In some cases, maintaining fellow traveller status may be more beneficial to a person than official membership, as the person could secretly provide support to the movement while in their current position. For example, a person who is a United States government employee might support communist ideals, but officially supporting such a movement may cause issues with employment (such as loss of a security clearance) which could otherwise benefit the movement (e.g. providing classified material to it). Therefore, the person officially denies supporting the movement, maybe admitting to minor participation (claiming not to have known their true aims of the movement and swearing to have stopped support once they learned such), but secretly providing support to it. | In some cases, maintaining fellow traveller status may be more beneficial to a person than official membership, as the person could secretly provide support to the movement while in their current position. For example, a person who is a United States government employee might support communist ideals, but officially supporting such a movement may cause issues with employment (such as loss of a security clearance) which could otherwise benefit the movement (e.g. providing classified material to it). Therefore, the person officially denies supporting the movement, maybe admitting to minor participation (claiming not to have known their true aims of the movement and swearing to have stopped support once they learned such), but secretly providing support to it. |