Fake Terror Plots

So The Huffington Post has an article up noting that "Over 40 People Have Been Arrested As Potential Mass Shooters Since El Paso." Most of these were for posting things online about potential shootings, although some of them seem like were not at all serious. And while no one should post that stuff, should it really be illegal too? And as I've noted, since you're about six times more likely to die from peanuts than mass shootings (most of which are apolitical and some leftwing) this seems like these arrests are mostly either being done as an ad hoc response or to gin up more hysteria and fear. 

For instance, the FBI has a long history of using informants to either commit or incite acts of terrorism; most of which they stop beforehand (but not always). For instance, the FBI recently stopped a "bombing suspect" who was going to engage in "white nationalist terror." There's a bit of problem with this though. According to his family,

We as a family are extremely distraught about this situation with our son Jerry Drake Varnell, but what the public must understand is that he is a paranoid schizophrenic and is extremely susceptible to different types of ideology that normal people would deem immoral. Underneath his condition, he is a sweet-hearted person and we are extremely shocked that this event has happened. However, what truly has us flabbergasted is the fact that the FBI knew he was schizophrenic...

What the public should be looking at is the fact that the FBI gave our son the means to make this happen. He has no job, no money, no vehicle, and no driver’s license, due to the fact that he is schizophrenic and we; his parents do everything we can possible to keep him safe and functional. [Emphasis Mine]

Back in the late 2000's, I said the Patriot Act and things like that would be turned away from Muslims and onto American citizens. And I was right. The genuine Left (i.e. Glenn Greenwald not Rachel Maddow) will probably be the next target. 

In this video from around 2010, Andrew Napolitano points out that most of these stopped Muslim terror plots back then were basically the same thing. After 9/11 (which, I should note, the government catastrophically and pathetically failed to stop), the government took credit for stopping 17 of the 20 terror plots that were foiled. (The other three were by vigilant American citizens).  The only problem; they set up all 17 of them.

Resist the hysteria everyone. Yes there are major problems with white nationalism (as there are with communists/Antifa and radical Islam), but those dangers pale in comparison to giving the state too much power. Remember, these are the same people that lied us into the Iraq War amongst many other such sins.