Not a Sheeple

I had a very interesting, if completely frustrating, chat with my mother tonight.

I post comments on another site where there are pages about anything and everything (from cool recipes to the latest political news all over the rock).

Earlier, I caught a page about a law that would allow the French government to put on trial anyone who'd visit extremists websites. It's only a project, but it's very dangerous.

Some people commented on the fact that if you're editing books, or writing, you can have a pretty funky web history, and that's true.

I pointed out that true terrorists are probably using things to hide (the really bad guys aren't stupid - if you think that, I hope you're not working in anything related to security - at any level!).

My mother gasped and asked if I'd posted that anonymously, which isn't possible on that site, in fact, and I told her so. She instantly reminded me of "ze war", back when walls had ears and the wrong word could get you sent to a camp, or shot to death.

Well, it's probably dangerous to tell (and type) the truth, but I'm still convinced that the real evil masterminds know how to hide.

That being said, monitoring the people who are fans of any form of extremism would be a good idea - if it didn't mean monitoring the whole wide web, which remains very totalitarian.

I told my mother I wasn't buying the smokescreen, and she gasped again, afraid for me.

What am I supposed to do? Roll over and obey blindly? *points at title* Sorry.

Second post of the day on the topic. Won't tell Mother this time, though.