This computer kills fascists #1 (fwd)

[Chegitz Guevara <mluziett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Marc, "the Chegitz," Luzietti
personal homepage: http://shrike.depaul.edu/~mluziett
political homepage: http://shrike.depaul.edu/~mluziett/chegitz.html

"Jeezuz Christ Mom! I just saved your life, the least you could do is
offer me an oreo!"

YT, in Neal Stephenson's, "Snow Crash."

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 1996 09:17:06 -0800 (PST)
From: Chris Faatz <cfaatz@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: c.a.williams@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, mluziett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: This computer kills fascists #1 (fwd)


A lot of this sounds like drivel to me; but, that's cool. I'd be interested
in your response.

C

==========================================================================
"Let the motto ever be, Truth for Authority, and not Authority for Truth."
--Lucretia Mott, May 26, 1870==========================cfaatz@xxxxxxxxxxxx

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 21:48:35 -0500
From: tallpaul <tallpaul@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: cfaatz@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: This computer kills fascists #1

Dear Chris,

Attached is a brief piece reflecting my latest thinking on the issue of
fascists and other extreme rightwing types on the net. I also have a
shorter followup piece on how  to learn to post anonymously that I hope to
get out Thursday. You might like it. I've also given a lot of thought to
the spam stuff and how to counter it as well as how to answer the rightwing
environ and other stuff without spamming groups.

***

One of our most important tasks is to counter fascist and other
extreme-rightwing propaganda.

This should not be viewed as holding debates with the fascists; genocide is
not a debatable topic.

However, many of the fascist propagandists are quite sophisticated. They do
not begin their work with an open defense of mass murder. Instead they rely
on more innocent-sounding topics like the need for accuracy in historical
research. Or they disguise themselves as "seekers" while pushing their
philosophically idealist and mystical methodology. At other times they may
take existing weaknesses in the system and seek to redefine those
weaknesses, causes, and effects in a new direction. (I bet you didn't know,
for example, that the existing economic crisis is the result of socialists
like Ronald Reagan raising taxes. That is only because you haven't been
reading the latest in extreme libertarian thought.)

We need the best tools to counter these efforts and the knowledge of how
best to use those tools. At one time we could have seen members of the
KPD/SPD fighting groups learning the differences between Mausers and
Lugars. They'd learn how to keep their weapons clean, how to load them, use
them, and the differences between the two weapons.

The internet is a computer network and our specific weapon is the computer.
We should explore computer-related topics like:

1) how to get and use anonymous accounts;

2) what constitute excessive multiple postings (EMP or "spamming") and
Excessive Cross Postings (ECP);

3) why the net condemns both EMP and ECP and how the net handles these
(e.g. cancel messages by the "net cops";

4) where the fascists have their home cyberbars and other net hangouts;

5) how we can counter EMP and ECP attempts by the extreme rightwingers to
disrupt or destroy leftwing organizing and discussions on the internet;

6) how we can use our (you'll excuse the expression) vanguard roles as the
best anti-fascist individual and groups on the net.

"Cyberspace" is not real space. There may be fraud in cyberspace; false
advertising, hate speech, and libel all exist. But there is no murder, no
rape, no robbery, no assault, for all of these crimes require physical
contact with the victim in the real physical world that does not exist in
the data- and communication-construct we call "cyberspace."
There are three major problems we need to avoid in our cyberspace battles.
These are tractarian abstentionism, technophilia, and revisionism.

The tractarians refuse to accept that the internet represents a
fundamentally new form of global communication. Their response might be
something like "Yeah. I want to counter fascist propaganda with my baseball
bat!" as if they are ready to smash their computer's monitor.

Two or three fascists might live in northern Canada yet broadcast
throughout the world.

The tractarian will counsel us to mobilize black self-defense teams as if
the immediate answer is to move black anti-fascists thousands of miles from
Atlanta, GA to northern Canada.

Frequently, the great(est) anti-fascism of the tractarian does absolutely
nothing to counter fascist propaganda on the internet. Their organizing and
political venom is reserved for the anti-fascists on the net who are
actually doing things in cyberspace. Thus, for all the tractarian hype,
they end by counselling an abstentionism in the struggle that actually
helps the fascists.

The technophiles understand the need to fight the fascists in cyberspace.
The technophiles computer-related skills are invaluable in this struggle
and we need to tap those skills. But the very technical knowledge they
possess leads them to advocate individual solutions like "mailbombing" the
e-mail boxes of individual fascists, cancelling posted messages, and the
like. They do not see the need for masses of people to challenge the
fascists. Their admittedly powerful technical skills limit their
understanding of the need for mass mobilizations in cyberspace as well as
the real world.

The revisionists, unlike the tractarians, understand that the world has
changed but overestimate the changes. They confuse the need for
non-substantive upgrades in our tactics with a perceived need to redefine
our very principles.

If the tractarian refuses to recognize that fascist organizing in
cyberspace is different from the streets, the revisionist denies the
existence of fascism in the streets. The tractarian sees only the streets;
the revisionist only cyberspace.

Both exist.

The internet is the location for one battle against fascism.

The *battle* needs to be fought in cyberspace.

The *war* will be won in the streets.
--
     -- tallpaul
     -- Any political analysis that fits on a bumper sticker is wrong.









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