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Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

reuters.com

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Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#131

Post by edaemon »

malvosenior wrote: post #76
js2 wrote: post #46

He named his BBS "TacoLand". He should definitely play up this angle...maybe campaign on a taco cart on every corner. I know people who will vote for him for that alone. This piece is a disaster. It's an excerpt from a soon to be released book, it's light on facts about O'Rourke and is at least equally about Cult of the Dead Cow, it's trying to make things sound more nefarious than they were, and it's playing the gui…

I agree the piece isn't very informative and is very scattered. That being said, this is definitely the most questionable thing: > "When he was younger, he was arrested on drunk-driving charges" That will follow him into the campaign far more than his CDC membership.

That will certainly be brought up in the campaign, but it was brought up in his House races and the Senate race and didn't seem to have much of an impact.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#132

Post by AceyMan »

dmos62 wrote: post #94
busterarm wrote: post #79

Having been involved in the community for most of my life, my very first thought was "oh that's cool he's one of us" and then I remembered that historically hackers have been phenomenally bad people to give any kind of real power to.

> historically hackers have been phenomenally bad people to give any kind of real power to Do you have any examples?

To my mind, Mark Zuckerberg fits here. (He wasn't "given" power, but the end result is much the same.)

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#133

Post by barbecue_sauce »

txcwpalpha wrote: post #101
js2 wrote: post #46

He named his BBS "TacoLand". He should definitely play up this angle...maybe campaign on a taco cart on every corner. I know people who will vote for him for that alone. This piece is a disaster. It's an excerpt from a soon to be released book, it's light on facts about O'Rourke and is at least equally about Cult of the Dead Cow, it's trying to make things sound more nefarious than they were, and it's playing the gui…

>it's trying to make things sound more nefarious than they were, and it's playing the guilt by association card Are we reading the same article? If anything this article seems like a submarine PR puff piece to me, made to increase the image of Beto by making him seem "cool" and "hip" by associating him with the typically-seen-as-sexy "hacker" scene. This article is very similar to the pro-Beto stuff that was all over…

'typically-seen-as-sexy "hacker" scene'? By who?

His association with At The Drive-In gives him more street cred than any tenuous relationship with hacking.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#134

Post by dv_dt »

smacktoward wrote: post #116
gaze wrote: post #73

Why are all the articles about Beto about how cool and antiestablishment he is? Just absolutely nothing about what he really intends to do, how he intends to do it, and most importantly, how do we reconcile his conservative voting record with this contrary image he presents?

Because on the questions of what he intends to do and how he intends to do it, he has been maddeningly vague. It's hard to write about what somebody is going to do when they refuse to tell you. (In his defense, this vagueness can actually be read as strategic. Barack Obama took a similar tack in 2008, and it let people project onto him pretty much any profile they wanted. In politics, specificity can be a career limi…

Obama's strategy was good for his time, in 2020 I think candidates will need to be much more specific and forceful about their policy intents.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#135

Post by linuxftw »

gaze wrote: post #73

Why are all the articles about Beto about how cool and antiestablishment he is? Just absolutely nothing about what he really intends to do, how he intends to do it, and most importantly, how do we reconcile his conservative voting record with this contrary image he presents?

It's how the establishment pushes new politicians on you. Why should this person receive any coverage at all?

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#136

Post by ceejayoz »

Deinos wrote: post #129
busterarm wrote: post #79

Having been involved in the community for most of my life, my very first thought was "oh that's cool he's one of us" and then I remembered that historically hackers have been phenomenally bad people to give any kind of real power to.

Feels like it would be no worse than the current group of morally bankrupt, easily bribed, self-centered politicians in power.

It seems unlikely that the new group would be more moral, less easily bribed, and less self-centered. There's nothing unique to the generation of politicians currently in power.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#137

Post by nkrisc »

zinclozenge wrote: post #5

I hope nobody uncovers the naruto fan fiction I wrote in my teens when I run for political office.

Not exactly the same, but see cases of young professional athletes getting in trouble for things they tweeted when they were 15. They're generation that grew up from the start with complete proliferation of modern social media aligning with their formative teen years. I suspect we'll see more when people born around the turn of the millennium start running for office in their 30s (or sooner!).

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#138

Post by toast0 »

Brakenshire wrote: post #71
Fej wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's in the UK. Such a law would run afoul of the First Amendment in the US.

Do texts that contain bomb-making information really fall under the first amendment in the US?

The government can't exactly ban chemistry textbooks, can it?

Anyway, for this type of censorship to be effective to prevent dissemination of knowledge, it would need to happen before distribution, and prior restraint is generally considered unconstitutional in the US, except in matters of national security. National security could likely include planned troop movements and nuclear weapons manufacturing procedures (although, you can figure out a lot by reading physics textbooks).

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#139

Post by dvtrn »

AceyMan wrote: post #132
dmos62 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> historically hackers have been phenomenally bad people to give any kind of real power to Do you have any examples?

To my mind, Mark Zuckerberg fits here. (He wasn't "given" power, but the end result is much the same.)

(He wasn't "given" power, but the end result is much the same.)

"slowly amassed", perhaps?

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#140

Post by eli »

txcwpalpha wrote: post #101
js2 wrote: post #46

He named his BBS "TacoLand". He should definitely play up this angle...maybe campaign on a taco cart on every corner. I know people who will vote for him for that alone. This piece is a disaster. It's an excerpt from a soon to be released book, it's light on facts about O'Rourke and is at least equally about Cult of the Dead Cow, it's trying to make things sound more nefarious than they were, and it's playing the gui…

>it's trying to make things sound more nefarious than they were, and it's playing the guilt by association card Are we reading the same article? If anything this article seems like a submarine PR puff piece to me, made to increase the image of Beto by making him seem "cool" and "hip" by associating him with the typically-seen-as-sexy "hacker" scene. This article is very similar to the pro-Beto stuff that was all over…

We are in a world where the exact same video of Beto skateboarding was posted by both opponents and supporters and each saw what they wanted in it.

I would challenge the idea that being a “hacker” polls well for a presidential candidate. Recall that “hacking” was a bit of a problem in 2016.

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