Fwd: recruiting nonderanged bloggers for your project

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jan 24, 2010 at 2:46 AM
Subject: Re: recruiting nonderanged bloggers for your project
To: Thomas Wictor <twictor@earthlink.net>

I appreciate the input. Regarding the fine line between humor and serious commentary and the "Operation Fuck Everyone" phrasing, I'm not following the Jon Stewart model, but rather the P.J. O'Rourke model. I don't know how familiar you are with his work, but basically he managed to establish himself as a serious commentator (he's with Heritage now, editorial board of Weekly Standard, etc.) after having first been famous for that article about how he likes to drive around drunk while fucking around with underage girls, and having otherwise put a great deal more crudity and incriminating info into his work than I tend to do. I'm been writing comedy professionally for about a decade now and politics for a couple years less, and I believe I've developed good instincts as to what will turn off my intended audience and what won't. Of course one can't (and shouldn't) be taken seriously if one's work is dependent on shock value - one has to fill it out with value. My first book had plenty of silly and seemingly crude content, but it was very well-received because such things were simply decoration, used in the course of serious points. In this case, I disagree with you about the nature in which this project name will be received, and in fact the reaction so far (aside from people who already dislike me anyway) has been much better than I'd expected in terms of enthusiasm and interest. Anyway, only time will tell.

I still disagree with you about Johnson's mentality. I've spoken to him and corresponded with him quite a bit over the past few months and have seen no indication that he's some incredibly egotistical person with a tendency to ruin projects. He didn't ruin Pajamas Media, for instance; he eventually just walked away and didn't even badmouth it. Of course we'll have to disagree on that, but at any rate Johnson will simply be using and promoting the software and helping to get some folks involved in the decentralized network portion of the project. Even I won't be particularly important to this project or even capable of screwing it up, as once it's set in motion it will be out of my hands, as the nature of all of this - which I haven't yet discussed openly as it's dependent in part on the intellectual property of my friend Andrew Stein - will be unusual in terms of structure and basically self-perpetuating. Even if Johnson does turn out to be a loon and I turn out to be a maniac, it really won't matter, as our job will be essentially finished by April, when the whole thing will be driven by the collective input of thousands of people in addition to some rudimentary AI - sort of a symbiosis between the best of human talent and the particular efficiencies of software.

Anyway, thanks for letting me know your thoughts. I have attached some materials that you may find to be of interest and which illustrate, I think, the viability of what I'm proposing in general; a couple are academic papers, the other is the epilogue to my upcoming book on the punditry (keep it to yourself, if you would; my publisher is not keen on my releasing materials like this). Please let me know if you have any ideas or general input on the subject in general.

Regards,

Barrett Brown

Brooklyn, NY

On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 8:40 PM, Thomas Wictor <twictor@earthlink.net> wrote:

You and I are on the same page, apparently, at least when it comes to the danger we're in.

Calling it "Operation Fuck Everyone" has already lost you half your audience, though. You're going for the "clown nose on, clown nose off" approach that Jon Stewart takes, demanding respect and consideration as a serious thinker even as you swear and mug for the camera. It doesn't work in the long run. Witness Jon Stewart being utterly lambasted by John Yoo the other night.

I just bought an original painting by a brilliant artist named Leslie Ditto. http://leslieditto.com/

Her work is deeply disturbing without being graphic, crude, ugly, or contrived. No fake shocky-shock here. She punches you in the gut without screeching "Fuck you, man! I'm mad as hell and ain't gonna take it no more! Up against the motherfuckin' wall, motherfucker!" There is an elegance to her work that is lacking is most art and plenty of public discourse these days. When every other schmoe is shouting "Fuck you!" it really isn't much of a statement.

If you're sincere, then I wish you all the best and hope you succeed. Having Charles Johnson as your partner will drag you down to the depths like being chained to the biggest, craziest anvil ever forged. Like so many others he began believing his own press. He actually thinks he's all that and a bag of chips, and being a good leftist he can forgive all sins except dissent. People like that don't play well with others, which you'll find out, sadly.

