THE CONSPIRACY TO KEEP RIGHT-WINGERS PARANOID AND STUPID

Right-wing sites from Gateway Pundit to FoxNews.com, along with social-media propagandists, are stirring up a mass freakout over IRS hiring. From the Fox story:

An online job posting for special agents within the law enforcement branch of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is causing a stir on social media, as Congress prepares to pass a spending bill that would greatly expand the federal agency.

A link to a job posting for "Criminal Investigation Special Agents" appeared to have been briefly deleted on Wednesday, following online criticism of the posting's language, though it reappeared back online after a FOX Business inquiry to the agency.

A "key requirement" for applicants is that they have to be "legally allowed to carry a firearm," and "major duties" include "Carry a firearm and be willing to use deadly force, if necessary" and "Be willing and able to participate in arrests, execution of search warrants, and other dangerous assignments," according to the job posting.

The requirement that agents be willing to use "deadly force, if necessary" drew heated criticism online....

Or as the Gateway Pundit post puts it:

They will shoot and kill you over your $1,500 in taxes.

No, actually, they won't. Here's the relevant part of the ad:

I wrote about the IRS's Criminal Investigation (CI) division nine years ago, in response to a different ginned-up freakout:

Congressman Jeff Duncan (R-South Carolina) wants you to be paranoid, angry, and ignorant:

Rep. Jeff Duncan wants to know why IRS law enforcement agents are training with AR-15 rifles.

As chairman of the House Homeland Security oversight subcommittee, Duncan (R-S.C.) toured a federal law enforcement facility in late May and noticed agents training with the semi-automatic weapons at a firing range. They identified themselves as IRS, he said.

"When I left there, it's been bugging me for weeks now, why IRS agents are training with a semi-automatic rifle AR-15, which has stand-off capability," Duncan told POLITICO. "Are Americans that much of a target that you need that kind of capability?" ...

As Congressman Duncan knows perfectly well -- or ought to -- fighting potentially violent criminals has been part of the job of some IRS agents for, oh, about ninety years:

According to the IRS website, "IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) is comprised of approximately 4,100 employees worldwide, approximately 2,700 of whom are special agents whose investigative jurisdiction includes tax, money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act laws."

CI special agents are required to "carry and use a firearm." According to the basic requirements to qualify for a position as a CI special agent, "applicants must carry and use a firearm."

... IRS CI division has been investigating dangerous organizations such as drug traffickers since the 1920s. Established in 1919 as the "Intelligence Unit" and changing its name in 1978, CI's agents have historically investigated potentially dangerous individuals and organizations, beginning with its first investigation of an "opium trafficker in Hawaii in the early 1920s." ...

During Bush Administration, CI special agents participated in Anti-Terrorism Task Forces, World Trade Center searches, investigations of Saddam Hussein's regime, and other such "special assignments in the Middle East." ...

So, yeah, these folks do dangerous work....

Here's the CI division in raids on members of a child prostitution ring in 2005, and on illegal steroid manufacturers in 2007 -- yes, before the inauguration of the tyrant Obama.

The Gateway Pundit story pointedly notes,

The Democrats passed a new $700+ billion spending bill this month....

The bill will add 87,000 new IRS employees to harass and abuse working Americans and their political opponents.

The implication is that all 87,000 will be working for the CI division and will be ready to use deadly force. That's nonsense. But that's how the right-wing media makes its readers paranoid -- and rigidly Republican.