Why are there so many statists and communists here on this list n

[Nomen Nescio]

Andy Lopata writes:

> I subscribe to this list for a number of reasons.  One of them is because of
> the potential crypto has for destabilizing capitalist/monopolist and state
> control over information and expression (e.g. Freenet).

Excellent point.  Few participants here understand that private attempts
to suppress freedom of speech are just as surely defeated by crypto as
government efforts.

Remember when Tim May a few days ago suggested that newspaper editors who
printed false stories should be tortured and killed?

> But the journalist and his editors are still alive.
> When they have been necklaced and lit, we can rest easier.

("Necklacing" refers to the practice, common in South Africa during the
turbulent years fighting apartheid, of putting an automobile tire around
an opponent's neck, cutting his tongue and throat so that it hung down
like a neck tie, and lighting the tire on fire.  Tim May endorses this
form of torture.)

Cryptography can free publishers from intimidation by the likes of
May just as much as it protects them from coercion by the government.
Tim May and other hate-filled thugs will not be able to use threats of
violence to prevent unpopular voices from being heard.

The mere fact that no one complains about language like this from May,
in a forum which supposedly fights for freedom of speech, is prima facie
evidence of the chilling effect of his violent language.  Only those of
us protected by the shield of anonymity have the freedom to criticize
this vile and hateful man.