Libertad

How to Create An Anonymous, Private, Decentralized Social Network

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  1. The network in my imagination consists of Postal Workers,
    Directories, and Clients.
  2. Bob (a Client), lists the Postal Worker(s) that bring(s) him his
    messages in one or more Directories.
  3. To send Bob a message, Alice (another client) puts it into an
    envelop that only Bob can open. Then she queries the directory to
    find out who Bob’s Postal workers are and puts the FIRST envelop
    into ANOTHER ONE, that only one of Bob’s Postal Workers can open.
    (She can also send copies of the message to more than one of Bob’s
    Postal Workers if she wants to, just to make sure he gets it).
  4. Finally, Alice puts the SECOND envelope into a THIRD envelope,
    that only one of her own Postal Workers can open. (Again, she can
    give copies of her message to more than one Postal Worker if she
    wants to take extra precautions to ensure that the message gets
    delivered).
  5. Alice’ Postal Worker knows who the message is from, but not who
    it’s for. All he knows is which other Postal Worker he’s supposed to
    give it to.
  6. When Bob’s Postal Worker opens his envelope, he doesn’t know who
    the message came from or what’s in it; all he knows is who it’s for.
    This is how Tor works.
  7. When Bob receives Alice’ message, he can check to see whether her
    finger prints are on it. (He can also refuse to accept messages from
    people he isn’t already friends with).
  8. Bob doesn’t need to search the network for social media posts or
    other types of messages from Alice; instead, she just sends all her
    posts directly to one or more of the Postal Workers that work with
    Bob (or with any of her other subscribers).
  9. If there is a particular document Bob wants, he doesn’t need to
    search the network for it; he can just send Alice a request for the
    document, via whatever Postal Workers are in touch with her. Only
    Alice will know what Bob is asking her for, and only Bob gets to see
    the document. No one else even knows that the two of them are
    communicating with each other.
  10. If Alice’ Postal Workers wanted to spy on her, they would have
    to persuade Bob’s postal workers to collaborate with them, and that
    might be difficult to do if Bob was paying them enough money.
  11. If the government wanted to spy on Alice, they would have to
    force Alice’ Postal Workers to spy on her, and they would have to
    know Alice was talking to Bob – something not even her own Postal
    Workers would know – so that they could also force Bob’s Postal
    workers to spy on him.
  12. The likelihood of any one government forcing all the Postal
    Workers in the world to turn over all their envelopes all the time
    is low – and Bob and Alice could still protect against it by
    secretly working with an extra set of Postal Workers that they
    chose not to list in any Directory.
  13. A government could, theoretically, pass a law against operating
    as a Postal Worker. But it would be difficult to enforce, and
    Clients in that country would just start send their messages through
    Postal Workers in other countries.
  14. People could be incentivized to serve as Postal Workers by
    strongly-held beliefs, or by charging a fee. As someone else pointed
    out, “there will always be some Russian server willing to take your
    money in exchange for serving your posts.”
  15. Finally, there could be public review boards where Clients
    could post ratings and reviews of Postal Workers, to help other
    Clients decide who to work with and depend on.

Tyranny of Tyrannies

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Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.

― C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology

What are you protesting?

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Imagine a world where there was a group of people who decided which ideas were “correct,” and made an example out of anyone who expressed dissent.

Imagine a world where people were not permitted to organize around a shared set of spiritual beliefs, or to share those beliefs with others.

Imagine a world where you had to surrender yourself as a slave to those who had access to the goods and services necessary for your survival, instead of engaging with them in an equitable, voluntary system of exchange.

Imagine a world where, once you had spent your time – which is your life – to earn money, that money and the things you bought with it could be taken away from you by people who you had no say in appointing.

Imagine living in a world where others could determine your status as a person, based on arbitrary criteria designed specifically to exclude you.

Being American means being willing to give your life to prevent that from happening.

And being against Israel means support for those who are willing to kill and die to ensure it happens to the Jewish people.