The Political Thread

[Professor Bear]

Sharky has described blatant perjury, deliberate withholding of evidence, violation of judicial procedure and police corruption that has gone unchallenged - if not been explicitly endorsed by the courts and local council - and while I worry for his well-being, I wouldn't pretend those are things that don't need to be exposed.  Circumstances have elected Sharky.

[ZenArcade]

AA all true of course. But he is not setting himself up for a win. Z Ps are you interested in our 20/12/14 get together in the European? Love to see you there. Z

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

Sharky has described blatant perjury, deliberate withholding of evidence, violation of judicial procedure and police corruption that has gone unchallenged - if not been explicitly endorsed by the courts and local council - and while I worry for his well-being, I wouldn't pretend those are things that don't need to be exposed.  Circumstances have elected Sharky.

He's certainly alleged all of those things, but even if everyone involved acted entirely correctly he still would have been evicted for non-payment of rent.

I said this to Shark before he got kicked out of his house and I'll say it again: Make your protest if you want, and good luck to you, but go in with your eyes open.

Just as non-payment of rent led to eviction, non-payment of the fine will lead to prison.

[The Legendary Shark]

My eyes are open and I think I know the risks - some of them, anyway.
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I think you all know by now that I see a tyranny falling, inch by inch, over the world. I don't care if it's orchestrated, a side-effect of the systems we've built or a combination of the two - or something else. It has to stop.
.
I am not so arrogant as to think that I can stop this perceived tyranny on my own. But I can say no to it. Just me. I can't stop that tyranny from controlling the rest of the world but I can resist it controlling me.
.
And I've spent long nights wondering if I'm insane or not because very few people seem to agree with my approach and fewer still understand it. I dearly wish I could go back, unsee what I've seen, but I can't. How can you go back after you find out that Father Christmas doesn't exist? You can't - but you can learn that Christmas doesn't rely on the existence of Santa just as society doesn't rely on the existence of authority.
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It is authority that has done this to me: evicted me, falsely accused me, stolen my stuff, destroyed my good name and condemned me to a life of destitution and ruin - all because I wanted to pay my way in my own way and do things my own way. And what's so terribly wrong with that? I want to do my bit, I don't want to live for free but I refuse to be a Debt Sherpa for the elites.
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My life was given to me, by chance or God or whatever, for me to use as I see fit - not to waste toiling to support those who assume themselves my betters.
.
I refuse to kill or injure or threaten as I resist and ever strive to live by my personal code "cause loss, harm or damage to nobody, honour your lawful contracts, pay your lawful bills and be honest in your dealings." They, of course, possess the ability to impose the ultimate sanction - not that I'm important enough for that (I hope). So all I can do is argue.
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You know how much I piss you all off here with my insane yet hard to summarily dismiss bullshit? Well, imagine how much more it pisses them off when they have to give official responses framed within their own rules. If they have the right to impose rules on me then, as they get their authority to impose them rules from the electorate (me), then I have the same right to impose the same rules on them. They charge me £120 for something, I charge them £120 for dealing with their charging process. They don't consent to following my policies, I don't consent to following theirs ("policy is not law" is one of the most useful concepts I ever learned). They quote legislation, I quote legislation. They ignore me, I keep on at them.
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It's either piss them off with words (which you all know is my forte) or take up arms - which I will not and cannot do.
.
And when they come after me, and they will come after me, they will do so in your name - whether you like it or not. But I know that's a lie because, even those people who really have no time for me like Jim Campbell and Gordon Rennie, would not see my home of 27 years and all my possessions stripped from me for the sake of a few quid. Only authority is that heartless.
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It has to be stopped. I can't stop it for you but maybe I can stop it for me.

[TordelBack]

Absolutely no-one's doubting your sincerity, Shark , and a fair few agree with your aims, if not your methods.  But all of us worry about you, and it'd be wrong not to urge caution in considering what are deeply risky actions.  And I can't personally accept that the only alternative use of your time is watching TV and dreaming of being a professional writer - there are other ways of making a difference beyond risking your liberty.

[locustsofdeath!]

Absolutely no-one's doubting your sincerity, Shark...

I do. Go all the way, or shut up.

You're on the Internet - get off immediately, because you're:

1. Paying for the right to do so, and what gives anyone the right to charge us for something that we should/could all use for free?

2. Using the Internet paid for by someone else, in which case you're making your friend/family member pay for your right to use the Internet - what gives you the right to leach off them?

3. You're using the Internet for free by stealing someone else's signal - in which case, you're doing exactly what the you feel the government is doing to you - stealing from someone.

Let's go even further. Do you buy vegetables/produce/milk/eggs/meat/bread from a grocer?

Well, you're paying someone else for food, a resource which we should all be entitled to - so go out there and grow and farm. You can grow vegetables in a little trough in the smallest of spaces - I grow a bunch of veggies every year.

So, again, prove you're a true anarchist and go all the way. Or save it.

[Professor Bear]

I'm not quite sure where anarchy instead of vaguely-defined consensual egalitarianism came into the equation, but isn't broadband access provided in most towns in the UK as part of the library service?
Never used it meself, though - they can see you looking at donkey porn if you do so on a public network, and what I do in my special alone time is my business.

[locustsofdeath!]

Using internet a library is paying for falls under number 2, especially if he's just sitting around all day using their facilities and not chipping in.

Plus he was online a moment ago. I don't remember any UK libraries open at 23:00.

[Professor Bear]

I just looked at my tablet's wi-fi list and the public service is still active.  It's not a secure network, either, so I assume one does not pay for access.

[The Legendary Shark]

Giff-Gaff, £7.50 per month.
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I drive a lorry, distributing food. That's what I contribute. That contribution is turned into promissory notes, some of which I exchange for internets because that's how capitalism works. I exchange my work for the work of others. It's not rocket surgery, Locusts.
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And I have nothing to prove to you or anyone else on this forum. You may not believe a word I say but that's your decision, not mine. I know I come across as arrogant but if you want to let that bother you then that's your decision again. If it's arrogant for me to think that my life belongs to me then I'm fucking well arrogant - as we should all be, in my view.

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"Go all the way or shut up"? What do you mean? I may be a loon but I'm not about to set fire to myself on the Town Hall steps or go postal in the council offices. I'm not Karl Marx or Luke frigging Skywalker, I'm just some poor git who's tired of living his life head down, arse up, cheeks spread and gob shut. Going all the way isn't nearly as important as setting off in the first place.
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You can doubt my sincerity all you like - I do it myself often enough so I really don't care. I'm not asking you, or anyone else for that matter, to join in, fund me or support me. I'm not asking you, or anyone else, to believe me or copy me or follow me. I'm not asking to be anybody's hero, villain or martyr. I'm telling you what I'm doing and what I think, that's all. If you don't like that, then I understand Jim can instruct you in the use of the ignore feature.
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I don't know why you've taken against me all of a sudden, Locusts, I always regarded you as a friend.
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Tordels - don't worry, I'm hoping to preserve my liberty for as long as possible. I'm well aware of the fact that I can't ever really win - but I can be a thorn or a splinter and cost them time and money. Every minute they have to spend dealing with my arguments is a little victory - it's a minute they won't be able to spend bullying somebody else, at least.

[Grugz]

My eyes are open and I think I know the risks - some of them, anyway.
.
I think you all know by now that I see a tyranny falling, inch by inch, over the world. I don't care if it's orchestrated, a side-effect of the systems we've built or a combination of the two - or something else. It has to stop.
.
I am not so arrogant as to think that I can stop this perceived tyranny on my own. But I can say no to it. Just me. I can't stop that tyranny from controlling the rest of the world but I can resist it controlling me.
.
And I've spent long nights wondering if I'm insane or not because very few people seem to agree with my approach and fewer still understand it. I dearly wish I could go back, unsee what I've seen, but I can't. How can you go back after you find out that Father Christmas doesn't exist? You can't - but you can learn that Christmas doesn't rely on the existence of Santa just as society doesn't rely on the existence of authority.
.
It is authority that has done this to me: evicted me, falsely accused me, stolen my stuff, destroyed my good name and condemned me to a life of destitution and ruin - all because I wanted to pay my way in my own way and do things my own way. And what's so terribly wrong with that? I want to do my bit, I don't want to live for free but I refuse to be a Debt Sherpa for the elites.
.
My life was given to me, by chance or God or whatever, for me to use as I see fit - not to waste toiling to support those who assume themselves my betters.
.
I refuse to kill or injure or threaten as I resist and ever strive to live by my personal code "cause loss, harm or damage to nobody, honour your lawful contracts, pay your lawful bills and be honest in your dealings." They, of course, possess the ability to impose the ultimate sanction - not that I'm important enough for that (I hope). So all I can do is argue.
.
You know how much I piss you all off here with my insane yet hard to summarily dismiss bullshit? Well, imagine how much more it pisses them off when they have to give official responses framed within their own rules. If they have the right to impose rules on me then, as they get their authority to impose them rules from the electorate (me), then I have the same right to impose the same rules on them. They charge me £120 for something, I charge them £120 for dealing with their charging process. They don't consent to following my policies, I don't consent to following theirs ("policy is not law" is one of the most useful concepts I ever learned). They quote legislation, I quote legislation. They ignore me, I keep on at them.
.
It's either piss them off with words (which you all know is my forte) or take up arms - which I will not and cannot do.
.
And when they come after me, and they will come after me, they will do so in your name - whether you like it or not. But I know that's a lie because, even those people who really have no time for me like Jim Campbell and Gordon Rennie, would not see my home of 27 years and all my possessions stripped from me for the sake of a few quid. Only authority is that heartless.
.
It has to be stopped. I can't stop it for you but maybe I can stop it for me.

whaddya mean ..."father Christmas doesn't exist"  how could you?

[Professor Bear]

Obviously that is just a hypothetical example, Grugz.  Sharky isn't saying that Father Christmas isn't real.

I'm well aware of the fact that I can't ever really win - but I can be a thorn or a splinter and cost them time and money. Every minute they have to spend dealing with my arguments is a little victory - it's a minute they won't be able to spend bullying somebody else, at least.

That lass that won her court case against the DWP was probably being told from all sides that she couldn't win and had likely even resigned herself to the idea, but she did win.  IDS changed laws to protect himself from prosecution, and the government has been running scared from EU human rights laws since.
So it's worth a punt.  Just look after yourself.

[Skullmo]

If you have to follow your path then you have to follow your path, I wish you all luck on it and hope it turns out ok for you!

[locustsofdeath!]

You drive a lorry distributing food. To put money in various corporations' pockets. Money taken from people who have a right to food without paying what they pay for it. You're contributing, all right - to companies like nestle, who feel people should pay dearly for WATER.

To me, you come across as concerned for yourself and only yourself. And that's fine, we all have to look out for ourselves. But don't cast yourself as a saint or a martyr trying to bring enlightenment to mankind.

I begin to understand why Jim and Gordon and others become so frustrated with you.

[TordelBack]

Here, did anyone hear the magnificent Malala Yousafzai on Woman's Hour yesterday?  Get thee to an iPlayer, go, if only to hear her quote her younger brother: [paraphrasing] 'you're a horrible person: you forgave the Taliban for shooting you, but you won't forgive me for borrowing your iPod!'. That lady there is why the human project will work out in the end.