[USA] How much of a bad idea is it to be flying drones in this political climate? Or carrying meshtastic radios Or Ham/GMRS radios in public? How likely are there gonna be karens that will harass you?

cross-posted from: sh.itjust.works/post/45996230

Like, I probably sound paranoid af. But I’ve read news about apparant “illegal CCP ‘Police Stations’” operating out of NYC (and variojs places) and um… I’m Chinese-American, and I was born in mainland China, especially under current administration, I personally feel like its a very bad time to be like… flying a drone.

See, because drones are made in China, there’s basically a fear of “spying” from these drones throughout the country, and DJI is already on the path of being banned, and I’ve seen videos of karens harassing a Youtuber, even when they are white, so I can’t imagine the shit I have to face if I cross paths with a karen. I feel like they would straight up call the FBI and accuse me of “being a spy”.

Same with radios. I’ve heard of the story where someone visited India with a radio (because they were gonna do hiking or something and there were no signal), then they got arrested and held for a few hours and investigated for being a “terrorist”, so that kinda gets worrying because this fear of “terrorism” is also prevalent in the US. Someone is gonna see that radio is gonna think “this guy must be a terrorist” or “is that [the radio with antenna sticking out] a bomb?” I mean, I heard about some woman on a plane called airport security on a guys doing… algebra, like just imagine in a crowded area with a “weird device that ‘looks like a bomb’”.

Kinda feels anxiety-inducing to be playing around with these gadgets, don’t you think? Am I worrying too much?