- cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

In Defence of Assaulting Fascists
by Razer 03 Feb '17

03 Feb '17

> “Only one thing could have stopped us – if our adversaries had > understood its principle and from the first day smashed with the > utmost brutality the nucleus of our new movement.” – Adolf Hitler > "The most effective prophylactic against any infection is to deny it > its conditions of survival." "I take no personal gratification in watching physical assault take place. I recall the trauma of being punched at 14-years old in a racist incident. I was intimidated for years by even the most frivolous fights in high-school and even desisted from playing sports for a long time as a result. I know how intimidating violence can be. Which is why I believe in violence against fascists. The New York Times today reported that Richard Spencer won’t be going on speaking tours for a long time as a result of being assaulted. He’s even afraid to go out for dinner. Before we conclude that that’s indubitably a good thing, I’d like to turn to the topic of collaboration. We expect collaborators to appear in the form of the Devil himself. In other words, recognizable. But of course that’s far from the reality. The Biblical story of how Satan himself transmogrifies into the Devil is itself just as implausible. Collaboration, where it most matters, is passive. Collaboration is reduced to executing “normal” tasks in a programmatic manner. Nothing could be more “natural.” This was the insight of Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem: modern evil is banal. It is the work of millions of men and women. As she argues in The Origins of Totalitarianism, genocide requires the participation of engineers, physicians, accountants, scientists, journalists, small business owners, corporate executives and civil servants. It is an archipelago of labor in the narrowest sense of the term: tedious and mundane. The most effective prophylactic against any infection is to deny it its conditions of survival. Today our infection is the prospect of collaboration. Evil, according to Arendt, is committed by those who “never make up their minds to be good or evil,” but underlying that is careerism. Eichmann, the chief architect for the extermination of half of European Jewry, had “no motives at all” she argued, “except for an extraordinary diligence in looking out for his personal advancement.” And the problem, as Arendt pointed out, was that there were too many Eichmanns. There is no cure for collaboration. The only solution is to prevent the conditions in which passive collaborators have the excuse to say that they were only doing their jobs. There is a crucial lesson to be learned from how Mussolini and Hitler consolidated power. It wasn’t overnight. It took years. And in those years paramilitary groups roamed the streets ravaging any potential threat. The threat of chaos that they incubated was crucial to the conservative governments’ decisions to permit them into the halls of total power. Violence, as any good anthropologist would tell you, is steeped in symbolism. State and, when allowed, non-State violence intends to send a message “We Are The Only Game In Town.” And in their violence, they assert their convictions. Citizens, too busy and exhausted to think politically, are always ready to acquiesce that point faute de mieux: if someone is violent and angry, then their demands, even ideology, must be somewhat rooted valid grievances and ideas. The essence of fascism, as historians like Robert Paxton never fail to remind us, is not in ideas but in emotions. Robbing fascism of its virility and hyper masculine pretence is to rob it of its primary capacity to grow and survive. We have to confront the crucial question: are we more interested in upholding the slogan “Don’t Be Evil” or in making sure that no evil occurs? Is instilling fear in the hearts of fascists or fascist-curious individuals, even at the cost of isolated violence preferable to allowing fascists to consolidate power and therefore commit greater atrocities? In this particular instance, we must utilize fear to our advantage. The continuation of protests and the show of strength must not only intimidate fascists, but also send a clear message to the three most important institutions that fascists require for total power: big business, media and state institutions. They must be constantly fear any form of collaboration with Trump’s administration. They must fear how the nation’s history books will view them but to accomplish that we must compel them to think that future historians will not be fascists. The fascist future must be cancelled, today. We can take it from the tip of fascist reaction today: “The point is that we got a lot of attention, and that alone creates value.” (Trump, The Art of the Deal, p. 57) Take for instance a recent example in Egypt. Large large sections of civil servants and big business sabotaged Morsi’s presidency. Hoping against the grain that he would be overthrown by the military, they felt compelled enough to sacrifice their jobs and careers. But the background to this was fierce street violence against fundamentalist supporters of Morsi and weekly mass protests. They had mistakenly placed their faith in the military, but Americans can take comfort in the fact that a genuine opposition in Congress can represent them politically. Americans who will be torn about collaboration must likewise feel compelled to sacrifice their livelihoods and future; but only if the protest and civil disobedience continue unabated and if there exists a genuine political opposition in Congress. We must be ready to meet their intimidation with greater intimidation. What fascism does is to returns politics to its fundamentals. Those of us who are united in the right of women and LGBTQ folks to their bodies, those of us who believe in the right of life for Black, Native, colored and Muslim communities have to confront that our primary task in the coming months and years is to defend the most basic of political rights: life itself. Politics is back to the visceral for those of us who have long grown accustomed to middle-class bourgeois bubbles. We must consign bourgeois morality to the ash heap before it does us in." https://pulsemedia.org/2017/01/22/in-defence-of-assaulting-fascists/

