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Assassination Politics (1997)

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Re: Assassination Politics (1997)

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea of the assassination marketplace as I see it is to provide some means to balance the power of politicians. There's a powerful asymmetry at work in politics. Prosecutors can knowingly wrongly convict people and face no consequences. The President can authorize a temporary (or perhaps not temporary) war possibly resulting in thousand of deaths and the worst outcome he faces for it is not getting a second term.…

Why a marketplace, though? One can already organize resistance against a regime one considers harmful enough to merit violent resistance, via militant groups. They can be right-wing groups like the militia movement or Greece's Golden Dawn, or left-wing groups like the Black Panthers or Germany's Red Army Faction. They do at various times assassinate prosecutors or politicians. An assassination market seems to change…

> One can already organize resistance against a regime one considers harmful enough to merit violent resistance, via militant groups.

Because successful states (i.e., not Greece) have vast amounts of institutional knowledge and training on how to infiltrate and destroy radical groups in the embryonic stage. There will never be anything remotely like the Red Army Faction in the USA or Europe as long as the FBI still has any amount of funding. Or even local police, for that matter. In the US, virtually every dissident group is guaranteed to be monitored by police, if not actively infiltrated. It's hard enough to organize unpermitted protests, let alone jailbreaks or breakfast programs.

Assassination markets work around this by reducing the need for organized groups.

Re: Assassination Politics (1997)

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah it's more about people interacting in a voluntary manner. The first and probably last rule of libertarian philosophy is that it's not OK to initiate aggression against others. So two individuals entering into a contract is OK but one person threatening another with violence is not. The fact that the state/government has a monopoly on violence means that your interactions with them aren't necessarily voluntary. M…

> you have no recourse ... you have to know that there's no negotiation Bullshit. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/aug/20/civil-d...

If you perform civil disobedience you can and probably will get arrested. It happens all the time.

Choosing to break an unjust law doesn't mean that a judge will understand the injustice of it and let you go free, nor is there any assurance that jury would acquit you. That's what I mean when I say "there's no negotiation"

Once a police officers decides to arrest you all negotiations have ceased and they may do whatever the law tells them to, or whatever the law lets them get away with, or perhaps a bit more.

Re: Assassination Politics (1997)

#63
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For example the guy after Obama could win by a 90% landslide, then immediately launch an all-out war against Iran, Syria and say Jordan Or, to turn that around the other way, something happens just after the election which causes 80-90% of the electorate to support an attack on Iran, Syria, and Jordan. The president after Obama, after some consideration and discussion with people in her/his cabinet decides to not a…

Anyone who finds the concept potentially appealing really needs to read up on pre-WWII Japanese politics, where a culture of political assassination, plus a major flaw in their constitutions, couldn't form a government without the Army and Navy's assent/membership, pretty much made the following ugliness inevitable. You really, really don't want to let such a culture develop. Paul Johnson's Modern Times devotes a cha…

This was a very enlightening chapter in Modern Times. I truly enjoyed Johnson's work, despite his clear (if transparent) bias towards British colonialism.

In general, private armies, political assassinations, and other forms of political violence seldom lead to good outcomes: other examples would be Lebanon during and prior to the civil and (not to Godwin this) Weimar Germany with government-funded but ruthless and private and political Freikorps, as well as KPD/SPD/NSDAP/etc... paramilitary organizations. Finally, if a government enacts and enforces laws and decrees contrary to the constitution and human rights in general (i.e., it is no longer a constitutional state), introduction of political gives government forces both an excuse and the means to start acting fully extra-judicially.

I'll note that I'm saying this as a individual with classical liberal/libertarian political leanings and as a strong supporter of a right to bear arms. My view is shared with by David Friedman, an anarcho-capitalist (a view that I don't subscribe to, but respect): http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2013/07/in_case_of_revo....

Re: Assassination Politics (1997)

#64
post #6

I first read about "Assassination Markets" in this brilliant book, that delves into the old 90s cypherpunks mailing list (members which included Julian Assange and most likely the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi): http://www.amazon.com/Machine-Kills-Secrets-EmpowerWhistlebl... I still haven't read this full article, mostly just a summary, so here are my rough thoughts: It seems like something straight out of an idealisti…

The idea of the assassination marketplace as I see it is to provide some means to balance the power of politicians. There's a powerful asymmetry at work in politics. Prosecutors can knowingly wrongly convict people and face no consequences. The President can authorize a temporary (or perhaps not temporary) war possibly resulting in thousand of deaths and the worst outcome he faces for it is not getting a second term.…

The mechanism of impeachment was included in the US Constitution (at the insistence of Benjamin Franklin as I recall) to provide a specific alternative to assassination for removing politicians from office. It actually dates to 14th century England I learn just now checking Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment#History

Assassination is ... rather fraught. I'm growing increasingly concerned over the stalemate / obstructionist politics of the US and elsewhere, however.

Re: Assassination Politics (1997)

#65
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has already happened. Here's my website: http://assmkedzgorodn7o.onion/

I wouldn't mess around with this if I were you. It may have taken the FBI a while to bring down the Silk Road, but with this kind of thing, you'll have the CIA and NSA after you.

Now this is going to be a story to watch.

I look forward to seeing if that guy ever posts again lol.

Re: Assassination Politics (1997)

#66
post #14

I'm actually attempting to start such a market. Here's a link: http://assmkedzgorodn7o.onion/ If you don't have Tor installed you can also access the site by adding .to: http://assmkedzgorodn7o.onion.to/

You sir are literally going to become a case study in how to/not to do this sort of thing.

I have zero advice for you. Im sure you will be front page news soon enough.

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