On Tue, 03 Mar 2015 01:45:40 -0800, rysiek <rysiek@hackerspace.pl> wrote:
I cordially invite you to provide sufficient funding to all the freedom/privacy/human rights related initiatives that are government-funded today.
I'm not sure that cordially inviting an individual to single handedly replace the 'funding' provided by a violent organized criminal organization that can extract funds from entire populations under the threat of violence, and also 'print' their own goddamned money is really a solid counter argument. Is the funding of FLOSS privacy enabling software a problem? Yes. Does it therefore follow that lining up at the government's stolen money slop trough until another solution can be devised is ever going to be a good idea in the long run? I would argue 'No'. Look at the history and deviousness of government infiltration of 60's counterculture groups that were deemed a threat to state power. Timothy Leary an FBI snitch [1]. Richard Aoki, the man who helped arm the Black Panthers, an FBI snitch. [2]. Is it not reasonable to assume that these FLOSS privacy software projects represent a direct threat to state power? Is it not reasonable to assume that the state is therefore going to try and co-opt them? Say by creating financial dependence via a seductive flow of stolen money, among other tactics? Look at this recent Pando.com expose of the BBG (Broadcasting Board of Governers) which recently started pouring money into these privacy projects via the Open Technology Fund. [3]. These people are not on our side. Also, regarding funding as a method of control. What did the U.S. federal government do when certain states were balked at raising the drinking age to 21? They threatened to cut their federal highway funds. Every state ended up caving to this demand. That's just one high profile example. It's simply disheartening to see how gleefully some privacy activists accept the tainted govt blood money and then look hard the other way. Never mind that the money was obtained by putting a metaphorical gun to the head of every person it was taken from. Never mind what the ulterior motives are of the organizations which are lavishing this stolen money upon the software privacy projects. Never mind the dependence this is going to create and the subsequent influence and control this is going to buy. The means *are* the ends. And when the means are corrupted, so are the ends. [1] http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/investigation/turn-tune-rat-out [2] http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/fbi-files-reveal-new-details-about-in... [3] http://pando.com/2015/03/01/internet-privacy-funded-by-spooks-a-brief-histor...