[tor-teachers] tor teachers -- politics

[Lara]

Nathan of Guardian:
> There are some people who come to Tor seek anonymity of the 
> whistle-blowing strength. Unfortunately, whistle-blowing has gotten a
> bad rap from the media/govts who seek to discredit it and politicize
> it, instead of it being seen as a patriotic, legal or fiduciary
> responsibility.

Nothing should be "patriotic". How about just helping people?

> There are others who come to Tor simply wanting privacy for their 
> browsing, search and online communication. They do not see this as a
>  (capital P) Political act, but is obviously political, in the way 
> that Jacob pointed out... many governments and societies do not want 
> to grant you this freedom.

Using abstractions instead of people has a tendency to blur the
discussion. It also has the fine quality of moving debate from reason
into emotional. And anthropomorphisation makes things worse.

So the government (and not Government) is one type of society.

Also, maybe you know some such examples, but so far I have not met any
society
that would have wishes or wants.

Keep in mind that a government or a society is just a group of people
with a common interest. And probably ANY form of life would appreciate
making less effort no matter what the enterprise is. So the people that
are emotionally called *the government* are not into the business of
making life harder for themselves.

Currently people have the idea that they themselves are better judges
than anybody around. Mix in free will and what seems to be the natural
curiosity of what your neighbor is doing and you get all sort of
individuals convinced they can be Mighty Mouse saving the day.

Probably things would be easier if privacy would not be perceived as an
affront to the power of some.

> Finally, there are others that come to Tor who simply want their 
> internet routing and connectivity to not be intercepted, re-routed, 
> logged or otherwise interfered with by network middle-folks and bad 
> actors. These are likely the types who use Facebook over Tor or use 
> Tor more like a free VPN or proxy, which I think is a fantastic
> thing for those who want it. Again, this can be seen as a political
> act, since some of the bad actors are state-empowered, but it is
> probably better expressed as "I care about the Internet, and I want
> it to work properly".

It is a political act. The term politics at the origin meant having an
oppinion of how the town should be run. At the time town or state could
confound. Meaning you think sanitation is good for the health of your
fellow townspeople? Simply talking about it makes it political. Do you
think the city hall should pay one loaf of bread every other day for
each family? Or that the pharmacist should not share your medical data?
These are also political acts.

Cheers!