...but there are a lot of reasons to be.

>>I realize there are better forms of security, involving Tor and all, but my impression is that if you don't do it exactly right you're vulnerable, and most of us ordinary people can't be confident we're doing it right.

Tor is not that tricky to use correctly. Basically (and if you want some level of security anyways), don't run Windows, keep Tor up to date, and disable all the extra bullshit that websites shouldn't use anyway like JavaScript.

For email, if you want a basic level of security, if it's in your own name, use a provider that has their servers in a country that actually respects people's privacy on some level like Switzerland. If it's anonymous, then either use a service that allows you to pay anonymously or a free one, and either way log in via Tor, ideally VPN + Tor, so they can't trace you via your IP address.

If you want better security than that, you should use encryption (which is also easy to use and almost impossible to fuck up).

>>People who are worried at that level will mostly just suffer in silence and isolation. I've heard many people say they don't dare to even enter the web address needed to read GirlChat for fear they'll get on some police list. Paranoia can go too far.

I disagree, people who are "worried at that level" will generally educate themselves and learn what they need to know to stay secure and then implement that knowledge. I don't know anyone so paranoid that they won't access pedophile message boards online through any method, so I won't speak for that sample.

>>There are two main things we worry about, law enforcement and vigilantes. Law enforcement could get a subpoena to look at a gmail account, I imagine, and we are protected because we're not admitting anything extraordinary and rarely if ever giving true probable cause, I believe.

Google is the NSA's bitch (along with Microsoft et al.). Read some of the leaked Snowden documents. I feel certain that they fully cooperate with all of the NSA's illegal programs. Read about XKeyscore, those leaked documents state that the NSA can see everything that everyone does online, every email, every webpage you visit, etc., which is why encryption should be used whenever real security is needed. That's not paranoia, that's reading Snowden's leaked PowerPoints from the asshole-government.