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By the time it got to teenaged me (mid-1990s), much of the (non-incindiery) information was quaint and outdated, but I always found the whole thing fascinating,
by nkozyra 12y ago
By the time it got to teenaged me (mid-1990s), much of the (non-incindiery) information was quaint and outdated, but I always found the whole thing fascinating, even if it didn't appeal to my nature.
I can understand wanting it out of print, but it also gained prominence during an age of information diaspora that brought with it interesting, iterative retellings and modifications of the information. It served as a rolling early Wikipedia for shenanigans (or worse) through he age of the BBS, into the early commercial Internet. I can't remember how many modified versions I encountered on places like FidoNet.
There is a near-universal, primal teenage boy attraction to this kind of stuff, sometimes with real, awful intent but more often as a sort of maturation fantasy mechanism. That it was expressed in some sort of compendium shouldn't be a source of lifetime regret.
Edit: The FBI FOIA response with their file on the AC is supremely interesting: http://rc.vc/files/docs/FBI-AnarchistsCookbook_1971-1999.pdf http://rc.vc/files/docs/FBI-AnarchistsCookbook_1971-1999.pdf
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- nkozyra 12y agoWell I was the same, if you'll note my comment. I had no interest in doing any of this, but the fact that it existed tickled some sort of appeal.
- shimshim 12y agoI also was a teenager throughout most of the 90s and I admit to having a huge fascination with this work. I believe the very first thing I made was homemade napalm and burned down a tree, which led to firefighters being called, my mom being questioned while she was cooking which then led to part of my house burning down. I still have this fascination even today, in a curious-how-does-it-work sort of way.