7 ms·

Anarchist Cookbook authors hopes for discontinuation (read the author review)

44 points by fogus 16y ago

tptacek 16y ago
This retarded book, which has injured acquaintances of mine, is the reason I have the career I have now. If it weren't for the Anarchist Cookbook, I'd be a Windows admin today. It's every bit as bad as the author says it is. But taking it out of print won't fix anything; the copy I had when I was 13 wasn't legit, and was accompanied by 8478439 pages of Usenet posts.
- todayiamme 16y ago
  >>> I'd be a Windows admin today.<<< You didn't lose any body parts with your pipe bomb right? I hope I misread your comments.
  - tptacek 16y ago
    Nope! The Anarchist Cookbook did not ruin my dreams of becoming a Windows admin, either. Seriously, though, if you asked me how I got started with my career, "The Anarchist's Cookbook" would be one of the first thoughts in my head. The topic is interesting to me because my thoughts on the book are so complicated.
    - todayiamme 16y ago
      I'm curious now. Why? I haven't read the book, but what appealed and stuck with that rebellious teenager?
      - tptacek 16y ago
        Without getting specific, let's just say that there's a path from "blowing stuff up" to "software security researcher" that involved me knowing how to code C before I was 15. My history of childhood mayhem is tamer than most stories you can read elsewhere and is pretty boring. I became an ISP admin while still a teenager and all this stuff got a lot less funny, fast.
- 9ec4c12949a4f3 16y ago
  Ideas on paper don't hurt people. The people who act on them do. Take some f*cking accountability for your actions; the author did not force anyone to resort to violence.
  - tptacek 16y ago
    Yes, it's true, me and my high school freshman friends really should have had a better grounding in pyrotechnics and demolitions before taking on the projects in the Anarchists Cookbook. Maybe we should have gone to mining school first. I'm sorry. I'm not sure why this was left as a comment on my comment, though, since it doesn't have anything to do with it. We weren't "resorting to violence", unless "violence against garbage cans" is a political statement to you. You also appear not to have noticed me crediting my career to the book you think I want to burn.
    - 9ec4c12949a4f3 16y ago
      Why? To draw a parallel: Video games teach kids how to shoot up schools.
      - tptacek 16y ago
        No they don't. Think harder. You may have turned 12 knowing how to make a pipe bomb. Me and my friends weren't.
      - SkyMarshal 16y ago
        I'm not up on the videogame scene, but is there really one out there that simulates breaking into a highschool or college and shooting up students and teachers, before finally winning the game by offing yourself?
        9ec4c12949a4f3 16y ago
        No, and that's my point.
    - jrockway 16y ago
horacegrant 16y ago
Eh, who cares? So he had a big evangelical moment and saw Jesus, great, wonderful. This book continues to contain information that can be useful to people, and this is the same "book-burning" way of thinking that is so prevalent in conservative religious communities. While the document is injected with immature content throughout in terms of the motivations for the activities upon which it instructs, it contains practical knowledge that can be used for good or evil. This knowledge cannot and should not be erased because an individual, even the original author, has concluded that violence is under no circumstance an acceptable way to prosecute change.
- kgo 16y ago
  Actually, the book has a lot of completely incorrect information. For example, it has a recipe for bananadyne. That's what I find offensive about it. I wouldn't trust any of the other recipes to not just blow up in your face even if executed correctly, since the author didn't test them to begin with.
- tptacek 16y ago
  What do conservative religious values have to do with not publishing books that teach 13 year olds how to blow their hands off?
  - 9ec4c12949a4f3 16y ago
    Spanish inquisition and something about making rats burrowing into pregnant jews or something. Not that religious values are bad and the bible should be removed from print or anything...
    - gloob 16y ago
      Perhaps I'm just being dense today, but in what way is "Religion is bad, m'kay?" not a non-sequitur to the question that was actually asked?
      - 9ec4c12949a4f3 16y ago
edkennedy 16y ago
Vice Magazine tried a few of the recipes in the book in this video... like the napalm, flaming tennis balls and a rocket assisted skateboard: http://www.vbs.tv/en-ca/watch/from-the-pages-of-vice/anarchist-cookbook http://www.vbs.tv/en-ca/watch/from-the-pages-of-vice/anarchi...
- godorito 16y ago
  Thanks for the link. I was never thought to use bottle rockets when I was younger.
- mattmaroon 16y ago
  I nearly burned my patio down building the smoke bomb in high school. I learned in the process though that you could skip the entire cooking process. (It does smell awful, but that's just the sugar caramelizing. Made for a great prank on the last day of school though.
hsmyers 16y ago
Not having seen the book until after I got back from Vietnam I thought it ironic in the extreme that the best way to acquire expertise on the subject matter was in fact to volunteer for the draft, survive the year, come home and get busy. With training before during and after my year in country even a then 'stoner' like myself learned more than enough to easily loose all of the body parts I had available!! Didn't though, went back to being an art major...
chopsueyar 16y ago
Does anyone else here find it ironic the book is really a compilation of then available US government published information at the local library, and then copyrighted and sold by the publisher with the author losing all rights? And Amazon allowing the Author of the book (who has no copyrights to said material) to 'advertise' his desire to stop publication and sale of a book Amazon sells?

