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Anarchist Cookbook authors hopes for discontinuation (read the author review)

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Re: Anarchist Cookbook authors hopes for discontinuation (read the author review)

#11

Post by hugh3 »

horacegrant wrote: post #3

Eh, who cares? So he had a big evangelical moment and saw Jesus, great, wonderful. This book continues to contain information that can be useful to people, and this is the same "book-burning" way of thinking that is so prevalent in conservative religious communities. While the document is injected with immature content throughout in terms of the motivations for the activities upon which it instructs, it contains prac…

it contains practical knowledge that can be used for good or evil

How can said practical knowledge be used for good? In the real world, I mean, not hypothetical-land? Where do you suggest I should plant my homemade bomb in order to make the world a better place, really?

You don't have to have a "big evangelical moment" to see that this book's main contribution to the world has been a bunch of teenagers blowing up either mailboxes or their own hands.

Re: Anarchist Cookbook authors hopes for discontinuation (read the author review)

#13

Post by jrockway »

tptacek wrote: post #7
9ec4c12949a4f3 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ideas on paper don't hurt people. The people who act on them do. Take some f*cking accountability for your actions; the author did not force anyone to resort to violence.

Yes, it's true, me and my high school freshman friends really should have had a better grounding in pyrotechnics and demolitions before taking on the projects in the Anarchists Cookbook. Maybe we should have gone to mining school first. I'm sorry. I'm not sure why this was left as a comment on my comment, though, since it doesn't have anything to do with it. We weren't "resorting to violence", unless "violence agains…

It's really about common sense and responsibility. If I were going to make some thermite or something, I'd do a bit of research to see what safety precautions to take. I'd keep a good distance between myself and the thermite, and I'd make sure that everyone else was also a good distance away. I'd make sure nothing of value was near the thermite, and I'd make sure I could ignite it without being too close.

When something is dangerous, you have to approach it with caution. Specific knowledge (like "grounding in pyrotechnics and demolitions") lets you know how many liberties you can get away with, but in general, you just have to be cautious. Sometimes cautious is "don't do it at all", but only rarely.

A small bomb in a dirt field with nobody around doesn't really do anything dangerous. A mega-bomb in your basement does. You don't have to know much about pyrotechnics to know this, you just have to have some common sense.

Watch Mythbusters, they do it right every time. Start with small scale, if it seems to work, try a bigger version. That applies to everything.

Re: Anarchist Cookbook authors hopes for discontinuation (read the author review)

#14

Post by DanielBMarkham »

[deleted] wrote: post #9
tptacek wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do conservative religious values have to do with not publishing books that teach 13 year olds how to blow their hands off?

[deleted]

You are talking about fideism, not religion. Lots of religious folks (I am not religious) value knowledge as much as non-religious people do. Faith has nothing to do with it (see Kierkegaard)

Making such sweeping generalizations -- painting the entire concept of religion with the actions of a relatively few fundamentalists -- isn't very charitable. And it invites pointless debate, as other commenters have pointed out.

Re: Anarchist Cookbook authors hopes for discontinuation (read the author review)

#15

Post by gloob »

9ec4c12949a4f3 wrote: post #6
tptacek wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do conservative religious values have to do with not publishing books that teach 13 year olds how to blow their hands off?

Spanish inquisition and something about making rats burrowing into pregnant jews or something. Not that religious values are bad and the bible should be removed from print or anything...

Perhaps I'm just being dense today, but in what way is "Religion is bad, m'kay?" not a non-sequitur to the question that was actually asked?

Re: Anarchist Cookbook authors hopes for discontinuation (read the author review)

#16

Post by tptacek »

9ec4c12949a4f3 wrote: post #10
tptacek wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's true, me and my high school freshman friends really should have had a better grounding in pyrotechnics and demolitions before taking on the projects in the Anarchists Cookbook. Maybe we should have gone to mining school first. I'm sorry. I'm not sure why this was left as a comment on my comment, though, since it doesn't have anything to do with it. We weren't "resorting to violence", unless "violence agains…

Why? To draw a parallel: Video games teach kids how to shoot up schools.

