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I was pretty surprised to see the EFF's naive take on the Tea Party [1] in "recent deeplinks" underneath the linked article, which seems not to recognize it as

I was pretty surprised to see the EFF's naive take on the Tea Party [1] in "recent deeplinks" underneath the linked article, which seems not to recognize it as pretty much an astroturf instrument of the neo-bircher Kochs [2], [3]. Of course co-opting TP sympathizers around a common goal of opposing overweening government surveillance to unknown purpose is a Good Thing, but unless the EFF, an org I've respected for ages, is unaware of the spurious "grassroots" provenance of the Tea Party, which seems very unlikely, I'd expect a less nakedly revisionist approach from them. [1] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/04/tea-party-taxes-and-why-patriots-wouldve-revolted-against-surveillance-state https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/04/tea-party-taxes-and-wh... [2] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opinion/29rich.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opinion/29rich.html?_r=0 [3] http://www.astroturfwars.com http://www.astroturfwars.com

mattmanser 13y ago
How is this even vaguely relevant to this submission? Argue with their attempts to appeal across the bases somewhere else. Write a blog post. Raise awareness if you're so incensed. Don't attempt to hijack this thread.
- csandreasen 13y ago
  I think it's worthwhile to discuss. Out of the blue, they're suddenly promoting a political party at the same time that they're asking for technical assistance. That can definitely influence one's decision to offer said assistance. If you want to move the discussion elsewhere, I opened a separate thread when I first saw this last night: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7596182 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7596182
dTal 13y ago
If you're trying to get self-identified Tea Partyers on board, a great start is not alienating them. Appealing to the aspects of their ideology we can all agree on is a great idea to garner allies. The Tea Party's "grassroots" origin may be spurious, but the sense of injustice that fueled its adoption by ordinary folk is real enough. As I understand it, a lot of basically normal, non-frothing people now believe that the Tea Party basically stands against government overreach, and as such are sympathetic to it. Might as well channel that. We might even see an evolution of what the Tea Party means.
- HistoryInAction 13y ago
  This. We don't have to agree with them on everything. We do have to respect them enough to use their language (think ./English/politics/Tea Party/ in contrast to ./English/tech/.) when communicating our shared ideas to them. I found the piece to be a very (actually surprisingly so) savvy bit of strategic outreach from EFF, even if it was quite blunt in its tactical approach. See also: http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Republican-Rand-Paul-fires-up-a-Berkeley-crowd-5332740.php http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Republican-Rand-Paul-...
- csandreasen 13y ago
  Yeah, but aligning your organization with a political movement that's - let's say "divisive" - and largely has nothing to do with your core goals is also a good way to alienate a good portion of your base that doesn't agree with their politics. I've donated to the EFF in the past and I was shocked when I saw this.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

mattmanser 13y ago

How is this even vaguely relevant to this submission? Argue with their attempts to appeal across the bases somewhere else. Write a blog post. Raise awareness if you're so incensed. Don't attempt to hijack this thread.

csandreasen 13y ago
I think it's worthwhile to discuss. Out of the blue, they're suddenly promoting a political party at the same time that they're asking for technical assistance. That can definitely influence one's decision to offer said assistance. If you want to move the discussion elsewhere, I opened a separate thread when I first saw this last night: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7596182 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7596182

dTal 13y ago

If you're trying to get self-identified Tea Partyers on board, a great start is not alienating them. Appealing to the aspects of their ideology we can all agree on is a great idea to garner allies. The Tea Party's "grassroots" origin may be spurious, but the sense of injustice that fueled its adoption by ordinary folk is real enough. As I understand it, a lot of basically normal, non-frothing people now believe that the Tea Party basically stands against government overreach, and as such are sympathetic to it. Might as well channel that. We might even see an evolution of what the Tea Party means.

HistoryInAction 13y ago
This. We don't have to agree with them on everything. We do have to respect them enough to use their language (think ./English/politics/Tea Party/ in contrast to ./English/tech/.) when communicating our shared ideas to them. I found the piece to be a very (actually surprisingly so) savvy bit of strategic outreach from EFF, even if it was quite blunt in its tactical approach. See also: http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Republican-Rand-Paul-fires-up-a-Berkeley-crowd-5332740.php http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Republican-Rand-Paul-...
csandreasen 13y ago
Yeah, but aligning your organization with a political movement that's - let's say "divisive" - and largely has nothing to do with your core goals is also a good way to alienate a good portion of your base that doesn't agree with their politics. I've donated to the EFF in the past and I was shocked when I saw this.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]