How would you know they are plotting terrorist attacks before you started spying?

Tips to law enforcement, violent history, threats.

Anything that can be used to "spy on white supremacists" will almost certainly be (ab)used to spy on other people. There are very few real, actual white supremacists, and even fewer of those who are "plotting terror attacks". In recent memory (~15 years) I can only recall three major terror attacks against minorities perpetrated by real, actual white supremacists: Breivik, the Christchurch shooting, and Dylann Roof.

Besides the definition of what constitutes a "white supremacist" has been getting more ambiguous by the minute over the past few years. Nowadays it pretty much just means "anyone who doesn't like illegal immigration" or "anyone I don't like, but I'm too lazy to articulate why".

All of this is completely off topic from my post. "White supremacists" were just an example. It could have just as easily been neo nazis, or Islamic extremists, or whatever.

Your post is similar to if I proposed a hypothetical about addition using apples, and you posted a screed about how apples are overused in American cuisine and their nutritional value is suspect, especially relative to oranges and pears.

All of those groups represent a tiny subset of the population ill suited to mass surveillance dragnets and well suited to on-the-ground policing and community engagement (as in, getting sane members of those groups to snitch on the insane).

Just the other week I saw the news that until recently we had 300 (!) Saudi nationals training to fly planes right here in the US. Software won't help us with stupidity/sabotage of this magnitude.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/navy-suspends-flight-trainin...

You can add the Pittsburg synagogue shooting to that list.

I'm not in favor of surveillance panopticons either, for what it's worth.

Seems more of an antisemite rather than white supremacist per se. Didn't publish any manifestos either. But I'll allow it.

Still, that's very few events, which supports my point. It's basically a more potent "think of the children" trojan horse that routinely gives the government even more power (and potential for abuse) through harebrained and ineffectual laws. See e.g. the current FISA abuse scandal where the FBI _falsified the supporting documentation, and knowingly supplied fake documentation to the court_ to spy on a presidential campaign. Had it been you or me they spied on, nobody would even know.

I think you'll find that isn't the case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_synagogue_shooting#...

Again, I agree with you that domestic extremism (be it white supremacist, Muslim, or Black Hebrew Israelites) should be countered through ordinary policing, rather than building the Stasi's wet dream.

Charlottesville car attack?