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Comment by dec0dedab0de | Hacker News Reader

The agents may not have learned anything from Serafini, but the visit — which took place one day before the No Kings protest — did accomplish one thing: Serafini decided against going to No Kings. He was spooked.

That is exactly the chilling effect on speech that the FBI investigating political matters risks creating.

Ugh, I might have to start caring about politics again, this is unacceptable.

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You may not care about politics, but politics cares about you.

not caring about politics is a crime these days. This is just one example of completely unacceptable things happening.

Actually, it seems like the opposite. Caring about politics is now a crime.

Interestingly you are both right even tho you say the exact opposite. :)

You should! We shouldn't let ourselves be dragged silently into the dark times. In my opinion, it's our obligation to try to understand the landscape and to make sure that everyone — across the different political beliefs — is well off... Only then do you get a system that rewards merit, instead of whatever the heck you want to call what is being dropped on us.

“Not caring” means you are privileged enough that you could look away for a long time. Politics definitely cared about you though.

The hour is fucking late now. Do it while you still can. People too busy pumping the stock market to see they are losing their right.

You are now on a list.

That says more about the list makers.

Well, let's see. There were 7 million people at No Kings. I don't think one-on-one FBI visits is a scalable tactic to try to reduce the numbers.

So maybe this particular visit was not just about "chilling effect"?

It could not have a chilling affect on the next day's No Kings protest, except on that individual and maybe others he told about it that day.

But now the story is out, which can have a chilling affect on many people considering attending future No Kings or similar protests.

How many people do you think need FBI visits to chill those 7 million? All of them?

Don't you think that a few hundred instances of articles like this could have a chilling effect?

If you keep reading articles over a few months about different people being visited/interviewed by the FBI, you'll at some point have the thought "can they somehow find out about me?".

It's Panopticon-lite, give the impression they might be able to see you even if there's no realistic capacity to watch everyone at once and you'll feel a little more paranoid, that's a chilling effect.

Now couple that with the friend of the administration Larry Ellison's quote about "if we watch every citizen they'll be in their best behaviour", and you get to a political project of control.

No, magas are too stupid to understand this. Obviously this won't affect magas. But it might bring a bit more attention to those in the middle.

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