I agree with your reasoning, but wouldn’t this still allow for faking candidates who are not currently in office? We should, if we don’t already, have laws to protect the interest of the public in having reliable information.
Whoever falsely assumes or pretends to be an officer or employee acting under the authority of the United States or any department, agency or officer thereof, and acts as such, or in such pretended character demands or obtains any money, paper, document, or thing of value, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
This is about pretending to be an officer of the US and getting something because of the office, not pretending to be someone who happens to be an officer of the US and acting in their private capacity. Impersonating a police officer and telling people it’s illegal to vote is a special crime, impersonating Joe, who happens to work as a police officer, and telling his Facebook friends it’s a waste of time to vote is not.
Frankly, sedition has become the new communist or fascist. A word with real meaning, turned into a slur, and then hurled at people with complete disregard for what the word actually means.
I’ll go a step further and say that even the legal charges of sedition is something that the pubic should view with great skepticism.
Otherwise, it may becomes the new terrorism boogeyman and the FBI will start entrapping people for that instead, or alongside, the terrorists they create, and then arrest.
Should be a major felony. This is straight up sedition. Trying to subvert democracy.
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I agree with your reasoning, but wouldn’t this still allow for faking candidates who are not currently in office? We should, if we don’t already, have laws to protect the interest of the public in having reliable information.
deleted by creator
This is about pretending to be an officer of the US and getting something because of the office, not pretending to be someone who happens to be an officer of the US and acting in their private capacity. Impersonating a police officer and telling people it’s illegal to vote is a special crime, impersonating Joe, who happens to work as a police officer, and telling his Facebook friends it’s a waste of time to vote is not.
This is not sedition…
Frankly, sedition has become the new communist or fascist. A word with real meaning, turned into a slur, and then hurled at people with complete disregard for what the word actually means.
I’ll go a step further and say that even the legal charges of sedition is something that the pubic should view with great skepticism.
Otherwise, it may becomes the new terrorism boogeyman and the FBI will start entrapping people for that instead, or alongside, the terrorists they create, and then arrest.