Based on that last post, I was thinking more about this whole thing about how should activists identify and neutralize the effects of possible undercover cops and agents who may have infiltrated their organizations.

And I figured it out once and for all.

Anybody suspected of being a UC (undercover cop) should be made to join a special “affinity group”, since they’re so keen on forming affinity groups. They could even give it a clever name, like “UC Bloc,” and the whole purpose of the group could be some kind of weird postmodernist attempt to “blur the lines” and “reformulate definitions about what it means to be a blah blah blah”.
They can even have a logo, which consists of an iconic shield with a question mark in it. Then they can put together little signs for protests using that logo plus intentionally ambivalent slogans, which could either be taken seriously if they turn out to be cops, or sarcastically, if they turn out to just be protestors.

This way, all the suspected UC’s would be out of everybody’s hair, and they could spend all their time snitching and gathering information on one another, and trying to provoke each other into doing illegal activities, instead of mild-mannered peace-loving activists. It’s really the perfect solution…

Actually, the whole question kind of makes my head spin, and the only real good answer to it I can think of is Philip K. Dick’s, A Scanner Darkly, where the main character is forced to anonymously spy and snitch on himself. Of course, the resolution of the situation in that book is also anything but conclusive. Seems like its a topic that’s worth thinking about in greater detail, especially as things get worse, which they almost certainly will.

On that note, here’s a rather conspiratorial thing I just found about identifying undercover agents. Haven’t read it yet, but it looks downright kooky. For more fun info on the American government trying to historically infiltrate activist groups, do a little research on COINTELPRO from way back in the sixties. And here’s a quick little ditty about police tracking 56 people who they deem to be dangerous protestors, in light of the upcoming RNC.