[tor-teachers] tor teachers -- politics

[Alison Macrina]

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!
> 

Thanks for this, Nathan and Jake.

Alison