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Code that helped end Apartheid

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Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#151

Post by mmooss »

harimau777 wrote: post #97
mmooss wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, that is cherry-picking. We can find lots of examples of protest being effective. [0] And as I pointed out elsewhere, the right wing - while teaching their enemies to quit - embraces activism fully and has been incredibly successful. It's only ineffective if your measure is immediate, complete victory. You don't win everything, you face defeat, and you quit? Then I agree, your protest is useless. You think you…

I can’t think of examples of them working in my lifetime. Maybe piddling little symbolic victories, but little else. We still have no meaningful movement on climate change, an antidemocratic political system, no social safety net, Palestine, etc. Can you give any examples?

No - you'll need to motivate yourself, drive yourself. Otherwise, you can't participate anyway. That's why this defeatest rhetoric is spread - to keep you from even trying.

You haven't achieved more because you and all these other people quit. Of course you're not achieving anything.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#152

Post by aprilthird2021 »

HideousKojima wrote: post #76
GordonS wrote: post #15

[flagged]

>branding freedom fighters as terrorists I mean bombing government buildings (which is what landed Mandela in prison) is definitely what most people would consider terrorism, or treason, or similar things. Now you can argue that Mandela's actions were justified because Apartheid was evil (and I agree that it was evil) but that's entirely different than arguing that he was just a poor victim of the racist SA governmen…

> The problem is that people feel morally uncomfortable arguing that it's ok to bomb government buildings (and similar actions) when your cause is just, because that raises all sorts of other moral quandaries that most people don't want to (or refuse to) face

I mean, what you are describing is just war theory, and pretty much every government in the world subscribes to it.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#153

Post by thruway516 »

HideousKojima wrote: post #76
GordonS wrote: post #15

[flagged]

>branding freedom fighters as terrorists I mean bombing government buildings (which is what landed Mandela in prison) is definitely what most people would consider terrorism, or treason, or similar things. Now you can argue that Mandela's actions were justified because Apartheid was evil (and I agree that it was evil) but that's entirely different than arguing that he was just a poor victim of the racist SA governmen…

>The problem is that people feel morally uncomfortable arguing that it's ok to bomb government buildings (and similar actions) when your cause is just

I don't think anybody has any moral quandaries about it when it is THEIR cause. Only when it is someone else's cause. Name one freedom fighter/revolutionary (even a perfectly non-violent one) who is not a 'terrorist' to the regime theyre trying to overthrow. I don't think anyone 'pretends' Mandela was a 'perfect angel' anymore than anyone pretends the founding fathers were beacons of unblemished moral rectitude.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#154

Post by aprilthird2021 »

cempaka wrote: post #81
HideousKojima wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>branding freedom fighters as terrorists I mean bombing government buildings (which is what landed Mandela in prison) is definitely what most people would consider terrorism, or treason, or similar things. Now you can argue that Mandela's actions were justified because Apartheid was evil (and I agree that it was evil) but that's entirely different than arguing that he was just a poor victim of the racist SA governmen…

Is the IDF dropping bombs on apartment buildings in Beirut "terrorism"?

The poster seems to be arguing that what we consider "terrorism" can be justified sometimes, but people have a need to whitewash their heroes rather than perform these justifications, so I think he is on your side

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#155

Post by throwaway9112 »

TheBruceHimself wrote: post #38
bdndndndbve wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What actually ended apartheid was international pressure and the white government's fear of a civil war. Economically isolated and vastly outnumbered, the apartheid government would have been completely removed from the country and had their property seized. My understanding is Mandela was a respected leader who was willing to play ball and facilitate a peaceful transition where the white leadership got to keep all t…

While it certainly involved a lot of people doing the right thing, that peaceful transition was absolutely incredible and I really do think that's why non-South Africans look on Mandela so fondly. If you'd told me everything about the Apartheid right up until its collapse and then said "Ok, the ANC basically win, gain power, what do you think happens?", I'd struggle to think of any scenario where there wasn't incredi…

[dead]

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#157

Post by mjfl »

worik wrote: post #148
kombine wrote: post #111

[flagged]

Yes One day we will be telling these stories about Palestinians

That is a hopelessly optimistic statement. Wait until the Israelis write the history, they will have your grandchildren worshipping at their feet for surviving the Hamas onslaught.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#158

Post by neo1250 »

cutler wrote: post #146
jgrahamc wrote: post #3

So when he DM’d me to say that he had “a hell of a story”—promising “one-time pads! 8-bit computers! Flight attendants smuggling floppies full of random numbers into South Africa!”—I responded. Ha ha ha. Yes, that was literally my very short pitch to Steven about Tim Jenkin's story! The actual DM: "I think this has the makings of a hell of a story: https://blog.jgc.org/2024/09/cracking-old-zip-file-to-help-o... If yo…

[flagged]

agree 100% , that would be great!

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#159

Post by emmelaich »

anlsh wrote: post #139

Why does a password-protected zip file reveal a list of the files within lol? If I'm understanding this right, we'd have been hosed if the files had been TARd first?

And then encrypted? Not sure, the known structure of tar (or zip) can help with decryption.

[edit] ...

This is addressed in the article. In fact the zip contained a zip and this helped!

> He realized the zip file contained another zip file, and that since all he needed was the right original text for a specific part of the scrambled text, his best chance was using the first file name mentioned in the zip within the zip.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#160

Post by spockz »

quuxplusone wrote: post #18
rsynnott wrote: post #6

You know it's _proper_ vintage crypto code because it uses the now very unfashionable word 'encipher'.

Funny but also thought-provoking! When did the verb "encipher" give way to "encrypt," and why? I might enjoy reading a well-researched piece on that subject.

Interestingly enough we still say “ciphertext” to describe the encrypted “cleartext”.
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