The question of what it is possible to think under the current regime of the United States, and what it might be possible to think sheltered from the threat of government surveillance is the journal's main concern. The Journal of American Thought Crime distributes a literary magazine in the form of an encrypted mailing list.
The implication of this focus is that both the legislative and executive agenda of the current U.S. government is actually impinging on our mind-space – changing what we dare to imagine. This is intolerable. Using cryptographic technology, the Journal of American Thought Crime will endeavor to open a new literary space that is free from the restriction that a repressive government imposes on thought.
One goal of the Journal of American Thought Crime is to spread knowledge of how to use encryption technology. This knowledge has become crucial. There was a time when it may have seemed only theoretically important: better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it. Now the logic is reversed, and the direct need for technical protection of privacy has become apparent.
On this website you will find links to encryption software and tutorials about how to use it. We also hope to create a helping community where you can find assistance with using the technology.
But the most important part of our efforts is the Journal itself. It will be a project to build a "web of trust" among like-minded creative people – artists, writers, and other cultural workers – who will share the space of the journal to think beyond the constraints of the current moment.
The journal was decommissioned on August 1st, 2011.