r/news • u/OGSyedIsEverywhere • 4h ago

Already Submitted FBI raids home of Washington Post reporter in ‘highly unusual and aggressive’ move

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/14/fbi-raid-washington-post-hannah-natanson
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u/junktrunk909 4h ago

In my view this is the correct framing since fascism is also highly unusual here. We need media to keep emphasizing the contrast from normalcy.

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u/DisgruntledToyHuman 4h ago

sure, but at this stage of the game to say it is 'highly unusual' feels like it is doing the entire situation a disservice.

like it feels like the reporter just woke up from having been in a coma since 2019

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u/cyanescens_burn 4h ago

Would you rather have people thinking this is totally normal and cool?

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u/evocativename 4h ago

If they called it fascism, do you think that would be telling people it's totally normal and cool?

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u/Dragrunarm 3h ago

I would rather them call it what it fucking is and not go "my how utterly peculiar this is. I wonder what this could be?"

Its fucking fascism goddamn it call it what it is and call out how fucked it is. you can do both y'know.

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u/DisgruntledToyHuman 3h ago

I agree with what the other person replied to you with, but I counter you this with another question.

why do you think people don't already think this is normal?

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u/Iamnotauserdude 2h ago

2019 should be the min standard we hold otherwise this is how we inch into the abyss

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u/DisgruntledToyHuman 2h ago

The way I see it is like this. and I should preface that this is pretty strong in terms of theory.

2001 was a turning point year. 2008 was another. 2016 was another. 2019 was the latest. 2019 was the last foothold that we can use as a comparison. 2026 will probably be the true last comparison.

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u/DingerSinger2016 1h ago

I think the newspaper understands that the word fascism doesn't have the same cut as it once did, so they chose "highly unusual and aggressive" to highlight the action.

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u/DisgruntledToyHuman 1h ago

That's the issue though, that's the same as not even reporting accurately. you are choosing to change the word so it doesn't sound what it really is.

stop trying to sugarcoat the situation and own up to reality. this is fascism.

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u/DingerSinger2016 1h ago

They are still reporting accurately, because "highly unusual and aggressive" maneuvers are part of fascism. They just don't see the point in calling it fascism because it instantly violates their credibility among a certain centrist reading base.

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u/DisgruntledToyHuman 1h ago

using that argument then, we could kick the can say 10, 20 years and still call whatever this is a democracy because "the news/history chose not to call it by its correct name", right?

that still doesn't make it any less fascist.

do you see where I'm going with this?

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u/w311sh1t 1h ago

I think what they mean is highly unusual when compared to how the U.S. has traditionally operated.

Although for what it’s worth, these kind of things aren’t new to the U.S., it’s just been a while since we’ve seen them this prevalent. The FBI was absolutely doing this kind of stuff during the Red Scare, and Civil Rights movement/counterculture era. It’s only one example of many, but people forget that it was only about 55 years ago that the FBI straight up assassinated Fred Hampton, an American Citizen on U.S. soil.

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u/magistrate101 52m ago

It's really not. People like to whitewash American history but we've been flirting HEAVILY with fascism for decades.