Elizabeth Jack I think that weak authoritarians often try to...

October 13, 2025 at 11:40 AM  ·  Comment — Archer T. Ships replied to Elizabeth Jack's comment.  ·  View on Facebook  ·  Markdown source

Elizabeth Jack I think that weak authoritarians often try to infiltrate themselves into projects / movements that are tolerant or enable tolerance. For example, white nationalists seem to have adopted Monero. IMO, they're not really supportive of privacy. If they were in power, they would try to stamp out many of the people who use Monero (gays, drug users, immigrants), and try to ban privacy technology. (See, for example, nativist conservative support for RealID.) However, because they're weak and out of power, it's in their interest to hide amongst more benevolent people, and support tech that allows them to operate even in the face of censorship from other authoritarians. It's instrumental support, not principled support.