Re: Out in the open
I find myself wondering why anybody would want to shut down back page when it's encouraging criminals to give themselves away to LEO. They're saying "Here I am, arrest me for all the things I'm doing that are already serious crimes." Sure, they're the stupid ones, but they still commit nasty crimes and need to be stopped. And they may have connections to some of those smart enough not to use backpage. Keeping it open makes it easy to find these scumbags and take them down.
Tin foil helmet time...
Suppose that you were a politician with a predilection for under-age sex slaves.
Suppose that you don't use backpage yourself, but you know others IRL who share your tastes and who do use backpage.
Suppose that you realize that those others are drawing attention to themselves by using backpage, may be picked up by LEO, and may divulge your name in an attempt at a plea-bargain.
In that case it would be in your interest to get backpage shut down and the whole mess swept under the carpet of the dark web.
Nah, that's too silly to believe. It's far more likely that the politicians are too stupid to understand why it's a stupid idea. Or they know it;'s a stupid idea but also know it will get them a lot of votes from people who are too thick to realize it's a stupid idea.
Then again, Dennis Hastert (or Cyril Smith, on this side of the pond)...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
