Exhilarated after retaking both houses of Congress and the presidency, the Democrats are behaving as though they have carte blanche to destroy all vestiges of their political opposition by whatever means necessary. Progressive liberals want to completely eradicate anyone with an incompatible vision. “Democrats are literally beginning to sound like ISIS,” tweeted conservative commentator Candace Owens. “‘Recite the Quran or get your head chopped off, now!’ Absolutely psychopathic,” Owens said.

Conservative positions are attacked as disinformation and the purveyors are canceled. If you suggest that global warming is a hoax, you are spreading disinformation. If you so much as bring up the topic of election fraud, you are spreading disinformation. If you warn that Joe Biden’s intention to open our borders can lead to disastrous outcomes, you are spreading disinformation. For anyone who believes in free speech, this kind of insidious censorship is terrifying.

What is disinformation? Disinformation is information that is intended to mislead or obscure the truth.

In a disturbing development for freedom of speech, the Biden administration announced that it will collaborate with social media to crack down on any information that is critical of Biden’s vaccination policy. Disinformation, said Tucker Carlson, “seems to be anything the Biden administration does not want the people to know including, for example, how effective the COVID vaccines actually are and what the potential side effects might be from taking them.” You would no longer be allowed to text such information to other people. Your private conversations would be controlled by Joe Biden and the Democrats. “The Biden administration considers censorship applicable to private speech,” said Carlson.

To add insult to injury, we have a new development that frankly is beyond my comprehension. The president has created an information czar to spy on American citizens. Biden is establishing what he calls the Disinformation Governance Board as part of the Department of Homeland Security. Its purpose, said DHS Director Alejandro Mayorkas, is “to identify individuals who could be descending into violence by reason of ideologies of hate, false narratives, or other disinformation and misinformation propagated on social media and other platforms.”

Tucker Carlson summed it up perfectly. “They are using law enforcement powers to identify and punish people who think the wrong thing,” Carlson said. “That would be opponents of the Biden administration. Joe Biden’s partisan political enemies are now officially enemies of the state.” In other words, DHS will be looking to punish conservatives who have not committed a crime—but could do so in the future.

Critics are comparing the Disinformation Governance Board to the Ministry of Truth from George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. “We live in terrifying times,” said journalist Sara Carter. “That’s what you do to an enemy. It’s not what you do to the American people.” Charles Hurt of the Washington Times warns that “If Democrats and Republicans in Congress are not terrified by this and doing everything they can to stop it, then we’re done—we’re finished.”

Biden’s Ministry of Truth will be listening to your phone calls and emails, and monitoring your social media posts as they do in China. No private communication of prohibited ideas will be allowed. If you say anything critical of the Biden/Harris administration, you could wind up in Guantanamo. Will Congress be able to stop this? Not this do-nothing Congress. Active resistance may come from the 75 million people who voted for Trump. Shutting down a minority is one thing, but canceling 75 million voters is something else entirely.

“This is not just an attack on free speech,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. “This is an attack on an entire movement of people with the intent of driving them underground—keeping them from getting jobs, having legal representation, and even cutting them off from legitimate financial transactions.”

“They're as far left as Lenin,” said political commentator Dan Bongino. “Do liberals not grasp how totalitarian this is?” Once the door is open, we can kiss free speech goodbye. If we can’t acknowledge that there are two sides to every story, the U.S. is well on the way to becoming a totalitarian state. It starts with accusations of spreading disinformation and ends with a call for purging conservatives and sending their children to indoctrination camps. “If liberty means anything at all,” said George Orwell, “it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

The prognosis for the short term is not good. Some people are saying, “Don’t worry, it will get better soon.” Try saying that to the prisoner about to be guillotined.

Ed Brodow is a conservative political commentator, negotiation expert, and author of eight books including Tyranny of the Minority: How the Left is Destroying America. He is a former US Marine officer, Fortune 500 sales executive, and Hollywood movie actor.