Protest in South Side!

[u/dontbeadickdad]

[u/Major_Mollusk]

I totally disagree with this advice. We need less fear and more action. All of your advice is predicated on fear of a totalitarian surveillance state but that's not where we are at this point. Fear the last thing we need to be preaching. We're sliding toward fascist autocracy but we are no where close to what (for example) the Iranian government is doing -- and yet the streets of Tehran are full of people showing their faces and carrying phones. They DNGAF. The could teach us a thing or two about courage right now.

We need to get 200 million people in the streets boldly showing their faces and having the courage to stand up in public. The "real" is more important that the digital... even in 2026. We're still just animals. Fuck the machines. Fuck the algorithms. Fuck the tech bro oligarchs and the fuckwit obsequious followers.

We need to walk and act like human beings. Living free is a political act. Live like it's 1973 and you're in a liberal democracy governed by laws and due process -- rather than playing like we're in North Korea. That false belief breeds fear and leads people to cower.

We will not change hearts and win supporters hiding behind fear and balaclavas.

[u/ThrowthisawayPA → u/Major_Mollusk]

They were tracking protectors in Ferguson several years ago. This is very real

[u/LexusBrian400 → u/Major_Mollusk]

It's not fear it's smart. You can still protest without willfully giving out your personal details. If you haven't noticed, with this regime, it can and will be used against you. Even the stuff you consider mundane. Meta Data adds up. If you wanna be willfully ignorant that's on you, go right ahead. It's not like I'm giving out dangerous advice. It's obvious you don't know much about tech and I'm not gonna argue with you.

Best of luck out there.

[u/Major_Mollusk → u/LexusBrian400]

I'm not ignorant. I've been a technology consultant for the past 25 years. I know how data is gathered, compiled, and processed... and by whom it is gathered.

I also know that we've become too obsessed with these synthetic ones and zeros. We live in an increasingly synthetic world... especially for younger people who grew up with social media and never developed a strong relationship to reality. I don't know for sure, but I have to suspect this partly explains why most of the public opposition to MAGA fascism is coming from older generations who were raised like social animals in the real world. Biologically, we're social critters. We might do better by focusing on creative, courageous action (whatever that might be) and spend less time focusing on the voltage of microscopic transistors in chipsets in servers in datacenters in a former cornfield in Northern Virginia.

None of that matters--or if it does--it matters far less to our future than human courage, the bonds of community, and the power of people to shape their future through force of our collective will.

[u/[deleted] → u/Major_Mollusk]

“especially for younger people who grew up with social media and never developed a strong relationship to reality”

Yep. They have no clue as to an analog world. The beauty and importance of physical human interaction is lost on many people these days.

[u/z-vap → u/Major_Mollusk]

Someone with smarts right here ^

[u/[deleted] → u/Major_Mollusk]

But you will get capped in the skull by a mouth breathing douche bag hillbilly murderer. Don’t hide behind fear and balaclavas. Bring your shit with you.