Suspected Asshole

(Updated, named the wrong EFF John, thanks Joi!) So it turns out that when Jefferson and company were thinking about civil liberties, they weren’t conceiving of it as a goddamn hobby. I’ve got shit-all sympathy for career dissenter and EFF co-founder John Gilmore getting kicked off an airplane for wearing a pin that said “Suspected Terrorist.” Sure, it’s a stupid reason to turn an airplane around, but it’s far stupider to go around testing the limits of civil liberties at the expense of others. If Gilmore was the only person affected by his adolescent actions then perhaps it would be acceptable, but he did what so many civil libertarians habitually, reflexively do: assume their worldview to be more important than anything else and then act in a fashion that neither advances their agenda nor benefits anyone. As is typical with his organization, Gilmore is fighting the right fight in all the wrong ways. Pathetic.