When you take a vague as hell sign-in letter and shop it around widely, many different people are going to sign on with VERY different ideas about what the letter is ~really~ about.

I realize not everyone had the same motives, or the same understanding of what they were criticizing, what they were promoting.

But the letter was vague on purpose, they were dogwhistles on purpose.

Some people almost certainly didn't realize how many people would sign it, seemingly because they disliked the well-deserved criticism they personally have received for abhorent actions or views.

So?

Intentions aren't magic.

The point of a sign on letter is that it's powerful because of the people that signed.

If you find yourself in duplicitous bigoted company, pause. Review what you think *they* saw in the text of the letter.

Do you agree with them?

Do you think the plain text of the letter really can't be understood to mean something else?

I understand why someone could miss some of the context, we can't all understand the weird politics of every internet conflict!

I understand why someone could sign this, not knowing.

But once you see the full published list of people, once you hear the likely motivations of many....

I don't know how the reaction isn't "oh, this is a bad list".

And the list is the point.

*sign-on.

I swear I didn't make as many typos pre-isolation