>From: "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" <sentience@pobox.com>
>Subject: Re: Crocker's Rules (WAS: Women, fire...)
>Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 17:47:02 -0500
>
>Besides which - nobody has to be polite to me, because I've made the
>unilateral commitment not to be violent to them. Again, Crocker's Rules
>are a mental discipline, not an agreement.
Good points. There was this true jerk who used to hang with libertarians in Long Beach during the mid-to-late 80's. He never claimed to be a libertarian and in fact hinted strongly that he was a government agent. He boasted of being involved in the CIA's Phoenix operation, although people who knew him better assured me that this was just one of many lies that he employed to cultivate his sinister air. He always wore black, preferring a long cape, and at well over six feet, he could definitely make "sinister" work.
On the more serious side, he threatened physical violence up to death casually against anyone who dared to say anything that offended him, and he was known to carry out his threats on occasion, having allegedly a brown belt in some form of karate. Sam Konkin made him, in spite of the fact that he was exactly the opposite of libertarian, an "honorary libertarian" because he was into SF and a FAN and even had had some minor league stuff published. On several occasions this person threatened me with death, and explained in detail how he was going to do it. The only reason that he is still alive is that I have more important things to do than worry about a murder conviction.
Thus, with Sam's sanction behind him, he had free range in various libertarian circles, and went to all the parties, where he enjoyed threatening the males and getting swarmed by all the adoring fems. BTW, he was always VERY polite and mannerly, even as he would say something like (smiling courteously), "Don't take this wrong, but if you continue to say things that I find offensive, then I will kick your head in." Then he would sit and smirk as he waited for the recipient to try to pretend that nothing had happened and carry on a polite conversation. Not exactly conducive to intellectual inquiry.
The fact that no one ever really stood up to him or demanded that he leave a party, as far as I know, was to me a good indication of the lack of real seriousness in the movement. Even as of a couple of years ago this person is still apparently accepted as a good libertarian in Sam's tiny following.