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Language: en
do you think the government has too much
power right
now uh yeah I absolutely do um I mean
there's so many aspects of that I don't
even know what is the best detail to
drill down on um but I guess I would say
that um on uh when Bill bar was attorney
general under Trump he implemented a
program called Deep which essentially
created this framework for the doj to
begin pre- crime prosecutions and this
whole idea um that you can uh prose
people or arrest them for social media
posts and that's happened a few times in
the US since then uh but also more
recently in the UK you have that same
policy being rolled out um there as well
where people are being handed down
20-month prison sentences for social
media posts and things like czy and
that's very problematic and so uh around
that same time that billb did that uh
after the El Paso Walmart shooting Trump
called on social media platforms uh to
profile their users and trying pick out
uh ma potential Shooters before they
could act so sort of calling on Tech
Giants to develop some sort of pre-crime
uh functionality and even though that
didn't end up happening that's very
problematic um maybe you could argue
that Trump did it because it was a
crisis and that was his response but
that's not good and that's very bad for
freedom and it's very orwellian and uh
it's this is policy that is also you
know being promoted by aspects of of the
Democrats in the United States and also
like as I mentioned labor in Britain
with Kier starmer is sending people to
prison for social media posts um and
there's actually this broader effort
that involves um you know us
intelligence agencies and and the FBI
and the Secret Service uh Britain and um
Israeli intelligence as well it's House
of the world economic Forum it's called
The partnership against cyber crime um
and they're attempting uh to label uh
Speech as a form of cyber crime so if
you publish alleged misinformation
online you could be considered a cyber
criminal under sort some of the polic
papers uh that they have published in
the past which I think is very
concerning and they're arguing that
digital ID should be a requisite for
internet access also because that way
everything you uh read and consume
online and everything you post online
would be tied to your governmen issued
uh digital ID so that's really creating
a framework for unprecedented
surveillance of our online lives and
online activity and then when you add
the whole um push into pre- crime that
has been going on for a very long time
and both parties have advanced then it
doesn't really matter if you have done
something wrong or not if the algorithm
determines that you may commit a crime
in a future because of what you've
posted or said or how you've reacted um
online you know that leads us into a
very very very uh dark and problematic
place and uh there really isn't a lot of
um understanding or or consensus about
these issues uh but a lot of it has
comes down to again us being so trusting
with thinking that the data that we uh
put out online isn't going to be used
against us or isn't going to be misused
uh by some of these entities who access
it and that includes you know government
contractors uh like paler for example uh
which gets a lot of contracts regardless
of who's in office um and uh you know
they have profiled people on behalf of
the CIA regular Americans based on their
online activity for decades now um and
there's really not a lot of discussion
about it um and I think
um I don't know people should be uh
aware of the stuff and aware of what the
government's doing um and uh look for
things that we can do uh to opt out of
these systems as much as possible all
right talk to me about that how do we
weaken the government's power over
us well I think at this point a lot of
it has to do with Silicon Valley and our
dependence on products of certain
Silicon Valley Behemoth so a lot of the
biggest companies in Silicon Valley also
double as military and intelligence
contractors and give our data quite
freely to them um when they should not
and again if we become so dependent on
uh a suite of products all of which you
know all if all of those companies have
these same ties you know for example
maybe we can use some Google and some
Microsoft products whatever but if
they're all intelligence military
contractors at the end of the day and we
can't live our lives without them um
then we can be manipulated to do things
to maintain access to those products um
in ways that might be very damaging to
human Freedom among other things so I
think it's important to look for um open
source or or different Alternatives uh
and look for companies um or operating
systems or whatever uh that don't have
those types of relationships uh with the
military and intelligence communities um
I think people should also consider uh
spending less time online and maybe a
little more time offline uh remembering
what it's like to hang out with real
people and build community in the real
world because I think uh specifically in
the co era when a lot of us were forced
to be online a lot more than before
because of lockdowns and other things it
may have been a little easier uh to have
forgotten uh what that's like um at the
end of the day but I think if you can be
as self-sufficient as possible um not in
of course you know from the tech
perspective that's hard because not
everyone can develop their own software
but there are things you can use that
you know if you're upset about Google
censorship or something like that on
YouTube but you're continuing to use
Google products all the time you're not
really providing an incentive for the
company to change and you're freely
giving it uh giving your data up to it
and it's a contractor with these aspects
of the US Military and uh and things
like that or at least historically has
but I believe they still do have
contracts but really um you know uh
Silicon Valley and in the military and
intelligence really have fused
operations in a lot of significant ways
and you can argue also that a lot of um
you know intelligence agencies had early
involvement in some of the biggest
Silicon Valley companies as well um you
know there's an alleged CIA involvement
with the origins of Google uh Oracle and
some other significant companies as well
and then of course you have the
involvement of of people like um Jeffrey
Epstein with Microsoft in the 1990s and
um some other things that haven't really
been you know reported on significantly
but probably should be um so I think you
know that's one way we could opt out uh
and not be so dependent on particular
companies that have those ties but I
think also like uh there's a lot of
other ways to be resilient learning a
skill that other people don't have that
might be useful in a time of Crisis uh
building a store of knowledge because if
internet censorship gets worse uh if you
have offline uh knowledge that will be
useful to you in a time of Crisis stored
on hard drives when you can't access the
internet that seems like it might be
helpful uh learning to grow your food or
in investing in someone in your
community that can grow food uh and will
grow food for you um you know all sort
there there's a lot of different things
uh that that people can do uh to try and
