(0:00 - 1:09) Are you a Democrat or Republican? It's pretty crazy to think that your ideology can be summed up into one of two options, don't you think? Well, why am I talking about this and what does it have to do with privacy? Don't worry, I'll get there. Privacy Academy with Eric Meeder. Welcome to another episode of Privacy Academy with Eric Meeder. I'm sure you've noticed that people generally lump themselves as either Democrat, Republican, and a few people say that they're in the center. But the thing that's really surprising to me about it is that the center is almost less unified than the other two parties. Let me elaborate. The Democratic Party has ideals in their mindsets, even though they switch up on them very often. The Republican Party can be the same. It seems like the struggle that centralists have is that they can't align together because they're all free thinkers. They're people without a label, and I would argue that this is both a strength and a weakness. If you go into any political-based community on Twitter or other forums, you usually see two things, Democrats and Republicans fighting with each other or centralists arguing amongst themselves. It's really a shame that we've allowed a system that is so limited to become the system that we accept for our governments. (1:09 - 1:26) Two parties is nowhere near enough. They want people to be group thinkers. They don't want free thinkers. They want to keep everyone distracted so they can slowly move to a centralized world. And if you ask me, centralized anything is bad. Power seekers want a centralized world because that means they get to hold the power instead of giving it back to the people. (1:26 - 1:56) And a lot of the time people are too distracted by self-appointed labels and the current news to really see the big picture of what's going on behind the scenes. And in my opinion, the big picture is the surveillance net that they're wrapping us in. The surveillance state prison that is sneakily being placed around us. I don't care what someone believes. It's time that we as a people put aside our labels and start thinking for ourselves and aligning with ideals like liberty and freedom, not labels like Republican or Democrat. We need to be able to call a spade a spade and say, big tech is a tool of an out of control government. (1:56 - 2:55) It is designed to spy on us and it will be weaponized against us and our liberty. If you consider yourself a centralist or maybe a free thinker, we can't get caught up in petty fighting or defining what everything means to such a minute level. We need action. We need to take the steps to get big tech out of our lives and de-Google everything that we have. If we look at America's founding fathers, they did not spend all their time arguing amongst themselves over small technicalities. Actually, James, I am no longer British English. Color does not have a U in it. They were fierce freedom fighters. They fought for liberty for all, and they did not tolerate tyranny. We cannot get caught up in the day to day of everything and forget what really matters, liberty and freedom. That's why I think you should remove any labels you have for yourself and think about if something is a benefit for liberty or not. And I think it's time that we all had a discussion on how we can talk to each other as a community about these issues. One of things that was awful was when the woke left really took over, the conversation stopped. There was no discussions. The middle was obliterated, and this was done on purpose. (2:55 - 3:24) And the reason that I say this is more important now than ever is because digital ideas are really being pushed hard. If the West succeeds at putting us into a social credit system, then liberty will forever be lost. So how do we even start the conversation about why does privacy matter? Well, first, when you talk to people, you have to be able to understand where they're at. If they're you'll have to start on a very basic level. I like to think of it like a big ladder. You need to figure out where that person is on that ladder because they can only take one step up at a time. (3:24 - 7:21) You can't just say your phone is creating a profile on you. It can read your face to tell your emotions. That way it can log you that data. We will soon become slaves to a government because they're using information to manipulate us and cause havoc. That will instantly make someone think that you're crazy. And that's because you're throwing them into the deep end without providing context. Now, even if you talk about privacy without talking about the deep end, there are a few common objections that you might hear like, well, I don't really have anything to hide. Why should I care about privacy? Or I'm not a criminal. Does it really matter if the government listens to my phone calls or the classic? Does it really matter if Google knows that I like watching Netflix and eating Ben and Jerry's or the other? I don't believe that this is happening. Well, just because someone says one of these objections doesn't mean that the conversation is over. Instead, it means that you need to figure out how to handle the objection. Some people will never see it, and that's OK. Ultimately, handling those objections is on you to figure out in the moment, but I will give you a few pointers for the time