[kwlug-disc] The Open Technology Fund is a front of the U.S. government.

[Mikalai Birukou]

I'll quote text from below, so as to put emphasis on steps, ordering 
them by importance.


Quote: "I don't know why it is important that we all be cautious 
regarding Mint Press or Russia in particular."

The caution is not about Russia or Mint Press in particular. I point 
everyone's attention at rhetoric that is toxic. Resulting total distrust 
kills any ability to create anything positive.

It is no coincidence that USSR with many universities and high education 
rates produced almost no good stuff. It is not due to lack of 
"entrepreneurship", although criminal charges for it don't help. Mostly 
its this mistrustful, no-future, gloomy mindset that won't let your 
brain be creative. May be the most attractive/illustrative story can be 
making atomic bomb in GULAG, when all documents were present, those 
stolen from yankies.

With USSR it is also insightful to compare different generations, cause 
there were changes in how this toxic mindset has been pressed into 
people, giving stark marks and ground for comparison. For myself, my 
grandfather and my father were engineers, and I have many stories to 
tell about how you kill natural positive productivity of human beings. 
It is also not a coincidence that I am not there, wanna keep background 
that helps my brain to produce, instead of having a background that 
sucks your energy dry.


Quote paragraph that starts with "Do you trust Signal? ..."

I think I've read details. Moxie wants to have a total control of how 
this thing is delivered. Note a need for control, need to a fault. And 
we may assume that this want of control comes as a reaction to mistrust.

It may be an overreaching impression, but it seems that security folks 
have this mistrust dialed a bit too much, as a result there is this 
chilling effect on results. Looking from a historic perspective, Moxie 
and co are commendable on bending designs towards usability, yet, some 
architectural nuances feel like they were internally chained by 
something. And shape of these chains is fear and mistrust.

Mutually assured mistrust? Of course, how in this emotional state, in 
this noisy brain state, can you come up with the third, almost trivial 
solution to federation dilemma, which I've presented last time.

Ya. Similarly, to how Julian Treasure talks about sound scapes, and a 
need to pay attention to environment impact on your brain. Similarly, we 
should talk about emotional charge in environment of ideas.

Let's discharge your mistrust a bit by pointing to the case to release 
info around gov pressuring Signal. They indeed don't collect still 
available metadata, walking the talk. This is trustworthy.


Quote, "Do you trust Tor? ..."

In the article there was this mention of researches blah-blah. 
Surrounding paragraphs make it sound that this is all DoD and there is 
some secret dealing going on. While, when we followed all news at the 
time, Tor folks were really shocked to learn about funky exploit that 
some university guys did. Tinting all of this story with words that 
there are spooks all over, done in the article, is what regularly has 
been done in USSR, Putin's Russia, Lukashenko's speeches. And my guess 
that article induces mistrust in Tor with this setup seems correct, 
cause I've seen it many times by now. I've also seen a demoralizing 
chilling effect of so induced total mistrust.


Quote, "... But that doesn't matter when they can point to the US 
themselves to support a reported fact."

Unfortunately, you also ingest a spin.

I too had an impression, that I have been given data, but it was with 
the spin. For too long, for way too long.


Quote, "... revelation that US Gov, USAGM and OTF are linked".

This is precisely an art of spin. If you've ever read OTF docs, you 
would've seen words about US government. Basically this article adds no 
new information. It is something like "the Sun is rising on the East, 
isn't this horrible" spin, making it feel like "revelation".

I may guess that companies wanted to government to pay for some useful 
tech developments, but austerity folks can't allow budget money for 
human benefit, hence, the whole BS with twisted goals. I read the docs, 
its horse shit, reminding the worse of USSR.

Having said that, let's note that constitution as a restriction on 
government is the great idea. Great tool/approach. So, there is no need 
to emotionally give up. Ya.


Quote, "Do you trust governments".

Do you remember grounding of Morales' jet by US gov and spooks? I'd add 
grounding of RyanAir jet by Lukashenko's mafia as being of similar ilk. 
Both are not proud moments.


