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submitted 10 hours ago by ringpop@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

Obviously a lot of people here hide a lot of information. What is keeping you all from extreme stress considering the possibility that a government is spying on your actions despite strict privacy practices? Considering my current situation and my extreme threat model it feels like the privacy walls around me are closing in. I'm very paranoid. I do a lot of risky and dangerous shit on the internet. Every knock on my door and phone call feels like the police. I don't talk with others about what I do and I'm always hiding my internet activity from others. Any thoughts would be helpful

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[-] SnotFlickerman 5 points 10 hours ago

I do a lot of risky and dangerous shit on the internet.

Maybe stop doing things that would get the police at your door?? There's only a handful of things I can think of that would actually get police at your door for your online behavior and most of them are things that kind of make me ill to think about.

[-] PiraHxCx@lemmy.ml 8 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

maybe the guy is just brown and afraid of the ICE?
being brown is a dangerous activity nowadays.

[-] solrize@lemmy.ml 3 points 8 hours ago

I agree with that. I also get ill at the thought of posting a facebook meme, or even having a facebook acccount.

https://reason.com/2025/10/10/tennessee-man-arrested-gets-2-million-bond-for-posting-facebook-meme/

[-] Sxan@piefed.zip 3 points 10 hours ago

I mean, drugs are probably the most common illicit þing people do online, and it's debatable wheþer anti-drug laws þemselves are eþically sound, much less effective at what þey claim to want to accomplish. CP and oþer crap is probably a fraction.

In some states in þe US, it's illegal to try to get some kinds of healþ care.

But, odds are, it's just drugs.

[-] SnotFlickerman 3 points 10 hours ago

Good point, where I live weed is legal as are mushrooms, I often forget that people might still be looking for drugs beyond those.

I guess I always lived by the old adage "always know your dealer" when I was still doing drugs, which is a long time ago now. The idea of getting them online from strangers just seems risky in general.

[-] unexpected@forum.guncadindex.com 4 points 8 hours ago

I doubt it is drugs that op is worrying about. The police need to catch you with that in possession. That doesn't sound like what op is talking about. Sounds more like he is paranoid about getting caught for past actions.

[-] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 3 points 10 hours ago

Actually, I would personally feel more comfortable getting them online than I would in person because then I can use a testing kit on it to make sure I'm getting what I'm paying for and if the stuff is of bad quality, I can leave them a bad review so that other people won't buy from them.

I would personally be afraid to do the deal in person.

[-] SnotFlickerman 4 points 10 hours ago

That's why in the old days it was "always know your dealer" as interpersonal trust systems were built on people who weren't screwing with the quality of what you were getting and you could easily, by word of mouth, tell others to not deal with people who had done you wrong. Same idea, different technology and time period.

[-] birdwing 2 points 10 hours ago

or maybe fascists are the problem and need to be tackled????

[-] SnotFlickerman 4 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Some of us think the best way to do that is to build parallel systems of mutual aid (which isn't illegal) to support each other when things become difficult instead of violence. Especially considering the fascists are trying to foment violence as an excuse to clamp down with martial law and cancel elections. Parallel systems would instead allow us to house, clothe, and feed each other during something like a general strike, which is much more likely to cause a deep impact than fruitlessly trying to violently attack one of the best outfitted and funded militaries on the planet which commands surveillance systems that make our meager attempts at privacy seem foolish at best and downright fucking stupid at worst.

[-] birdwing 4 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Except that fascists will invent excuses whenever there isn't violence at all.

Example: Portland, Los Angeles, literally anywhere with an American gestapo presence.

I believe it is worth combatting their surveillance. Our liberty is not a given but needs to be taken. What is stupid is holding too much defeatism.

Mutual aid, as you said, is good; but it should not be the only resort. Against fascism, everything should be considered a valid resort.

[-] SnotFlickerman 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Except that fascists will invent excuses whenever there isn't violence at all.

True, but why make their jobs easier? The more propaganda they have to produce over reality means more truth slips through.

I believe it is worth combatting their surveillance. Our liberty is not a given but needs to be taken. What is stupid is holding too much defeatism.

Gonna just have to agree to disagree on that. I feel capable of privacy measures intended to stop basic corporate adware surveillance, but the idea that we as individuals can battle the tools and capabilities of well funded nation state with agencies like the NSA and CIA involved seems to smack of hubris to me.

Mutual aid, as you said, is good; but it should not be the only resort.

I agree, but I don't think you're going to be able to organize and mobilize the citizens against an authoritarian takeover without parallel systems being set up first. Otherwise fascist disaster capitalists will just use their control of such systems against us.

this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2025
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Privacy

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