Hi Ted, 

Yes, I agree with you. 

Supposedly, this list was for anarchists who wanted to advance strong cryptography and individual liberty. 

However, it seems like the large majority of postings here are unfortunately not about cryptography, nor anarchy.  Agreed about the white fascism. 

The ideal would be idea to have more code, more crypto. 

However, as you said, it might be a lost cause. Which is quite sad, considering what it originally represented. But thanks for writing this nonetheless :) 

On Mon, Feb 8, 2016 at 1:42 PM, Ted Smith <tedks@riseup.net> wrote:

Somewhat confusing threading here Cari.

I see a few possibilities as to what I could do here:

      * Be vigilant in calling out patriarchal, racist, and generally
        neoliberal or fascist ideas promoted by some of the more recent
        arrivals.
              * This would provided a benchmark on the list indicating
                that these ideas are not generally accepted.
              * This would also require me to argue with assholes on the
                Internet. As the say goes, pigs, mud, etc..
      * Filter these people out and try to maintain productive on-topic
        discussion.
              * This would be of limited usefulness since people who I
                generally find to be quality contributors continue to
                respond to the Stormfront-esque crowd.
      * Filter the whole list, comb through it periodically to see if
        there is any useful signal, and call out the most egregious
        offenses I can find.
              * This is what I've chosen to do since it is optimal from
                my time perspective.

I think this list is a lost cause at this point. Ever since around the
time it became more discoverable after the switch from al-qaeda.net to
cpunks.org, and some possibly overzealous cross-posting, the discourse
has shifted from actual cypherpunkery to white men complaining about
having their privilege eroded on other mailing lists. There are a number
of quality contributors that no longer post here, reducing the signal
and allowing more noise. I can't bring them back. But I can at least
remind anyone more moderate listening that the cypherpunks list wasn't
always a far-right discussion group, which I think is the reverence due
to the community that used to exist.

I'd appreciate any suggestions, onlist or offline, from anyone who
thinks similarly of the ideological drift of this list from generally
anti-authoritarian to crypto-white nationalism.

Mon Feb 08 2016 6:30:25 PM from dan@geer.org

------------------------------

By my records, the word "sheeple" appears in 2% of all messages

posted on this list, making it demonstrably ironic that we are

even discussing a call for something other than meritocracy.

--dan

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