In everything that I do, from driving my car, to browsing the internet, the phone I use, the websites I browse, the details of how a program gets installed, what information I upload to any given service, and whether I should comply with the law about giving them correct information or not, here's a detailed write-up on why I'm paranoid and why you should be too. The article may also serve as a bit of a manifesto of sorts because I'm feeling spicy right now. So buckle up.
Why Fear Everyday Life?
In an article written by cleveland.com, a news website Women have an ever-present fear of being attacked where they write that despite the statistics which show that violent crime victims are more often men than women (a statistic they quote from https://nij.ojp.gov/, but don't directly link), they quote Jodi Lane, a University of Florida sociology professor as saying, "[Society] puts the burden on women to be really afraid.” Nonetheless perception is lived reality and so we get the "Man vs Bear" debate.1
Being Attacked Everyday
When it comes to digital life, every person is under constant threat everyday. What's worse is the learned helplessness around it. First let me describe the attacks
What's Real?
You may be an active thinker who wouldn't believe just anything you found on the internet without much thought though you probably aren't and can worn down even if you do, but lets be honest, in a world where people take what a generative text model (ChatGPT) outputs as though it were factual evidence from a search engine, as gospel, your fellow human is not fact checking all of that. Yes, this is a call out. People over at Harvard complain that social media algorithms determine what people even think about in the first place rather than information delivered by news organizations. Your social media algorithm isn't driven with your best interest in mind. Those psychological experiments conducted by facebook weren't just a one off. The lessons learned from it are applied to modern marketing practices and every social media website with an algorithm created by a company big enough to know what they're doing. This is a psychological attack on what information you're even shown in the first place. What's worse is memory implantation. So long as you aren't paying too much attention, you might be convinced to conveniently misremember events especially during elections.
All of this is driven by data analytics of course, but using an x.com .onion native website over the tor browser is not enough to address these concerns. So I don't have an x account (nor do I respect it enough to give a damn that people want to keep calling it twitter) because I'm way too paranoid for it. I'm too paranoid for it, because its a website that attacks its users with every minute of use.
Through Threat of Violence, Promise of Monetary Reward, or Social Exile, I Say "NO"
There are many reasons people choose to accept and comply with these attacks rather than defend themselves against them. That state wants to know every cent not only of your income, but your outcome. The outcome they achieve by getting other people's incomes and in the case of Bitcoin require you to report it. FinCen rules are the panopticon. They don't need to go any further with cameras on every street corner, and yet they do still go further.
The state is creepy as hell. The FBI for example publicly makes known that rather than obtaining a warrant, the bureau purchased sensitive data Worried about government mass surveillance? Don't have a cell phone. You and I are under attack every moment of our lives.
The government the potential for the abuse of mass surveillance systems aside for a moment (as huge as that it to move to the side), there are also financial reasons for privacy. Your 'Connected' Car May Be Transmitting Your Driving Data to Insurance Companies. This data could be used to lower your insurance rate or raise your insurance rate. I believe people that they have no data on will have to pay a premium to people who they do have driving data on. What's worse is that in the US car insurance is mandatory in most states and driving is not optional due to how our infrastructure is built.
Your debit/credit card company is selling your purchase data to companies wouldn't a health insurance company love to know everything you've eaten so they can charge you more for health insurance (or charge you less). Once again I believe that people they have no data on will have to pay a premium to people they have data on.
Solutions and GPLv3 Software
So the way to address some of these concerns is to spoof the data collected in a way that's beneficial to you. In order to do all of that, we need to write software for it. We want to make it such that you don't have to actually use a social media platform to have a public presence your employer can use to judge you on (oh yeah that's a thing too. I hear its suspicious to employers if you don't have social media). because if you're using it you can be manipulated by it. We also want to write software that is self hosted such that all real data (health tracking and GPS come to mind) stays private. So if you want to help fight off the attacks against humankind, help by writing GPLv3 licensed software. MIT licensed software is not helpful because companies can take it, make it addictive, and attack humanity with your code.
Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.
--William Ernest Henley, "Invictus"
Footnotes
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This section was originally going to simply be a set up for a comparison about how people who are always being attacked have to always worry and be paranoid, but wanting to get my facts straight I had to quote the sources and the sources say that in reality the idea that women are attacked more than men is just perception. ↩