U.S. sanctions against the A/I Collective • Hacker News Board

Re: U.S. sanctions against the A/I Collective

#831

Post by inigyou » Sat, Aug 29, 2026, 5:47 PM UTC

like_any_other wrote: post #825

inigyou wrote: post #785

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is antifa in the room with us? Who is he? If opposition to fascism isn't centrism then what is?

Just call your group "the anti-bad guy good guy club", and then by definition everything you do is good and centrist. Therefore the following is centrism: An Oregon leftist and antifa ideologue seeking to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement was arrested on Feb. 4 over a manifesto and weapons procurement plan detailing his desire to stalk federal agents at the Portland ICE facility to their homes and kill them. -…

Are they antifa?

Re: U.S. sanctions against the A/I Collective

#832

Post by mdp2021 » Sat, Aug 29, 2026, 5:51 PM UTC

inigyou wrote: post #753

aliasxneo wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To be hosted on our servers you have to share our principles of anti-fascism, anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-homophobia, anti-transphobia, and anti-militarism. Those stated beliefs are shockingly close to far-leftism. So I'm guessing the same radical exclusionary zeal is also being applied here. Also, for clarity, I'm not taking those definitions literally, but rather as dog whistles for a very specific group of pe…

Is it really radical or exclusionary to say no racists allowed, no sexists allowed? I don't think so.

It may be (it also depends on the details that had the evaluator label the excluded) - but I think that "my property, my guests - my selected guests". With exclusions which are in fact legally mandated in some territories - but in general, especially when the service is more informal, those I could lend a toothbrush to will be part of a selected number.

Re: U.S. sanctions against the A/I Collective

#833

Post by like_any_other » Sat, Aug 29, 2026, 6:12 PM UTC

inigyou wrote: post #831

like_any_other wrote: post #825

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just call your group "the anti-bad guy good guy club", and then by definition everything you do is good and centrist. Therefore the following is centrism: An Oregon leftist and antifa ideologue seeking to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement was arrested on Feb. 4 over a manifesto and weapons procurement plan detailing his desire to stalk federal agents at the Portland ICE facility to their homes and kill them. -…

Are they antifa?

Good question. Let's see - they're [1] dressed uniformly, organize under the antifa banner, have the antifa flag spray-painted on their shields, and claim to be anti-fascists.

I guess there's just no way to tell! They could belong to any group! Except antifa, of course, because antifa is not a group. It's just an idea. With adherents. That form groups and execute actions based on that idea.

[1] https://www.newsweek.com/antifa-violence-portland-bernie-san...

Re: U.S. sanctions against the A/I Collective

#834

Post by bentley » Sat, Aug 29, 2026, 6:17 PM UTC

suslik wrote: post #775

inigyou wrote: post #645

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's actually a crime though and everyone knows it's a crime.

The fact that it is a crime (if it is, indeed, a fact), only makes it even more fucked up.

It is indeed illegal to insult someone in Germany (Beleidigung). Actually, it’s illegal in quite a number of countries. Such a concept feels very archaic in the Anglosphere, like a remnant of honor culture, duels, etc. which we lost our taste for in the nineteenth century; and doubly so for the USA with its strong freedom of speech protections.

Re: U.S. sanctions against the A/I Collective

#835

Post by inigyou » Sat, Aug 29, 2026, 6:19 PM UTC

like_any_other wrote: post #833

inigyou wrote: post #831

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they antifa?

Good question. Let's see - they're [1] dressed uniformly, organize under the antifa banner, have the antifa flag spray-painted on their shields, and claim to be anti-fascists. I guess there's just no way to tell! They could belong to any group! Except antifa, of course, because antifa is not a group. It's just an idea. With adherents. That form groups and execute actions based on that idea. [1] https://www.newsweek.c…

If I wear a MAGA hat does that make me MAGA? If I wear a MAGA hat and shoot a bunch of people does that mean MAGA are serial killers?

Re: U.S. sanctions against the A/I Collective

#836

Post by like_any_other » Sat, Aug 29, 2026, 6:25 PM UTC

inigyou wrote: post #835

like_any_other wrote: post #833

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good question. Let's see - they're [1] dressed uniformly, organize under the antifa banner, have the antifa flag spray-painted on their shields, and claim to be anti-fascists. I guess there's just no way to tell! They could belong to any group! Except antifa, of course, because antifa is not a group. It's just an idea. With adherents. That form groups and execute actions based on that idea. [1] https://www.newsweek.c…

If I wear a MAGA hat does that make me MAGA? If I wear a MAGA hat and shoot a bunch of people does that mean MAGA are serial killers?

So your argument is every single instance of antifa doing something bad was a false flag? Do you have any evidence to support this no-true-Scotsman?

Re: U.S. sanctions against the A/I Collective

#837

Post by gwbas1c » Sat, Aug 29, 2026, 6:32 PM UTC

mdp2021 wrote: post #176

gwbas1c wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you click on https://www.inventati.org/about ? (I also tried reading the manifesto first.) From it: > We support individuals, collectives, communities and groups whose political and social activities fit within this worldview and who share with us some fundamental principles: anti-fascism, anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-militarism I suspect they have some "not mainstream" political views; although I think underst…

> some "not mainstream" political views I would say they are pretty "mainstream" (or very widespread) in some territories. I have seen bartenders wearing those 'anti-' terms on their t-shirts at work.

Labels (like anti-facism) often don't explain what the views are; they're just labels.

We'd need to dig much deeper to understand what their views are.

FWIW: I consider extreme leftists just as dangerous as the extreme right.

Re: U.S. sanctions against the A/I Collective

#838

Post by 2938177 » Sat, Aug 29, 2026, 6:51 PM UTC

Apocryphon wrote: post #485

mapontosevenths wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like it's just a statistical fact that many people used to visit and cancel visits there every day, but it's hard to say how unlikely this was without numbers.

Seth MacFarlane and Mark Wahlberg were famously supposed to be on American Airlines Flight 11, and Jackie Chan was supposed to start filming a movie at the World Trade Center that very morning. I’m sure more near-brushes exist.

Looking at the total set of people who cancelled last minute appears to be the correct start. Then you'd have to find all subsets who had any common friend like Epstein in this case.

I'm sure you can find more such subsets. The problem with the Epstein subset is that 100% of his friends survived (Lutnick's brother mentioned above wasn't one) and that Epstein was far from a normal person who had already been involved in Iran Contra and Angola CIA affairs. How to take that into account statistically?

It isn't just a matter of being statistically illiterate.