4 6

How you know Rayzer is a Fascist
by Griffin Boyce 03 Feb '17

03 Feb '17

A CNN article headlined: Milo Yiannopoulos is trying to convince colleges that hate speech is cool. Parroted by some newsfag: "ICYMI this guy was going to Berkeley to target undocumented students, not engage in some kind of Socratic dialogue" "Liberals crying out to defend this guys ability to target most vulnerable people in society should consider deporting themselves to Mars." The topic of talk was cultural appropriation. For example: - "Whites" didn't steal "black" culture, "blacks" appropriated "white" culture. - Anti-fascists are culturally appropriating fascist culture. - Losers with trophies are appropriating success culture. - Shia labeef is approriating homeless culture.

5 4

Literature
by Griffin Boyce 03 Feb '17

03 Feb '17

The best source for radical propoganda is CNN, Fox, and NBC. I am sure they are already on list. Lol. > > > Claudia Steimann claudia.steimann at me.com > Thu Feb 2 10:21:58 PST 2017: > I am just reading that book 'Psychopathic cultures and toxic empires' > By Will Black and it describes really good what turns states like Turkey > or US into something evil - also describes the same effects within > companies. > > Does anybody here got other must reads on society or politics? >

1 0

Donald Trump's SCOTUS pick, founded and led a school club called "Fascism Forever"
by Razer 02 Feb '17

02 Feb '17

ROTF! Thanks to Michael Best, @NatSecGeek on Twitter, for this. Screenshot of Yearbook entry: https://twitter.com/NatSecGeek/status/827018853150502912

1 0

Re: Trump will NEVER turn America into a White nation!
by juan 02 Feb '17

02 Feb '17

On Wed, 1 Feb 2017 18:16:11 -0500 John Newman <jnn(a)synfin.org> wrote: > I found the following gem on his blog, at which point I stopped > reading, having reached my revulsion limit: I find it somewhat entertaining in a sick kind of way. Here's another nugget "If we actually had anarcho capitalism, we would not have borders, but we would not have welfare either, and likely we would have the death penalty for most crimes typical of the underclass, and serfdom or slavery for vagrants and sturdy beggars. Let us introduce the death penalty for everything, abolish voting, at least for the poor and the stupid, and reintroduce serfdom or some similar way of getting people disinclined to work out of circulation, and then we can open the borders." > https://blog.jim.com/politics/open-letter-to-scott-aaronson/ > > <snip intro>

1 0

Trump's "Holocaust" Rememberance Day? Sign Executive Order to ban refugees :)
by Zenaan Harkness 02 Feb '17

02 Feb '17

Well, as sad as the plight of many (genuine) refugees really is, Trump certainly seems to have a wicked sense of humour, or a really humorously bad sense of timing. And the Liberal Leftys are going nuts (see image for example). Fun times :D Jews and their holohoax eh ... what a world. Zenaan PS: For those who missed the memo on the fake chimney built outside Auschwitz after the war for the photo ops, the "gas ovens" with unsealed rickety wooden doors, and "oh me oh my, muh 6 gazillion Jews", here's the memo, from BEFORE World War 2, courtesy the New York Times even: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dda-0Q_XUhk PPS: It's now ok to forward this around since the $2 billion per year "Jewish holohoax" reparations from Germany, ended (finally) last year. So those who profited from this particular fake news deception have fully finished their profiting. PPPS: Since all the profiteering of "mamma Germany" has now ended, it might be a good idea to stop putting folks in jail for "denying the holocaust" too - 14 countries still do so to this day... including Germany of course.

