By: Tyler Cowen | 08-16-2017 | News
Photo credit: ibreakstock | Dreamstime

Pax Dickinson and Baked Alaska: Alt-Right Infrastructure Necessary to Protect Free Speech

After the tragic events of the weekend of August 12th conversation regarding how best to curb the flow of the alt-right has resulted in an overnight shut-down in certain corners of the net. GoDaddy revoked the hosting of The Daily Stormer claiming they had “incited violence.” Discord applied the same practicum when they booted the alt-right from their servers. All this occurring after the Unite the Right Rally had their civil right to free speech and peaceable assembly summarily violated by both the city of Charlottesville and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

What is the answer then? Some members of the right are beginning to advocate for establishing their own infrastructure. Tim Gionet, BKA “Baked Alaska” has an idea. Alaska, who was maced and hospitalized during the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville. In order to keep from being “squeezed out” by Silicon Valley’s left leaning clout,

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Remember when freedom of speech was so respected in software industry it was almost the raison d&#39;être?<br><br>Pepperidge Farm remembers.</p>&mdash; Justus Ranvier (@BlockInTheChain) <a href="https://twitter.com/BlockInTheChain/status/897277377344131078">August 15, 2017</a></blockquote>

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Pepperidge Farm remembers

The plan was hatched shortly after Airbnb, Uber and others decided it would be perfectly fine to practice indiscriminate discrimination based on political creed. “We’re getting banned from using payment-processing services, so we have no other choice. If that’s the gamble they want to take, I guess they can, and we’ll make our own infrastructure,” Baked said in an interview with <i>LA Times</i> just before things really started to heat up in Charlottesville.

<strong> <a href=http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-alt-right-money-20170811-story.html> “Squeezed out of Silicon Valley” </a> </strong>

Hatreon (the Patreon clone that offered itself as a more free speech friendly version of the latter) and Gab (a Twitter alternative) are a few examples of this trend apparently already under way.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This isn&#39;t cheap. ICANN accreditation requires a business plan, a staff, software, and substantial cash on hand.</p>&mdash; Counter.Fund (@CounterFund) <a href="https://twitter.com/CounterFund/status/897294184285077505">August 15, 2017</a></blockquote>

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Pax Dickinson is similarly working on expanding the opportunities for those who find themselves too far to the right of the “Overton Window.” Pax Dickinson explains his inspiration for founding CounterFund:

“So I thought, ‘what if a crowdfunding platform was based on something more?’ Could the platform have an ideological edifice built into its functional operations from its creation? Not just one that was built in, but one which, made explicit, would attract a community of members already on the same page? This being in opposition to the current progressive paradigm where the politics is covert — hidden behind the innocent appeal of a simple fundraising platform. Simply put, all platforms are inherently political. A ‘free speech’ crowdfunding site would also be political, so why not openly embrace an ideological bent and maintain it as part of the platform’s foundations?”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">They&#39;re denying the right to domain name services for political reasons now, and no one else is building a registrar so I&#39;ll have to do it.</p>&mdash; Counter.Fund (@CounterFund) <a href="https://twitter.com/CounterFund/status/897293274045710336">August 15, 2017</a></blockquote>

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<a href=”https://medium.com/@paxdickinson/a-gentle-introduction-to-counter-fund-bb0c9d6dd444”> “A gentle introduction to counterfund” </a>

Pax and Counterfund have just recently began kicking around the idea of working on an alternative domain name registrar that would be free speech friendly. A problem is laying the initial track on the ground, but the maintenance costs can be more. Just to get started this could easily run close to a quarter million dollars and ICANN annual fees start at around $60k. In the end, it’s becoming more and more evident that the only vote that really matters is the one in your wallet. If the lovers of free speech put their money where their mouth is we may still have a chance.

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2 Comment/s
Anonymous No. 6694 2017-08-16 : 02:14

Interesting that you go on about free speech when the second someone disagrees with your views you come out with childish names, baseless accusations and silly threats of violence, etc. I think what you really mean is that you want to say whatever you want, while everyone else gets their face kicked in. I guess you don't actually understand what 'free' speech is.

Anonymous No. 6695 2017-08-16 : 02:30

>baked alaska

dude weed and white pride lmao

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