Misguided religions & misuse of Tor

[DoNotRemoveBeforeFlight]

Here's a quickie:

Besides all those news about the civil war in Iraq that is going on right now, I came across this tweet supposedly by a member/supporter of ISIS.

I am proud to be running a Tor relay, but not for this!

Quite a few countries are concerned about their own citizens flying over to Iraq to "fight the jihad". It's not surprising that remnants of Al-Qaeda and its subsidiaries in many countries far away from Middle East exist till today. That's one heck of a skewed Islamism.

This also reminded me of those random door-to-door preaches you might encounter. (cue “Excuse Me Sir, Do You Have a Moment to Talk About Jesus Christ?” meme) Very intrusive, and brainwashed. By the way, a similar case... anyone who trolled the Scientology centers a few years back probably know how far such people can go.

Anyway, thanks to assholes who abuse tools meant for good (as always), more governments and ISPs are scrutinizing Tor. I'm not sure how one determines the risks they would be taking when running Tor with the best intentions in mind, but what happens if innocent relays are unknowingly and involuntarily helping evil like terrorism?

Spoiler

Disclaimer: I have both Muslim and Christian friends, this topic is aimed towards the extremists.

About Tor: It's an anonymity tool.

 

[ThePest179]

On religious extremism: If you changed an extremist's religion/politics, they'd be exactly the same. Really fucking stupid that extremists have to exist at all.

 

[Vapymid]

Anyway, thanks to assholes who abuse tools meant for good (as always), more governments and ISPs are scrutinizing Tor.

I think you'll find that governments have always monitored Tor ever since it or its predecessor-anonymisers have been invented. "Terrorism" is just an excuse for cracking down that little bit more.

As a rule, governments in the West don't fear terrorists very much (chances of a civil servant or a minister being killed by a terrorist are practically non-existent), they fear of their own general population much more.

Actually, terrorists make a very handy stick for the governments to beat their citizenry with. It's a low cost, high return tool - hardly anyone dies of terrorism if you compare, say, with deaths from car accidents, but we give our governments anything they ask for if they say it is needed for protection from terrorism...

Quite a few countries are concerned about their own citizens flying over to Iraq to "fight the jihad".

It's not new either - just like "international brigades" during the Spanish Civil War, for example, fighting on both sides of the conflict. This is not unique to Islamists too.

It seem that all ideologies at some stages of their existence go through a violent expansionist phase when their adepts use the original ideology as a criteria for "with us or against us" selection. These usually have very little connection (other than purely ritual and superficially formalistic) with any philosophical aspects of the hi-jacked ideology and their main purpose seems to be to justify the abandonment of moral rules and constraints for the adherents during the conflict.

In this way they can legitimise and rationalise the wanton atrocities and destruction they commit in order to achieve their ends, which are normally fairly unrelated to any matters of faith but have underlying local economic, ethnic and political causes.

Regards

 

[ThePest179]

True in the extreme.