Does it “put you on a watchlist”? Well, it depends on just what you mean by “a watchlist”. If you mean any list anyone has then yes, I’m sure there is someone making a list of who they saw participate in a community about anarchism. Probably some other member of the anarchist community who is looking for like-minded friends. If you meant some US government list that is used to persecute people and deny them jobs – we did that up until about 1975, but it’s not something we do today. If you meant some US government list that is secret, but might be used to consider whether to give someone a security clearance then the answer is maybe – after all, the list is secret, so we wouldn’t KNOW if it exists.
“Can you get arrested/charged for crimes?” No. Discussing anarchism is NOT a crime. Now, if you have a chat with your anarchist friends about the best way to build a bomb and about how you plan to use a bomb on October 7 to blow up the President or some Supreme Court justice, then THAT is a criminal conspiracy, and you should expect to be hunted down and arrested. But if you are just discussing policy the First Amendment guarantees your right to free speech and free association. And while the enforcement of that has been spotty over this history of this country, at the moment we don’t put people in jail for joining an online community.
Does it “put you on a watchlist”? Well, it depends on just what you mean by “a watchlist”. If you mean any list anyone has then yes, I’m sure there is someone making a list of who they saw participate in a community about anarchism. Probably some other member of the anarchist community who is looking for like-minded friends. If you meant some US government list that is used to persecute people and deny them jobs – we did that up until about 1975, but it’s not something we do today. If you meant some US government list that is secret, but might be used to consider whether to give someone a security clearance then the answer is maybe – after all, the list is secret, so we wouldn’t KNOW if it exists.
“Can you get arrested/charged for crimes?” No. Discussing anarchism is NOT a crime. Now, if you have a chat with your anarchist friends about the best way to build a bomb and about how you plan to use a bomb on October 7 to blow up the President or some Supreme Court justice, then THAT is a criminal conspiracy, and you should expect to be hunted down and arrested. But if you are just discussing policy the First Amendment guarantees your right to free speech and free association. And while the enforcement of that has been spotty over this history of this country, at the moment we don’t put people in jail for joining an online community.