The Federal Bureau of Investigation is flagging internet slang such as “based” and “red pill” as signs of potential “violent extremism,” according to recently uncovered documents.
The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project obtained the files through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The FBI claims that racially motivated violent extremists use the term “based” to “refer to someone who has been converted to racist ideology.”
“Red pill” is a term that “indicates the adoption of racist, anti-Semitic, or fascist beliefs,” according to the agency.
Other terms flagged by the FBI include “Chad,” which the bureau defines as a “race-specific term used to describe [an] idealized version of a male,” and “Stacy,” which refers to an “idealized version of a female,” according to the FBI.
This information was revealed in a four-page FBI reference guide for “violent extremism” by “involuntary celibates (incels)” and “racially or ethnically motivated” extremists.
“Docs we obtained show how @FBI equates protected online speech to violence,” the Heritage Foundation Oversight Project said on Twitter. “Using terms like ‘looksmaxxing,’ ‘Chad,’ and ‘Stacy’ will get you on an @FBI list for ‘Involuntary Celibate Violent Extremism.'”
The phrase “It’s over” is identified as “A comment which describes the hopelessness of being an incel.”
The FBI documents describe “involuntary celibate violent extremists” (IVEs) as men who “seek to commit violence in support of their belief that society unjustly denies them sexual or romantic attention, to which they believe they are entitled.”
The documents identify specific types of IVEs, including “baldcel (incel who is bald)” and “heightcel (incel who is short).”
The agency claims that “IVEs have conducted at least five lethal attacks in the United States and Canada since 2014, resulting in 28 deaths,” noting a November 2018 attack in which Scott Beierle shot six people, killing two, at a yoga studio in Tallahassee, Florida.
Another “incel” attack referenced by the FBI was that of Elliot Rodger in May 2014. Rodger attacked a Santa Barbara, California, sorority house and pedestrians outside, killing six people and injuring 14.
The Dallas Express reached out to the Heritage Foundation for additional comment on the uncovered documents but received no statement by press time.
Dallas Young Republicans senior advisor Roger Shafer, meanwhile, claimed to The Dallas Express that this information shows how “the deep state is currently the greatest threat to individual liberty.
“Our intelligence and law enforcement communities no longer serve the majority of Americans’ interests and should be rebuilt from scratch,” Shafer argued. “In real time we are watching George Orwell’s fiction come true.”
The FBI told The Dallas Express that it “has no comment” on this matter.