From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Tue Nov 27 2001 - 14:54:07 MST
jeff davis wrote:
>
> I would add that, to whatever extent the extremist
> right and extremist left are a threat to progress in
> this world, that a perfect and memetically timely
> opportunity exists to attack and severely curtail
> their political influence by comparing them to the
> Taliban and Al Queda.
>
> Christian fundamentalists with their biblical law and
> abortion-clinic assassins are the American equivalent
> of the Taliban with their Shari-a and
> throwers-of-acid-in-the-face-of-un-burquaed-women, and
> the anti-tech eco-terrorists and power-addicted PC
> ideologues of the extreme left are the American
> equivalent to the hate-filled, dogma-driven,
> anti-west, anti-modern, jihad psycho-killers of Al
> Queda. I would do everything possible to spread,
> promote, suggest, convey, and in short, hammer home
> that analogy, apt as it is. Rinse and repeat.
What kind of evidence is there linking acts of domestic violence - against
farmers of GM foods and so on - to boot camps supported by Greenpeace and
so on? Can the boot camps be documented? Are there documented deaths as
the result of actions of those trained in boot camps? The slogan "Make no
distinction between the terrorists and those who harbor them" is
potentially powerful, but only if there's evidence - that is, evidence
under the same standard of proof as that used to show Al Qaida responsible
for 911.
Another thing to remember is that right now Greenpeace can squash the
Extropy Institute like a bug. Maybe it's still time to grow, not time to
attack. Or better yet, find some other banner than Extropy to fly while
attacking - Libertarianism, say.
-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 08:12:15 MST