Comments on: shell scripts work better than giant puppets http://www.manifestdensity.net/2010/12/13/shell-scripts-work-better-than-giant-puppets/ Just another WordPress weblog Sat, 04 Jun 2011 18:37:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Tim Lee http://www.manifestdensity.net/2010/12/13/shell-scripts-work-better-than-giant-puppets/comment-page-1/#comment-59273 Tim Lee Mon, 13 Dec 2010 19:27:06 +0000 http://www.manifestdensity.net/?p=1614#comment-59273 Interesting. My thinking on this has been evolving somewhat as I've thought through it more. I think the fundamental problem with DDOS as civil disobedience is that there's no real connection between the injustice being protested and the form of protest. The thing that makes CD a distinctive tactic, is that it typically involves goading the target of the protest into committing the act you're protesting in a way that draws attention to the injustice in question. This might involve collateral damage, but the collateral damage isn't the point. The Woolworth's sit-in may be preventing Woolworth's from selling lunch to white customers, but that's not the point of the protest. It wouldn't be OK to instead break into the Woolworth's building in the middle of the night and sabotage their kitchen equipment--even if doing so has a comparable effect on their bottom line. If DDOSing MasterCard over Wikileaks is laudable civil disobedience, I don't see an obvious limiting principle. Would it be "civil disobedience" to DDOS Apple's website in protest of the allegedly poor worker conditions in their iPod factories? Is it OK to DDOS Wal-Mart to protest its allegedly discriminatory hiring practices? And almost everyone can think of something bad the federal government has done, so should we all be downloading LOIC and pointing it at the website of our least favorite federal agency? This strikes me as stupid both as a matter of justice and as a practical political strategy. Interesting. My thinking on this has been evolving somewhat as I’ve thought through it more. I think the fundamental problem with DDOS as civil disobedience is that there’s no real connection between the injustice being protested and the form of protest. The thing that makes CD a distinctive tactic, is that it typically involves goading the target of the protest into committing the act you’re protesting in a way that draws attention to the injustice in question. This might involve collateral damage, but the collateral damage isn’t the point. The Woolworth’s sit-in may be preventing Woolworth’s from selling lunch to white customers, but that’s not the point of the protest. It wouldn’t be OK to instead break into the Woolworth’s building in the middle of the night and sabotage their kitchen equipment–even if doing so has a comparable effect on their bottom line.

If DDOSing MasterCard over Wikileaks is laudable civil disobedience, I don’t see an obvious limiting principle. Would it be “civil disobedience” to DDOS Apple’s website in protest of the allegedly poor worker conditions in their iPod factories? Is it OK to DDOS Wal-Mart to protest its allegedly discriminatory hiring practices? And almost everyone can think of something bad the federal government has done, so should we all be downloading LOIC and pointing it at the website of our least favorite federal agency? This strikes me as stupid both as a matter of justice and as a practical political strategy.

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