Summary
Worried about the rise of Trump? Concerned about the potential further decline of civil liberties in the U.S.? Want to learn about what you can do to protect yourself and your loved ones, but feeling a little overwhelmed?
Well, you're not alone. But you don't have to be. Life's more fun and less scary with friends. Let's have some parties, and learn how to protect ourselves from government malfeasance, prepare for emergencies, and strategize the best ways to shift the world that we and our children want to live in.
If you want to join the party, send an email to me at [email protected] and let's start fighting fire with fun!
Rationale
Civil liberties have been under attack for some time in the U.S. Previous administrations have done all of the following:
* tortured prisoners
* imprisoned people indefinitely without trial
* assassinated citizens without trial
* engaged in widespread warrantless surveillance
* locked political undesirables into prison camps
* censored political speech
* coerced citizens into forced labor
There's also credible evidence that the US government
* records all IM's, emails, phone conversations, financial transactions, and movements in the US
* repeatedly attempts to insert government "backdoors" into hardware and software to facilitate such spying
* pressures companies to spy for them
* imposes gag orders on those companies to prevent them from telling their customers about the spying
It's difficult to avoid such surveillance. As a practical matter, citizens must provide identification papers to
* open a bank account
* drive a car
* fly
* travel outside the country
* own a gun
* buy certain chemicals/drugs
* start a business
* make large purchases
(There are often ways to do such things anonymously, but the government makes them difficult.)
Fortunately, the US has not descended into full tyranny yet. Most police and government officials are not corrupt. There is no secret police. Most citizens can say what they want, when they want without fear of reprisal. Political elections are mostly free and fair. Most judges do not have to fear for political reprisal. Although torture and political assassination have been used, they appear to have only been applied to relatively small number of people.
However, in many other times, and many other countries, the tyranny has become worse, much worse. (To the extent that the government murdered a large percentage of their population.) There's no reason to believe that Americans are uniquely immune to tyranny.
Almost all politicians lie, and almost all politicians promise that they will use the force of government to reward their supporters and punish their enemies. Trump however, has been an unusually brazen liar. He's also been much less shy about publicly threatening judges, and other politicians with lawsuits, imprisonment, and other forms of political retaliation. He's also engaged in frequently bellicose rhetoric toward foreign governments, suggesting that he would assassinate the families of terrorists and/or use nuclear weapons.
Such threats are probably mostly empty rhetoric right now. But if the US economy were to endure a severe economic crisis, or there were another terrorist attack on the scale of the 9/11, the civil unrest might cause the Trump administration to implement draconian measures more widely.
What can be done? One route is to attempt political reform, to either get better candidates in office, or to change the political mechanisms to encourage more sound policies. Doing so is probably the best long-term strategy.
However, political change is difficult, slow, and fitful. Countries can suffer a long time under policies that cause great hardship before the opportunity for change arises. (See, for example, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, The Soviet Union). And you have to remain free and prosperous long enough to effect those changes.
Another option is to focus on strategies that you can do now, on your own, without cooperation from anyone else. Such strategies can help preserve your life and lifestyle even if the worst were to happen. They might include switching to more private/anonymous communications, setting up ties/safe havens overseas, creating financial buffers, and strengthening ties between your friends and family.
However, even the tasks you can do completely on your own can seem overwhelming, boring, or too time consuming. It's also hard to know what's the "best practice".
Therefore, I'd like to organize a series of parties to make prepping easier and more fun. As I see it, each party would be organized around a topic, such as:
* secure communications
* using social media more securely (Facebook, Twitter)
* social engineering (don't talk to cops, informants, etc)
* organizing dissidents (lessons from Soviet era)
* civil disobedience (underground railroad)
* anonymous travel
* underground/black markets
* emotional resistance (avoiding loneliness, resisting interrogation)
* avoiding surveillance (corporate and otherwise)
* when to fight vs when to flee
* multiple citizenship
* financial privacy
* emergency preparedness
* emergency medicine
* food storage
Want to come to such a party? What other topics would you like to see covered? Send an email to [email protected], and I'll add you to the invite list.
Please let me know if you'd like to help with any of the following:
* You'd like to teach people about a given topic
* You'd like to offer a venue to host such a party
* You'd like to help set up/tear down
* You'd like offer food/drink
I look forward to hearing from you!
