It's worth revisiting the past, to envision the future. cc: @Svetski

"Freedom is a fragile thing and it's never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. And those in world history who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again." - Ronald Reagan On Saturday night, under orders from Alexandre de Moraes, the Brazilian Supreme Court banned X/Twitter from the country. This is part of a broader global crackdown on our fundamental rights to privacy. Just last week, Pavel Durov, the billionaire CEO and founder of Telegram, was arrested in France for refusing to remove information deemed distasteful by the state. Only two months ago Julian Assange was released after being imprisoned for 12 years. His crime? Publishing the truth. In April, the founders of the Samurai wallet were arrested for creating financial privacy tools. Common sense and guardianship principles have been discarded in favor of strict information control. Thought police in the UK are now arresting citizens for pre-crimes. Scotland’s new hate crime law came into force on April 1st, and Ireland is attempting to implement similar laws, aiming for the same authoritarian policing standards. The EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights contains the following freedoms: 🔻 Right to liberty and security 🔻 Respect for private and family life 🔻 Protection of personal data 🔻 Freedom of thought, conscience and religion 🔻 Freedom of expression and information 🔻 Freedom of assembly and of association 🔻 Freedom of the arts and sciences These freedoms are increasingly under threat, and if we don't fight to keep them, we will lose them. Fortunately, there are enough mission focused developers creating privacy tools that help us reclaim control over our own data, keeping the flame of freedom alive. Here’s a general guide to evaluating communication methods and platforms that prioritize your privacy and safety: 1⃣ End-to-end encryption (E2EE) to protect your communications and files 2⃣ Open-source development, allowing the code to be reviewed 3⃣ Minimal data capture to reduce the risk of information being handed over to governments 4⃣ Decentralization to enable long-term resistance against state control 5⃣ No KYC/AML (Know Your Customer/Anti-Money Laundering) policies Earning privacy requires time, effort, and persistence. But it's essential for our protection and the future of our children. By supporting platforms that prioritize privacy, security, and content integrity, we contribute to a better society. The fight against authoritarianism is ongoing, and each step towards preserving our privacy brings us closer to a world where freedom prevails

