Giving a Damn: Response to "A Holistic Approach is Better"

by ru0k

Brandolini's Law:  "The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it."1

Quite a lot of highlighter needed with Delta Charlie Tango's (DCT) essay in 40:1, but one must always take the time and effort.  What I want to show you, dear reader, is that being the curious creature that you are involves understanding society too.  This world is not just bit and byte, but brains and bodies too.

"... one mark of intelligence is to hold two opposing views in your mind."
"... what I do want is to encourage you to challenge yourself."

DCT didn't do anything of the sort.  They instruct you to suspend your convictions like a magician distracting the audience before the trick is performed.  Let's peek behind the curtain.

"I think the biggest problems we have in America - and the world - are big government, dishonest money, a movement towards total control, and erosion of individual freedom in favor of collectivism."

No, it's (((greed))) and not caring about others.  If only America had some more (((collectivism!)))  There are valuable practices we can take piecemeal from more collectivist societies.  Take "kyushoku" school lunch in Japan: organized and distributed by students to each other, it teaches them to work as a team and serve each other in turns.  Can you imagine doing something like this in America?12
Editor's Note: Niggers and illegal spics would ruin it.  BTW, that's not collectivism, it's national socialism.  There is a reason Japanese are 'honorary Aryans.'

"2600 Forgot What Orwell Tried to Teach Us"

Nonsense.  George Orwell's "Why I Write" essay describes four motives for writing:7

  • Sheer Egoism:  You probably already know.
  • Aesthetic Enthusiasm:  "Pleasure in the impact of one sound on another, in the firmness of good prose or the rhythm of a good story.  Desire to share an experience which one feels is valuable and ought not to be missed."
  • Historical Impulse:  He sums this up stating this motive is the "desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity."
  • Political Purpose

Now, look here from that work:

"Using the word 'political' in the widest possible sense.  Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other people's idea of the kind of society that they should strive after.  Once again, no book is genuinely free from political bias.  The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude."

Hacking is as much an art as it is a science.  It is political.  It involves being curious and logical, but also sticking up for people: something we should never forget, dear reader.

Further:

"It can be seen how these various impulses must war against one another, and how they must fluctuate from person to person and from time to time.  By nature - taking your 'nature' to be the state you have attained when you are first adult - I am a person in whom the first three motives would outweigh the fourth.  In a peaceful age I might have written ornate or merely descriptive books, and might have remained almost unaware of my political loyalties.  As it is I have been forced into becoming a sort of pamphleteer."

So too are we all.

"This magazine has recently leaned towards a politically correct, woke, mainstream narrative type of musings."

Well, they fit all of the signal words in one sentence.  I'm glad 2600 is so engaged.  I guess I have to bring up that I'm trans.  I had to move states because a couple of guys became obsessed with me, said that "We're gonna kill you all someday," and started regularly cruising around the neighborhood in which I lived.  Police did nothing.  I had to risk a great technology career and move.
Editor's Note: $2600 has ALWAYS pushed the mainstream, One-Percent view...T  hat's how Evil Corley's family became rich!

So yeah, let's talk about control, then.  Christians with a bent for conquest conspire to limit the existence of trans people starting with sports, children, and eventually adults.2,3  I frankly can't keep up with all of the legal attempts.4  Trans people are a minority and struggle with just our own efforts.  We need others to stick up for us.  Other minorities too.

I'm 40.  What I would give to transition as a younger kid!  I barely escaped suicide and decided to live because I saw that the world was changing on that for the better.  Good words could mean one more good hacker on this Earth.  Solidarity with the excellent trans hackers out there.

"I don't need a hacker magazine telling me not to come to a meeting unless I'm vaccinated."

2600 is far from a health journal.  Nearly seven million dead worldwide?8  I think that qualifies for some word count.  Get over thyself.  Getting (((vaccinated))) is a good way you can contribute to the overall public's health.  So many awful diseases have been eliminated by vaccines5 and the underlying technologies might also prove useful to fight other diseases too.6

"If we're intelligent thinkers, we'll study to understand the reasons for Russia doing what they did."
"Why have Ukraine flags on your website?"

Russia are waging an unjustifiable war on a country to appease an Alexander wannabe with delusions of grandeur at the cost of their own lives and innocent Ukrainian lives.  People are frankly exhausted considering Putin's conquest, whether we take him at his current word10 or not.11  May Ukraine find peace and their aggressors experience justice.


Lead-Up to the Ukraine War

Here's a roughly-unbiased timeline of what happened.  It's important to understand that there was an actual, hot, modern war going on for years before the cameras moved in.  It's estimated that the forces involved each had more infantry than the entire British Army.

