Be careful what you download.

[MarkB]

If anyone happens to have any old backups of The Anarchist's Cookbook sitting on their hard drive (from past college days, perhaps), anything with a pH lower than 4 or higher than 10, any particularly "inflammatory" material or anything that expresses an opinion or an ideal, burn it now. You might just be the next one to go jail accused of being a terrorist.

A student attending Glasgow Metropolitan College has been convicted of 3 "terrorism offences" today in Glasgow's High Court. His crime? "Possessing and collecting terror-related items and information", "possessing suspicious terrorism-related items including CDs and videos of weapons use, guerrilla tactics and bomb-making" and "collecting terrorist-related information, setting up websites showing how to make and use weapons and explosives, and circulating inflammatory terrorist publications." Oh, and let's not forget the petty breach of the peace charge for showing "images of suicide bombers and terrorist beheadings."

If you're kept up to date with these sorts of cases, you'll probably know that "terror-related items and information" can cover anything from a book on chemicals used in bombs (chemistry textbooks, anyone?) to blueprints for actual bombs. "Terrorism-related items including CDs and videos of weapons use, guerrilla tactics and bomb-making"? Own any DVDs showing use of weapons? How about any of the Rambo series? Past war books showing strategies used in World War 2? (Anyone own any history textbooks?) "Images of suicide bombers and terrorist beheadings." Let's see...who's ever visited Ogrish.com? Hell, even CNN or any news website regularly has the latest video of Osama Bin Laden's exploits, or the latest news on some actual terrorist activity.

Now, my point isn't that this man is innocent or guilty. I don't know him. All in all, he's a relatively small piece of the puzzle. The thing I don't like is that, since 2001, terrorism has been used to account for many things, which, before the influx of terrorism charges and new laws to cover them, would simply have been put down to curiosity, interest, or good old freedom of expression years ago. Were people regularly being jailed for looking up how to make cherry bombs or home-made Molotov Cocktails in the '60s? These days, those same people would be labeled as terrorists, looking to commit acts of heinous violence, death and destruction.

So, adults, be careful what you've got archived in your old storage boxes.

Students in schools and colleges, be careful what you're looking at on the internet, think twice before you look up that guide on making cherry bombs to throw into the toilets, and ask yourself if you really need to send the latest Ogrish.com video to your buddies.

Kids, you've got it all to come. Don't even think about it.

You could be the next "terrorist" when the thought police come for you.

[GEOLINK]

ok... what the hell is this?

[RaptorQuiz]

It's called a rant. :wink:

Clearly, MarkB is a bit peeved with what he percieves as ever-increasing pervasiveness of modern law enforcement agencies. Hence, his reference to them as the "Thought Police" of Orwell's 1984 fame.

[JP_Frost]

a friend of mine had to make an advertising commercial for film school. I'm sure you guys in the US also have those government commercials about terrorism and what we as civillians should do if we notice any peculiar behavior. So he did one of those, but he filmed just regular people in a shopping street; 2 old people looking at a store for example. He then zoomed in on them as the woman whispered something to her husband, with a voiceover saing that terrorists are everywhere. This was all backed by the theme from The Thing (with Kurt Russel). Beautiful stuff!

anyway, that's the way it is nowadays. Personally I'm sick of it, but governments think we should be reminded every now and then about the terrible things that CAN happen, so there isn't much we can do, except playing along and pretending to be afraid.

[NYM]

Actually, the local NY commericals only have the "If you see something, say something" slogan on commericals. I can't remeber seeing any terrorist commercials.

[JP_Frost]

in the commercials over here you see police handing out forms, people pointing at suspicious bags at trainstations/airports, etc. Just stuff like that. The thing that makes me angry isn't the fact that these commercials are being made, because I'm all for preventing possible attacks, but the commercials just aren't about that, there are just a reminder of the scary things that may happen. And it's not a good thing to keep people scared for the wrong reasons, it can only lead to bad things.

[HardcoreLegend]

I, for one, welcome our new Orwellian overlords.

[RaptorQuiz]

To serve is to live.

[MarkB]

2+2=5.

[DoubleD]

ok... what the hell is this?

The Anarchist Cookbook

I don't know how popular it is with todays youth but a LOT of people had it in the past, simply to look at it and see what can be made with what simple objects...not to actually do anything.

I don't know the full details, but I can assume from the post that MarkB is probably talking about a kid who had the book, some sort of law officer saw him with the book, and then convicted him of baseless crimes.

2+2=5.

Good song :)