Don’t worry, the FBI is on it!

Sass wards off the FBI
Photo by Kristi Storz

I suspect that most people view the FBI the way they view the IRS—yes, those organizations have some legitimate functions, but both are highly politicized.  The IRS has already established this to be true.  Don’t take my word for it; read the IRS’s own confession in this mildly-worded, apologetic NPR story.

Sure, you’ll still find hack media organizations calling any criticism of the IRS a “conspiracy theory”—but at this point, that kind of tired, reactionary name-calling will only persuade the most politically entrenched, pro-government readers among us.

But now, the FBI has taken things to a new level.  It has gone from a highly political organization to, well, a bit of a joke.  Why?  To begin, some female law professors received anonymous text messages that stated the following:

1. “Law school isn’t fair for us men anymore, women always outperform us nowadays”;
2. “I admit you women have clearly won the battle of the sexes, us [sic] men are the losers”; and
3. “It’s not fair.”

So what does this (presumably male) sender’s concession and whining have to do with the FBI?  In keeping with academia’s obsession with “safety”—a word they define as the perceived right not to be even mildly offended by anything whatsoever—the FBI has been consulted by at least one law school’s “public safety official.”  More specifically, “A public safety official at Creighton told Law.com that it is working with the FBI to investigate.”

Investigate?  Investigate what?!

As is typical in today’s click-obsessed social media world, a bunch of other websites created posts about this nonsense.  Amazingly, some, such as Tax Prof, didn’t add anything at all and just reprinted the bulk of the story from Law.com.  (This is standard practice at Tax Prof; I’m baffled how this doesn’t violate copyright protections.)  Others, such as Above the Law, basically summarized the story and then added that, “Hopefully the FBI is able to identify the sender soon.”  Really?  Why would you hope that?  What do you think the FBI is going to do if it is able to find this heinous offender?

But I haven’t found any site that criticized this extreme (and bizarre) misuse of a government agency at the expense of the citizenry.  (Anyone?  Bueller?  Bueller?)  I hope there is much more to this story than what has been disclosed.  But if there isn’t, then using the FBI to investigate pro-women text messages—or even deploying a useless, higher-ed bureaucrat for such a purpose—can only be described as a sickness rooted in speech-suppressing authoritarianism.

As for the FBI generally, would I still be scared if agents showed up at my door?  Of course I would.  There’s no question, the FBI still has the ability to ruin lives.  But aside from fearing its raw, life-destroying power, the FBI now deserves even less respect than the IRS.