Worried about the rise of Trump? Concerned about the potential further decline of civil liberties in the U.S.? Want to learn about what you can do to protect yourself and your loved ones, but feeling a little overwhelmed?
Well, you're not alone. But you don't have to be. Life's more fun and less scary with friends. Let's have some parties, and learn how to protect ourselves from government malfeasance, prepare for emergencies, and strategize the best ways to shift the world that we and our children want to live in.
If you want to join the party, send an email to me at [email protected] and let's start fighting fire with fun!
Rationale
Civil liberties have been under attack for some time in the U.S. Previous administrations have done all of the following:
* tortured prisoners
* imprisoned people indefinitely without trial
* assassinated citizens without trial
* engaged in widespread warrantless surveillance
* locked political undesirables into prison camps
* censored political speech
* coerced citizens into forced labor
There's also credible evidence that the US government
* records all IM's, emails, phone conversations, financial transactions, and movements in the US
* repeatedly attempts to insert government "backdoors" into hardware and software to facilitate such spying
* pressures companies to spy for them
* imposes gag orders on those companies to prevent them from telling their customers about the spying
It's difficult to avoid such surveillance. As a practical matter, citizens must provide identification papers to
* open a bank account
* drive a car
* fly
* travel outside the country
* own a gun
* buy certain chemicals/drugs
* start a business
* make large purchases
(There are often ways to do such things anonymously, but the government makes them difficult.)
Fortunately, the US has not descended into full tyranny yet. Most police and government officials are not corrupt. There is no secret police. Most citizens can say what they want, when they want without fear of reprisal. Political elections are mostly free and fair. Most judges do not have to fear for political reprisal. Although torture and political assassination have been used, they appear to have only been applied to relatively small number of people.
However, in many other times, and many other countries, the tyranny has become worse, much worse. (To the extent that the government murdered a large percentage of their population.) There's no reason to believe that Americans are uniquely immune to tyranny.
Almost all politicians lie, and almost all politicians promise that they will use the force of government to reward their supporters and punish their enemies. Trump however, has been an unusually brazen liar. He's also been much less shy about publicly threatening judges, and other politicians with lawsuits, imprisonment, and other forms of political retaliation. He's also engaged in frequently bellicose rhetoric toward foreign governments, suggesting that he would assassinate the families of terrorists and/or use nuclear weapons.
Such threats are probably mostly empty rhetoric right now. But if the US economy were to endure a severe economic crisis, or there were another terrorist attack on the scale of the 9/11, the civil unrest might cause the Trump administration to implement draconian measures more widely.
What can be done? One route is to attempt political reform, to either get better candidates in office, or to change the political mechanisms to encourage more sound policies. Doing so is probably the best long-term strategy.
However, political change is difficult, slow, and fitful. Countries can suffer a long time under policies that cause great hardship before the opportunity for change arises. (See, for example, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, The Soviet Union). And you have to remain free and prosperous long enough to effect those changes.
Another option is to focus on strategies that you can do now, on your own, without cooperation from anyone else. Such strategies can help preserve your life and lifestyle even if the worst were to happen. They might include switching to more private/anonymous communications, setting up ties/safe havens overseas, creating financial buffers, and strengthening ties between your friends and family.
However, even the tasks you can do completely on your own can seem overwhelming, boring, or too time consuming. It's also hard to know what's the "best practice".
Therefore, I'd like to organize a series of parties to make prepping easier and more fun. As I see it, each party would be organized around a topic, such as:
* secure communications
* using social media more securely (Facebook, Twitter)
* social engineering (don't talk to cops, informants, etc)
* organizing dissidents (lessons from Soviet era)
* civil disobedience (underground railroad)
* anonymous travel
* underground/black markets
* emotional resistance (avoiding loneliness, resisting interrogation)
* avoiding surveillance (corporate and otherwise)
* when to fight vs when to flee
* multiple citizenship
* financial privacy
* emergency preparedness
* emergency medicine
* food storage
Want to come to such a party? What other topics would you like to see covered? Send an email to [email protected], and I'll add you to the invite list.
Please let me know if you'd like to help with any of the following:
* You'd like to teach people about a given topic
* You'd like to offer a venue to host such a party
* You'd like to help set up/tear down
* You'd like offer food/drink
I look forward to hearing from you!