On Feds

Easily the worst aspect of trying to be an online activist is dealing with spergs who--no matter how careful you are--will find a way to spin what you say into indications of federal activity.

This is wrong and stupid for the following reasons:

1. Federal employees are forbidden from online political activity under legislation. I can't recall what the statute is, but it exists.

2. Those Feds who undoubtedly are monitoring online activity would need to go through numerous layers of approval before saying X or doing Y, because that's how government operates. They're all accountable, and they're all worried about losing their jobs, all the time.

3. The Feds know who we are. Yes, you too. Your VPN isn't spit to the Five Eyes Network, which garners in limitless information from all over the internet every day. They know who I am. They just don't care, because they don't consider you or I to be a valid threat.

4. The one thing both authorized and unauthorized Feds will do online, both at work and in their spare time at home, without authorization, is log on to anonymous accounts and call anyone they deem too effective at criticizing the government a Fed. Calling someone a Fed might be slanderous, but it doesn't in itself constitute political activity. So they'll do that liberally.

5. It keeps us severely disunited, which is precisely what the Feds want.

Unless someone is telling people to do illegal things--which is what we know they do from PatCon and other activities--don't just assume they're a Fed. Many of us want to accomplish political goals within the law.

"Owning the libs" online is useless when that doesn't translate into meaningful real-world change.