[thecrash]

This view is unpopular because it is shallow and unserious. A vague call for people to "organize" and "make nations" as a solution to their problems hand-waves away the interesting and important practical problems which face people who actually do try to organize to create alternatives to the dominant political order.

In particular, the campaigns and efforts of those organizers are undermined and attacked through pervasive surveillance.

Tor is not a substitute for political organizing, in this age it's a necessary precursor.

[motohagiography]

Worrying about surveillance is bikeshedding. Everyone knows, nobody cares. The anti-surveillance culture of an earlier era is predicated on the idea that your individual activity and ideas are more meaningful than they are.

Tor (and privacy tech) has become more like a substitute activity, like being a vegan or recycling plastic where it separates and isolates more than it organizes, and is mostly an empty ritual.

The people affecting the most political change (for better or worse) aren't using Tor, they are using foundations, PACs, unions, charities, churches, and organizing in the open to seize control of political offices. While you were worried about whether your posts are being read by the NSA, they've been flying around in private jets and doing press conferences.