[liberationtech] RiseUp

[h0ost]

On 10/18/2013 04:57 PM, groente wrote:

> Well, let's apply that rhetoric to 99% of the alternatives:
> commercial providers. Commercial providers seem pretty radicalized in
> wanting to make money. This probably indicates that in their closed
> group, they value money at least as highly as technical expertise. It
> means that one of them could be incompetent and still have
> administrative access to security-critical systems, or that one of
> them could be recruited at some point under a suitable monetary
> compensation — compromising the service in either case.
> 
> Therefor it seems that actually RiseUp being non-profit and
> ideology-based are favorable aspects for the security of their
> services.
> 
> To assume that RiseUp acting out of ideology means one of them may be
> incompetent or can be recruited under some ideological pretense shows
> that you have not understood much of the dynamics of social movements
> nor of RiseUps ideology..
> 

Very well said!

And to add, when people talk about ideology in such a way, to me, it
clearly shows that they don't understand the most basic facts about
politics.  Ideology is everywhere, it permeates all social relations, it
shapes everyday life, and is a factor of power (which the Riseup
collective has been carefully nurturing to enable it to struggle in its
various political campaigns, which is pretty admirable in my book).

Being technically competent does not preclude the same person from being
politically incompetent (and vice versa), but these two aspects need not
be mutually exclusive.