Take care.
TW

On Jan 23, 2010, at 5:19 PM, Barrett Brown wrote:

I know you have no reason to give me the benefit of the doubt as you don't know me and I'm clearly not on the same page as a lot of the people you probably respect, but, seriously, I don't think everyone who happens to be involved with Pajamas Media or conservatism is deranged or even wrong. I'm not a liberal, for one thing. I'm also not out to make new enemies. Believe it or not, I'm also not some nihilist who's out to get kicks. My life's goal is to do something about this ridiculous situation that has developed whereby the amoral producers and publishers up here in NYC simply don't give a fuck about the accuracy of the information that gets peddled by Thomas Friedman and these other folks who have risen to their positions simply due to the structural flaws of the system. I'm of the opinion that the next 40 years are going to be the most dangerous in the history of humanity, and I'll be making the case for that in my upcoming book and elsewhere. Perhaps that sounds ostentatious or naive or something. That's fine. I think that the nation needs better commentators of whatever ideology lest the citizenry continue to be distracted, as it was in the '90s. Not just that it would be better if we had more competent commenators, but rather that it is necessary. What I'm doing now - and of course, only some of the basics have been mentioned so far - is the only thing I know how to do in response to this situation.

Calling this project Operation Fuck You has a purpose. That purpose is to get it noticed. I've been working in media since I was 15, and professionally so since I was 18, on all ends of the industry, and I know what works. Calling this The Civic Virtue Project of Informational Betterment Clusterfuck or whatever will not work. Calling it Operation Fuck You has already gotten the attention of a number of people, which is what I need if I am to have a chance to make my case to a sufficient number of people.

You may not think this project will be successful. That's fine. You may be entirely right, in fact. If you have a better idea on how to solve this problem, good. Otherwise, I hope that you will at least give consideration to the details of what I'll be proposing over the next several months, as well as to my argument to the effect that the information age is too dangerous for this country to accept anything less than the most capable of mainstream commentators.

On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 6:40 PM, Thomas Wictor <twictor@earthlink.net> wrote:

"My phrasing regarding 'deranged' did not indicate that I consider all of those associated with Pajamas Media to be deranged;"

I know. It all depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is. Got it.

Operation Fuck Everyone will be a rousing success. I can tell already.

Cheers,
Tom W.

On Jan 23, 2010, at 3:33 PM, Barrett Brown wrote:

As I mentioned to you a couple e-mails ago, I linked to my case against the various conservative bloggers in the article; I've written nearly a dozen pieces to that effect, all of which are linked together originating from the VF piece. My phrasing regarding "deranged" did not indicate that I consider all of those associated with Pajamas Media to be deranged; I don't think Hanson is deranged, for instance, even if I don't agree with him on certain things.

On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 6:26 PM, Thomas Wictor <twictor@earthlink.net> wrote:

Oh, it won't. It's been more than 30 years since I was fifteen. I enjoyed it, but I've moved on. Being a prick doesn't have the same allure it had when I was in high school. But that's just me.

I'll overlook your inability to make the case that Hanson, Whittle, et al. are completely deranged, since we both know you misspoke. It doesn't bode well for the content and quality of Operation Fuck Everyone, though, does it?

"Yer all completely deranged! Cuz I say so!" Not much of an argument, is it?

Oh, well. Maybe it'll succeed, and maybe Obama will pull his head out of his butt and start making really good decisions.

Cheers,
TW

On Jan 23, 2010, at 3:12 PM, Barrett Brown wrote:

Don't let it happen again.

On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 5:59 PM, Thomas Wictor <twictor@earthlink.net> wrote:

My bad. I didn't realize that the working title of your Johnson project was "Operation Fuck Everyone." In other words, you're just another eternal fifteen-year-old stirring shit because it's fun! I apologize for wasting both our time.

Cheers,
TW