this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2025
222 points (99.6% liked)
United States | News & Politics
3415 readers
884 users here now
Welcome to !usa@midwest.social, where you can share and converse about the different things happening all over/about the United States.
If you’re interested in participating, please subscribe.
Rules
Be respectful and civil. No racism/bigotry/hateful speech.
No memes.
Post news related to the United States.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The difference between protestors with masks and government licensed law enforcement paramilitary mercenaries is that the mercenaries have deadly weapons and a license to kill or maim backed by government sanctioned decrees ..... in extreme circumstances like what is happening in the US right now, the protestors are literally fighting for their lives and the lives of others.
Yep, that's reasonable. I was just making sure since that idea seems to conflict with
Given ICE's application of stingrays, social media handing over any and all information to authorities, and ever increasing detainments, protesters have more reason than ever to hide their identities - as we see with the frog people in Seattle. Discouraging opsec could be dangerous advice in this situation, but I see now that discouraging opsec was not your intent.
Protesters should absolutely hide their identity as much and as often as possible ... they are literally putting their lives on the line. They have no recourse if they are identified, the government can literally go after them once identified ... shut them down financially, legally and take their communications and connections on the internet and go after them in the night, raid their home and arrest them, or after the people associated with them.
Any government official or law enforcement person should never have the need to hide their identity. As soon as they do, it is basically a message to everyone that what they are doing is not legal, moral or justified ... and they know its wrong, which is why they hide.