# THE SILVER CRESCENT ## JUNE 2020, ISSUE 6. ### "A Free Press for a Free Internet." ### QUINTUPLICATE CONFEDERATION, Editor. ### MINIWA, Publisher. ### FLOWER, Treasurer. ### YORI, Technological Advisor. ### DLN_, Minecraft Server Correspondent. ## COMMUNITY NEWS. ### RE-RUN OF DE-DISCORDIZATION REFERENDUM RESULTS IN VICTORY On June 22, 2020, a referendum was held on De-Discordization. It was held that while a previous one had ended in defeat, Discord had declared its intention to promulgate new rules that would materially affect free speech; in addition, Chill Zone, the other member of SSN on Discord, had never gotten to vote on it. Not much campaigning or debate took place in the public channels, for the outrage of the community at the recent proclamations by Discord was nearly universal. The results were a landslide on an even more lopsided margin than the previous one: ``` --------------------------------------- | Member | For | Against | Total | | Toxspace* | 2 | 1 | 3+ | | Chill Zone | 11 | 5 | 16# | | Grand Total | 13 | 6 | 19 | --------------------------------------- * No votes were recorded in any edition other than the Discord edition. + One vote by a resident of Chill Zone in favor, and one vote by another such resident against, discounted. # One vote by a resident of Toxspace in favor discounted. ``` Following that, the next day, almost immediately after the results were announced, Chill Zone was closed and archived and moved to a new Matrix server. This Matrix server was not bridged to Toxspace as the Discord server was before. Neither is Toxspace Discord Edition: this server, too, is readying for closure and move to IRC. The final closure will take place on its anniversary, July 7. ### PEACE OFFER FROM INITIATE COMPLIED WITH On June 24, 2020, Initiate came to Miniwatrix, Chill Zone, and other Systemspace-related communities with a peace offer. The offer proposed the "abolishment [sic] of any form of conflict". Declaring that it was "stupid to continue arguing over who is what", it offered peace and the cessation of "childish behavior" and "disruption of the community and the sub-communities that formed along the way". More radically, it also left open "the possibility of establishing a united community" and asked to "form a union, friendship if you will". The suggestion of a "ceasefire" was accepted by all communities, who noted that this had been their *de facto* course of action since the site went down. Miniwatrix did not reply to the offer. The latter offer of confederating into a union, however, was roundly rejected. It seems hatred continues to run deep. ### GOT A NEWS TIP? **Contact us** at silvercrescent[at]protonmail.com and get subsidized ad space! ## ANNOUNCING: THE LOGO CONTEST As the site is currently being redone, we would like to announce a pictorial **LOGO CONTEST** for the site! Please submit your entry to silvercrescent[at]protonmail.com by the 28th of July. The winner and honorable mentions, if any, will be picked by me and Miniwa from a pool of the submitted entries and the entries Cameron and Redone sent in chat around the beginning of June. Suggestions (you are not required to follow them, but not doing so may hurt your chances of acceptance): - Try to incorporate a "silver crescent" moon: like our logo! - Try to include our tagline "A Free Press for a Free Internet" somewhere as well. - It is not necessary to include the people who are at present credited in the masthead, since this may change from issue to issue. ## CRESCENT DAY, CRESCENT TIME! A channel called "The other lobby" was created for people who are not on Miniwatrix but still want to talk to people on it (read Kneesox) to do so on the 23rd. Miniwatrix was briefly taken down for maintenance on the 27th; updates were delivered in /m/. ## PRIVATE ADVERTISEMENTS. ### ADVERTISE WITH US and get access to an audience of almost ***fifty*** penniless autistic NEET's! - $1 for every 100 words of text, or 250 characters of ***area*** (length * width) of any ASCII art illustrations, ***not*** how many characters are actually used, or part thereof. - This rate is a maximum, and may be waived or reduced at our sole discretion. - We reserve the right to reject or request modifications to all advertisements. - Send Bitcoin Cash to bitcoincash:qq9ncyspj2k6uj7tmhyez0pgshr2r0gaasse0wsccg - Contact us at silvercrescent[at]protonmail.com if you would like to donate any other currency. ## HELP WANTED. ### Writers - Writing news stories - Coming up with "Puzzles" and "Trivia" ### Copyeditors - Proofreading and formatting articles ### Correspondents - Collecting notable and