Camel's nose under the tent

 

Wikipedia: a metaphor for a situation in which the permitting of a small, seemingly innocuous act which opens the door to larger undesirable acts.

This phrase came to mind with a number of observations and recollections of observations of events.

An example of this is when a Biden Administration figure said it was their business to see if people were vaccinated or not. He justified it on the basis of government expenditures. So, let's see how this is like the camel's nose. It's the mere wearing of masks and lockdowns leading to an overpowering state invasion into the private sphere. Going door-to-door to make you get a jab which you may not want nor trust seems a bit like that camel in the tent.

But the mask-wearing and lockdowns led to this and other things. The lockdowns led to business closures which led to unemployment, which led to massive government spending. The massive government spending is what is justifying the door-to-door enforcement of government edicts. So, the innocuous seeming mask-wearing is the camel's nose. The camel is now in the tent and won't leave. Hence the expression.

That is but one example in the news. Another is the Weissman's suggestion that Tucker Carlson was somehow un-American for exposing the NSA spying upon him. The camel's nose in the tent happened when it happened to President Trump in 2017. Remember how Susan Rice "unmasked" a lot of Trump's associates? This seemed innocuous ( to some ) because Trump was under suspicion at that time, but we found out later that Trump did NOT collude, and that the accusations were baseless. However, the unmasking has now spread to people who merely criticize a government agency.

The mere criticism of an agency is not un-American. It is not illegal. What IS illegal is unmasking of American citizens, period. Even those suspected of doing something wrong have rights. We all have a right to not be treated as violators of some law unless convicted first in an open courtroom by a jury of one's peers. That's the Constitution. That's the Bill of Rights. That's is what used to be considered American. It is being trampled upon by this camel in the tent that seemed pretty harmless at first. It was OUR tent and now it is the "camel's" tent.

It is a slow process over a long period of time. It has been called "creeping socialism", and that was probably marginalized as alarmist in the past, but the camel is getting pretty big TODAY.

The government has gone way too far. It is violating our trust. It may seem harmless to some, but it is leading to more and more egregious violations of rights that were once considered inviolate.