From: Random H0Z3R <nobody@c2.org>
Date: Wed, 20 Jul 94 21:07:09 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Who Detweiler is *really* posting as
Message-ID: <199407210405.VAA07049@zero.c2.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Hello. I've been on this list for a long time and noticed some disturbing
correlations between Perry Metzger's and Detweiler's posts. Now, bear with
me on this. First of all, has anyone noticed how Perry flames Detweiler
with the most rabid virulence of anyone? But what is more interesting
is that his flames are always kind of lame. They don't have any cutting
comebacks. They're just filled with ad-hominem insults.

Now, if you recall how Detweiler was posting under tmp@netcom.com to the
newsgroups, he intentionally poisoned the reputation of one of his tentacles,
"Beavis Butthead", by having it hurl nasty insults, nasty words, and wallow
in degrading thoughts. That way, to ridicule a position he finds abhorrent,
he has Beavis take the position. An interesting "reputation cancellation"
effect occurs, quite like in Shakespearan prose when a slow-witted rioter
says, "First, let's kill all the laywers". Its a literary device.

So Detweiler, posting from Perry Metzger's addess as a "tentacle", is 
accomplishing several things. First of all, he hasn't been discovered since 
the inception of the list. And by flaming Detweiler tentacles so hotly, he 
maintains the illusion of being a distinct enemy, someone else who is repulsed 
by Detweiler stuff. And he's been more effective in starting massive flamewars
than Detweiler ever was. (In fact, when Detweiler was on the list under his
own name, they got into heated arguments over ridiculous issues no one
else cared about like "changing the cypherpunk name to something less radical").
But most of all, he has a "negative tentacle" to talk about ideas that he
really detests, and causes other people to detest by association.

Moreover: Have you noticed that "Perry" rhymes with "Larry"? And that "Lehman" 
(where he posts from) starts with "L"? And sounds a little like "madman"? 
Also, Perry talks about stock trading and digital cash. I think this reflects 
Detweiler's well-known interest in digital cash (he posted to the imp-interest
list for a long time). And Detweiler liked to smirk at Perry being the same as 
Parry, the paranoid AI computer program simulation!  I think he *built in*
this insult by design! It's his little "inside joke"!

Makes you wonder, eh? And has anyone actually MET Metzger?
I mean, of the people we can TRUST? He's in New York and has had NOTHING
to do with the CA cypherpunk meetings. And it's possible that the Metz
part of his name is just based on the NY Mets baseball team! Another
little "piece": he has been on the list forever, even when Detweiler
leaves (but always comes back). Detweiler is *known* to be drawn to this
list "like a moth to a flame". I think he was only *pretending* to go
away to start a flamewar while sticking around as Perry (and post from
Perry to help heat up the flamewar as he "left").

He reminds me of Sternlight. No one likes him. He has no reputation. But
he's immensely effective in starting massive flamewars. Detweiler loves
to hurl the ad hominem stuff all over talk.politics.crypto! Metzger
has *got* to be a Detweiler tentacle. It makes perfect sense. I've listed
far more reasons than those for Kragen (who I wasn't sure about).

I have heard of other reasonable-minded people leaving because of the
Perry flames, anyway. At least I hope the Perry-tentacle will tone down the 
routine scathing ad hominem face-slapping routine and posting lame drivel
no one cares about. Demonizing people rarely serves anyone's best interests.

BTW, I don't like what has been going on the list where there are anonymous
attacks on people in the list. Do we really want to bring this kind of
toxic rumormongering into cyberspace? If we had some reputation systems
our remailers would probably be less dangerous. In fact, that inspires
a Zen of Cyberspace joke:

Q. If a remailer is yin and a reputation system is yang, what is Yin without
Yang?

A. The sound of one hand clapping.

Voila! <g> Gotta run. Bye.