>Hey, yes I have read Black's "IBM" and it left a huge impression on me.

Me too.

I read during an in school suspension after needing stitches from the violent encounter I had with one of the staff at the school I attended. (That person is dead now. An early grave, a painful death, and never an apology -- almost a fair trade.)

>On that theme of tyranny recruiting willing mild-mannered regulars, Browning's "Ordinary Men" is a horror show, well worth a read.

I had to look up if this is nonfiction... I may have read it!

I cannot find out, because the fascists who operate the local library won't let me search their catalog over Tor, and even if they did, they've weeded many books since that liminal period when they scooped up spies prior to our last great "Shark Week".

And let's be real: I'm not going to call the township library again -- last we spoke, I called asked if they still had a copy of 1863305955, the digits read off like a nuclear launch code, and if not, if they maintained records of when books are "weeded" so I could help understand when certain people may have migrated from "the library" to... another place.

You'd have thought I told the woman there's a bomb in her car poised to embed the foundations of geopolitics into her skull[1], the way her voice shook rather than asked her a question in a monotone.

And the best part is... she lied.

"The librarian is not in. But she would tell you the same thing. We do not have those records. There is no one present who can assist you in this matter, you must go to the city" and then a hangup.

(You'd be amazed the sorts you encounter when you're trying to keep things offline, pulling books off the shelf and reading then replacing them so not so much as a checkout is generated... you haven't truly lived until someone who's afraid to admit that they themselves are the same librarian who used to glare as you checked out stacks of their material with your wounds bandaged but visible has their voice quiver in a way that one does when someone like me forces them to follow the ALA guidelines to the letter... like a monster.)

Anyways, there I go... speaking in parables again.

From the title it sounds like it might be similar to "Eichman in Jerusalem" -- another book I read after they made my blood spew all over their precious floors.

> also dipped into a lot about Rwanda (Hatzfeld's "Laid Bare") while writing a chapter in Digital Vegan about Facebook's role in Mayanmar. What I found fascinating about Rwanda was how fast everybody got sucked in, and the role of the media (mainly radio) in that.

Thanks, I'll put this on my list despite having deleted Facebook many years ago and despite not being a vegan.

Radio has been a powerful tool a long time -- there's a reason The Canadians insist a certain percent of artists be Canadian. It's a powerful propaganda tool, partly because it goes out in a circle, not caring about imaginary lines on a map, connecting those who speak the same language together... and not everyone uses that power for good. Tone, word choice, small... pauses. I was a DJ, and before that, a phreak -- you can get people to do all sorts of things with just a few carefully chosen words, and so many use that power for terrible ends.

(In the fiction realm, Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker series' discussions of the babelfish starting wars are smarter than anything I can write on the fly some café I'm scamming hot waters off the barista in to make builder's tea)

>In a "post truth/ post trust" society I think that as techies - with enormous power of influence

No offense, but I'd actually disagree we're in a post truth society -- it's more like there are violent narcissists who are melting down in ever severe ways that folks like you and I will not cater to them, will not de-escalate them, and, if needed, will drag them out of their homes at gunpoint to be put on trial for their crimes. Like Eichmann. Brought to Jerusalem.

(Or we might skip the trial entirely just tell them straight to their face: "You are in a stand your ground state, get out of my personal space." as we reach into our pocket for the tool to fix THIS issue. I've done it a few times, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit it's fun to make them drop their eggs on the floor and run away, having crossed from free expression to threats and been shown what will happen if they lay so much as a finger.)

Anyways... I would take the stance that hackers like us much power and influence as a locksmith -- you might have MONEY, but pure knowledge does not equal power in this late stage capitalist world, and once we're willing to ignore consent, to stop asking for permission... it is "Bellum omnium contra omnes" -- a war of all against all, crabs in the bucket we call Spaceship Earth.

(And conversely, if folks withhold income from you, they can conspire to take your freedom -- it's why many things have happened as they have, and why many things are still to come.)

[1] "Ilya Ponomarev, a former member of the State Duma of the Russian Federation (the Russian parliament), said that the NRA has claimed responsibility... Ponomarev said that Darya Dugina had called for the murder of Ukrainians and was one of the voices inciting violence and calling for murders in the occupied territories [of Ukraine]. Among other things, she had offered a justification for the killing of Ukrainian prisoners of war in the Olenivka prison camp." https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/08/21/7364237/