Brief: Red Scare Rising

Back in the fall, Trump's NSPM-7 redirected the FBI, DOJ, and IRS toward "left-wing political violence," opening the door to labeling domestic groups terrorist organizations — despite three independent datasets (New America, CSIS, even the ADL!) showing right-wing violence outpacing left-wing violence by factors of 9-to-1 or greater. Last week, Rubio's "Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism" internationalized this McCarthy reboot. Central to the rhetoric of Rubio and Miller is framing leftist politics as being driven by envy and resentment rather than a response to inequality. Matthew traces this rhetoric, empirically contradicted by relative deprivation research, back through Nietzsche, Scheler, Schoeck, and Rand. Four days after the Ministerial, the State Department's Cuba report named 70+ Americans — from spies to wedding guests — as one undifferentiated network, a scapegoat machine now churning out congressional subpoenas, a federal grand jury, and a widening dragnet. Show Notes NSPM-7, full text — The White House NSPM-7 constitutional analysis — The Conversation New America, "Terrorism in America After 9/11" impact summary CSIS, "Left-Wing Terrorism and Political Violence in the United States" Just Security rebuttal of the CSIS report ADL, "Murder and Extremism in the United States in 2024" Rubio and Miller Ministerial remarks, full transcript Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals (1887), full text Scheler, Ressentiment (1912), full text PDF Schoeck, Envy: A Theory of Social Behaviour — Online Library of Liberty Ayn Rand, "The Age of Envy" — Ayn Rand Institute U.S. Department of State, Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism (July 20, 2026) National Lawyers Guild, "The National Lawyers Guild Reaffirms its Solidarity with Cuba in the Face of Increasing McCarthyite Repression" (July 2026) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices