Asklemmy

Everyone's like "it won't happen" but I remember post-9/11 a specific Linux news site got hit with claims of radicalism and some folks who frequented the site got put on watch lists. For interest in Linux.

There was a reason folks like me were against all the surveillance from the PATRIOT Act back then, and this is why.

EDIT:

Similarly, the Bush admin had the FBI spying on Quakers, the only religious group that anti-violence is such a central tenet to their religion that they by default are considered conscientious objectors and cannot be drafted into the military without violating their beliefs.

Post-9/11 the government thought peaceful Quaker anti-war activists were dangerous.

That was post-9/11 in the War on Terror years... It can happen here.

Sources:

Linuxjournal gets "extra surveillance:"

https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/nsa-linux-journal-extremist-forum-and-its-readers-get-flagged-extra-surveillance

Quakers being spied on by FBI:

https://www.wired.com/2009/09/fbi-nsac/

Online? No. Online disorganized leftists aren't actually leftists, they're leftist sympathizers. You need to be in a leftist org to actually be a leftist.

You're not a threat unless you're actually doing stuff.

What would the charge be?

Likely. The federal government has SharePoint sites with information gathered about journalists and other activists who are pro immigration. To my knowledge, these individuals have not officially been disappeared.

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/source-leaked-documents-show-the-us-government-tracking-journalists-and-advocates-through-a-secret-database/3438/

It's a proud fascist country now. Be prepare for ANYTHING.

Personally, I would be worried if I was you. The first Trump term can’t be compared as he had some guardrails with his recommended cabinet picks from the traditional GOP. Now that those GOP members have been expelled from the party, those guardrails are no longer there. His cabinet picks are loyalists and is a stress test to weed out any non-loyalists in Congress.

His cabinet picks will have free will to do what they want as long as they do two things: 1) praise Trump for the popular things they accomplish and 2) take the fall or blame other groups if it’s not popular.

And it’s not the government coming after these groups that is most worrying. We all see the lengths regular citizens would go to right a perceived wrong. January 6 case in point.

We’ve all seen this film before. It doesn’t have a good ending.

Not likely. This is hyperbole.

What is most likely going to happen is that any right-wing, MAGA cultist and whatever. They won't be penalized for any harassment or antagonizing behaviors committed by them to those they don't like.

That's the reality.

Unless you're doing actual organizing, unlikely. The DNC isn't friendly towards Leftist orgs either, though MAGA groups themselves may become more millitant.

It all comes to how anonymous you are on the net. I'd say having a mainstream social media account is right now a high risk if you live in the US, specially considering that Kethamine Karen owns one one of them.

This to say that deanonymizing you might be cheaper than you think, making it more likely than we all expect. If you want to keep using tnose socials, I'd start by deleting my accounts and creating new ones using new data (such as disposable mails or aliases that forward to your real email)

Of course, a trusted vpn is a must in these cases. And there is a lot you should be doing on top of all this.

Right now, if you want to keep your anti-trump line, be prepared to be treated as an enemy, so consider the deanonymation a highly likely possibility.

I don't think it's very likely. Even if it was even remotely affordable or feasible he actually needs opposition to define himself and his base 'ruggedly independent' and as 'freedom fighters'.

If he's going to go after anyone at all I think it will be high profile people for maximum media impact.

If you just post stuff on the Internet, you don't have to worry. At least this type of stuff.

It isn't November 2016 anymore. Trump has been president before and whatever you think of his first term, you already know (roughly) what tends to happen when he is president (if you are too young, there is a near-infinite amount of news articles, social media discussions, wiki articles where you can look it up). I somewhat understood fears like this in late 2016 when a Trump administration was an unprecedented phenomenon, but now?