a bill some critics argue could punish outspoken conservatives as domestic extremists, KTTH‘s Jason Rantz reported Wednesday.
“Some conservative views, or anything [Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson] deems as ‘misinformation,’ are examples of ‘domestic extremism,'” Rantz said.
It’s the “most dangerous bill in legislative history,” the Seattle radio host added.
Washington is creating a state version of the ill-fated “Ministry of Truth,” according to Rantz and others who have analyzed the bill.
The controversial bill proposes the establishment of a commission on domestic violence extremism. Rep. Bill Ramos, a Democrat, sponsored the bill which would create the 13-member commission.
HB 1333 describes the duties of the proposed commission as involving efforts to “combat disinformation and misinformation” and collecting data on incidents of “domestic violent extremism,” the Center Square explains.
Though DVE is not explicitly defined in the bill, Ferguson has described the term as including noncriminal activities or speech, the outlet also says.
The legislation was spawned by the Attorney General’s 2022 “Domestic Terrorism” study, according to Center Square. That study warned that “effective State intervention to address these threats has the potential to implicate speech or association that may be protected by the First Amendment, or the individual right to bear arms protected by the Second Amendment.”
Further, the commission, though charged with examining ways to treat DVE as a public health issue through the state’s Department of Health, would have only one member required to be an expert in public health.
The basic idea is to “take preemptive measures to stop actual domestic terrorist acts through community intervention.”
Such “community intervention” could include, for example, compelling people identified as “extremists” to undergo counseling, according to Rantz’s interpretation of comments Ferguson made in an interview with PBS in January.
When PBS host Laura Barrón-López asked Ferguson what the public health approach would look like in practice, Ferguson responded, in part:
Let’s engage in prevention, of getting folks — avoiding them being radicalized in the first place. If somebody is radicalized, and wants removal, move away from that, how can we help them with counseling, for example, to get them away from that ideology?
So, looking at from a more holistic standpoint, we think, addresses prevention, addresses helping folks who’ve been radicalized and take a more holistic view of this to address what is a huge challenge, not just in Washington state, but all across the country.
“They say this is about violence, but it’s not about violence. It’s actually about speech,” Rantz told host Todd Pirro on Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends First” Friday.
“We already have laws on the books that very clearly address violence. What they’re trying to do with this commission is create what they’re calling a ‘public health approach’ to some of these ideologies.”
Rantz went on to explain that opposing critical race theory, mask mandates, and radical gender ideology could all be seen by the commission as tied to “white supremacy.”
“They are singularly focused on the Right,” Rantz said flatly. “What this commission will end up doing is … recommending legislation that could not only lead to imprisoning people for having certain kinds of political positions, but also forcing them into counseling.”
The Biden administration attempted to create a “Ministry of Truth” at the federal level, putting it on pause a scant three weeks later after intense public criticism, as TheBlaze reported at the time.
Nina Jankowicz, the “Mary Poppins of disinformation,” tapped to lead the Department of Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board, later registered as a foreign agent and went on to work overseas.
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