Jacob Appelbaum <[email protected]> writes: > micah: >> Eleanor Saitta <[email protected]> writes: >> >>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- >>> Hash: SHA256 >>> >>> On 2013.06.24 07.19, Douwe Schmidt wrote: >>>> Dear LibTech Readers, >>>> >>>> In a little bit over a month OHM2013 is happening in The >>>> Netherlands. There has been a lot of controversy in the run-up to >>>> this gathering. There was criticism of the involvement of tech >>>> security company Fox-IT, then there was a heated debate on the >>>> presence of Dutch High-tech Crime Unit in a village of their own. >>>> Both discussions have calmed down. But the relevance of these >>>> topics was clarified and reinforced. >>> >>> It's very sad that the organizing team has not actually taken any >>> meaningful steps to address either their complicity with the >>> manufacture of surveillance equipment, their acceptance of the >>> promotion of a fascist police force, or the way they treated people >>> who had previously been part of their own team during the "discussion" >>> that ensued. In fact, as far as I can tell, absolutely nothing has >>> happened on their end, they've just out-waited any discussion. >>> >>> A lot of people are asking me to change my mind on attending, and it >>> sounds like you guys are going to have a lot of fun, but I'm finding >>> myself pretty unmotivated to change my mind given that much of the >>> organizing team doesn't seem to care at all about human rights. >> >> I felt the same way as you, but someone convinced me that boycotting >> just removes my voice from this conversation, and that attending gives a >> chance to have this well needed discussion with the community. > > This is a false dichotomy of an argument if ever I've heard one. I keep > hearing it too. It bums me out to no end.
A false dichotomy would be to suggest that this discussion cannot happen anywhere else, except for at OHM, when in reality there are plenty of other potential options for discussion... for example what we are doing here. I would be quite silly to suggest that it is not possible to have this discussion anywhere other than OHM while in the middle of having such a discussion which is obviously not at OHM. There *is* a dichotomy involved in what we are talking about, but it is a real one: you either go to this event or you do not. Although, I've already had discussions online with the organizers about their various poor choices, as well as others in the community who were upset and uncomfortable with how things happened, the ones that have been most useful have been the ones that I've had in person. Online discussions have never been as persuasive or as productive as real face to face discussions. I would hope that nobody thinks that this discussion can just wait until we are all together in person at OHM, and then once that is finished then pencils down! no more discussion. Rather let us talk about it now (we are!), let us organize ourselves to bring a strong statement to OHM against this disease that rots the hacker community, and let us continue to discuss it afterwards. -- Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at [email protected] or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
