[tor-teachers] tor teachers -- politics

[Nathan of Guardian]

On Tue, Oct 20, 2015, at 06:55 AM, Jacob Appelbaum wrote:
> Dear Nathan and everyone,
> 
> > I think as a community of teachers and trainers, we'll have to all be
> > open to the fact that we are coming from very different backgrounds, and
> > working with very different communities. I don't think anyone is
> > actively trying to inject their own personal "P" politics into the list,
> > but I am sure many kinds of politics will come up, as an aspect of
> > empowering users who are working against a system that seeks to
> > disempower them.
> 
> I'm totally on board with everything you've said excluding the very
> last bit here. Forgive me for going down the rabbit hole with you.
> 
> We're not working against any system directly. Our efforts are not
> mere pushback. Sure, we hope to stop surveillance and censorship
> systems from harming Tor users. The crux here isn't just about
> protesting "the man" or a specific political party or something along
> those lines. Rather we've built an alternative and we're teaching
> people how to utilize it in their lives.
> 
> The result is of course political and there is a question of how the
> new system embodies certain political ideals. In our new system we
> build on the radical politics of IP networking, we have a right to
> form and hold ideas without interference, we have a right to free
> speech and a right to read, we have anonymity of various kinds. We
> have this as an intentional outcome of strong cryptography where
> everyone is able to run or to use this new infrastructure. That isn't
> a matter of just being against a system, it is about iterating and
> changing the current systems, while also providing alternatives that
> coexist and which are capable of replacing older, less autonomy
> respecting, systems which are oppressive.
> 

Here, here!

-- 
  Nathan of Guardian
  nathan at guardianproject.info