Re: Disinformation (or the Truth?) About Clipper
Tim May writes:
My use of the term "disinformation" seems to have taken on a life of its own as "lying," with several posters saying that the truth is best, that lying is bad, and that if we have to lie we deserve to have Clipper and Capstone!
What I urge--and others are free to do as they wish--is to "educate" people by describing to them the implications as we see them. That is, we who have thought about Clipper and have seen past government depredations and abuses, have seen from the beginning how Clipper is likely to be abused, how the very concept of key escrow is anathema to basic rights, how Clipper and its Big Brethren (I just coined this) are likely to be made mandatory, etc. We see truth, not the charade of "voluntarism" and the "social need" cited by the authorities.
I'm quite satisfied with this clarification (as if it matters to any but me). Still, I believe labeling your efforts a "disinformation campaign" was a mistake. It gives the pro-Clipper people something to throw back in your face. How about changing "disinformation campaign" to "education campaign"? It has a more positive sound to it and doesn't limit you to only dry facts. Education through speculation, hyperbole, and satire can be effective and is ethical if the reader can recognize when you are engaging in speculation, hyperbole, or satire (my opinion, of course). Jim_Miller@suite.com
Jim Miller writes:
I'm quite satisfied with this clarification (as if it matters to any but me).
Still, I believe labeling your efforts a "disinformation campaign" was a mistake. It gives the pro-Clipper people something to throw
Fair enough! I hereby agree not to use the term "disinformation campaign," as it has clearly caused some confusion. It seems that any labelling of what we are doing, except by innocuous labels liek "education campaign," will cause some confusion. For example, I think it's clear that we are talking about a "smear campaign": we are setting out to take what we know about Clipper and what we _surmise_ about Clipper and use this to "smear" it, to basically undermine trust in it and cause a public outcry or promises of a boycott of Clipper products. But calling it a "smear campaign" is equally impolitic, I guess. I appreciated the thoughtful comments of folks like Jim Miller and Phil Karn. I didn't especially care for the "me too" comments along the lines of "Yeah, and like if we start lying and stuff, we'll like be as bad as they are. And like then we'd _deserve_ Clipper." (My apologies to Beavis and Butthead. Heh heh.) Taking issue with the semantics of the term "disinformation," which I clearly take in a broader sense than some do, is different from cluelessly imputing dishonesty and lying to me. I still say our goal should be to undermine support for Clipper. Counter-propaganda, education, whatever. To me, spreading of rumors which appear to have some foundation is completely legit: this is part of what being educated really means. As I keep saying, we certainly can read the many signs that point to key escrow being made de facto the favored system, and perhaps the only legal system, even though the "official" truths all are that the standard is "voluntary." Sort of like the tax system in the U.S. --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."
participants (2)
-
jim＠bilbo.suite.com -
tcmay＠netcom.com