It's safest to sign. Safety is in numbers. Cowardice leads to the greater danger. And it doesn't matter if it accomplishes anything.

Considering that (insofar as I can tell) literally just a petition and nothing more, your joke actually sounds pretty accurate to me.

The only way this'll do good is if a miracle occurs and it becomes ludicrously successful. In any realistic scenario, all it does is make a convenient list of people the new administration won't like. Well, that and create a treasure trove of profitable data.

Fear is bad when it stops us from doing useful, helpful things. I don't think this is one of those things.

If anything they're the opposite. The petitions themselves are not binding, and if they're not directly to institutions then they're probably not even noticed.

...but they do convince signers that they've 'done something', the catharsis of which makes them less likely to do something that actually matters.

It’s a pretty good way to get a list of people to deport.

Don't be so sure. Even a lot of Republicans didn't like the idea, which is why Trump had to walk back from it and say he didn't know anything about. Which was an obvious lie. Plus, there seems to be a lot of people who voted Trump who didn't even know what it would bring. I'd imagine a lot of people would be against this.