interesting community happenings for the "Crescent Day, Crescent Time" column - Reporting on stories for the "Community News" column Needed Give back to the community, hone your writing and people skills, and have fun along the way! Apply **today** at silvercrescent[at]protonmail.com ## LITERARY LUNACY. - The following classes of works are accepted: poetry, skits, short stories, essays, song lyrics, and serialized parts of novels and plays, of any genre, relating to any subject except political or religious. - All submissions must be in English only, and contain no promotional content. - Submissions shall not exceed 1,000 words; exceptions are available on a case-by-case basis where the word limit would seriously detract from the merit or quality of the work. - All work will be deemed released into the public domain UNLESS you explicitly indicate otherwise, and provide an email address for contact regarding permissions. If one is not provided, the one you sent it with will be used. - Send it to silvercrescent[at]protonmail.com. ### THE SWORD OF THE WILDERNESS. *An Alternate History.* By Quintuplicate Confederation. *continued from last issue...* The plans for Operation Gedaliah, named after the Babylonian governor of the Kingdom of Judah after the destruction of the First Temple, was inadvertently stashed in a Federal Government-provided duffle bag by Thomas Brown, a courier who was attending one of the briefings as a representative of the U.S. military attaché in Brazil. Apollo Milton, an embassy employee, who had coincidentally lost his bag that day, discovered the bag sitting on a bench outside a restroom Brown was using at the time. Believing, as he had never written his name on it, that it was his, he carried it away. Milton then went to the National Stadium a few miles away in Georgetown to spectate a basketball game between the Peoples Temple and the Guyana national team, to which he had front-row tickets. He arrived two hours early, and asked his neighbor to watch his bag while he used the toilet. Unbeknownst to him, it was the coach of the Peoples Temple basketball team, who, in the few minutes he was gone, skimmed the documents and absented himself to call Jones from a phonebooth. On May 19, 1978, the representative of Venezuela to the United Nations made a speech in the General Assembly, averring that "Venezuela will not tolerate any military operation on its rightful territory of Guayana Esequiba [the western portion of Guyana, claimed by Venezuela but administered by Guyana, in which Jonestown was located] without its consent or even knowledge." The Guyanese representative replied that "those that take advantage of their territorial integrity to disturb those of others do not deserve it for themselves", in a speech that won cries of "hear, hear" from several African delegates. The U.S. representative warned that Jonestown, no matter on whose soil it was located, was "an American enterprise, with American citizens, and therefore an American concern," any attempt to condemn or prevent it in the Security Council would be vetoed. In any case, no country wanted to openly take its side. Venezuela was a member of OPEC, and the Department of State did not want a repeat of the 1973 oil crisis. Given that the speech had been widely publicized, the Foreign Service expected the Venezuelan government would have some trouble "swallowing its pride". Faced with the prospect of withdrawal of military aid, President Perez was forced to give a speech on live television announcing that he had allowed U.S. and Guyanese troops to enter for "law enforcement purposes", as long as they were accompanied by a company of Venezuelan soldiers. He called the Peoples Temple "blasphemers to God and deniers of the Church" and stated that Venezuela was "resolutely opposed to all communistic cults establishing themselves on its territory". On May 21, 1978, from the listening posts, our operators heard Jim Jones say this: "Friends, I am being completely honest with you tonight. We must make a revolutionary decision tonight. A smart man said 'I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.' That is what I beg of all of you tonight." "You have been my most loyal followers and my best friends. Tonight I ask of you to prove your loyalty. If we die, we allow ourselves to leave this earth without having been defeated by the capitalist imperialists. If we live, we surrender our soul, as well as our flesh, to the imperialist masters of this earth." "I have received word from a friend in the 'company' that they are planning an assault on us! Comrades, hear me! They will rape our women! Kidnap our children to be brought up in the ways of imperialism! And kill all men who dare to stand in their way! The only way to prevent that is to leave them with no women to defile, no children to abduct, no men to torture! We die free!" "I have tried to make contact with Russia [the Soviet Union]. Despite the most undeniable proof to the contrary, I believe they think we are crazy. They are leaving us alone, to revolutionize the world. So let us prove our worth to God! Our loyalty to the Temple! Our trust in ourselves! Bring in the Flavor-Aid!" One of Jones’ assistants brought in a crate of Flavor-Aid, and compelled all present to drink it. Forty-six who ambiguously refused were dragged away to be shot as penalty for their "counter-revolutionary spirit". After the "poison" took no effect for forty-five minutes, Jones proclaimed that this was "a test of revolutionary will, which you have all passed". Two men carried Jim Jones, Jr, Jones' disgraced ex-lieutenant and adoptive son, away, intending to make him dig his own grave into which he would fall after being executed. They had the misfortune, however, to run into a Venezuelan patrol, who swiftly disarmed and overpowered Jones' guards and captured them along with Jones himself. Due to the lack of an English-speaking interrogator at the border station itself, the Venezuelans were unable to get any information of any of the three and unwilling to "wait for them to crack". They did manage to surreptitiously record about two hours of Jim Jones, Jr, babbling to himself, and sent the recording to our liaison agent for Venezuela after a tortured trip through several intermediaries. Burnham, after the recording was sent to him, demanded the timetable be brought forward to prevent a similar tragedy or, worse, an actual mass suicide. Despite his misgivings, Parris acceded to Burnham’s request and brought it forward to May 24, 1978. ## TRIVIA In Florida and California, if you kill someone in a "sudden combat", you're guilty of nothing, but you have to do it with your bare hands. There is no universal definition for "surface of the sea"; the most liberal scientists define it as all seawater up to 20 meters below sea level. Mississippi was the first state to have elected judges, in 1832. A president of Somalia once gave all his civil servants three months to learn the new alphabet for Somali he had devised or be fired. ## OPINION ### Free speech on the Internet Over the past decade, the Internet has increasingly been divided into two camps. The first, newer camp is dominated by multinational conglomerates--as is real life. It has as its goal the facilitation of existing social relations--as does real life. It is, therefore, an extension of real life into cyberspace. Its chief value is conformity, as is real life. The second, older camp is dominated by small independent communities--unlike real life. It has as its goal the formation of new friendships and the development of interests--unlike real life. It is, therefore, a refuge from real life in cyberspace. Its chief value is liberty, like real life's words but unlike its actions. The principles of the second camp allow for the existence of the first, but those of the first cannot tolerate the existence of the second. That is why we are called "racist", "doxing", "harassing", "hurtful", etc.; because we hurt the principles of the first camp, and therefore those that identify themselves with them, simply by existing. With the connivance of governments who, in the immortal words of John Perry Barlow, "are terrified of [their] own children, since they are natives in a world where [they] will always be immigrants," an ideology that holds that those who do not support the radical ideas that have been presented in the name of equality do not deserve any liberty, safety, or equality, has taken root, and provides ideological justification for their censorship. So we are treated to the glorious spectacle of users of Reddit "going on strike" by locking their own subreddits because apparently the owners of Reddit are "too hospitable to white supremacism"! So we see the grand farce of Discord treating being "hostile to racists and fascists" as a communications company, one which should carry messages without regard to their content, as a virtue not as a vice! There is no need to unite what ought to be divided. But there is a great need not to set at war what ought to be at peace. As long as we do not get in each other's way, we will be free to pursue in our own ways, what matters to both of us: liberty. 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