In the dystopian novel 1984, the government relied on the use of telescreens and informants to enforce its massive, repressive regime. And while that was fiction, events in our modern society are eerily similar to it.
There’s a troubling trend emerging: Americans are being encouraged and even incentivized to turn their fellow citizens in to the government for a myriad of reasons.
For one example, federal officials this week announced they plan to rely on informants in order to determine which companies are enforcing their new (unconstitutional) vaccine mandate. The Biden Administration has used the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as a means of implementing the rule without Congressional approval. Essentially the order says that companies will be heavily fined by the agency should they not demand their employees be vaccinated. But even the administration recognizes there are limits to their ability to enforce such a rule.
From the OSHA website:
Federal OSHA is a small agency; with our state partners we have approximately 1,850 inspectors responsible for the health and safety of 130 million workers, employed at more than 8 million worksites around the nation — which translates to about one compliance officer for every 70,000 workers.
So you do the math. The government has no way of actually catching the vast majority of companies should they flout this new mandate…that is unless employees decide to start reporting their own companies.
In another example, a new Texas abortion law actually pays citizens to identify and file lawsuits against abortion providers in the state. The legislation was written this way because the government cannot carry out these actions itself as it would be illegal under Roe v. Wade. But the Texas constitution has a citizen enforcement clause within it and it is this that lawmakers have chosen to hang their hats on. This plan of attack has of course caused much concern that similar tactics could be used in other states to similarly get around things like free speech protections and the Second Amendment.
And in Tennessee, the legislature had to pass a bill to protect doctors during a special COVID-19 session this fall. The reason? The state’s medical board attempted to set up a system where residents could report doctors for “spreading misinformation about COVID vaccines.” The plan was to take their medical licenses as a result. You know, because reducing the number of doctors during a pandemic is great public policy.
