Action

 

Practical Steps You Can Take Right Now

Introduction – In this audio present background and share how by taking the action steps below, you can make massive impact, helping create a freer Internet and better world. (Audio Download Link) 

Your Personal Action Plan

So you’ve read the manifesto. You’ve dabbled in the introductory reading. You realize the stakes or at least are considering the possibility that they are larger then you ever imagined.

You may be wondering… Can a lone individual like me make a difference? The answer is that yes, you can. You choices can tilt the world scales in the direction of freedom. You will also make the Internet safer and more private for your family.

Here is a list of things you can do to make a difference. At their core, these action items tilt the world towards free markets, privacy, security and encryption. The action items are a blow against regulatory overreach, censorship, big tech, monopoly power, bannings and cancel culture. Most are free.

An in depth discussion of each one is below.

The fate of the free world is in your hands.

In Person Action Moves

1. Buy Local – the interests of a small store align with its location. Do you want to support businesses that are local and align with yours or do you want to support businesses whose priorities are global and depersonalized. Here are some examples:

  • Buy directly from a farmer
  • Browse independent bookstores
  • Support Mom and Pop stores
  • Buy from Craigslist

2. Buy Small – this doesn’t mean you have to buy everything from a small company, but buy what you can. Even if they are not local. Small companies owned by individual owners will skew towards middle class values. They don’t have the resources or incentives to censor. More competition means more freedom.

In practice this means buying from physical merchants in the following order:

  1. Farmer and tradesman
  2. Co-ops
  3. Small independently owned stores
  4. Franchises
  5. Big box stores like Target and Walmart

Online Action Moves

1. Encryption, Encryption, Encryption – use encryption and support companies and players that use encryption – encryption is all that stands between us and an all-seeing surveillance and police state.

2. Search Engines – Use privacy protecting search engines as your default – you can always got to google if you need a specific piece of information, but make a search engine like duckduckgo or startpage your default. Both browsers do not record your information and use encrypted browsers. – Use the Tor browser bundle. This anonymizes and hides the location of your computer. It routes your searching through other countries so the NSA thinks you’re in Romania. Download the browser bundle here.

If you find Tor slow, Firefox (especially with its privacy add-ons) is great. Also look at the DuckDuckGo and Brave browsers.

Use DuckDuckGo for Image searches (looking for pictures on the internet). They have an option to search images that are legal to repost (public domain & creative commons license). With these images, you can print, post and share them without fear of being sued for copyright infringement (see copyright below).

3. SmartPhones – We know (from the Snowden files) that Microsoft gave the NSA the encryption code to Skype. WhatsApp is a much better choice for both phone calls and video. Still even if you trust facebook (haha) not be reading your messages, they get a lot of data about you from Whatsapp. The Signal secure messaging app is one of the best. Look into it. Telegram is also highly recommended. (Note: There are those who are claiming that Signal and Telegram are compromised. I have seen no convincing evidence that this is true. To get true end to end encryption in a Telegram communication you must use the secret chat.)

The Sessions App is a new and valuable player in secure communications. It works with both cell phones and computers and it does not require a phone number. I’ve been very impressed with it. (Requires a bit of minor tech savvy.)

4. Email – We know the government reads our emails. Ladar Levinson of Lavabit refused to hand over Snowden’s emails to the government. He closed his business instead. His new Lavabit is designed so that he is not able to hand it over your information. Another secure email is ProtonMail. Here are some other options.

5. Youtube, Video Sharing Platform- Youtube is a part of google and tracks you, your viewing preferences and much more. They also engage in a vast amount of censorship. Other sites to consider are Rumble and Odysee.

6. Use Smaller Online Companies – for example buy products off of ebay, or better yet the individual online stores. Find out who makes the product and buy it directly from them.

Avoid Amazon When Possible– buying from amazon should be your last resort. They’ve committed a tremendous amount of censorship. They also use massive amount of lobbying money to get laws made in their favor. Amazon saves your browsing history. How much control do you want to give them?

You might need Amazon for faster shipping or to see product reviews. Sometimes they have better prices. But keep in mind that Amazon’s model is for you to click buy without comparison shopping. In that space between stimulus and response, in that space before “click buy”, take a look at other alternatives and see if the merchants will sell to you directly.

General Privacy Primers – The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a great overview and resource page for Internet privacy titled Surveillance Self Defense. “Restore Privacy” also has a great resource page.

7. Experiment With the Smaller Platforms – you’ll get a wider sense of the possibilities online, you’ll support innovation, you’ll meet niche characters.

For example, when looking for reviews of products or the news, you can go to the big players such as CNET or NYT, but consider giving the blogs and smaller websites your business and your online “views”.

Develop an Alt – They exert control over you because you know they have power to destroy you if you deviate from groupthink. Try getting outside their framework. Get an alternate online identity, make a pseudonym. You’ll notice that you develop a certain bravery, start taking risks and see the world from a perspective outside of your 9-5 self. Put yourself firmly in the camp of freedom.

Support Anti-Copyright / Creative Commons – big tech controls thought copyright.  It’s a monopoly preventing innovation. Some maintain that copyright is fundamentally theft. An outline of the case against copyright is here. You can find more resources at the bottom of this page.

Give – support the EFF, Tor Foundation and RestorePrivacy.com. (At NightmarevsParadise and ReleaseTheNet, we’re not currently asking for donations but there are definitely opportunities to help us out, we’ve got got some effective media ideas and would like to bring quality graphic designers and web developers to this project. We’re also looking for individuals interesting in commenting on and proofreading articles before publication.)

Anti-Dox, Anti Cancel Culture – Some today seem to get a thrill from doxxing and cancelling people. Those particularly targeted are individuals who speak truth to power. Do what you can to support individuals who are doxxed or canceled.

Accept Deplorabes – Those willing to buck the groupthink will be people who are divergent. They will have views that are out-of-the-box and contrarian. There will also be media hit pieces aimed at tarnishing them.

In our day and age we need radicals. Radicals don’t conform. If you’re anti-censorship, big tent is the way to go.

Bitcoin and Other Online Currencies – need I say more

Others Resources – VPN’s – a Virtual Privacy Network masks your location. Without it, anyone with tech savvy can see your location; your state, your city, sometimes even your house. VPN Resources here.

Political Action Moves

  1. Secession – smaller government has less power and is more responsive to our needs. The more options, the broader the market for government, the more free and the better the people are treated.
    1. If we want safe havens for privacy, cryptography… we need multiple legal jurisdictions. Preferably we want as many nation states as possible. Support the breakup of the EU, Brexit and nationalism.
  2. Stop Immigration (at least in the near term) – currently immigration is a tool government uses to replace the populace for one that better fits their needs. Immigration dilutes localism and culture. There are definitely virtues to immigration, but in our age of open borders and encroaching government, we need to clamp the immigration spigot.
  3. Right to Bear Arms – with an armed populace it will be a lot harder for a dictator to control the country. There are certain things that even three letter agencies don’t do to armed populations.
  4. Boycott Traditional Media – I don’t know the best source of information today, but it’s not the tv set. Find people you trust.

Conclusion

Let’s review for a minute why is this so important. I’ve got nothing to hide”, so the question goes. What’s wrong if the government knows everything about me

Consider the following…

The Surveillance State gives the government huge powers and is a direct threat to democracy and a free society. Every person that uses the encryption apps above stymies the surveillance state and helps encryption become the universal language of the Internet. By using encryption and taking the action steps above, you are helping the world adopt a new language of freedom. You are helping the world become a freer, safer place for you, your children (and the children who aren’t your children).

Gratefully,

Rafael Ender