From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 93 21:52:52 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Something Silly, Something Serious
In-Reply-To: <9310210322.AA17451@toad.com>
Message-ID: <9310210451.AA27317@netcom5.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


SOMETHING SILLY:

A pseudospoofer who claims to be Philippe D. Nave (right!) sez:

> Don't screw around with this stuff in your basement, people - it is a 
> _very_ fast, _very_ hot reaction that produces a slug of superheated 
> molten metal. For the truly paranoid among you, however, it might be
                        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^    
> a viable last-ditch ploy to foil the Gestapo. Do be careful.

Can I USE THIS to stop the PSEUDOSPOOFERS and TRAITORS who are
parasitically sucking the lifeblood out of my postings?

If I put this "termite" stuff on my terminal, can I stop the
MIND-GNAWING TERMITES AND RODENTS which are devouring my brilliance
and sapping my PRECIOUS BODILY FLUIDS?

Cypherpunk Mindmucking lives!

They are coming to take me away, ha ha, coming to take me away, hee hee.

Death to Traitors!


(This paranoid brought to you by the alleged pseuodospoofer Tim May,
in the hopes this will ease your S. Boxx-withdrawal symptoms.)

SOMETHING SERIOUS:

Seriously, I understand L. Dettweiler has asked to be unsubscribed.

For the record, I did not send him any e-mail these past several
weeks, either under my normal name or under any other names. I rarely
pseudonyms, and have never--that I recall right now--ever used them in
2-way communication. And never for the purposed Dettweiller/Boxx alleged.

I _have_ used remailers for several "demonstrations," which in most cases
I've later acknowledged. For example, the F-117 Stealth items six or so months
back, some "Information Liberation Front" articles (I won't say which
one, which provides me with enough "plausible deniability"...after
all, anybody can join the ILF merely by _acting_ like a member), and
some links to the "BlackNet" pieces (though, ironically, someone other
than me forwarded the main item to this list).

In other words, I do not use pseudonyms very often, and then never for
political debates, for taking "sides," etc. I also did not write the
short story "Master Key." Dettweiler wrote to me and claimed I was
being sly. I told him I did not write it, nor another piece--a
political piece that was quite good--that he claimed he "knew" I had
written. Then, after I publically indicated enjoyment with the story,
despite some weaknesses, he started ranting at me that I was using
pseudonyms and was congratulating myself.

But the cake was taken when he claimed I had invented the nym "Jamie
Dinkelacker," whom many of you know personally, to slant arguments!
Done humorously, as several of us have done recently, such a claim
would be funny (no offense meant, Jamie). But LD showed no awareness
of the absurdity of his claim.

With his florid hyperbole--or should I say "extremely and poisonously
florid hyperbole"-- and his paranoid rants, I chose to have nothing
more to do with him, and told him this in my last e-mail message to
him several weeks ago. (One of the messages he chose to quote in his
"introspective" message to the List...."thank you for sharing that,
Lance") 

He went ballistic when I--rather politely, I thought--averred on this
list that the EFF/Shari Steele advisory was not quite the Gestapo
pounding at the door. In e-mail, he called me "poison," "a traitor,"
"a lackey of Eric Hughes," and so on. I just shook my head and chose
not to respond. 

Paranoia can be fun to play with. I myself listen avidly to
"conspiracy theory" radio broadcasts (keywords: Inslaw, Wackenhut,
Iran-Contra, NSA, trapdoors, Casolaro, P-2 Lodge, Gehlen, MK-ULTRA,
and hundreds of others...) and I get a kick out of Robert Ludlum
novels. But becoming so isolated and perhaps even schizophrenic is not
a good thing.

(As an aside, I'll again urge folks to form local groups. It helps to
see actual faces and get to know folks. The surge in activity in
Austin is very encouraging. Ironically, some months back when
Lance/Larry (will we ever learn which was preferred?) was soliciting
my advice in e-mail--before I was seen to be the Puppetmaster's
Helper--he asked me how he could do things so far away from the Bay
Area. I pointed out to him the rich environment of the Denver-Colorado
Springs-Boulder-etc. corridor, and the presence of His PGPness Himself
in the area! Which he of course knew. Others, too. I can think of at
least a couple of others, Nate Sammons and Phillipe Nave, and maybe
others, who could form a nucleus of a group. I drive 60 miles north to
the Cypherpunks meetings, and Sandy Sandfort and Eric Blossom drive
about the same distance south, so that's 120 miles of range, about the
length of the urban corridor in Colorado. And a group can grow, of
course.)

And I *do* think there's a "Cypherpunks cause," loosely speaking. We all
know we have roughly similar goals, although our politics range across
the spectrum. But it's probably best that we nor formalize our goals
and our principles too much, for obvious reasons.

But getting so worked up in "the Cause" is not healthy. Especially
when anyone who deviates from one's own views is seen as a traitor, a
lackey, a stooge of the NSA, and so on.

What we're doing is demonstrably important, but there's no need to
demonize our opponents (in fact, that weakens us), to look for
traitors to the cause, and to take it all so _seriously_.

As someone says in their .sig, it's not as thought we're gonna get out
of this alive.

Cypherpunks write code. Cyperpunks write essays. Cypherpunks make puns
and jokes and even spoofs. Cypherpunks have fun.

Cheers, 

--Tim May (his True Name)


-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
tcmay@netcom.com       | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
408-688-5409           | knowledge, reputations, information markets, 
W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA  | black markets, collapse of governments.
Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available.
Note: I put time and money into writing this posting. I hope you enjoy it.