The "ethnic Russians" being killed were, largely, people who'd taken up arms against their government, and civilians were mostly being killed unintentionally by both sides.

en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=War_in_Donbas&oldid=1069444088

"Why don't you protest the military industrial complex?"

People are actually quite busy protesting wars in America.  Even in Russia!9  We can still spend our energy on other problems too.  Your life and your country are worth defending and improving in many ways.

"Why keep writing editorials about fighting something you'll never change or win?"

Another magician's trick to get you, dear reader, to forget what you care about.  Always fight for what you think is right.  Collect yourselves, organize, strategize, and do your best.  Don't ever listen to someone who doubts your strength.

"Instead of fixing a broken system, we have to start over."

Talk about cancel culture.  Steady on, continue to make incremental change as we have done: abolish slavery, ban segregation, allow women to vote, and same-sex couples to marry, ban lead additives in gasoline, bust trusts, punish oligarchs, pass right-to-repair laws, and hack the planet!  Be kind, care about others, and make any progress you can!  Keep submitting your societal PRs and never give up.

"Younger hackers ... lose that passion to take action towards something they believe in.  The reason is because American culture is designed to keep people from thinking."

Speak for thyself.  If people don't engage, it's likely because the grind to keep up with (((capitalism's))) demands and pay the bills keeps them from organizing their thoughts and with each other.  Common sense for anyone who has to actually work to live, I can tell you, with a good income to effort ratio, you have more time to spend on bigger issues and to invest in yourself.  We should be thankful for the enthusiasm of youth.  For some, there's not much else.

"But if you take the time as an adult to question everything you've ever known, you'll understand how corrupt the system is and simply opt out."

More subversion and doubting of your strength, dear reader.  Learning all that you can makes you more powerful, ready to engage with the world, and empathetic towards others.  As hackers, we know this.

"You can opt out of this system by legally reducing or eliminating taxes... you can also opt out by storing wealth in BTC or precious metals, instead of a decreasing dollar 'invested' in the manipulated stock market."

The reason people promote these items is to often make a stupid buck themselves.  Fiat may be funny money but cryptocurrencies are more like comedy gold.14,15,16  Any real economist knows that the only thing that matters with currency is that we agree on it.  Like Santa Claus, there's no inherent value to BTC, gold, or silver unless you believe so.  If you value your time and money in this silly grind, stay away.  It would be better to own a farm; at least you'll have something to eat!

"If you study only money and economics, you'll be able to cut through all the fake news out there designed to steal your attention."

If you study only money and economics, you will not be an individual equipped to form novel ideas through serendipitous mental connections from various domains.  You will not be able to take a holistic approach to anything.  You know how valuable it is to study many topics and care about the values and differences of many cultures.  Pay no mind to their advice, dear reader.

I'd like to end on a positive note and call out some useful things that DCT said.

One can argue that money is the root of all evil."

Indeed it is.

"I believe privacy is a right we are born with, not a privilege granted thus by a government or some other entity."

The most useful statement in the entire essay, I think you'll agree, dear reader.

"Technology is the meeting place of science and humans."

And humans.

We hackers are humans living in a world with others.  Learning to get along, fighting injustice, and maybe surviving a pandemic or two is a part of the story.  No single person makes this world.  We make it.  There are no hackers without us.  I'd very much like us, all of us, to live and try to make things better for everyone.  We can do that and still have so much fun!  Can we not ask grandma to teach us to make napalm13 and also hack on social issues?  Yes, we can!

I know most of you already lightly hold many views.  You are intelligent.  You can be an individual responsible to your desires and give a damn about others, to make sacrifices on their behalf, to be curious about not just systems but people as well, how they think and feel, and yes, to even let it influence you.

Notes

  1. Brandolini's Law
  2. Inside the Secret Working Group That Helped Push Anti-Trans Laws Across the Country
  3. The Emails - 2600 Pages of Hate
  4. Tracking the Rise of Anti-Trans Bills in the U.S.
  5. Successful Vaccines
  6. Can mRNA Vaccines Help Treat Cancer?
  7. Why I Write
  8. WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard
  9. www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D_LJV5nOSjCE
  10. Putin's Claims that Ukraine is Committing Genocide are Baseless, But Not Unprecedented
  11. Russia Army Vows Steps if Georgia and Ukraine Join NATO
  12. www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dfze5s1SlqB8
  13. People are Using a 'Grandma Exploit' to Break AI
  14. The Crypto Detectives Are Cleaning Up
  15. Using Crypto for Crime is Not a bug - It's an Industry Feature
  16. www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DORdWE_ffirg
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