44 points by fogus 16y ago

This retarded book, which has injured acquaintances of mine, is the reason I have the career I have now. If it weren't for the Anarchist Cookbook, I'd be a Windows admin today. It's every bit as bad as the author says it is. But taking it out of print won't fix anything; the copy I had when I was 13 wasn't legit, and was accompanied by 8478439 pages of Usenet posts.

todayiamme 16y ago
>>> I'd be a Windows admin today.<<< You didn't lose any body parts with your pipe bomb right? I hope I misread your comments.
- tptacek 16y ago
  Nope! The Anarchist Cookbook did not ruin my dreams of becoming a Windows admin, either. Seriously, though, if you asked me how I got started with my career, "The Anarchist's Cookbook" would be one of the first thoughts in my head. The topic is interesting to me because my thoughts on the book are so complicated.
  - todayiamme 16y ago
    I'm curious now. Why? I haven't read the book, but what appealed and stuck with that rebellious teenager?
    - tptacek 16y ago
      Without getting specific, let's just say that there's a path from "blowing stuff up" to "software security researcher" that involved me knowing how to code C before I was 15. My history of childhood mayhem is tamer than most stories you can read elsewhere and is pretty boring. I became an ISP admin while still a teenager and all this stuff got a lot less funny, fast.
9ec4c12949a4f3 16y ago
Ideas on paper don't hurt people. The people who act on them do. Take some f*cking accountability for your actions; the author did not force anyone to resort to violence.
- tptacek 16y ago
  Yes, it's true, me and my high school freshman friends really should have had a better grounding in pyrotechnics and demolitions before taking on the projects in the Anarchists Cookbook. Maybe we should have gone to mining school first. I'm sorry. I'm not sure why this was left as a comment on my comment, though, since it doesn't have anything to do with it. We weren't "resorting to violence", unless "violence against garbage cans" is a political statement to you. You also appear not to have noticed me crediting my career to the book you think I want to burn.
  - 9ec4c12949a4f3 16y ago
    Why? To draw a parallel: Video games teach kids how to shoot up schools.
    - tptacek 16y ago
      No they don't. Think harder. You may have turned 12 knowing how to make a pipe bomb. Me and my friends weren't.
    - SkyMarshal 16y ago
      I'm not up on the videogame scene, but is there really one out there that simulates breaking into a highschool or college and shooting up students and teachers, before finally winning the game by offing yourself?
      - 9ec4c12949a4f3 16y ago
        No, and that's my point.
  - jrockway 16y ago

horacegrant 16y ago

Eh, who cares? So he had a big evangelical moment and saw Jesus, great, wonderful. This book continues to contain information that can be useful to people, and this is the same "book-burning" way of thinking that is so prevalent in conservative religious communities. While the document is injected with immature content throughout in terms of the motivations for the activities upon which it instructs, it contains practical knowledge that can be used for good or evil. This knowledge cannot and should not be erased because an individual, even the original author, has concluded that violence is under no circumstance an acceptable way to prosecute change.

kgo 16y ago
Actually, the book has a lot of completely incorrect information. For example, it has a recipe for bananadyne. That's what I find offensive about it. I wouldn't trust any of the other recipes to not just blow up in your face even if executed correctly, since the author didn't test them to begin with.
tptacek 16y ago
What do conservative religious values have to do with not publishing books that teach 13 year olds how to blow their hands off?
- 9ec4c12949a4f3 16y ago
  Spanish inquisition and something about making rats burrowing into pregnant jews or something. Not that religious values are bad and the bible should be removed from print or anything...
  - gloob 16y ago
    Perhaps I'm just being dense today, but in what way is "Religion is bad, m'kay?" not a non-sequitur to the question that was actually asked?
    - 9ec4c12949a4f3 16y ago

edkennedy 16y ago

Vice Magazine tried a few of the recipes in the book in this video... like the napalm, flaming tennis balls and a rocket assisted skateboard: http://www.vbs.tv/en-ca/watch/from-the-pages-of-vice/anarchist-cookbook http://www.vbs.tv/en-ca/watch/from-the-pages-of-vice/anarchi...

godorito 16y ago
Thanks for the link. I was never thought to use bottle rockets when I was younger.
mattmaroon 16y ago
I nearly burned my patio down building the smoke bomb in high school. I learned in the process though that you could skip the entire cooking process. (It does smell awful, but that's just the sugar caramelizing. Made for a great prank on the last day of school though.

hsmyers 16y ago

Not having seen the book until after I got back from Vietnam I thought it ironic in the extreme that the best way to acquire expertise on the subject matter was in fact to volunteer for the draft, survive the year, come home and get busy. With training before during and after my year in country even a then 'stoner' like myself learned more than enough to easily loose all of the body parts I had available!! Didn't though, went back to being an art major...

chopsueyar 16y ago

Does anyone else here find it ironic the book is really a compilation of then available US government published information at the local library, and then copyrighted and sold by the publisher with the author losing all rights? And Amazon allowing the Author of the book (who has no copyrights to said material) to 'advertise' his desire to stop publication and sale of a book Amazon sells?