Cypherpunk Politics [was: REAL-ID Coming]

[Troy Benjegerdes]

On Wed, Mar 04, 2015 at 01:39:27AM +0100, rysiek wrote:
> Dnia wtorek, 3 marca 2015 17:41:14 grarpamp pisze:
> > > There might, or might not, be hackers among us who are trying to hack on
> > > policy level. But those hackers, if they indeed are following (or maybe
> > > even taking part in) the discussions here, might not want to come out
> > > with such information, as the level of hostility towards any persons or
> > > organisations that can be painted as "working with The Man" or "taking
> > > the Man's money" is too damn high™.
> > 
> > Who cares, that's up to the cpunk. If the cypherpunk is pure, working
> > with the man to get cpunk shit done is just another hacking skin
> > to hang on their wall. And a highly prized one of social engineering
> > at that. Cpunks should bow the fuck down in respect to such a fellow
> > cpunk, not fling hostile FUD at them just because they're working
> > the system. For that matter, they should join them to add another
> > voice. There are probably more US persons on this list than there
> > are in their entire Congress. Think about that...
> 
> +1. And for those that don't believe shit can be hacked on policy level, look 
> at ACTA, or at censorship debates in Poland. For instance:
> http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/07/27/1325235/the-shortest-internet-censorship-debate-ever

My theory is the whole Tom Cotton letter to Iran was a legislative trojan,
and there was a coordinated psy-ops campaign to get 47 senators to sign it.

So who would be financially motivated to hack the republican party, and 
have the covert intelligence and psy-ops/social engineering capability to 
pull it off?

For all we know this was done by some pissed off NSA/CIA cpunk employees who
know how to work the system and aren't quite ready to pull a snowden yet.

Oh, and the *discovery* of NSA/CIA involvement in hacking the party would
just be a bonus easter-egg for a lot of libertarian-minded cpunk patriots.

> > Now in the other direction of possible hostility... should The Man
> > discover a cpunk within their ranks, well yes, there is a risk there.
> > The usual opsec applies.
> 
> The opsec, as you say, is "usual". As in, cpunks more or less know how to 
> handle it. The FUD and divide-and-conquer is a whole different ball game, and 
> that's a huge problem.
> 
> > > In other words, FUD spread by "the Man" and the disinformation campaign,
> > > sowing dissent, creating hostility and distrust within the community, and
> > > in general the divide and conquer approach work wonders.
> > 
> > That's why the above masses need to activate and throw the FUD back,
> > and more, at The Man. Two can play that game. Problem is, right now
> > there is only one real player on the field of politics, his name is The Man,
> > and he's not on team cpunk.
> 
> Absolutely. And to start doing that, we *REALLY* need to see that "The Man" is 
> not really a single entity, but a dynamic system of co-dependant people, 
> institutions, interests, etc. Once we stop seeing "Teh Gummint" as a single 
> entity that Has A Plan, cracks start to show. And we all know what we can do 
> with cracks, don't we?
> 
> As long as we allow ourselves to drink the Kool-Aid of how mighty and 
> monolithic "The Man" is, we're fucked.

The man has a million cracks & crevices, dark, warm, inviting places for 
the roots of a million seeds to grow.

What are you planting this spring?

-- 
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Troy Benjegerdes                 'da hozer'                  hozer at hozed.org
7 elements      earth::water::air::fire::mind::spirit::soul        grid.coop

      Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel,
         nor try buy a hacker who makes money by the megahash