Comments on: Where Have All the Philes Gone?

By: The Philosopher

The Philosopher — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:32:54 +0000

By the way, Slipped Disk (if I may refer to you by that delightfully witty handle) I as a “sort of anarchist” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism) read and appreciated your essay “There’s Anarchy and Then There’s Anarchy”.

By: The Philosopher

The Philosopher — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:19:09 +0000

Here is a link to the Wikipedia page on libertarian socialism, the likes of which I ought to have posted in the above comment:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_socialism

The views of 2600 and affiliates seem to range from mainstream, pro-Obama Democrat to socialist libertarian. In both cases, they often (usually) seem to support the state and use thereof to accomplish various objectives, with the exception of civil libertarian issues. 2600 once confined its political propaganda/ramblings to such “civil libertarian issues”, but presently, it promotes a great deal of political leftism regarding many other issues.

By: The Philosopher

The Philosopher — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:08:48 +0000

Where exactly did Glutton suggest or imply that “current forums seem to suck” and/or that the information and technology of days past was superior? Slipped Disk, you seem to be slightly missing the point as well. Glutton suggested that the attitude, that the culture surrounding these things was different and perhaps superior in the “days of yore”-NOT the venues of information transfer (BBSes vs. forums). With that stated, I do believe that a few valid points were contained within the article:

“Gone is the idea that all learning efforts are pure and worthwhile. Now theoretical questions are greeted with suspicion…If someone wanted to know about X, let him as (presumably) a competent being decide whether it’s moral or not.”

This is quite true, often to the point of sheer ludicriousness. Perusing the letters section of nearly any issue of 2600 one will find several letters describing the completely irrational and insulting suspicions of imbeciles without the slightest inkling of technological understanding. In many cases, regrettably, individuals are persecuted merely for being interested in “non-mainstream”, “fringe”, or any areas of knowledge that the accusers fail to comprehend. Also, I am just as displeased as Glutton and perhaps even more so with the contempt with which curious budding hackers, phreaks, and others are often treated simply due to the questionable legality of the application of the knowledge/information in which they are interested. First, morality absolutely does not equal legality in most instances; secondly, the above maxim aside, information is in itself amoral. The patronizing attitude of many individuals within the H/P subculture and elsewhere as regards this is, in my view, disgusting.

Chris-
Anarchists? Smash-the-state proto-revolutionaries? These are completely incorrect descriptions of the political leanings of 2600 Magazine and affiliates, the likes of which are far more mainstream and leftist in nature-socialist libertarian, it seems. I am in concurrence, however, with your view that the political propaganda disseminated by 2600 casts an undesirable shadow over the actual content.

By: ajr

ajr — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 02:32:09 +0000

For well over a decade 2600 had almost zero content produced inhouse aside from editorials. Techncial content was all reader submitted. When readers would write in and ask why an article on XYZ wasn’t to be found anywhere, the response was always “well, why don’t you research, learn it, and then write one for us?”. I remember one issue had a semi-detailed article on how to use nmap, I think it was like 1.51. Of course, 2 months before the quarterly came out nmap had rev’d to 2.0 and the 1.x tree looked amateur in comparison. A quarterly print mag with nothing of value created in house… christ, it’s like web 2.0 but 15 years sooner.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 23:36:02 +0000

Unfortunately, mostly everyone connected with 2600 (the magazine, website, and the various radio shows) fancies themselves as some sort of anarchist, smash-the-state proto-revolutionary, and it is too bad, because the noise level generated by the politics often drowns out the neat hackery stuff.