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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)

#22
post #12
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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First of all, I think your comment would have been more effective and to-the-point if you had left off your first paragraph.

Second, I'm surprised to see a regular contributor to Hacker news saying something like this: > there are religious contributors to the site who may not enjoy being caricatured.

That seems like a poor reason to avoid saying something that you believe is true and contributes to the discussion (especially in a public forum like this).

Third, the statement "violence...is not an effective way to achieve ends," is just a platitude. It most definitely has been effective, and is sometimes an effective way to achieve ends. Rome seemed to take care of it's Carthage problem pretty well. You can certainly argue whether or not this is a moral way to achieve ends, but that is not what you said.

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

#23
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[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…

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

#24
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Spoken like someone who's never read Herbert Schildt.

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

#25

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...

I nearly burned my patio down building the smoke bomb in high school. I learned in the process though that you could skip the entire cooking process. (It does smell awful, but that's just the sugar caramelizing.

Made for a great prank on the last day of school though.

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

#26

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…

Actually, the book has a lot of completely incorrect information. For example, it has a recipe for bananadyne. That's what I find offensive about it. I wouldn't trust any of the other recipes to not just blow up in your face even if executed correctly, since the author didn't test them to begin with.

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

#27
post #2

This retarded book, which has injured acquaintances of mine, is the reason I have the career I have now. If it weren't for the Anarchist Cookbook, I'd be a Windows admin today. It's every bit as bad as the author says it is. But taking it out of print won't fix anything; the copy I had when I was 13 wasn't legit, and was accompanied by 8478439 pages of Usenet posts.

>>> I'd be a Windows admin today.You didn't lose any body parts with your pipe bomb right? I hope I misread your comments.

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

#28
post #2

This retarded book, which has injured acquaintances of mine, is the reason I have the career I have now. If it weren't for the Anarchist Cookbook, I'd be a Windows admin today. It's every bit as bad as the author says it is. But taking it out of print won't fix anything; the copy I had when I was 13 wasn't legit, and was accompanied by 8478439 pages of Usenet posts.

>>> I'd be a Windows admin today. You didn't lose any body parts with your pipe bomb right? I hope I misread your comments.

Nope! The Anarchist Cookbook did not ruin my dreams of becoming a Windows admin, either.

Seriously, though, if you asked me how I got started with my career, "The Anarchist's Cookbook" would be one of the first thoughts in my head.

The topic is interesting to me because my thoughts on the book are so complicated.

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

#29
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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! =)

And many of these 13 year olds were doing this before that thing called the world-wide-web was around. It made it rather difficult to do any real research, even if they wanted to.

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

#30
post #11

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 eit…

If you happen to scroll down further, you might end up reading a review[1] of a person who's college ROTC instructor used this same book as training material.

For most everyone working a 9-5 in the city with a middle-class family in the suburbs, no this book won't have any practical day to day application. But the review I'm referencing is quoted as saying, "Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it,". Having the book and being knowledgable about it's contents can be argued to be akin to keeping 30 days of food in storage for emergencies.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/review/R5M42EN2525C3/ref=cm_cr_dp_perm...

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