Isn't that the classic "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about" argument?
And maybe you do communicate with terrorist supporters: Are you absolutely sure none of the people you communicate with support terrorism?
Nobody is contacting me on terrorist matters. Even if someone did I would ignore them and/or report them to the Bureau.
I don't see how this is a problem for anybody here. Unless you are literally planning an attack, you have done nothing wrong, you are not in the process of doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about.
Unless you have an anectode about being personally harassed by the FBI then I submit that you are getting worked up over something that is not and should not ever be your problem.
People distrust the FBI for very good reasons.
The whole "investigate anyone who's ever been friends with anyone who's been investigated for terrorism" workflow just winds up wasting resources and screwing over people who don't deserve to be screwed over.
I supposed we could fix it by going back to a society of hunter/gatherers who have little to no contact outside their tribe, after all, it'd be in the name of "preventing terrorism."/s
I understand that one has to choose their friends and not associate with obvious terrorists and organized crime but that just builds groups that reinforce each other. Incentivizing communities to become more politically homogenous just breeds more terrorism. If radicals only hang out with radicals they become more radical. That's why we have neo Nazis and white supremacist groups. Nobody wants to hang out with them because of the social stigma so they hang out with each other and create an echo chamber.
If nobody but the kid that secretly wants to shoot up the school will hang out with the other kid that secretly wants to shoot up the school you get problems, problems that scale to white supremacist groups, Al-Queda and ISIS, heck it even scales all the way up to major religions. How many hundreds of years did it take for protestants and Catholics to stop throwing each other in jail every time their land was conquered by a king of the other religion? How are the Sunnis and Shia doing?
I'm not by any means advocating for social/political homogeny (1984, Brave New World, etc). However, when the rules of society include "do nothing wrong and you have nothing to fear" people surround themselves with people of similar belief and kick out those that believe differently because what's right and wrong are determined by consensus. That's how you get two kids that think shooting up a school is a great idea, or ten guys that think bombing some sports event is a great idea, everyone (no matter how few) around them agrees.
So if you really want to prevent terrorism become friends with that awkward quiet religious fundamentalist guy in your office (or the doomsday prepper, or the racist or some other generic example of a person that usually becomes a social outcast). Everyone seeks out a group to be a meaningful part of. The enemy sets the bar for inclusion low, anyone can wear a suicide vest and the gun doesn't care if the person pulling the trigger is socially awkward. People join those groups and surround themselves with other radicals because all you have to do is believe what they do and you're part of the team.
Shunning people that are a "little bit too extreme" because associating with those types is suspicious and not something you want to involve yourself with just provides an incentive for them to associate with each other and create a positive feedback loop.
No it's not a problem for anyone here but indirectly it's a problem for everyone here.
Do the people that were friends with Eric Harris, the Tsarniav(sp?) brothers and Jihadi John but let that friendship erode are glad they no longer associate with those people or do they wish they could have done something?