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Someone beat me to posting the story about the PA attorney general going after Epik and Gab. I saw it first on Ars Technica during my lunch break and my blood ran cold.

This is the dumbest, stupidest, most counterproductive, most self-destructive goddamn thing they could possibly have done. If I didn't already trust the government about as far as I can throw my bathtub--which is cemented to the floor--I would not have believed anyone in that position could possibly be that stupid.

Seriously, this is "Dealing With Nutbar Extremists 101" level shit here. When a group of people have utterly divorced themselves from reality and built an entire narrative around being oppressed and discriminated against, don't actually do anything to oppress or discriminate against them! Jesus!

What this idiot has done will be written down in history books, if indeed there are any historians left to write them and any literate people left to read them, as the pivotal, galvanizing moment for the United States' 21st century anti-Civil-Rights movement. This is going to kickstart a dark, twisted, blasphemous, zombified parody of all the 60s and 70s rallies that brought real, positive change to the nation. It's all gonna go to hell.

And why? Because some self-aggrandizing empty suit, some shortsighted, amoral political hack, decided to wipe his ass on the Constitution and do exactly what the fuck the kind of people who flock to Gab would do in the first place: advocate for lawbreaking violence (yes, this is a type of violence, it's a clear intimidation attempt) because "muh ideological purity!"

I don't think most people understand why this is so dangerous. The *least* bad part about this is that they've now turbocharged the aforementioned narrative. They have, in a word, turned Gab into martyrs. More dangerous is the precedent being set here; there is no reason that, say 10 years down the road when it's all gone to shit and we have Gab-denizens in charge, they can't and won't refer to this to shut down speech *they* don't like. Never, ever give yourself any powers or leeway you couldn't stand being used against you when the tables turn, as they always, always do. Especially not when your use of them is "this is dirty but I have to do it for great justice" and the opposition's use of them will be accompanied by nothing more self-reflective than a long string of maniacal, gleeful cackling.

But worst of all, this has undermined the legitimacy of government attempts to stifle actual violence and hate movements. From now on, any attempt to put a lid on any of it, all the way up to outright calls for genocide, is going to be viewed as suspicious, in any context, no matter who does it, and no matter what it is they're opposing. This asshole in Pennsylvania has played right into the lunatics' hands, and there is not a desk big enough to slam my face into that can express how utterly disgusted I am.

Let us not mince words: this is an intimidation attempt, a deliberate ploy to create a chilling effect, a fishing expedition in the worst way, and yes, very likely a Constitutional violation.

It's also--have I said this enough yet?--fucking stupid. What you do with toxic, asocial idiots like, well, like the kind of people who need a place like Gab, is...you let them go. You let them concentrate there, out of the way of civilized society, and you close the lid. Like a roach motel; Nazis check in, they don't check out, but because they want to stay in the motel. The correct course of action is to use the place as the internet's septic tank for white nationalists, and of course monitor it veeeeery very closely. Contain it, as you would any other plague virus, and make no mistake, what Gab is peddling is a memetic plague.

Hell, if I were this guy, I would have half a dozen agents make fake accounts there, blend in, and exfiltrate as much information as possible out of that place, the more ridiculous the better. And plaster it all over, too, using the advantage of exposure available to a government entity. Remember that guy, name I forget, who was fucking his mother in law or something? That kind of thing. Spread it around like cream cheese on the world's best bagels and make sure everyone gets a bite.

And of course, watch the place like a hawk and intercept anyone planning to, for example, shoot up a synagogue or something. Good grief, the best argument for these neo-Nazi pukes not having the brains Madokami gave a tree stump is that they willingly congregate on the open internet and openly discuss plans to harm or kill other people! THAT is something the government has both legal and moral authority to go after! This could have been like shooting particularly ugly, stupid, morally repulsive fish in a barrel!

In time, the contagion would have become self-limiting, and eventually burned itself out. Mockery, slow resource starvation, and simple waning interest would have done for it, reducing Gab to the racist online equivalent of "old man yells at cloud.jpg." But no. No, they went and did this stupid shit instead. I hope the ACLU and the EFF and all the other progressive groups come out in support of Gab, and you know what? I will be standing right there with them.

The Constitution, the law of the land, the backbone of the US, what we should always aspire to even if we ain't there (and even if it's only possible to approach asymptotically) is worth more than this. It's one thing when private businesses refuse to do business with them because they find them odious; it's quite another when the government steps in. Congratulations, PA AG: you've sunk to the level of Gab's userbase, and in doing so you may have doomed us all.