No they don't. Think harder. You may have turned 12 knowing how to make a pipe bomb. Me and my friends weren't.

Re: Anarchist Cookbook authors hopes for discontinuation (read the author review)

#17

Post by godorito »

edkennedy wrote: post #8

Vice Magazine tried a few of the recipes in the book in this video... like the napalm, flaming tennis balls and a rocket assisted skateboard: http://www.vbs.tv/en-ca/watch/from-the-pages-of-vice/anarchi...

Thanks for the link. I was never thought to use bottle rockets when I was younger.

Re: Anarchist Cookbook authors hopes for discontinuation (read the author review)

#18

Post by tptacek »

jrockway wrote: post #13
tptacek wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's true, me and my high school freshman friends really should have had a better grounding in pyrotechnics and demolitions before taking on the projects in the Anarchists Cookbook. Maybe we should have gone to mining school first. I'm sorry. I'm not sure why this was left as a comment on my comment, though, since it doesn't have anything to do with it. We weren't "resorting to violence", unless "violence agains…

It's really about common sense and responsibility. If I were going to make some thermite or something, I'd do a bit of research to see what safety precautions to take. I'd keep a good distance between myself and the thermite, and I'd make sure that everyone else was also a good distance away. I'd make sure nothing of value was near the thermite, and I'd make sure I could ignite it without being too close. When someth…

Yeah this is all good but I'm not sure how it's relevant to 13 year olds.

Also: small bomb, dirt field, nobody around, "doesn't really do anything dangerous", thanks, I'll take 4 of your fingers for that assumption. Don't thank me, thank static electricity! =)

Re: Anarchist Cookbook authors hopes for discontinuation (read the author review)

#19

Post by heresyforme »

9ec4c12949a4f3 wrote: post #6
tptacek wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do conservative religious values have to do with not publishing books that teach 13 year olds how to blow their hands off?

Spanish inquisition and something about making rats burrowing into pregnant jews or something. Not that religious values are bad and the bible should be removed from print or anything...

Nothing happens in a vacuum:

"But the most infamous event was when the captured men of Otranto were given the choice to convert to Islam or die; 800 of them held to their Christian faith and were beheaded en masse at a place now known as the Hill of the Martyrs. The Turkish fleet then went on to attack the cities of Vieste, Lecce, Taranto, and Brindisi, and destroyed the great library at the Monastero di San Nicholas di Casole, before returning to Ottoman territory in November."

"...it will surely surprise those who believe that millions of people died in the Spanish Inquisition to learn that throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, less than three people per year were sentenced to death by the Inquisition throughout the Spanish Empire, which ranged from Spain to Sicily and Peru. Secular historians given access to the Vatican’s archives in 1998 discovered that of the 44,674 individuals tried between 1540 and 1700, only 804 were recorded as being relictus culiae saeculari. The 763-page report indicates that only 1 percent of the 125,000 trials recorded over the entire inquisition ultimately resulted in execution by the secular authority, which means that throughout its infamous 345-year history, the dread Spanish Inquisition was less than one-fourteenth as deadly on an annual basis as children’s bicycles."

The Irrational Atheist, Vox Day

Re: Anarchist Cookbook authors hopes for discontinuation (read the author review)

#20

Post by 9ec4c12949a4f3 »

gloob wrote: post #15
9ec4c12949a4f3 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spanish inquisition and something about making rats burrowing into pregnant jews or something. Not that religious values are bad and the bible should be removed from print or anything...

Perhaps I'm just being dense today, but in what way is "Religion is bad, m'kay?" not a non-sequitur to the question that was actually asked?

I'm attacking the concept that books can be good or bad, while illustrating that religions aren't going to change that, only the people who act.
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