Тег: rally

Anonymity, protest, division of labor

A post from the Telegram channel “IT criminal cases SORM rossiyushka” is actively spreading across the network about how important it is for everyone to set the correct privacy settings in Telegram, after first updating it to the latest version. The update was made following the outrage of protesters in Hong Kong, who discovered they were being deanonymized by adding all possible phone numbers to the contact list, after which Telegram’s friendly interface immediately gave up the activists’ accounts by phone number. The hole has now been patched, but the old settings are still there by default; they must be changed manually.

Not long ago, I also mentioned a post from the Cryptoagora channel about how to obtain fake bank cards and SIM cards without intermediaries (spoiler: realistic silicone masks are used).

And very recently, Bitarch spoke out regarding the fact that automatic facial recognition systems are inevitably doomed to false positives, meaning that one can not only cover their tracks this way, but also try to feed the opponent members of their own gang: other security forces, odious officials, and so on.

In light of the fact that the Russian authorities are actively purchasing cameras for facial recognition at mass protests, the opportunity arises to provide the press with headlines like: “Zhirinovsky threw feces at a Rosgvardiya officer,” or “Three Putin doubles urinated on a cop.” But—no.

The complication of the protest and the tightening of the screws by the regime currently dictate a clear maintenance of the boundary between legal and illegal actions. During a legal protest, whether agreed upon with the city administration or not, a person limits their toolkit and also expects other protest participants to do the same. Any other behavior will logically be perceived by them as a provocation. At the same time, at other times when the streets are not flooded with security forces, nothing prevents anonymous individuals from carrying out well-prepared actions that discredit the regime, appearing on camera in the images of, for example, Petrunko or Kusyuk.

It is also worth considering in advance which role in the protest suits you best and not striving for versatility. You can sit anonymously on the internet and write articles of a quasi-extremist nature, or you can speak from a podium—but it will be very difficult to combine both functions, as attention to a known activist increases the probability of deanonymizing their persona. You can attend agreed rallies, appearing on surveillance cameras and in cell operator logs, but it will be difficult to combine this with posting flyers or smashing police windows, deanonymized using Russian Elephant. Finally, you can donate to projects you like, although earning money for this may not leave you, for example, with opportunities for serious offline activism.

There will be no post tomorrow; in my offline incarnation, I am going to observe the elections. But if the whim of running for office myself had entered my head, I would have had to hand the channel over to someone else. There is no helping it; every choice entails costs. So let’s drink to the hope that tomorrow we will not regret the choice we made today!

Put on a mask — don’t get caught

Rally for Internet Freedom

I am currently watching the broadcast of the Moscow rally. And simultaneously, news is coming in like “in St. Petersburg
activists have blocked the Roskomnadzor building”.

This is the main entrance; Roskomnadzor is blocking its own anus

Everyone, as usual, considers themselves a strategist when viewing the battle from the sidelines, but it seems to me that it is wrong to organize simultaneous actions in different cities. I mean, who will be closely following St. Petersburg today when there is Moscow? On the other hand, imagine how cool it would be if every day one large, awesome, well-prepared action took place in a new city! Let the actions be different in style, in format; let people try to outdo one another. Let them say: well, in St. Petersburg it was okay, but then in Krasnodar it was absolutely mind-blowing! Meanwhile, people in each specific city, by the time it is their turn again, will have had time to rest, save money, gather enthusiasm, see others’ creative ideas, and come up with their own.

Thus, by shifting the focus from place to place, one could set up a truly indefinite nationwide public campaign, rather than another “shouted and dispersed” event.

This is not a rally, this is a queue for a rally

September 9 Protest

You have run out of questions for now, so I will just talk about yesterday’s protests.

It is clear that pensions, in particular, concern very few people. Those who are about to retire suffer from the increase in the retirement age to a minimal extent, because the age is increasing gradually. And for those who won’t retire for a long time, it is such a distant future that in our fast-paced and unstable world, it is completely pointless to make plans for such a period.

But it is the youth who are protesting. What is their motive?

They are simply tired of this state, and here it has set itself up perfectly. You can go out to protest against the government as such, but in the eyes of parents and grandmothers, have an ironclad justification: we were robbed, you were robbed, the state has gone crazy, it needs to be reined in, otherwise it won’t stop.

Right now is such a wonderful period when there is absolutely no point in promoting any legal constructive politicians at the federal level. Duma elections in 2021. Presidential elections in 2024. So, it will be a very long time before people are receptive to the thesis that “the opposition only brings negativity, why not participate in elections with a constructive agenda,” and for now, questions about what the hell is going on with the government’s agenda will land much better. Now is the time to obstruct it, force it to make mistakes, shake its authority, and make any attempts to negotiate with it about anything other than surrender look ridiculous. Time for the thesis “you present us with a fait accompli, and we present you with a fait accompli.” A time when the state can not only be called a bandit, but one can behave toward it exactly as such: place it outside the law and organize a defense. A time when, in response to the words “I am against the state,” people stop pointing to their temples and start wondering what can be done.

From the thesis “the state cannot be trusted with our pension savings,” it is not far to the thesis “the state cannot be trusted with anything at all.” And that means people are ripening for ancap.

Rallies of July 29, results of the day

Today, 5,700 people attended the rally in Moscow. Before the rally began, the police prevented the banners from being mounted on the stage, and immediately after it ended, they detained the organizers.

The Kemerovo rally was also disrupted: the organizer was detained even before it started. They were released and given a summons for Tuesday, accused of illegal campaigning for an unauthorized action, although there had been a court decision ordering the action to be coordinated.

In Chelyabinsk, instead of an unauthorized rally, single-person pickets were held; activists were detained, their statements were taken, and then they were released.

