Why Would I Do This?
[UPDATED Feb 18, 2025]
I killed a couple nice cars as a young guy before understanding that they seriously require a regular oil change. I know how to do that myself now but the mess and hassle is worth the going rate to have someone else in coveralls do it. I also have a kickass Dewalt cordless tire pump and the cheapest OBD2 scanner they sell at AutoZone and that's pretty much where my car maintenance skills begin and end, but my cars stay on the road a lot longer.
You don't have to understand all the systems and master all the tools.
But don't you depend as much on your computing devices as much as your vehicle? There's probably one CONTROLLING your vehicle. Entities that value profit over ANYTHING are actively working to keep you infantilized, totally dependent on throwing money at everything you don't understand.
A gigantic part of their efforts are invested in tactics like sowing Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. Because most people are basically good (and decent people don't think like sociopaths), sociopaths exploit trust and achieve power by imitating normal people. MEDIA LITERACY is a hugely important tool. Learn to recognize propaganda. They wouldn't use it if it only worked on stupid people or Republocrats or validation-starved piano players. Much, much too expensive.
Fact-based, non-corporate perspectives:
Caitlin Johnstone | Useful Idiots | Michael Hudson | The Grayzone | Chris Hedges | Glenn Greenwald | Project Censored | Mint Press News | Rebel Alliance News
The Wall of Shame
Like corporate media, it's not that I believe everything these sources say is false but I have better things to do than weed through the endless lies, explicit and those of omission, when I can go to those listed above who manage to earn my increasingly hard-earned trust year after year by proving that they are dedicated to seeking truth and fighting for a free society. A few have sunk down here, The Shamed, and they are the axe the trees trusted because its handle looked like them.
The Intercept | The Young Turks | DuckDuckGo | The Squad | Jacobin
Tools of Liberation
If it looks too complicated, I will help you. I mean it.
- Owncast: Twitch/YouTube Live that YOU control - If I'm performing a live stream, you can watch it in action right now!
- JMP Chat: Free your phone number from your cellular provider
- Snikket: Simple, secure, and private messenging that is the jelly to the delicious peanut butter of JMP
- Fedora Atomic Linux: The most painless OS I ever made my wife use
- GrapheneOS: On a refurbished Pixel phone that was the cheapest I've ever bought since the days you'd get a free phone with a two-year subscription. The GOS features overview and FAQ are an incredible crash course in understanding the difference between privacy/security and PrivSec theater.
Easy Things You Can Do
- VPNs are rarely the answer, but if you must use one maybe look at Mullvad and in any case KNOW WHO YOU ARE TRUSTING. Mullvad has no affiliate links, which would be an impressive starter for me.
- Use a different search engine like Brave or Mojeek or Metager - oh, so many good search engines out there. At the very least, stop referring to searching for info as "Googling". Language forms our perception of reality.
- Open a social account on a federated platform
- Use the Brave browser and just turn off the crypto and stuff on desktop or mobile
- Block some tracking with the free public AdGuard DNS server (Option 2 > routers)