I’ve been trying to put my finger on why the whole…Rogue Twitter thing has been bothering me, and I think I’ve finally figured out a piece of it.
The way people are regarding and celebrating these “rogue” accounts tastes a lot like idolatry. Which….would be less of a problem, in my opinion, if we were actually able to trust these accounts.
Some of them seem pretty legitimate but…you realize how easy it would be for someone (say, a counterintelligence agent) to make an account like this, in order to infiltrate the community, right? Considering how quickly more “rogue” agency accounts sprung up after the AltUSNatPark account, and how quickly they amassed followers, can you imagine how easy it would be for a competently-run imposter account to get plenty of attention and support?
People want to believe that there are people in federal agencies who have their best interests at heart. We want to believe that there are people in places like the White House, who are willing to risk their careers in order to help us fight. And I’m sure there’s a fair chance that those kinds of people do exist.
However, our government knows that we want that as well. It would not surprise me if the current administration were to take advantage of it. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time the American government has infiltrated dissenting groups to sabotage them.
I’m not claiming that I know that any of these accounts are fake. I’m not trying to delegitimize them. I mean, as a student of science (and as just one of millions of people who are fearful of what’s happening)…seeing accounts like the AltUSNatPark and RogueNASA has made me hopeful that truth, and fact, and reason, are things that will survive despite the government trying to suppress them.
I just want be careful. I want us all to remember that we need to be vigilant, we need to be skeptical, we need to remember how easy it is to be misled on the Internet. We need to restrain from putting blind faith into just any account that pops up and claims to want to help us.
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