Militias, reputation capital, unfounded rumor-mongering, and the DNS

[Rich Graves <llurch@networking.stanford.edu>]

Anatomy of a paranoid troll:

http://fight-censorship.dementia.org/fight-censorship/dl?thread=FBI+monitoring+Freemen+FTP+sites,+snooping+on+%22patriot%22+email?&after=2275&type=short

Someone sent a message to Declan alleging that the FBI, with the
cooperation of ISPs, was reading/disrupting/censoring the email of people
interested in "patriot"  movements. Declan said hmm, I can see the FBI
doing that, and forwarded the message to fight-censorship. I pointed out
that the story was complete bullshit, which is easily verified (yvv.com's
incompetence in managing their DNS affects all users, including
postmaster@yvv.com, not just the paranoid), but evidently my reputation
capital on the moderated fight-censorship list is so low that instead of
my objections, subscribers to the fight-censorship list got to read
another, more paranoid rant. 

I do not expect this story to die, even though it's completely false --
it's too good. The meme in the subject line is awfully strong, lots of
people won't take the time to read more than the title, and who really
listens to a FUCKING STATIST anyway. 

Truth is indeed stranger than fiction, but seldom in the way you think.

-rich