[tor-talk] 2 hop mode for people that only want to use Tor for censorship circumvention to conserve bandwidth and decrease latency?

[Joe Btfsplk]

On 6/13/2016 2:08 AM, Ben Tasker wrote:
>
>> And how (many, not all) people tend to believe the worst about most
>> accused persons, regardless of the lack of or thinness of evidence, much
>> less waiting for any legal process?  An interesting but not necessarily
>> admirable human trait.
>> If the accused is a different race than ourselves, it's often worse.
>>   Some people see an accused's face on TV (no evidence yet) & say, "Oh yeah,
>> you can tell s/he's guilty, just by looking." Wow!  Really?  I hope they're
>> not on my jury of "peers" if I'm ever accused.
>>
> As well as the oft-quoted "there's no smoke without fire", or "there must
> be something to it, or the case wouldn't have reached court"
>
That's true.  Those are colloquialisms, adages - not laws of physics.  
The mentality behind those sayings you mentioned are exactly why many  
see a mug shot on TV & immediately conclude they're guilty w/ no 
evidence or hearing a word from the accused. Most developed countries 
have a legal system to determine guilt / innocence.  Definitely 
imperfect, but most scholars would say far superior to trial by media or 
the internet - guilty until proven innocent.
Yet thousands of times, people are arrested, charged - their face & 
accusations plastered everywhere, even convicted - later found they 
weren't even in the town / state when crime occurred, or hard evidence 
proves others committed the crime.  In spite of ALL those documented 
cases, a large % of population still immediately assumes people are 
guilty when arrested, or just publicly accused.  We never seem to learn 
from mistakes.  Once we hear / see something, it sticks.
USA Today poll in 2003 showed, " *Nearly seven in 10 Americans believe 
it is likely that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was personally 
involved in the Sept. 11 attacks*." USATODAY.com - Poll: 70% believe 
Saddam, 9-11 link 
<http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-09-06-poll-iraq_x.htm>
A *2014* survey by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s research center, 
PublicMind, showed, "of the 964 adults who were sampled in the national 
phone survey, 42 percent said that it was "definitely" or "probably" 
true that American forces found an active weapons of mass destruction 
program in Iraq." http://publicmind.fdu.edu/2015/false/  Weapuns of mass 
de-strucshun; nuc-u-lear bombs, huh?

When a prurient or gruesome story breaks, media sensationalizes the 
undocumented, unproven accusations.  If later found untrue, it's barely 
mentioned.  Almost never discussed how their reputation was ruined, lost 
their job / family, used life savings on legal fees, because it doesn't 
appeal to the "general public's" baser interests.  If the general public 
WAS interested in it, media would run it.

There are scores of documented cases of persons or groups making 
extremely serious, false, public claims or filing frivolous lawsuits 
against individuals or corporations - later proven undeniably false.
The many examples from The Innocence Project & Wikipedia - wrongly 
convicted persons  - barely scratch the surface.   People that tear 
themselves away from The Bachelor or Duck Dynasty & have read 
psychiatrists &  experts discuss this  in detail - understand the 
trauma, immense burden & often financial ruin that the falsely accused 
or convicted & their families endure.

I personally knew 2 teachers (separate incidents) accused by *multiple* 
students of sexual misconduct (so it had to be true, right?).  On 
nothing but uninvestigated claims, they were arrested, booked, faces & 
story on TV / papers, one fired.  In both cases -  investigators and / 
or teachers' lawyers THEN found it was all fabricated & students fully 
admitted they made it all up. Before ever going to trial.  "Sorry."  One 
was for revenge for "low grades given."  AFAIK, nothing happened to the 
students - old enough to know what they were doing.  One teacher said it 
cost much of their life savings hiring attorneys, because they couldn't 
risk poor defense by public defenders.  There's no way they could 
mentally stand teaching again, even if they paid them 4 times their salary.

I've been told (not researched it), in some countries if you file a 
(civil?) lawsuit against someone & lose, you may be  responsible for 
their reasonable legal fees?  Perhaps damages, too?  You can't just make 
any claims you want w/ impunity.  Throw it against the wall & see what 
sticks (as in the U.S. & some countries).