In Yaroslavl and Rybinsk, it went without incident, but it wasn’t very crowded.
In other words, we are already being noticed, but not yet feared.

It was already clear that the April rally for Telegram was a great stroke of luck: they managed to apply before everyone else, received approval, and interested Durov.

Now it is clear that against the general backdrop of protest, when literally every social movement is holding its own action, it will not be possible to stand out as brightly. And many continue to believe that the intensification of state robbery is, for some reason, not their business.

Anyway, politics is not just occasional super-efforts, but also routine work. We will continue to convey our ideas.

Rally in Moscow

Update. The organizers of the Moscow rally have been released; they are charged with violating the rules for conducting mass events, court date is August 2

Why is the LPR not cooperating with the Confederation of Labour of Russia on the issue of pension reform?

anonymous question

I believe it is for roughly the same reason that the Confederation of Labor of Russia does not cooperate with the LPR on the issue of pension reform. Each of the organizations has a large enough number of allies to organize protest actions independently, and the inevitable friction caused by significantly different approaches to the style of the actions would create more difficulties than advantages from cooperation.

There is one more point. It is never known in advance which action will be approved by the authorities, which will be sent to the outskirts of the city, or banned altogether. Therefore, it is more reliable if applications come from a wide variety of organizations.

At the same time, libertarians attend rallies organized by the confederation; usually, no one drives them away or forces them to roll up their posters. Similarly, members of various left-wing movements attend rallies organized by the conditional liberal wing of the opposition.

Putin has not yet succeeded in achieving the unification of the opposition, but now he is closer to it than ever.

In the photo, members of the LPR at a trade union rally on June 16 in Novosibirsk

You can donate bitcoins for the needs of the channel here: 1A7Wu2enQNRETLXDNpQEufcbJybtM1VHZ8

Libertarian orders will probably not be here for some time, and (few believe that they are) true. But does the DPR have any goals closer and more understandable to the people, the achievement of which would yield a tangible result?

anonymous question

I apologize in advance if the text seems a bit mundane, but that’s always the case with immediate goals.

Currently, all opposition parties are utilizing the government’s aggressive policies to convert people’s dissatisfaction into their own influence. Therefore, I currently have two immediate tasks.

First, to organize protest actions throughout the country, or at least in Moscow, that are no worse than those of RB-chan. April 30th with Telegram went well; July 29th should be just as successful. This is a demonstration of organizational muscle, a push for the influx of new people and finances into the party, as well as an excellent start for my candidates in Vnukovo and Kokoshkino.

Second, to hold the Adam Smith Readings in November on a new organizational level — the old cozy format has stopped accommodating everyone who wants to attend. It is not enough to simply get hold of a crowd of dissatisfied people; it is important to give them an understanding of libertarianism. I am also looking for ways to make the format of regional educational conferences, which are currently held under the “Many-Faced Freedom” brand, more effective. For example, in August in Novosibirsk, it will be expanded to two days and conducted in a more festival-like format — I suspect that values are better absorbed in more free communication.

But perhaps in your question, you didn’t mean what I am doing for my own development, but what I am doing for real changes in the country. The most noticeable thing here is the initiative to abolish the transport tax — for now in Moscow, then the experience can be transferred to the regions. Each of my municipal deputies also has their own goals, of which there are only three so far, but this autumn their number will likely increase, with your help. These are outlined in their programs; I won’t overload the post with details.

To summarize, wherever I gain significant organizational capacity, I organize pressure on the government toward the abolition of levies and the deregulation of the economy. If we recall the famous example of cannibalism in the description of how the Overton window works, I am currently at the stage of “experts talk about the numerous positive effects of cannibalism, minorities protest for the decriminalization of the phenomenon” — agree that this is already a fairly significant shift from the complete tabooing of the topic.

I publish the address of my bitcoin wallet here every time: 1A7Wu2enQNRETLXDNpQEufcbJybtM1VHZ8

I should probably say what I want to do with this money first. First, I want a new little dress. I’ve been told repeatedly that for a chan I’m not anime enough, and this whim, in general, is not hard to fulfill, and not expensive. Second, I’m thinking about a video blog.

Has really no one asked yet what you are doing at rallies against raising the retirement age?

anonymous question

I attend them, I speak at them, I even organize them📣.

But the question should probably be understood not literally, but rather in this formulation: why does a libertarian party, which wishes to abolish the state pension system entirely, oppose the state raising the retirement age?

The answer is quite obvious. There are no state funds, there are only taxpayers’ funds. If raising the retirement age were accompanied by a reduction in social contributions, I might even welcome it, provided the reduction was significant enough. But instead, the government is simply extending the time during which it intends to rob people, thereby reducing their ability to invest money according to their own choice—what is good about that from a libertarian perspective?

Let’s take the extreme cases. The amount of social contributions remains unchanged, and the retirement age is infinity. In other words, a person pays social contributions their entire life but never receives a pension. Obviously, this is less fair than the current situation; essentially, it is an increase in personal income tax from 13% to 13+22=35%. The second extreme case: social contributions remain the same, and the retirement age is zero. In other words, a person receives a pension from birth without paying a penny to the state. Since the state has no money of its own, only taxpayers’ money, it is obvious that in this case the pension will be zero. And that is exactly what the libertarian party is striving for. Consequently, it is in our interest to strive for a reduction in the retirement age, a reduction in social contributions, or both, but by no means to agree to an increase in age while taxes remain unchanged.

Come to the rally organized by the LPR in Moscow on July 29! All details are on the website No to Robbery!

I have said it many times and will not tire of repeating it: one of the best investment tools for old age is Bitcoin. I would be happy to accept donations in this currency to the wallet 1A7Wu2enQNRETLXDNpQEufcbJybtM1VHZ8—but if you save them for your own retirement instead, that would also be great.