"They knew new trucks would have software in them with a kill switch. They made the connections that we are all under digital surveillance all the time, that our media is controlled to our exact interests and manipulated to give us dopamine hits all day long long before we became aware. They knew that each one of us can have the equivalent of a Stasi team on us at all times via AI and the software in our devices. That a 100% digital financial grid means a digital concentration camp. "
Back in 1998, I was working with a group of crazy Cypherpunks who located a DataHaven on the Principality of Sealand in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Southern England. The plan was to create a CO-location of the data haven, on our Indian reserve. Thanks to this project I was also hanging out with cypherpunks in San Francisco and San Jose in 1999-2000 and I was told, being an activist, that a time would come, if I ever made a dent in my activism... that I had better be prepared for every single word I had ever emailed, or phone conversation, every email, every "private chat" - was being hoovered up and collected, and could be made very public knowledge. I was told to treat all my on-line correspondence as if I would be just fine if it was published to an audience of millions. That there was this program called CARNIVORE and ECHELON that was collecting and surveiling everybody. Since these people were net-gods... (people who ran the backbone of the Internet) I took them seriously. These cypherpunks used to meet weekly (I attended a few such meetings) and one of the things they did was swap loyalty cards from the local grocery stores. They did this to mess up the data being collected by the grocery stores. The cyperpunk world was filled with people who had a very clear understanding of the ability of the internet to be used as a tool to surveil people... It made me very very hesitant to communicate online with anybody I didn't know very very well. I still have that reluctance. Anyways... until the Snowden revelations, I never discussed this with anybody but my husband and kids. When the Snowden story broke, I really thought people would understand the extent to which we are already living in a totalitarian global governing system and how little power we have remaining, in our current condition. But instead of that happening, people went back to sleep and nobody seems to care if they are being spied upon,or their data is being sold to the highest bidding advertiser.... Nobody seems to care. It is absolutely demoralizing. My whole life, I have always felt more like an American than a Canadian... This trucker convoy is the first thing that has given me hope in a long long time. That it is possible to stand up to this.... That there are LOADS of people who are opposed to all this.
Gut wrenching. A woman I know sneers at the truckers. She will never support ‘a bunch of uneducated truckers from Alberta’. She teaches violin. She has a Masters degree in music. She is triple vaxed and proud of it. She really loves cheese and French wine. IOW a useless parasite who has likely Darwined herself and does not yet know it.
What a terrible, but true, indictment of our social order. I appreciate your act of heroism, which, by the way, is a tribute to the now long forgotten ideals of classical journalism. Ad multos annos.
We're now living in a high tech authoritarian kleptocracy. It is global in scope, and touches all but the most isolated groups of humans. My advice to anyone I know, is to dog the hatches, fill the ballast tanks, and submerge, surfacing only after dark, to draw in fresh air. Minimize your contact with anything which connects you to this octopus, lest it consume you, and spit out the bones. Cell phones? Ditch them. New cars? Don't buy them. Find an old car with analog technology. Better yet, walk, or ride a bicycle, when weather permits. Pay in cash whenever you can. Earn only as much as you need to meet basic requirements. Few of us can be invisible, but we can minimize our exposure to the real virus, the predatory transnational overclass.
Elizabeth, this was scary-thrilling to read. I've lost faith in our elected leaders, our courts, our public servants, but I believe in the truckers; they've seen it all. Thank you.
Once usurped by force, power NEVER is voluntarily relinquished. It must be TAKEN back. So the only operative question is: when will people awaken to this historical fact and begin?
Now the government (and the financial corporations) have openly declared war on ordinary people. It was always the intention, even before Covid, to shut dissenters out of economic life.
No higher compliment
"They knew new trucks would have software in them with a kill switch. They made the connections that we are all under digital surveillance all the time, that our media is controlled to our exact interests and manipulated to give us dopamine hits all day long long before we became aware. They knew that each one of us can have the equivalent of a Stasi team on us at all times via AI and the software in our devices. That a 100% digital financial grid means a digital concentration camp. "
Back in 1998, I was working with a group of crazy Cypherpunks who located a DataHaven on the Principality of Sealand in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Southern England. The plan was to create a CO-location of the data haven, on our Indian reserve. Thanks to this project I was also hanging out with cypherpunks in San Francisco and San Jose in 1999-2000 and I was told, being an activist, that a time would come, if I ever made a dent in my activism... that I had better be prepared for every single word I had ever emailed, or phone conversation, every email, every "private chat" - was being hoovered up and collected, and could be made very public knowledge. I was told to treat all my on-line correspondence as if I would be just fine if it was published to an audience of millions. That there was this program called CARNIVORE and ECHELON that was collecting and surveiling everybody. Since these people were net-gods... (people who ran the backbone of the Internet) I took them seriously. These cypherpunks used to meet weekly (I attended a few such meetings) and one of the things they did was swap loyalty cards from the local grocery stores. They did this to mess up the data being collected by the grocery stores. The cyperpunk world was filled with people who had a very clear understanding of the ability of the internet to be used as a tool to surveil people... It made me very very hesitant to communicate online with anybody I didn't know very very well. I still have that reluctance. Anyways... until the Snowden revelations, I never discussed this with anybody but my husband and kids. When the Snowden story broke, I really thought people would understand the extent to which we are already living in a totalitarian global governing system and how little power we have remaining, in our current condition. But instead of that happening, people went back to sleep and nobody seems to care if they are being spied upon,or their data is being sold to the highest bidding advertiser.... Nobody seems to care. It is absolutely demoralizing. My whole life, I have always felt more like an American than a Canadian... This trucker convoy is the first thing that has given me hope in a long long time. That it is possible to stand up to this.... That there are LOADS of people who are opposed to all this.
Gut wrenching. A woman I know sneers at the truckers. She will never support ‘a bunch of uneducated truckers from Alberta’. She teaches violin. She has a Masters degree in music. She is triple vaxed and proud of it. She really loves cheese and French wine. IOW a useless parasite who has likely Darwined herself and does not yet know it.
What a terrible, but true, indictment of our social order. I appreciate your act of heroism, which, by the way, is a tribute to the now long forgotten ideals of classical journalism. Ad multos annos.
We're now living in a high tech authoritarian kleptocracy. It is global in scope, and touches all but the most isolated groups of humans. My advice to anyone I know, is to dog the hatches, fill the ballast tanks, and submerge, surfacing only after dark, to draw in fresh air. Minimize your contact with anything which connects you to this octopus, lest it consume you, and spit out the bones. Cell phones? Ditch them. New cars? Don't buy them. Find an old car with analog technology. Better yet, walk, or ride a bicycle, when weather permits. Pay in cash whenever you can. Earn only as much as you need to meet basic requirements. Few of us can be invisible, but we can minimize our exposure to the real virus, the predatory transnational overclass.
Elizabeth, this was scary-thrilling to read. I've lost faith in our elected leaders, our courts, our public servants, but I believe in the truckers; they've seen it all. Thank you.
"I took up smoking again" - Oh no. Stop that! I managed to quit in 2012 and I smoked like a chimney. You need to not smoke Liz. We need you.
you keep me sane with your writing. thanks! #GoTruckers
Once usurped by force, power NEVER is voluntarily relinquished. It must be TAKEN back. So the only operative question is: when will people awaken to this historical fact and begin?
Now the government (and the financial corporations) have openly declared war on ordinary people. It was always the intention, even before Covid, to shut dissenters out of economic life.
Great read ... thanks for your writing and your insights.