The feebs are operating on the presumption of threat because the professional consequences of being wrong are safer that way.
Option A- you see someone make what looks like a 'true threat' of violence\terrorism. But then you look at the context not included in the statement and decide it's actually a joke. Turns out... you were wrong. One in a million chance came through. Dude guns down someone just like he wrote he would and just like someone reported he said. It's bad enough that he wrote it but the real kicker is that you are known to have read it. Now people are asking why you didn't get off your ass and do literally anything about it.
Option B- you see someone make what is probably a joke but decide to assume it could be real. Since you're on the clock anyway you go through the motions to lay your federal cock down on him. You scare the absolute bejesus out of the shitposter and you can report that you did so and found nothing indicating actual intent. Nothing bad happens to you and you get to expense lunch at the sushi place near the dipshit's house and play candy crush till the boss expects you back. Paperwork is filed. That cute "administrative assistant" is wearing the black low-cut blouse. All is right with the world. Which option would you pick?
It's not that they're stupid, it's that they don't care. They're covering their ass. And it seems reasonable to expect null to do the same so he doesn't have to get woken up by alphabet agencies.
To add to this, it's still within their interest to investigate even if they strongly suspect you're full of shit, regardless of whether they're legally obligated to. The outcomes in such a case would be:
A - the guy turns out to be a shitposter like SIGga. They knock on his door and confirm he's just an edgelord. They tell him to stop being a retard, that actions have consequences and consequences will never be the same, and then they'll go on with their business. This would scare 90% of people enough to make then watch their actions and stop cluttering the FBI's to-do list with spurious threats. The 10% that would still go on after receiving a glowing visit are clearly unhinged enough to receive fed interest with earnest.
Or, B - turns out the guy is a legitimate crazy person, they cuff him, they congratulate themselves on a job well done.
There's absolutely no reason for the feds not to investigate every explicit threat when the alternative could be a mass shooting or assassination, and a media cycle plastered with blurbs like: "the authorities were aware of the suspect's plans but chose not to act".
What I don't get is why anyone would be so stupid to post their plans to go on a killing spree on a public forum that thousands of people can read. Assuming you were crazy enough to go on a killing spree or try and assassinate a politician why would you post you detailed plans or announce it on a website where thousands of people can read your post, get your personal contact info, and call the cops if they think you are serious? Even if you weren't serious you'd still regret it because you'd end up a laughingstock. People would always remember you as "that idiot who wrote an elaborate manifesto as a joke, got a visit from the feds, and revealed how much of a retard he was".
It's the psychology of an echochamber. If a bunch of already frustrated and unstable people find a hugbox of likeminded individuals, who spend all day seething at the state of the world together through the lense of clickbait articles with no reality checks, then that community is going to spiral into lunacy exponentially. We've seen this happen time and time again on the Internet, on various ends of the political spectrum. Fringe hiveminds whipping themselves up into a hysterical frenzy 24/7, escalating their in-group rhetoric to the point where openly fantasizing about mass murder becomes the norm. It's only a matter of time before one of them snaps and crosses the line from daydreaming to committing some kind of felony.
That's why the A&H apologists in this thread are being disingenuous faggots. SIG deserves all the blame for what happened, but the politispergs are acting like that should excuse all the fanatics in the Election thread who were just a step or two behind him, when it should really be a wake-up call. Just because those people were able to dress up their glorification of domestic terrorism in a way that it wasn't technically illegal doesn't mean it's desirable or acceptable. You're just going to replicate the old "people pretending to be idiots" idiom, only with "violent insurrectionist" instead. It's definitely necessary for a community which isn't even meant to be political to tell the spergs to find some other way to speedrun themselves into Bubba's loving arms that doesn't involve us.
I don't think baleeting A&H is the way forward. As others have said, I suspect most posters in those boards are pretty casual and it would be a shame to completely ban any mention of politics from the site because a vocal minority can't behave. That said, there's definitely a very firmly entrenched deranged and unhealthy streak to the political boards. I can barely stomache 15 minutes of browsing before I'm exhausted by all the rage and doom and gloom. I can't even imagine what the frame of mind of someone who's spent the last year devoutly following the COVID/Riots/Election threads for hours on end, day after day, looks like.