So it seems that these days — at least in the minds of people who live in tech rather than in human reality — the proper way to announce your absolute lack of bias is to tweet, as DuckDuckGo’s CEO did: Now I don’t care who you think is right or wrong in the crisis du jour (both sides are nests of vipers, with Russia merely being the larger and more venomous, and the U.S. Deep State getting its fangs in, too). The truth — can we use that word any more? — is that both sides and their supporting…
28 CommentsCategory: Computers & Technology
Older readers may remember the Illuminatus! trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. First published in 1975, but clearly a product of the wild 1960s, it’s a mad, non-linear romp through political conspiracy theories, drugs, sex, and pretty much anything else you want to read into it. It begins with the assumption that every single conspiracy theory about the assassination of President Kennedy is absolutely true, then goes on to encompass the birth of the Illuminati in 1776, ancient Egyptians, John Dillinger, the American Medical Association, and the thoughts of a squirrel in New York City. Among other weirdness.…
29 CommentsI’ve never been one for sentimentality or its fraternal twin, nostalgia. I’m a firm believer that the good old days were never all that good. Boomers tend to remember Davy Crockett hats, “Leave it to Beaver,” and how well-scrubbed and obedient children (allegedly) were in the 1950s while forgetting how their entire generation suffered through constant fear of being nuked to a crisp (“Duck and cover,” as if that would help anybody). Eighties kids no doubt miss big hair, big metal, and MTV “when it was the real thing” while glossing over the AIDS epidemic. Children of the seventies? Well,…
18 CommentsI’m quite determined not to write a part III-c(5)(xyz) of this series, so I plan to give as good a brass-tacks overview of alt-communications potential as I can in this one post. I’m sorry to disappoint you who expect detail, but that would literally require a book. Hopefully I can provide a framework and a few good links on where future privacy tech might go. But this is an area where you of the Commentariat can fill in where I have to skim. H/Ts in advance to S, CX, the blog Commentariat, and the members of the Living Freedom Forums.…
22 CommentsOnce again I’m breaking a long, detailed screed into a two parter. I really have to stop splitting multi-part series into multi-part mini-series. But not just yet. —– Many years ago I got a mocking write-up in one of the big national tabloids for suggesting that someday freedom lovers seeking private communications might resort to carrier pigeons. I’d made the remark only in passing (in a book chapter having to do with many alternate forms of covert communications, from modern adaptations of hobo sign to dead drops). But apparently I’d managed to come up with an idea so ridiculous that…
24 CommentsThere’s a strange paradox at the heart of our unique and growing totalitarianism. On one hand, our ruling classes are as putrescent as any powdered princeling from France’s ancien regime. They have been for a very long time. Marie Antoinette may never have said, “Let them eat cake” when informed the deplorable masses had no bread. But today public and “private” figures like “let them eat ice cream” Pelosi, “take your jabs and pay no attention to my depopulation dreams” Gates, and “fighting climate change by blasting hydrocarbons from my private jet” Kerry are an undeniable fact of our lives.…
Continue readingDealing with our new totalitarian reality, part II</br>(We have just two jobs to do)
28 Comments There’s one thing you can say for totalitarianism: the coolest people will all be Outlaws. They’ll import and export goods without government controls. They’ll provide free-market services. They’ll operate free communication networks. They’ll make unregulated products and sell them in unregulated ways. They’ll barter, use cash, use gold or silver, develop and use new forms of cryptocurrencies. It’ll be just like Libertopia. Except, you know, with the ever-present threat of death or long, harsh imprisonment. But that’s what Outlaws are about. Since totalitarianism is the direction we’re going, hey we might as well enjoy a few silver linings. —– I…
28 CommentsThe site where I first saw this video says it “exaggerates for effect.” Hm. Somehow I’m not seeing much exaggeration here. However, it may be the most amusing video ever about dystopia. What do you think? H/T C^2
22 CommentsMark Twain (is alleged to have) quipped, “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed.” Borepatch, upon consideration of our current condition, amended that to, “If you don’t follow the media, you are uninformed. If you do follow the media you are both uninformed and misinformed.” Got a point there, Brother Borepatch. On the other hand, there’s also this possibility: If you don’t follow the media, you might be far better informed. —– I gave up TV on December 27, 1994 and never looked back. I’ve been unable to do the same for…
18 CommentsI promised part two of “Being well-informed amid media madness” by the end of this weekend. Technically, I’m delivering. I just finished writing the thing. It needs to marinate overnight, though, before I polish and post it. Meanwhile … While researching for the positive, constructive side of the media madness mess, I conducted many searches, such as “how to get a life,” “how to be well-informed,” and “how to recognize fake news.” I wasn’t surprised that most of what I found proved to be useless for my purposes. I wasn’t even surprised that much of it turned out to be…
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