Another One Squeals

This is what you get when gossip columnists try to use historical metaphors.

Bloggers are the new Stasi.

"Who were the Stasi?" I hear you ask.

The Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (German for Ministry for State Security), commonly known by the abbreviation Stasi, was the main security (secret police) and intelligence organization of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).. [SNIP]

Many early Stasi officers were former officers of the Nazi SS with East German Communist leaders actively seeking former Gestapo and SD personnel to lead the Stasi in its formative years.

The Stasi's influence over almost every aspect of life in the German Democratic Republic cannot be underestimated. Until the mid-1980s, a civilian network of informants (Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter [IMs], or unofficial collaborators) grew within the GDR, and in West Germany as well. By the East German collapse in 1989, it is estimated that the Stasi had 91,000 full time employees and 300,000 informants. This means approximately one in fifty East Germans collaborated with the Stasi, possibly the highest penetration of any society by a security apparatus.

The Stasi monitored politically "incorrect" behavior among all citizens of East Germany, comparable to activity of the former Gestapo. During the 1989 peaceful revolution, the Stasi offices were overrun by enraged citizens, but not before a huge amount of compromising material was destroyed by Stasi officers. The remaining files are available for review to all people who were reported upon, often revealing that friends, colleagues, husbands, wives, and other family members were regularly filing reports with the Stasi.

After German unification, it was revealed that the Stasi also secretly aided left-wing terrorist groups such as the Red Army Faction. Loss of support from the Stasi was a major factor in the dissolution of these groups.

(Emphasis mine.)

I would say that this is Tina Brown’s subtle method of calling bloggers “digital brownshirts,” but, somehow, I don’t think that she thought it through that far or has enough knowledge to be that cunning.

(BTW, yes I know who Tina Brown is; I used to take The New Yorker back when she was the executive editor. However, read the linked article and tell me that it doesn’t read like a gossip column.)

(Thanks to Roger L. Simon)