Hmm. I did read, and I thought I understood this. I claim that if the remailers collude, then there in no anonymity. Correct?
Correct.
Even if I insert my own remailer in the list it doesn't help, if the others are all in cahoots. This seems pretty obvious. They all compare logs, and saved copies of the messages, and my message can be tracked from beginning to end. Right?
Wrong. One trusted mix is enough to guarantee anonymity: There is a large number of fixed-size messages coming in and a large number of messages going out in random order. (Consult the archives for information about possible attacks, such as flooding a remailer with dummy messages, and how to detect/prevent them.)
I see a list of remailers posted on cypherpunks periodically -- a "cypherpunks" approved list, therefore. Lucky Green admits publically that he personally knows several of the remailer operators.
So you say Raph actually *is* part of the cypherpunk conspirary??! BTW, that list is the "list of reliable remailers", not the "list of cypherpunk approved remailers". Now guess how a remailer qualifies to be listed.
And clearly, remailer operators must share a common ideological focus...
Remailer operators share the belief that it must be possible to use the net anonymously, without leaving traces. Is that what you mean? PS: Did you know that one remailer operator formerly was a soldier in East Germany's National People's Army? -- |\/| L~ |\ | | <~ /\ | | L_ |/ \_/ _> /~~\