Saturday, August 19, 2017

Tea Leaves In The Dawn Drizzle

     (Yeah, yeah, they’re soggy. So what?)

     I’ve written before about the Left’s tactic of infiltrating institutions and corrupting them to its purposes. While no institution is outside the Left’s scope, its priority targets are institutions that support communication, education, and entertainment: the arteries of public information and knowledge. Once the Left has gained control over such an institution – usually by weight of numbers within its ranks – it uses that control to “enhance” outputs that favor it and suppress outputs that disfavor it. That’s how the Fabian socialists gained control of Britain’s Labour Party and, eventually, of Britain itself.

     The explosion of the Internet was a major blow to the American Left. It was a bypass of the established media that funneled unfiltered, unbiased information and arguments to the consumer. It promised to do more damage to the Left’s totalitarian program than talk radio ever had or could. When the Web became effectively bidirectional, such that the proprietors of Websites could solicit comments from their readers, it was plain to the Left’s strategists that “something must be done.” But what?

     The “what” has surfaced, and it’s not pretty:

     As the fallout from the failed Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend continues, leftist-controlled tech and social media outlets have started mass censoring right-wingers and banning them from their platforms. While sites such as Twitter have been hostile to the right for a long time, the events in Charlottesville—where alt-left agitator Heather Heyer was killed by rally attendee James Alex Fields, Jr.—have given leftist-run sites the excuse they need to ideologically cleanse their websites.

     As of this writing, numerous right-wing websites and personalities have been banned from PayPal, Twitter, Paypal, Stripe, Facebook, Instagram, Mailchimp, Soundcloud, Uber, and countless other platforms. To make matters worse, domain registrars and website maintenance companies such as CloudFlare and GoDaddy have no-platformed The Daily Stormer, keeping the site offline since Sunday. It’s clear that ideological dissidents are going to have to change their tactics in order to keep their websites and other platforms online.

     Please read the whole article. You need the information; take my word for it. But for those disinclined to do so, I’ll include one more snippet:

     To make matters worse, leftists have begun attacking web hosts, domain registrars, and other infrastructural services that right-wingers rely on to keep their sites online. Rootbocks and Hatreon, two free-speech alternatives to GoFundMe and Patreon, respectively, have been forced to switch domains and webhosts after being banned due to their unwillingness to ban right-wingers. Free speech Twitter replacement Gab has been subjected to several DDoS attacks for the same reasons, and the Alternative Right blog was deleted from Blogger last night. [Emphasis added by FWP]

     Liberty’s Torch is a Blogger blog. Its readership isn’t enormous – perhaps 400 readers per day – but many of those readers wrote, in response to this piece, to plead with me not to quit. I want to do as they’ve asked, but with Google now fully engaged in the Left’s campaign to silence conservative opinion on the Web, how long will it be before they get around to us who command smaller audiences? When they do, where can I turn?

     Don’t imagine for a moment that other easy-to-use blog hosts such as Wordpress won’t enlist in this campaign. Neither is Hosting Matters, where Eternity Road was sited, a reliable choice. First, I have no expertise with PHP or blogging software generally, and second, the Left will surely be after such large, popular blog hosts in their turn. I suppose I could go back to the style of the old Palace of Reason: a “webzine” done entirely in HTML, without the support of blogging software, but that seems a bit retrograde for the times.

     I need suggestions.

     If you want to see these tirades continue while I have life enough in me to emit them, give me the benefit of your thinking. (If you’re adept with blogging software, I could benefit from your expertise.) We “know not the day nor the hour” when Google will withdraw its indulgence from your humble Curmudgeon Emeritus. Remember this passage from Atlas Shrugged:

     "Since the deadline for the signing of the national Gift Certificates expires tonight at midnight," said Dr. Ferris, in the tone of a salesman extending a special courtesy to a customer, "I have come to obtain your signature, Mr. Rearden."
     He paused, with an air of suggesting that the formula now called for an answer.
     "Go on," said Rearden. "I am listening."
     "Yes, I suppose I should explain," said Dr. Ferris, "that we wish to get your signature early in the day in order to announce the fact on a national news broadcast. Although the gift program has gone through quite smoothly, there are still a few stubborn individualists left, who have failed to sign-small fry, really, whose patents are of no crucial value, but we cannot let them remain unbound, as a matter of principle, you understand.”

     [Emphasis added by FWP]

     I’d like to take prophylactic action while there’s still “no rush” to do so.

10 comments:

  1. Several things come to mind:

    (1) Non-Leftist bloggers need to BOTH create a mirror site, as well as backup at least once a week. More time-consuming, and also likely more expensive.

    (2) We need to start thinking of buying a domain name, and keeping it renewed. That name needs to be in a country that is, at least for now, outside of the range of easily-pressured by Leftists/repressed by government action place. And, we probably need to buy a server - or two, as one will need to be a cloned copy, WHEN the first one is brought down by sneak attack.

    That server(s) needs to be used to host the many sites that want to be impervious to pressure to conform to Leftist norms.

    Does this sound paranoid? Well, yeah, except when everyone really IS working against you, you aren't paranoid - just alert.

    In combination with a nimble, able to move around in the open web blog connection, we need to find out more about the Dark Web. And, learn to use it, for our own communications. Which should be encrypted.

    (3) We need to vet our contacts, establishing levels of trust, with only a few at the deepest levels.

    Would the Leftists plant someone into our group, with the intention of - what did those guys from USC call it - Ratfucking? Deliberate planting misinformation. Sowing discord and distrust. Bringing down the group from inside.

