[ExI] lists going quiet, was: RE: list test

[Eugen Leitl]

On Mon, Jul 29, 2013 at 08:24:31AM -0700, spike wrote:

> MB, are you taking into account that many of your hippest hipsters whose
> commentary ignites the biggest online discussions are migrating over to
> darknets?  
> 
> Anyone who is paying attention is watching what is happening in the USA: our
> government has been archiving everything, sharing information with other
> governments which do not have the same free speech rights as we do.  The fed

You're kidding, right?

> has used the IRS to target enemies and the hell of it is this: there is a

Does Assange, Manning, Snowden or Appelbaum ring a bell? 

> serious current debate on whether or not it is actually illegal to use the
> IRS as a completely unaccountable form of government power.  You can't go to

How about extrajudicial renditions? I live in a vassal state of the Empire,
full of military bases (just as the rest of the world), murdering civilians
by drones, unaccountable air transports whisking prisoners to be tortured 
in third states, illegal mass scale sigint with our own politicians lying 
as brazenly as your own spooks in perjury of Congress with nobody giving 
a shit, apparently. 

I do think we can give the IRS a bit of a rest, here.

> prison for what you write, but you can get an IRS audit, and the IRS answers

Yes, we can! (put you in jail).

> to no one.  I study our constitution and find nothing in there which
> actually says the government may not target political enemies in this

Do you know why Appelbaum won't be returning to the US? Or Julian Assange,
who used to post to this list is stuck in an embassy in London? Or why
Snowden is making sure to not enter US soil? 

> fashion.  We had a president in the 70s (Nixon) who did it, was caught,
> resigned in disgrace.  40 years went by, a president is caught doing the
> same thing, doesn't resign, calls it a phony scandal.

Exactly.
 
> I never worried much about privacy.  The most illegal thing I have ever done

I always did.

> is to rip a tag off of a pillow I bought.  But now a prole becomes an enemy
> of the state for holding the opinion that we are Taxed Enough Already.

Taxes? These are not the drones you're looking for.

> Holding that opinion has become the new crime, and the government is
> apparently legally able to target those who hold it.

Legally doesn't mean a thing, gassing Jews was perfectly legal in
Germany. So was Machtergreifung. You need to put up a bit higher
standards of accountability, here.
 
> I can see where people will quietly disappear from any forum that can be
> read by any government.

Another good reason: wanting to actually do something about it.