cypherpunks and politics (Re: USWA)

At  2:21 AM 04/14/94 -0500, Adam Lake wrote:

>Did anyone ever think of involving the USWA (no, not the United States 
>Wrestling Association) United We Stand America in the Clipper fight?
>Sounds to me like this would be a mass appeal if it appeared in their
>newsletter.  

This is something I have been  meaning  to  write  to the list
for  several  weeks,  and  this  post  is the perfect lead in.
When  I  joined  this  list,  I saw thought it was going to be
much different.  I had  assumed   1)  that people on this list
would  have  much different politics and 2) that that wouldn't
really  matter,  'cause  everyone here is  concerned with  one
issue, which we could all agree on. 2) seems to have partially
true, sometimes.

Without expounding  at lengths, my reaction was to unsubscribe
on short order  when I saw some  of  the  first  posts  flying
around. I didn't,  because  I  try to keep an open mind and do
change opinions sometimes. But not everyone who is a potential
crypto  supporter is  gonna bother, and by tying (seemingly or
not- impressions count  here) the issue to a particular set of
other beliefs, there is a huge  chance  that  others are going
to be alienated.  I know *I* don't want  to be associated with
libertarianism or (even worse) Perot...

The point is that  even if you  think anyone  with a viewpoint
opposing yours is automatically stupid and not worth your time
(and I don't think  that  too many of you are that bad off ;),
aren't they at least  worth  using  to  further  something you
believe strongly in? It  might  do  well  to  be   careful  in 
alienating   potential  allys  by  flip  political  jokes  and
comments. 

-j

Jamie Lawrence wrote:

> This is something I have been  meaning  to  write  to the list
> for  several  weeks,  and  this  post  is the perfect lead in.
> When  I  joined  this  list,  I saw thought it was going to be
> much different.  I had  assumed   1)  that people on this list
> would  have  much different politics and 2) that that wouldn't
> really  matter,  'cause  everyone here is  concerned with  one
> issue, which we could all agree on. 2) seems to have partially
> true, sometimes.

The list is what people make of it. Nothing more and nothing less. If
you have held off on writing 'til now about topics that are of great
interest to you, then why are you surprised that the topics others
write about don't match your interests?

> Without expounding  at lengths, my reaction was to unsubscribe
> on short order  when I saw some  of  the  first  posts  flying
> around. I didn't,  because  I  try to keep an open mind and do
> change opinions sometimes. But not everyone who is a potential
> crypto  supporter is  gonna bother, and by tying (seemingly or
> not- impressions count  here) the issue to a particular set of
> other beliefs, there is a huge  chance  that  others are going
> to be alienated.  I know *I* don't want  to be associated with
> libertarianism or (even worse) Perot...

Nobody's asking you to be "associated with libertarianism," for
example. That many of us are libertarian-oriented is hardly
surprising, this being the Net. And the nonlibertarians are welcome,
but they seldom make persuasive arguments contradiciting the lib.
views, in my opinion. Certain non-lib (though *I* call him
libertarian!) folks like Dave Mandl are very welcome here, and make
their views known.

> The point is that  even if you  think anyone  with a viewpoint
> opposing yours is automatically stupid and not worth your time
> (and I don't think  that  too many of you are that bad off ;),
> aren't they at least  worth  using  to  further  something you
> believe strongly in? It  might  do  well  to  be   careful  in 
> alienating   potential  allys  by  flip  political  jokes  and
> comments. 

I don't know if this is a jab at me or not, perhaps for my sin of
poking fun at Ross Perot.....I felt a satirical, but probably close to
the truth, point about Perot's authoritarian streak would make my
point better than a simple statement of my views.

If you want your brand of politics discussed here, as it relates to
cryptography, privacy, Clipper, etc., then *discuss* it. You can't
blame others for making their own comments.

--Tim May


-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
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