This week, news broke that the FBI has been using polygraph tests to ask officials if they’ve said anything negative about Kash Patel—Trump's FBI director.
Yes. You read that right. The FBI is using polygraphs to test political loyalty.
Not to uncover crimes.
Not to catch spies.
But to find out who isn’t sufficiently loyal to a Trump appointee.
And this? This is terrifying.
Let’s talk about polygraphs. They don’t detect lies. They never have.
They measure physiological responses—your pulse, your breathing, your sweat. That’s it. You could be telling the truth and still “fail” one. All it takes is fear. Nerves. Fatigue. Or just being pissed off you’re being interrogated.
Polygraphs have been widely discredited. Courts don’t allow them as evidence. The scientific community has rejected them. Even the National Academy of Sciences concluded there’s “little basis” for their validity.
But authoritarian regimes? They love them. Because polygraphs aren’t about truth—they’re about intimidation. About control. About power.
And when the FBI is using this kind of junk science to root out so-called “disloyalty,” we are far past the line of normal democratic governance.
This is not how a healthy democracy operates. It’s how authoritarianism creeps in—disguised as national security, enforced through fear.
When dissent is punished, when loyalty to individuals matters more than loyalty to the Constitution, we’ve entered dangerous territory.
This is what I mean when I say the system isn’t just flawed—it’s designed this way. And when they revive fake science to enforce fake patriotism? We should all be sounding the alarm.
In solidarity,
Eliza
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