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Steve wrote: > Aside from the usual concerns people might have about telling you what they > know, unfortunately, your messages this past week just added a whole new level > of disincentive: did you ever stop to think that the angrier and more > emotional you are about the idea of being fed disinformation, the more of a > chilling effect it will have on people who have something legitimate to tell > you? >>This does not follow. It sure does to anyone sensitized to being mistaken for being on the "wrong side", from either side. The problem with anger is that it tends to cloud judgement and warp honest greys into erroneous blacks and whites. We always see what we're looking for, but emotionality juices it up to a fevered pitch: a little adverse information turns into evidence turns into proof turns into looking down the wrong end of a 45 magnum. The only way to win a game like that is not to play. > The risk of you mistakenly retaliating against someone because you conclude > they're trying to snow you on behalf of the government just won't balance the > risk they're putting themselves through from the other end. In fact, I thinkif > someone really wanted to damage Cryptome, they could hardly do better than to > get you whipped up to the point you're so pissed off you start thinking > everything is disinformation and end up not running something important. Not > like there's anything to be done about it, but you're scaring the shit out of > people, John: >>In my opinion people should be scared shitless. You know, in the best of all possible worlds, I'd love to be able to come back with something like: "But not by each other! Not if you're working toward the same end!" But sadly, in this one, statements like that positively reek of the confidence artist's open arms, warm, winsome smile, and gentle hand on the shoulder as they softly murmur: "trust me". To hell with that. So I guess I really don't know what to say. Apart from the honest truth that I am, in reality, scared shitless. By the government, by you people, damn near anyone who...who... can reason...as cold-eyed and deviously...as I do? Oh shit. Ouch. > Your government (as well as mine) are engaging in not merely illegal, but > barbaric practices in so far as 'recruiting' is concerned. > The longer such practices are permitted to continue, the more that the > perpetrators are allowed to become emboldened by their successes lack of > criminal sanction. True enough. >Given enough time, these people will, for all intents and purposes, be >unstoppable and will come to view their ability and right to subvert, coerce, >enlist, steal, threaten, and manipulate as evidence, prima facia, of their >natural superiority over the very people they should be protecting from the >very threat which they now pose. And you think it's not too late now? >John is completely correct. The current practices as they pertain to >'recruiting' are utterly odious and abhorrent and should be exposed and >halted. Not at the expense of people honestly trying to help him. I just think that if he were a little cooler-headed about the whole thing he'd get more of the results he's really after. Just my bias, that's all. ~Faustine. *** He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. - --Thomas Paine -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPsdk version 1.7.1 (C) 1997-1999 Network Associates, Inc. and its affiliated companies. (Diffie-Helman/DSS-only version) iQA/AwUBPH/mAfg5Tuca7bfvEQLP7QCeMjt81qhjPNZ0rt9Sg0Emule0EgsAoJVm 3kRMaV5ienCfySotqpX1/Yjx =WgRF -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