Why ‘I Have Nothing to Hide’ Is the Wrong Way to Think About Surveillance Below you will read a powerful message posted on reddit 11-12 years ago. It was so moving, that i copied the text to save for the future... A future that's getting darker each night. "I live in a country generally assumed to be a dictatorship. One of the Arab spring countries. I have lived through curfews and have seen the outcomes of the sort of surveillance now being revealed in the US. People here talking about curfews aren't realizing what that actually FEELS like. It isn't about having to go inside, and the practicality of that. It's about creating the feeling that everyone, everything is watching. A few points: 1.) the purpose of this surveillance from the government's point of view is to control enemies of the state. Not terrorists. People who are coalescing around ideas that would destabilize the status quo. These could be religious ideas. These could be groups like anon who are too good with tech for the governments liking. It makes it very easy to know who these people are. It also makes it very simple to control these people. Let's say you are a college student and you get in with some people who want to stop farming practices that hurt animals. So you make a plan and go to protest these practices. You get there, and wow, the protest is huge. You never expected this, you were just goofing off. Well now everyone who was there is suspect. Even though you technically had the right to protest, you're now considered a dangerous person. With this tech in place, the government doesn't have to put you in jail. They can do something more sinister. They can just email you a sexy picture you took with a girlfriend. Or they can email you a note saying that they can prove your dad is cheating on his taxes. Or they can threaten to get your dad fired. All you have to do, the email says, is help them catch your friends in the group. You have to report back every week, or you dad might lose his job. So you do. You turn in your friends and even though they try to keep meetings off grid, you're reporting on them to protect your dad. 2.) Let's say number one goes on. The country is a weird place now. Really weird. Pretty soon, a movement springs up like occupy, except it's bigger this time. People are really serious, and they are saying they want a government without this power. I guess people are realizing that it is a serious deal. You see on the news that tear gas was fired. Your friend calls you, frantic. They're shooting people. Oh my god. you never signed up for this. You say, fuck it. My dad might lose his job but I won't be responsible for anyone dying. That's going too far. You refuse to report anymore. You just stop going to meetings. You stay at home, and try not to watch the news. Three days later, police come to your door and arrest you. They confiscate your computer and phones, and they beat you up a bit. No one can help you so they all just sit quietly. They know if they say anything they're next. This happened in the country I live in. It is not a joke. 3.) It's hard to say how long you were in there. What you saw was horrible. Most of the time, you only heard screams. People begging to be killed. Noises you've never heard before. You, you were lucky. You got kicked every day when they threw your moldy food at you, but no one shocked you. No one used sexual violence on you, at least that you remember. There were sometimes they gave you pills, and you can't say for sure what happened then. To be honest, sometimes the pills were the best part of your day, because at least then you didn't feel anything. You have scars on you from the way you were treated. You learn in prison that torture is now common. But everyone who uploads videos or pictures of this torture is labeled a leaker. It's considered a threat to national security. Pretty soon, a cut you got on your leg is looking really bad. You think it's infected. There were no doctors in prison, and it was so overcrowded, who knows what got in the cut. You go to the doctor, but he refuses to see you. He knows if he does the government can see the records that he treated you. Even you calling his office prompts a visit from the local police. You decide to go home and see your parents. Maybe they can help. This leg is getting really bad. You get to their house. They aren't home. You can't reach them no matter how hard you try. A neighbor pulls you aside, and he quickly tells you they were arrested three weeks ago and haven't been seen since. You vaguely remember mentioning to them on the phone you were going to that protest. Even your little brother isn't there. 4.) Is this even really happening? You look at the news. Sports scores. Celebrity news. It's like nothing is wrong. What the hell is going on? A stranger smirks at you reading the paper. You lose it. You shout at him "fuck you dude what are you laughing at can't you see I've got a fucking wound on my leg?" "Sorry," he says. "I just didn't know anyone read the news anymore." There haven't been any real journalists for months. They're all in jail. Everyone walking around is scared. They can't talk to anyone else because they don't know who is reporting for the government. Hell, at one time YOU were reporting for the government. Maybe they just want their kid to get through school. Maybe they want to keep their job. Maybe they're sick and want to be able to visit the doctor. It's always a simple reason. Good people always do bad things for simple reasons. You want to protest. You want your family back. You need help for your leg. This is way beyond anything you ever wanted. It started because you just wanted to see fair treatment in farms. Now you're basically considered a terrorist, and everyone around you might be reporting on you. You definitely can't use a phone or email. You can't get a job. You can't even trust people face to face anymore. On every corner, there are people with guns. They are as scared as you are. They just don't want to lose their jobs. They don't want to be labeled as traitors. This all happened in the country where I live. You want to know why revolutions happen? Because little by little by little things get worse and worse. But this thing that is happening now is big. This is the key ingredient. This allows them to know everything they need to know to accomplish the above. The fact that they are doing it is proof that they are the sort of people who might use it in the way I described. In the country I live in, they also claimed it was for the safety of the people. Same in Soviet Russia. Same in East Germany. In fact, that is always the excuse that is used to surveil everyone. But it has never ONCE proven to be the reality. Maybe Obama won't do it. Maybe the next guy won't, or the one after him. Maybe this story isn't about you. Maybe it happens 10 or 20 years from now, when a big war is happening, or after another big attack. Maybe it's about your daughter or your son. We just don't know yet. But what we do know is that right now, in this moment we have a choice. Are we okay with this, or not? Do we want this power to exist, or not? You know for me, the reason I'm upset is that I grew up in school saying the pledge of allegiance. I was taught that the United States meant "liberty and justice for all." You get older, you learn that in this country we define that phrase based on the constitution. That's what tells us what liberty is and what justice is. Well, the government just violated that ideal. So if they aren't standing for liberty and justice anymore, what are they standing for? Safety? Ask yourself a question. In the story I told above, does anyone sound safe? I didn't make anything up. These things happened to people I know. We used to think it couldn't happen in America. But guess what? It's starting to happen. I actually get really upset when people say "I don't have anything to hide. Let them read everything." People saying that have no idea what they are bringing down on their own heads. They are naive, and we need to listen to people in other countries who are clearly telling us that this is a horrible horrible sign and it is time to stand up and say no." https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/s/XWbolgUHGc

It’s friday night… A Richie Hawtin kinda night..

✅ Merkle ❌ Merkel

Sunglasses hut, blocking out the sun since 1971. Must be a fiat thing.

Arabica gets the award for the coolest cafe of the day. #dubailife

Bitcoin = permissionless truth. Fiat = permissiinless theft. CBDC's = permissionless silence.

#introductions.. If you're new here and just figuring this thing out. Then take some time to understand what nostr is and why it's different to twitter, tiktok, Facebook, etc. #nostr & #bitcoin are FOSS (free and open source) projects. They are built and maintained by communities instead of companies. A very important distinction. Nostr and bitcoin reminds me the early days of the World Wide Web. The 90s were my time as a teenage. In those days, we were surfing online with one another. We were a collection of total strangers, and some of us (atleast I) felt we would make this world better. We didn't know how at the time,, but we knew we would, somehow. . I went to college to do a computing degree, as I was so certain that this was the future. The adults didn't quite see it as clearly as us kids did, but it was crystal clear in my eyes. The Internet was our thing, it was our way forward. This was before Silicon Valley, the media or governments colluded and began to steal it from us.. The Internet wasn't as exciting after the 90s and from my recollection, companies like Google began to close their doors to foss, instead they locked all innovations down. Things really began to change for the worst after the gfc.. Governments got more desperate, Google and Facebook then ate the media's advertising model, and since then, the media and the government have been in cahoots. Governments got back doors to literally everything and the Internet been a shit show ever since. The surf isn't what it used to be. This isn't the Internet that provided hope, instead it's filled with dispair, tribalism and virtue signalling.. But I do feel a change happening. In #bitcoin and #nostr, I once again find hope that we can build a better world that cannot be Co-opted by the state and their cronies. These technologies are robust and anti-fragile. This time around, we will build it without their permission, their only path forward is to join us. So once again, let a little light back into your life by setting aside some time to learn about nostr and bitcoin.