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This is just fuel to stir the right wing into more conspiracy theories, except this one is true: the government is closely monitoring everything they do online

This is just fuel to stir the right wing into more conspiracy theories, except this one is true: the government is closely monitoring everything they do online in order to profile them and put them on “high risk” lists so that they can potentially step in and “correct their decisions” if they get scared. Is the solution really to make their feelings of persecution worse? The USA tried that in the Middle East and it just gets dramatically worse every 5-10 years

Guest42 5y ago
I wonder how they perceive those that don’t partake in social media.
- codyb 5y ago
  Hopefully sane and unencumbered by a never ceasing shit stream of dubious information. At least that's how I feel after leaving social media. I check NYT a couple times a day and browse Hackernews while I'm waiting for tests to complete. The rest of the time I'd spend dawdling on Twitter or Fark I put towards reading. YMMV, but for me, I find it far more pleasant and less hectic.
  - ne0flex 5y ago
    I remember back in the early 2010s when employers started checking out the FaceBook profiles of prospects. There was an article about how people without Facebook profiles were deemed suspicious as though they were attempting to hide something by not having a Facebook account. [1] [2] [1]https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/08/06/beware-tech-abandoners-people-without-facebook-accounts-are-suspicious/?sh=41ed70228f95 https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/08/06/beware-t... [2]https://business.time.com/2012/08/08/does-not-having-a-facebook-page-make-you-suspicious-to-employers/ https://business.time.com/2012/08/08/does-not-having-a-faceb...
- wearywanderer 5y ago
  Even more dangerous, such people are clearly socially isolated and probably have extremist motivations for behaving in such an unusual way. /s
  - vixen99 5y ago
    How do you manage to be so clear about a group of people of whom you know nothing ? One can only hope you're not in politics with executive powers. Use of social media: https://backlinko.com/social-media-users https://backlinko.com/social-media-users.
    - wearywanderer 5y ago
      The /s indicates sarcasm. I apologize for expressing myself with sarcasm, I know it's a vice that often causes confusion.
pm90 5y ago
Well, look at it from the Government's perspective: they cannot ignore those who are actively advocating for the overthrow of the State, self-preservation is one of the most important goals of the State. As for right wing conspiracy theories: I think we just have to accept that there will be conspiracy theories no matter what we do. The whole QAnon nonsense was based on complete fiction. The only way to really combat it is probably for the Government to be transparent in what its doing, and an independent media with high quality journalists plays a huge role in doing that (part of what resulted in this article).

Guest42 5y ago

I wonder how they perceive those that don’t partake in social media.

codyb 5y ago
Hopefully sane and unencumbered by a never ceasing shit stream of dubious information. At least that's how I feel after leaving social media. I check NYT a couple times a day and browse Hackernews while I'm waiting for tests to complete. The rest of the time I'd spend dawdling on Twitter or Fark I put towards reading. YMMV, but for me, I find it far more pleasant and less hectic.
- ne0flex 5y ago
  I remember back in the early 2010s when employers started checking out the FaceBook profiles of prospects. There was an article about how people without Facebook profiles were deemed suspicious as though they were attempting to hide something by not having a Facebook account. [1] [2] [1]https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/08/06/beware-tech-abandoners-people-without-facebook-accounts-are-suspicious/?sh=41ed70228f95 https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/08/06/beware-t... [2]https://business.time.com/2012/08/08/does-not-having-a-facebook-page-make-you-suspicious-to-employers/ https://business.time.com/2012/08/08/does-not-having-a-faceb...
wearywanderer 5y ago
Even more dangerous, such people are clearly socially isolated and probably have extremist motivations for behaving in such an unusual way. /s
- vixen99 5y ago
  How do you manage to be so clear about a group of people of whom you know nothing ? One can only hope you're not in politics with executive powers. Use of social media: https://backlinko.com/social-media-users https://backlinko.com/social-media-users.
  - wearywanderer 5y ago
    The /s indicates sarcasm. I apologize for expressing myself with sarcasm, I know it's a vice that often causes confusion.

pm90 5y ago

Well, look at it from the Government's perspective: they cannot ignore those who are actively advocating for the overthrow of the State, self-preservation is one of the most important goals of the State. As for right wing conspiracy theories: I think we just have to accept that there will be conspiracy theories no matter what we do. The whole QAnon nonsense was based on complete fiction. The only way to really combat it is probably for the Government to be transparent in what its doing, and an independent media with high quality journalists plays a huge role in doing that (part of what resulted in this article).