From: "George A. Stathis" <hyperlex@hol.gr>
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 1996 23:01:59 -0800 (PST)
To: tfs@adsl-122.cais.com (Tim Scanlon)
Subject: Re: Censor John Gilmore -- EFF is a disgrace!
Message-ID: <199611171100.JAA21839@prometheus.hol.gr>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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At 12:07 ðì 17/11/1996 -0600, snow wrote:
>> Stephen Boursy wrote, along with a horde of others with no lives:
>> [lots of worthless crap snipped out]
>> > None of that analogy is applicable to the cyberpunks list.
>> > When a list gets as big as that, it it no longer to be considered
>> > a "mailing-list" but it is a _public_ forum.  The whole problem
>> > here is the abuse of power by both the EFF and John Gilmore.
>
>    Boursy is a twit who has lost more accounts that Vulis.

In this case, I'd quote a poet who said
"I am not sorry for the poets who were left without an audience,
 I am sorry for the audiences who were left without any poets".

I would suggest that it is not at all a "safe" indication of personal
or intellectual _worth_, (of Mr. Boursy or of anyone) "how many
accounts he has lost".

For two reasons:
(1)  As I read Mr. Boursy's postings, I see no indication that he is
     either deranged, or evil, or lacking sanity or maturity. If he
     had these qualities, they'd sooner or later show up inside the F-K
     list, to which I subscribe for several months (nearly a year?).

(2)  The situation inside the "less official" side of thje Internet,
     at the moment (aka mailing lists) is so notoriously repressive
     that perhaps a _minority_ of mailing lists do not indulge in
     so-called "forcible unsubscriptions". E.g. what about the "Orgonomy
     mailing list" kicked out an eloquent critic of its owner (Dr.
     Demeo) (can find all names and details if you like) just because
     he opposed Dr. Demeo's "experiments" in an Israeli desert which
     (allegedly, according to the critic) resulted in people's deaths.
     I mention this case, because I was present there, and because
     (just like the "Cypherpunks" list) it was directly or indirectly
     related to issues of Freedom ("Orgonomy" being the "Alternative
     Psychology" of a rather unconventional thinker called Wilhelm Reich
     who died in an American jail after the McCarthian State framed him).




>    Ignore him.

It is not ethical to send such strong negative _injunctions_ to masses
of people and also to strangers (the 1900-strong members of the cyberphunks
list for instance). Because, you may or may not have strong reasons for
believing you are justified in such invalidation, but more than a 1000
people are now _told_ by (self-appointed) "experts" such as yourself what
and whom to ignore or to believe. (Like sheep led to the slaughter)...

This was my objection also inside the F-K list, for _some_ of the postings
in the past, but none of these postings was connected with acts of
censorship, or with "sweeping generalisations" without evidence. On several
occasions that I searched and found who or what they were talking about,
I discovered they were talking about people whose activities were indeed
horrifying (forged cancellations etc) and who also fought back.

But what you are doing now, extending the "1-person-blacklist" to your
number-two-entry (Mr. Boursy) is exactly the thing that I hoped you might
avoid.


        First they kicked out Dimitri Vulis.
        
        Then they slandered and kept out Steve Boursy.
        
        Then...
        
        When they came after me, there was nobody left to support me.


(You can perhaps realize what this paraphrase is about)... :-(


Sincerily, and with... Sanity of Mind :-)
George Stathis