When I worked for Tor I was constantly told I did not "get" the hacker scene by the 20-30 something hackers. I am more or less a contemporary with rms and ESR. In fact I danced to Eric's flute in the halls of east coast US science fiction cons when we were both still teens, and Richard took me Balkan dancing in 78 (still teens) to pump me for advice on how to get in good with my best friend - later I was the first publicist for FSF and he "fired" me for lack of orthodoxy. ;) But the modern hacker scene at Schmoo and such often bothered me. I consider myself to have this unfashionable moral compass. Arriving at Schmoo my first year with Tor a tall Raybanned dude sidled up to me and said, "You're that little lady who's positioned Tor as a human rights tool, aren't you?" I smiled and turned to chat with him (I'd been briefed about introductions) but he just chuckled deep in his throat and said, "*Good one.*" Then he turned and walked away. Describing this moment it's hard to portray its impact. I felt slapped, dissed, and like I wanted to shower. Like I had just been sexually violated (he had that vibe) in a way that I couldn't identify but everyone in the room knew. There are some amazing personalities in this community. But we are supposed to be all so so collegial. Like it is parliament, ikr? We do a better job of staying cordial than most houses of parliament, but then - what member of parliament is likely to do pentesting on a rival if he or she gets pissed? So perhaps someone will make a heartfelt appeal at CCC for ethical hacking. But there is less criticism of the darknet and moderate means of ameliorating harm to society by net jerks without slippery slopes. We nearly avoid education because we can't divide ethics from moralizing, we don't believe we can block asshats who want to bury conversations because someone will accuse us of suppressing unpopular speech... We have no confidence in wisdom or judgement in our community. We are so bought into "operating without trust" that we can not have a real community of trust. And so we lost our children - no wonder - to the people who offer unit cohesion and belonging. Criminals and LE and jerks. Not anarchists who can't engage their hearts over time. Or engaging their words and reputations where it might risk them looking like fools, or putting them at risk. But in the US, very few people other than myself criticize Anonymous for endangering naifs by not informing participants on consequences (while organizers fully protect themselves) or creating a co-optable shell, or ducking the definition of civil disobedience. The lack of connection to traditional activist methods in this ultimately weakens the strategy imo and dooms the movement. This strengthens anti-civil-libertarians at DHS and sets up the April "cybersecurity" week in the House with more fodder than it needs. Another example of a lost generation imo. yrs, ---- Shava Nerad shava23@gmail.com -- Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at companys@stanford.edu or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE