I wanted to like Urbit (I write p2p software), but their connection with alt-right and ant-democratic reactionary movements is a deal breaker. To say it doesn't affect technical decisions is naive. Have you ever wondered why their network layout is like little hierarchical fiefdom? And not flat p2p? It's no accident and deeply related to political and social beliefs. It's dystopian and isn't the future I want.
That network topology is actually quite logical and doesn't say much about politics.
P2P connectivity almost always requires a third party to do a three-way handshake. In IPv4 this is because of NAT, and in IPv6 it's usually still needed due to stateful firewalls. Having stable upstream nodes allows rapid bootstrapping of a P2P network by providing known stable points to act as introducers. You can do it in a less hierarchical fashion, but at the expense of performance and stability and possibly security unless you are very careful (see: sybil attacks).
Curtis' political views are what they are. I fundamentally disagree with the core thesis myself-- while I do have problems with pure democracy I see no evidence that aristocracy is in any way superior. But at the same time I believe in treating others' views with respect and respecting their right to hold them. I also must point out that Curtis' views are often hysterically misrepresented and exaggerated, and I doubt he has much to do with today's alt-right which is more of a populist phenomenon. In fact I could see a neo-reactionary calling the alt-right "demotic", which as far as I recall is the term they use for rhetoric of that style.
Neoreactionaries/Dark Enlightenment bloggers are fellow travelers with the alt-right. There's always a verbose woolly-headed (pseudo)intellectual movement that accompanies the vulgar street brawlers and vandals.
Didn't say they weren't, but you don't win conflicts like this by blacklisting. Ideological blacklisting makes you appear intellectually weak and leads people to think the opposition must have something to say that you can't counter. Censorship and blacklisting is something people do when they can't win the argument on merit.
I agree with you. Monarchists and HBD and so forth need to have their views dragged out into the order and debated vigorously with. I'm just saying that NRx and alt-right are on the same side of the spectrum.
If that network layout is unsuitable, then that's reason to dislike Urbit. If not, it seems weird to complain that their political opinions are causing them to make unobjectionable technical decisions.