being. If someone says something like I've got nothing to hide, why should I care about privacy? You could say, do you lock your doors at night? Do you close the bathroom door? Do you close your curtains? Do you have passwords? Do you have confidential meetings with your doctors or private conversations with your spouse? Would you be fine sharing that with the whole world? And if someone says something like I'm not a criminal, why should I care about privacy? You could say, do you believe that laws are moral? What about in Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia? Or what about communist China? They determined who was criminals and countless innocent people suffered. It's really easy to think that you're not a criminal while you're living in the most free society ever. But if governments wield total control, they will be merciless in judging blindly. And if someone says, does it matter if Google knows that I like watching Netflix and eating Ben and Jerry's? You could say, no, it doesn't necessarily matter if they know you like Ben and Jerry's. That's not the point. They're gathering information on everything about you, your searches, your texts. They are a surveillance tool of the government. Think about it. They are one of the largest companies in the world, and they don't have any products. You are the product. And if you wanted to go down some privacy rabbit holes, you could start by talking about Edward Snowden and how crazy it is that he was forced to go to Russia to escape persecution. And really, no one talks about it anymore. Or you could talk about Google giving tailored ads to people. And then you can even take it a step further by discussing how Google uses that data nefariously to manipulate people. Dr. Robert Epstein has done many studies on this. I recommend that you check them out and add them to your tool belt. You could talk about the fact that phones are with us all the time, that they have cameras, microphones and GPS inside of them. We write all of our friends and family on them. We pay our bills with them. There's countless different things that we do with our phones. How are we able to place so much trust into these devices without ever questioning, hey, what if these are being used to spy on us? You could also discuss the Canadian trucker protests and talk about how their bank accounts were frozen and that with the CBDC, this can happen to anyone at any time at the will of the government. And if they counter with something like the truckers were doing blah, blah, blah, it was illegal, blah, blah, blah, which is ridiculous for someone to say, but I've heard many people say that. Remember to stick to the high level. Do you believe in innocent until proven guilty? Do you think governments should have this sort of power? Do you believe in a right to a fair and speedy trial? Do you believe in the right to peaceful protest? You could also talk about digital IDs and social credit systems. All of these are great talking points. And I think the key is to spread the message with love. As many of you know, my father and I are working hard to spread awareness of the surveillance state. It's our goal to help average non-techie people get private, but we're thoughtful in how we do this. We don't want to scare people. And when you talk about this message, I think it's important not to fear monger. Don't hold onto the fact that you have to change everyone's mind. First off, that will never happen. Second, people have the right to believe what they want. If they won't listen, it is what it is. And third, only a small portion of the population needs to be aware of an issue to bring it to critical mass. Typically, the number for critical mass is between five to 10% of a population. But honestly, I'd wager that this topic will spread like wildfire once properly talked about. I mean, people already know to some level. It's just an ugly topic that people don't want to address. People don't want to accept that they're being trapped. The future of a social credit system is so scary that it's almost unacceptable to even consider. But the funny part is it's so easy to get private right now. Since I've learned about privacy, I've become much more tech aware. I've moved off of big tech everything. (7:21 - 7:44) And I also realized I was addicted to technology. Since then, I am much more productive online. I'm much more in control of my technology. And I have finally realized that offline is the true modern luxury. So don't be afraid of the future. Don't be afraid about the globalist plans. Don't be afraid to make the changes and to move off of big tech. And also don't be afraid to have conversations with people. Part of the move to digital was designed to weaken local communities. (7:45 - 8:12) We need to actively create friend groups who focus on freedom. We need to form freedom groups all over the world and build together a resistance to the surveillance state. We need these accountability groups to getting private and resisting tyranny. Otherwise, we're just complacent. And either we're complacent out of laziness or complacent out of fear. And that may be easy when we're living in a time of prosperity and freedom. But if we're complacent for too long, we're opening a door that cannot be closed. We need to act now for the sake of liberty and freedom forever. Thank you.