    I prefer not to associate too closely with anyone else (it's the WV heritage talking). I'd like the relationship with other bloggers to be at arm's length. We don't need to coordinate too much, as our most effective tactics are informal, improvisational, and unplanned.

    Think Free Forces, rather than top-down directed (as are most of the Leftists). This can be a strength, as we will be working relatively isolated, but with knowledge spread through our use of online and offline communications.

    About the BEST thing that may come out of this is that bloggers will start to form loose associations, and begin the counter-revolution. I'm in no hurry to do so, as I feel that some informal association is needed before that point.

    I'm open to an online meeting - or a series of them. By invitation only. Let me know what you think. You know how to reach me.

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  2. I found this, which relates to minimizing the onslaught of 'outrage', while maximizing influence.

    http://www.returnofkings.com/125632/the-influence-curve

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  3. This is one reason I've kept The Declination off of Blogger, despite the additional headaches of having to run everything myself. But even this is now potentially problematic, as it is currently hosted on Godaddy. I will be making preparations to run my own colocated server, before Godaddy pushes The Declination off the air.

    I've had increasing visibility of late, and that is a double-edged sword. I've no confidence in being able to fly under the radar long term.

    However, this may be a business opportunity as well. Perhaps I should consider starting an explicitly right-wing hosting business of some kind.

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  4. Fran,

    You have clearly and eloquently stated the obstacles to pursue one's first amendment rights, in this modern age of leftist controlled information exchange. Unfortunately, this old dinosaur is technically challenged when it comes to all things internet, so I cannot offer any advice. However, one thing stuck me, and I believe it's the second time in the last few weeks that you alluded to it. 400 regular readers? I would easily bet on well over ten times that amount.

    That is a shocking indication of how far we have fallen. In my morning routine, after making coffee and perusing the headlines of the day, your site is usually next on my list. I see it as exercise for my brain, to get the juices energized for a day of fending off misinformation from the dolts in the MSM. I see that 400 as too few brave souls whom are a step up from the 15 second sound bite junkies that dominate the landscape. Keep up the good work, Fran. Paraphrasing Saint Paul, keep putting on the "full armor of the conservative blogger". Bill Sheffield

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  5. Fran -

    After my morning devotions, and while drinking my coffee, your site is the first after grabbing the overnight headlines. I very much value your input. I think Dys, our resident young genius in these here parts, and Linda, have made some interesting comments. Dys - the entrepreneur - should be encouraged to follow through with his considerations.


    Perhaps you or he could conduct a forum to discuss what directions need to be followed, and perhaps gain commitments from the rest of us to do what we can to support a solution. You and Dys and a good number of others are speaking the truth to power every day, and however we can, we must prevent the totalitarians of whatever stripe from squelching our voices. My humble two cents worth.

    jb

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  6. I'm acquainted with someone who is knowledgeable about internet security and politically very sympathetic, though, as far as I know, not a blog reader. He might be willing to contribute some suggestions related to that aspect of a specifically conservative platform.

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  7. The "anonymous" option is back on your blog! Ok, then I'll comment.

    Contact Jim Quinn from The Burning Platform. He went through the ringer with trouble that he suspected was from Google, itself. He hired someone who he refers to as The Man With No Name to host his site. No problems since, although I believe it's still a WordPress format.

    As an aside, Mr. Quinn's "no censorship of any kind policy" has recently been severely abused by a specific person who suddenly, and suspiciously, became a Neo-Nazi on his site. So perhaps things will change.

    It's always good to have a Plan B though. I have no idea of the cost.

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  8. While I am too much of a Luddite to be of any help, please add my name to the list of people who would be greatly saddened were you to cease posting. I accept that I have perhaps been overly fulsome in my praise of your novels and short stories in the past, your blog adds value to the little time I spend on the Internet, searching for some small measure of real news and worthwhile opinion.

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  9. A few thoughts. Back in the 80's when the Macintosh was a new thing I knew a gal who worked on- I'm not fooling- a Macintosh users newsletter. It was advice and handy hints for doing all the fancy stuff the new super-Apple was capable of. It was word-processed, printed on 8 1/2 X 11 typing paper, and mailed out to however many subscribers they had. I wonder if blogging may have to go a similar albeit electronic route with posts and/or links directly e-mailed to subscribers. Maybe we're all going to have to learn Bitcoin and the Dark Web (Provided there really is such a thing?)
    Add me to the list of those for whom this blog is a daily (actually several times daily) visit. The crazy out there is thick and toxic. This place is clean air and clear water.
    And one final note- I will admit that I've more than once had my fill of caffeine and anger, and just let loose a rant or two here. Serious question: What do you all do to prevent the crazy from getting under your door, and assaulting you where you live down in those quiet hours? I mean- I spend time praying in the morning dark. And sometimes the *stuff* out there can even invade that most private space. I doubt I'm the only one out there who finds himself ruminating during busy work, driving, or even in the middle of a bicycle ride. Where is that point of balance between sticking your head in the sand and beating it against a wall? I know. There is no magic pill/word/trick. but still...

    JWM

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  10. The first step should be to establish your own private email server, perhaps in a seldom used bathroom in your home. This will allow you to avoid those pesky Freedom Of Information Act requests. You wouldn't want to be caught developing strategy with a sexting addicted New York congresscritter pedophile. I'd also recommend keeping a large selection of hammers in case your crew needs to quickly smash a lot of cell phones that contain incriminating evidence. You'll need some IT professionals to manage a sophisticated operation like this. I know a family that recently returned to Pakistan. They have a lot of experience working with big name congresscritters in the District of Criminals. I can arrange a meeting at their used car lot. If you need references, you might get in touch with Debbie Wasserman Schultz' office.

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