People screwing up is a necessary condition of blackmail; if there was perfect OpSec no one would ever be vulnerable to it.
The thing I am pointing at is more basic, though. For example, how would you distinguish between the case where blackmail is accepted but a few people blow the execution and the case like ours, where a few people will do powerfully stupid and illegal things and then just say they did on Facebook? How would this enter the historical record, with enough examples that we can be confident approved blackmail is taking place?
Hmm. Perhaps if there was a written record of the rules of conduct, like the Victorian-era books for instruction in manners. Or diaries where people keep secret record of their blackmail dealings, and refer to it as a good deed.
People screwing up is a necessary condition of blackmail; if there was perfect OpSec no one would ever be vulnerable to it.
The thing I am pointing at is more basic, though. For example, how would you distinguish between the case where blackmail is accepted but a few people blow the execution and the case like ours, where a few people will do powerfully stupid and illegal things and then just say they did on Facebook? How would this enter the historical record, with enough examples that we can be confident approved blackmail is taking place?
Hmm. Perhaps if there was a written record of the rules of conduct, like the Victorian-era books for instruction in manners. Or diaries where people keep secret record of their blackmail dealings, and refer to it as a good deed.
Plenty of people write detailed dairies about important events in their lives and those diaries often do enter the historical record.
Many people who deal with money have personal accounting about their own financial flows.
A blackmailed person might ask others for help to deal with the blackmail with results in letters being written.