Oddbean new post about | logout
 Honestly, the queue people seem to understand (subconsciously at least) what's going on. The woo-woo stuff is for fun, a Schelling Point to rally around. The goal was to be relatively safe, avoid doing stupid shit, and be ready to act when needed, and they did all of that - largely just bad luck that J6 didn't go their way, and that the regime decided to move into full Soviet-style terror immediately thereafter. 

A lot of people try to dunk on the qoomers to sound smart, but I mentally discount the IQ of anyone I see doing that by about 10 points - their words are schizo, but their actions are relatively sound heuristics:

> Remain anon online at all costs

> IRL events should always teaming up with a larger, friendly group that is either too big or too well-liked to persecute

> Don't ever do anything remotely incriminating

> Act up only when a major figure that has a chance of success gives the word

> Messaging should, at minimum, be baseline tolerable to normal people. Don't sound antisocial.

You can compare them to the weird "Traditional Workers Party" glownigs and their various copycat groups, whose heuristics are:

> anonymity is overrated, get yourself 'vetted' (doxed) ASAP

> IRL events should be frequent and led by an obese man in an ill-fitting T-shirt with a highly alienating symbol on it

> Lack anonymity completely, get your members into altercations in hostile jurisdictions that are guaranteed to arrest them.

> Messaging should be as embarassing as possible to both everyone involved and any broader demographic that the FBI feels like targeting at the time.