Anti-TSA Twitter Feed

Okay, I'm glad it exists, I'm glad people are using it, every little bit helps.

But for the 50th time, come on, people, step the f**k up! If you're never willing to use your real name, you diminish your credibility. That's the way the world works. I can't help it. All these rants on Twitter are all well and good, but I won't add them all to the Master List without something more. It's not that I don't believe you. Obviously, since I've been tracking these abuses and writing about them for years, I do. But the great unwashed out there -- as well as the complacent media -- won't. You make it too easy for them to dismiss you. Just somebody, please, use your real name!

TSA rants
@TSArants Vienna, VA
Tracking citizen complaints about the U.S. Transportation Security Administration
https://twitter.com/tsarants

 

Surely you jest! With all the propaganda out there about DHS monitoring social media, anti-USA blogs, websites, home-grown terrorists are our next-door-neighbor, etc., the wimps have lost their nerve and are scared shitless. I am so NOT surprised.

 

But internet/twitter monikers are useless. It's easy to find out someone's real identity. They're not fooling anybody. If that's what they're afraid of, they need to wake up.

 

Not true. It's a good idea to have as little as possible associated with your real name. The less a Google search turns up about you, the better.

It is 100% possible to remain anyonymous on the internet, although most people won't make the effort to do so.

 

For guys like you who know your way around a computer, yes. Not for someone like me who's lucky she can turn the thing on.

 

Common refrain apparently, but everyone just loves TSA:

 

I read an article yesterday that had nothing to do with TSA and TSA still got the blame from commenters. The drums are beating louder and louder and I read far fewer comments in support of TSA. I think we are nearing self sustaining combustion on the TSA front.

 

Maybe. Still, one false flag operation is all it would take, and the sheeple would fall right into line.

 

I won't use my real name on line; however, I certainly use it in correspondence with the government. And if they don't like what I have to say and want to add me to the domestic terrorist list, fine with me.

 

So far we've had the underwear bomber & the shoe bomber & the Times Sq. bomber. They can only cry "Wolf" so many times. It has less effect every time, especially when it is coupled with the abuse that people get at the hands of TSA's perverted retards each & every day.

 

I hope so. I can think of a lot of so-called educated, politically aware people who have fallen right into line so far, and who still, to this day, defend the TSA. And say, "But what else can we do? The Terrorists!"

 

Oh, it's not too bad - mostly it's just remembering who you are on each social network and what your passwords are.

If people are looking for me, I'm not all that hard to find. I have some barricades up though and I'm not on facebook (I'll die before I go there). I use my real name (not my whole name) for some social networks and different names for others. 'Sunny Goth' is just my latest incarnation.

A lot of people who use pseudonyms don't realize that speech patterns are hard to change. I haven't met many people who do it well over time. I don't do it well either. And then there's the problem of IP addresses - you need to use some kind of an anonymizer to take care of that.

 

Actually it's fairly simply, but most people don't have the discipline to do it.

1. Stay way from Facebook. Facebook is death.
2. Create an email account anonymously from a public (e.g. library) computer. Use that to create any further anonymous accounts.
3. Never access any of these anonymous accounts from a point to which you can be traced (e.g. work computer, cell phone, home computer on cable/city wireless/cell modem, etc.)
4. If you use your own computer, pay cash for a netbook, don't register the warranty, don't use cell modems or paid wireless. Only surf at free wireless sites.
5. Never leave your real name behind anywhere on the internet.

Most people would be much better off if they just followed rule #5. A couple Brits might be vacationing in LA right now if they had followed Rule #5.

For added security, use anonymizer sites. They are not 100% anonymous but a lot harder to trace, and if you have enough time to waste & patience, you can connect through several simultaneously.

 

Tell them to curl up & die, but please first get out of your way.

 

Yep. The only other thing I'd add is to stay away from any social network that requires a real name. Facebook is one, Google+ is another. I'm not on Google+ either. Speaking of Google --- I keep my distance from them -- I don't use gmail, I don't have an android phone, I've been researching other search engines, my youtube use is dwindling to almost nothing, etc.

 

Yes, Google seems to be bad rather news for privacy. Unfortunately, their search engine is really good & I'm in up to my neck with Blogspot & Adsense.

 

I'm not on Facebook and have no intention of ever getting on it. But I've used my real name for years. Columnists writing for newspapers use their real names. So do investigative reporters. They write all kinds of stuff that pisses off people in power. They don't try to hide.

I've been in the media all my career -- mostly radio, but also print -- and it seemed ridiculous for me to suddenly try to anonymize myself when the internet came along. My politics and my views were out there for anyone to see long before the digital age.

And again, even if I were doing all the privacy stuff indicated up-thread, I'm sure that the powers-that-be, if they really want to, could trace people like me. (expletive deleted), they're tracing the folks in Anonymous, although granted the latter are giving them a run for their money. My capabilities, even if I were reasonably skilled, would be waaaaaay less than those of Anonymous.

If I were saying anything so seditious, I would've been picked up long ago. The stuff I write on TUG -- or even email -- it's nothing in the grand scheme of things. I think it's much more a case of using common sense. You don't put anything in writing you wouldn't be willing to say publicly. That's the rule I follow.

 

P.S. And Mike, are you telling me you never use your computer at home or work for this stuff? You're going to a library or other public place every time?? No way. Or else I don't understand what you're saying.

 

It's not a question of sedition -- it's a matter of what might be Googled up on the spot during a job interview or border crossing or similar situation. Why provide people who would cause you trouble with an easy source of ammo? The less one does under his or her real name on the internet, the better.

 

Well, that horse is obviously long out of the barn!

But it's more than that. For me, philosophically, I think it's important to stand by what you believe and what you say. And to be proud of it. We are in the right. We are standing up for what is right. It's important to do that. And to encourage other people to do that. This is about more than just my travel (curtailed as it is) or my life.

I have a friend who often says, "Courage is contagious." Yes, it is. So is cowardice. That's why it's important to attempt the former and try to keep at bay the latter.

That's also why I admire Sommer Gentry, and everyone else who's come forward with their real names in their stories of sexual assault, whether at the hands of the TSA or anyone else. It encourages other people. It's for the benefit of everyone, not just those particular individuals.