[109021] in Cypherpunks
Re: Sobriety (1) (1)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Stewart)
Tue Mar 9 02:07:13 1999
Date: Mon, 08 Mar 1999 09:08:21 -0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: Bill Stewart <bill.stewart@pobox.com>
In-Reply-To: <199903071918.UAA09591@replay.com>
Reply-To: Bill Stewart <bill.stewart@pobox.com>
>That said, it is obvious that any PR should not falsely
>portray or suggest that cpunks is any kind of organized
>activity. If it says anything about cpunks at all, it
>should probably be limited to pointing out that cpunks
>is nothing more or less than a freewheeling Letters to the
>Editor forum.
Oh, my, we're nothing near _that_ organized! :-)
We're also much more exploratory, which can be confusing to
the paranoid.
>> None of the cypherpunks interpreted his postings as a threat
I viewed them somewhat along the lines of one of those
"Kill Them All, Let God Sort Them Out" T-shirts -
occasionally the wearers really _are_ serious,
but the wearer should be presumed to be merely projecting attitude
unless there's a good reason to assume otherwise,
even if there's corroborating evidence such as owning Big Weapons
or belonging to the Marines, a known violent gang.
>Active PR consists of generating and disseminating materials
>that inform and illuminate according to your agenda.
There are some people who are easy to generate sympathy for,
and others who are tougher, and just because many important
pro-freedom Supreme Court cases decide in favor of non-nice people,
that doesn't make it any easier. For instance, are Toto's
"Sp*ce Al*ens H*de My Dr*gs" going to be interpreted by juries
as crazed ravings by someone who really _believes_ that LGMs
are controlling his precious bodily fluids, or as somebody
who has a weird sense of humor? Can you be innocent on grounds
of insanity even if you haven't actually _done_ anything? :-)
Thanks!
Bill
Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com
PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF 3C85 B884 0ABE 4639
