it's aaron swartz remembrance day today and i feel like i should use this to talk about something i think about a lot and that i think should be more widely talked about.

aaron's death was murder. it's as simple as that. the way the us justice system deals with hackers and other "national security threats" (and just the US justice system in general) is explicitly to break people. it's psychological torture intended to either make you bend to their will, off yourself or just become a psychological wreck that is no longer a risk to the system. i don't think it's really possible to understand this until you're subjected to it yourself, and unfortunately i'm subject to a small degree of the same pressure.

the main weapon the US justice system uses to break people is uncertainty, you don't know what's going to happen to you, you don't know when it's going to happen to you and you might just not hear anything for a year. but during that entire time you're aware of the fact that the US may be watching you at all times, they can use all tools at their disposal and anything you say or do can and probably will be used against you in your case. i'm still not entirely sure how good it is for me to talk about this stuff, i'd talk about it a lot more often if i knew (or not at all). they also break you with the conscious misunderstanding of facts, of what you've done, the fact that they do not care about the publics opinion, they make it very clear that they can do with you whatever they want. this all on top of the usual pressure such as like the prospect of the actual sentence itself, the money this kind of case requires, the constant fear of losing even more, not knowing when and if ever you can freely speak and travel again, not knowing when your last free day for the next two decades will be and the painful realization that there is absolutely no guarantee that there isn't just another sealed indictment waiting for you around the corner.

it's hard not to break under this pressure. i fully understand the decision of everyone who broke under this, rest in peace aaron, rest in peace kevin, rest in peace everyone i forgot about. i will try my best not to break, purely out of spite, out of anger in the name of everyone who broke before and because i have the small advantage of not actually being in the US. but let me tell you, if i do break, please don't hold it against me, understand that this is not something any human should ever have to go through, no matter what they may or may not have done.

this is not a call for sympathy, this is a call for anger.