1 1

[MSM] [WAR] - Trump escalates war against CNN
by Zenaan Harkness 02 Feb '17

02 Feb '17

This is fun :) Trump Administration freezes out CNN from interviews and staff appearances 'The White House has refused to send its surrogates onto CNN shows, effectively icing out CNN from Trump administration press coverage.' http://theduran.com/trump-administration-freezes-out-cnn-from-interviews-an… " Politico is reporting that the Trump White House will not allow its staff and surrogates to appear on CNN, and will instead go to “places where we think it makes sense to promote our agenda. "

1 0

[WAR] There is a special place in hell for Madeline Albright
by Zenaan Harkness 02 Feb '17

02 Feb '17

Madeline Albright tells MSNBC that foreign policy is all about giving an “egg mess to the President” http://theduran.com/madeline-albright-tells-msnbc-that-foreign-policy-is-al…

1 0

Re: Trump will NEVER turn America into a White nation!
by juan 01 Feb '17

01 Feb '17

On Wed, 1 Feb 2017 08:11:02 -0500 John Newman <jnn(a)synfin.org> wrote: > https://blog.jim.com/ > > much more reflective of the garbage he's posted here. > Oh, I see. Thanks. So he's a full time conservative troll posing as 'libertarian'. > -- > John >

1 0

[AI] [researches] Asilomar AI Principles
by Cecilia Tanaka 01 Feb '17

01 Feb '17

Hi, dear all! :D Already signed it yesterday, and I'm inviting you to read and consider signing the Asilomar AI Principles. https://futureoflife.org/ai-principles/ Take care! <3 Ceci ========== ASILOMAR AI PRINCIPLES Artificial intelligence has already provided beneficial tools that are used every day by people around the world. Its continued development, guided by the following principles, will offer amazing opportunities to help and empower people in the decades and centuries ahead. Research Issues 1) *Research Goal:* The goal of AI research should be to create not undirected intelligence, but beneficial intelligence. 2) *Research Funding:* Investments in AI should be accompanied by funding for research on ensuring its beneficial use, including thorny questions in computer science, economics, law, ethics, and social studies, such as: - How can we make future AI systems highly robust, so that they do what we want without malfunctioning or getting hacked? - How can we grow our prosperity through automation while maintaining people’s resources and purpose? - How can we update our legal systems to be more fair and efficient, to keep pace with AI, and to manage the risks associated with AI? - What set of values should AI be aligned with, and what legal and ethical status should it have? 3) *Science-Policy Link:* There should be constructive and healthy exchange between AI researchers and policy-makers. 4) *Research Culture:* A culture of cooperation, trust, and transparency should be fostered among researchers and developers of AI. 5) *Race Avoidance:* Teams developing AI systems should actively cooperate to avoid corner-cutting on safety standards. Ethics and Values 6) *Safety:* AI systems should be safe and secure throughout their operational lifetime, and verifiably so where applicable and feasible. 7) *Failure Transparency:* If an AI system causes harm, it should be possible to ascertain why. 8) *Judicial Transparency:* Any involvement by an autonomous system in judicial decision-making should provide a satisfactory explanation auditable by a competent human authority. 9) *Responsibility:* Designers and builders of advanced AI systems are stakeholders in the moral implications of their use, misuse, and actions, with a responsibility and opportunity to shape those implications. 10) *Value Alignment:* Highly autonomous AI systems should be designed so that their goals and behaviors can be assured to align with human values throughout their operation. 11) *Human Values:* AI systems should be designed and operated so as to be compatible with ideals of human dignity, rights, freedoms, and cultural diversity. 12) *Personal Privacy:* People should have the right to access, manage and control the data they generate, given AI systems’ power to analyze and utilize that data. 13) *Liberty and Privacy:* The application of AI to personal data must not unreasonably curtail people’s real or perceived liberty. 14) *Shared Benefit:* AI technologies should benefit and empower as many people as possible. 15) *Shared Prosperity:* The economic prosperity created by AI should be shared broadly, to benefit all of humanity. 16) *Human Control:* Humans should choose how and whether to delegate decisions to AI systems, to accomplish human-chosen objectives. 17) *Non-subversion:* The power conferred by control of highly advanced AI systems should respect and improve, rather than subvert, the social and civic processes on which the health of society depends. 18) *AI Arms Race:* An arms race in lethal autonomous weapons should be avoided. Longer-term Issues 19) *Capability Caution:* There being no consensus, we should avoid strong assumptions regarding upper limits on future AI capabilities. 20) *Importance:* Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources. 21) *Risks:* Risks posed by AI systems, especially catastrophic or existential risks, must be subject to planning and mitigation efforts commensurate with their expected impact. 22) *Recursive Self-Improvement:* AI systems designed to recursively self-improve or self-replicate in a manner that could lead to rapidly increasing quality or quantity must be subject to strict safety and control measures. 23) *Common Good:* Superintelligence should only be developed in the service of widely shared ethical ideals, and for the benefit of all humanity rather than one state or organization. ------- "Don't let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It's your place in the world; it's your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live." - Mae Jemison

3 2