Quote, "None of this means that I want Signal or Tor to go away."

But the article contains many-many emotional bombshells. When you give 
such thing to friends, disarm emotional bombs with explicit statements, 
saying that some little thing is enticing, while the rest should be ignored.

At the same time, if you've felt a need to share the whole feeling, I am 
saying: take it easy, sky is not falling. The spin that robs your brain 
of productive power via injection of mistrust is the purpose of this 
article. I personally want to see all flowers bloom, but this emotional 
attack stifles your roots, hence, I chime in.


>> To your general (of course related to emotion) statement, quote, "
>>
>> It will mean less surprise should things take an odd turn
>> in the future.
>>
>> "
>>
>> I say that "those things" are not going to "turn odd in the future".
>>
>> Let's note that we have no idea what "turn odd" means to you. I see that
>> article pushes human psyche to fill the gaps, opening emotionally charged
>> gaps. This reminds a cold reading technique, mechanism in human head is
>> probably the same.
> Let me expand on that a bit.
>
> Do you trust the US government?  I do not.  They have been caught
> lying repeatedly, and what was once wild conspiracy theory regarding
> things like massive surveillance (remember those 90's rumours of ECHELON
> anybody?) came to light with Edward Snowden.  Revelations such as those
> by Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and (at the time) Bradley Manning
> (while each have their own oddities), would equal what I would consider
> an odd turn revealed in the past.  It would be foolish to assume that
> another odd turn can't happen again.
>
> Do you trust Signal?  I do not.  Things might be fully open source now,
> but there was official resistance from Signal against people including
> their own compiled versions in their own projects, such as the Android
> project F-Droid.  The lack of openness was a black mark on them
> which I have not forgotten.
>
> Do you trust Tor?  I do not.  That doesn't mean I wouldn't use it if
> I needed it and it solved a particular problem for me.  It also doesn't
> mean that I'm unhappy with others using it.  It if helps them, great!
> If it makes things harder for oppressive governments, great!  But I don't
> know who runs the exit nodes, and it is a giant target for surveillance.
> Those that use it have to balance that risk with the benefits.
>
> Do you trust governments that try to restrict technologies like Signal
> and Tor, or work to undermine them through technology or propaganda?
> I do not.  This would include both US and Russia.  The crackdown on
> privacy and individual freedom is a sad pandemic of its own, spreading
> around the world.  Don't you see that the propaganda and legal fight
> against Tor is the same anti-freedom philosophy behind the removal of
> individual freedom to choose one's own healthcare?
>
> So when I read an article like the one on Mint Press News, it is merely
> adding more data to what I already know.  And it is data.  There is a
> link from that article to a PDF from usaid.gov, titled
> "Congressional Budget Justtification" which directly links the US
> government, USAGM, and OTF.  Is there a reason I should not believe
> a document from usaid's own website regarding their own plans and funding?
> What am I missing?  Did I read something wrong?
>
> Sure, Mint Press may be a propaganda arm of Russia.  I'm glad Doug
> posted those links too.  But that doesn't matter when they can point
> to the US themselves to support a reported fact.
>
> None of this means that I want Signal or Tor to go away.  None of this
> means that I object to people using either technology, regardless
> of which oppressive government they are under.  Nor do I object to
> the revelation that US Gov, USAGM and OTF are linked.  Nor do I
> believe that Tor is the only game in town when it comes to privacy
> technologies.  There's HTTPS, GPG, openvpn, wireguard, regular vpn's,
> multi-hop vpn's like cryptohippie, steganography, and last but not
> least, you can combine them all in multiple ways and invent your own.
>
> I don't know why it is important that we all be cautious regarding
> Mint Press or Russia in particular.  We're talking privacy and security
> here.  Caution is the order of the day.  Trust no one.  Test everything.
> And grant your neighbour the same freedom you yourself would like to
> enjoy.