Successful subversion must be seen as an acceptable alternative to the status
quo. Participants in today's dominant culture don't really want to play nice
when the other side is calling for heads to literally roll. Making threats on
another's life, ironically or not, is supposed to raise doubts in their heads
as to whether or not the State can protect them.
Of course the State is going to protect them. They bought it many years ago
before anyone knew what was going on.
Fighting fire with fire seems to be an effective approach these days, judging by
how much money progressives are starting to pour into evicting less-than-
favorable elected officials and the results gotten. Buying back the State in
order to dismantle its economic inequality feedback loop doesn't seem like all
that bad an idea to me.
On Friday, February 20, 2015 07:06:22 PM Matthew Senate wrote:
Hey all,
Shouldn't have posted this to the safe-hackerspaces(a)lists.riseup.net list,
so instead I am forwarding this note to sudo-discuss and
noisebridge-discuss:
cheers,
Matt
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Matthew Senate <mattsenate(a)gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 6:14 PM
Subject: Re: [safe-hackerspaces] Jeanine Otter asked to leave Noisebridge
To: Liz Henry <lizhenry(a)gmail.com>
Cc: Patrick O'Doherty <p(a)trickod.com>om>, safe-hackerspaces(a)lists.riseup.net
Liz,
Thanks for sharing, happy to hear where you're coming from.
All,
If I were a member of Noisebridge, I would ask myself about the ways that,
as hackers, the NB community subverts the dominant culture, especially in
the local neighborhood. The dominant culture in the bay area includes
high-paid tech workers moving in from out of town (as well as VPs /
managers / lawyers / etc flipping buildings and creating private services
that subvert publicly-accessible ones). This exacerbates the ongoing
displacement and dispossession of poor and working class people. If that's
the case, then I would be interested in taking actions that demonstrate the
NB community is not merely Techie Scum, and that it can rise above such
rhetoric to strike at the root of the matter. Any opportunities to reach
out to anti-eviction groups in SF?
Just my 2 cents...
// Matt
p.s. Note I dropped "gentrification" for "displacement and
dispossession"
which is what I believe is really happening...
p.p.s. I think everyone has the "Die Techie Scum" motto all wrong--it's a
positive German exclamation for "The Techie Scum!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npty9_ik-E8
On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 5:06 PM, Liz Henry <lizhenry(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> I also hated it when we had "anti-science" people hanging out (years ago
> from the Public School") As they would rail against tech in general.
> Then why are you at a hackerspace? It is for technology using! Broadly
> defined! *headdesk*
>
> Anyway, I get it if this person is just super obnoxious and a jerk.
>
> - liz
>
>
>
> - liz
>
> On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 4:58 PM, Liz Henry <lizhenry(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>> I want to support Noisebridg'es kicking people out abilities, especially
>> for people who are annoying, destructive, and scary, but personally, as
>> techie scum myself, do not think Die Techie Scum posters are crossing a
>> line. I would understand someone taking the posters down.
>>
>> My line is more around power dynamics and whether something is a specific
>> threat.
>>
>> This reads to me much more like hyperbole. Like, I can read and admire
>> the rhetoric of the SCUM Manifesto, or as I hope others can, without
>> actually supporting violence, and treat it as food for thought.
>>
>> "if you're new to town and work in tech, leave" also just seems
like
>> slightly harsh political speech. It is angry and it's rude and it will be
>> offensive to many people but hardly seems like oppression or a threat of
>> violence or a terrible harassment campaign.
>>
>> Not sure there is a way to be internally consistent, for example, I would
>> think it fine to ban someone with a White Power tattoo on their face and
>> yet would argue that Die Techie Scum is not so bannable.
>>
>> Is this person also just generally annoying or not nice to have around?
>>
>> My 2 cents.
>>
>> - Liz
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 3:30 PM, Patrick O'Doherty <p(a)trickod.com>
wrote:
>>> Hey all,
>>>
>>> Last night myself and Torrie asked Jeanine Otter to leave Noisebridge
>>> and not come back.
>>>
>>> Jeanine had been using Noisebridge to print hateful, offensive material
>>> ("Die Techie Scum" posters and the like) in large quantities. Many
were
>>> uncomfortable with her offensive material and attitude towards those in
>>> the community.
>>>
>>> I've added Jeanine to the Noisebridge 86 page.
>>>
>>> p
>>>
>>> --
>>> Patrick O'Doherty
>>> +1 (650) 701-7829
>>
>> --
>> Liz Henry
>> lizhenry(a)gmail.com
>>
>> "Electric ladies will you sleep or will you preach?" -- Janelle Monae
>>
>> "Without models, it's hard to work; without a context, difficult to
>> evaluate; without peers, nearly impossible to speak." -- Joanna Russ
>
> --
> Liz Henry
> lizhenry(a)gmail.com
>
> "Electric ladies will you sleep or will you preach?" -- Janelle Monae
>
> "Without models, it's hard to work; without a context, difficult to
> evaluate; without peers, nearly impossible to speak." -- Joanna Russ