make themselves more self-sufficient
because the more dependent we are either
on these companies or on the government
we do have less agency in those cases
and I think we really need to remember
that we do have agency we've been
Outsourcing it we've been giving it away
to other people who don't have our best
interest at heart and we as a society
need to learn to take that back as much
as possible all right when people tell
me I need to start thinking about making
my own food then I'm like Whoa We are
planning for a catastrophe here at this
point so uh in a near-term timeline
let's say the next three to five years
how bad do you expect it to get on a
scale of I can keep going to the grocery
store to I better have my own farm and
how far are you going in your own life
to plan for wherever you think we are
going to be on that
Spectrum well I feel a little weird
making these kind of predictions because
obviously no one knows exactly what's
going to happen um but I think it's
better to be overprepared than
underprepared that's just my personal
opinion and I know not everyone feels
that way but at the very least you know
um as someone that lives in South
America like I've talked to a decent
amount of people from Argentina that
lived through the economic collapse
there in 2001 and a lot of what I've
heard is that mental preparedness is
very very important some maybe you don't
have the resources uh to really prep or
prepare for some sort of major crisis
but you can think through at least what
you would do and have some sort of plan
if things do get bad uh because when
people don't have any sort of plan at
all or any sort of framework with how to
deal with any significant crisis uh they
panic and people tend to make poor
decisions when they are uh in fear and
panicking right so I think um there's a
lot there's a whole spectrum of of you
know how much you could prepare or how
little and really regardless of your
economic means there's something
everyone could do to be a little more
prepared but at the end of the day
whatever crisis comes however bad it is
the solution from the government or uh
you know it's private sector Partners is
going to be increased surveillance and
increased control uh over our lives and
if you do not want that uh it's it you
should become as as as self-sufficient
as you possibly can with you and your
community
because it's very likely that whatever
the next Crisis is the solution that
will be offered is going to come with a
lot of uh caveats to it whether it's you
know programmable surveill money that
you'll be on boarded to to not lose all
the access to the dollars that were
previously in your banking account or
any other you know number of things oh
uh we have to regulate the internet
because of cyber crime now you need a
digital ID to access the internet and
stuff like that uh you know there's a
lot of things that could potentially
happen and a lot of solutions we could
potentially be sold but at the end of
the day if you look at what's happened
in the post 911 ERA with nearly every
crisis um it's usually more uh control
for them less freedom for us and I think
we need to be vigilant about that and
think about how um in the face of any
crisis that comes forward how um can we
be more sufficient and not so dependent
on you know maybe a solution that the
government would offer but would come
with us being forced to surrender more
of our freedom um and you know more of
our actual security um because a lot of
times when we've been offered that um
you know that tradeoff we haven't really
received increased security it hasn't uh
increased regular American Wealth it
hasn't benefited the little person but
it has uh you know benefited you know
the surveillance panopticon and a lot of
other of these things that have been uh
you know built out in the post 911 era
and so I think um you know maybe it will
get really bad maybe it will be uh a
little less bad more of a blip who knows
uh it seems like it's gearing up at
least economically to be quite bad but
these guys too have a lot of ways of
rigging markets rigging Market responses
um so I think they'll uh try and
mitigate or have it play out however
they think it will benefit them uh the
most once that crisis uh emerges right
but um let me ask do you think I know I
mean it could get really bad and I'm uh
again prefer to be overprepared so like
in my own personal life uh I'm gearing
up to be food self-sufficient and have
some sort of uh you know form of uh of
off-grid power uh where I live I also
there was a storm a few weeks ago and I
lost power for 13 days uh so you know
sometimes stuff like that can happen and
so even if it's not a major economic
crisis or some other you know government
produced crisis you know it's always
good uh to be prepared and in this sort
of landscape uh that's developing I
think the more self-sufficient you are
the more you will have agency and be in
more control of your life uh and I think
that really could benefit everybody
personally now this may just be the sort
of arrogance that seeps into you when
you were born and raised in America but
I think of South America is being less
governmentally stable than the US um
would you say that you have more or less
freedom in South America than we have
here in the
US well it's interesting because really
a lot of South American governments um
have been unstable at times but a lot of
that has um I you could arguably Trace
back um to really uh you know perhaps US
Government involvement historically in
the continent uh Latin America and
Central America were subjected to a ton
of coups uh sponsored by us intelligence
um and there's a lot of us intelligence
and US Government manipulation of
national governments down here uh that
have to cause problems that sometimes uh
see and then explode a decade later or
something um so you know it's very
complicated to really try and explain
some more uh governments are more stable
than others perhaps uh you know I live
in Chile which which is traditionally
viewed as one of the more stable
governments in South America but was
also subjected to a very um you know
totalitarian dictatorship that was
backed by us intelligence you know for a
very long time um um and you know a lot
of complications have also come downwind
of that and there's also political
division here uh just like there is in
the United States um and I think you
know regardless of who is President of
Chile uh they tend to uh that's really
about at least at this point balancing
either uh you know is the US going to
dominate their Administration or is
China you know it's really not so much
about uh what am I going to do in charge
of my Sovereign Nation it's balancing
the interests of two competing uh Global
superpowers um at the end of the day as
far as it goes to normal life here uh I
definitely like it it's different than
the US I feel like I do have a lot of
freedom uh but you know it things can be
really complicated the covid response
here was much more Draconian and freedom
limiting than a lot of places um in the
US and a lot of the things that I've
been talking about today are really
Global issues uh and it's really
something that's being uh foisted on the
global population I don't really think
there's any government in the world that
isn't on board with some of these policy
agendas at least in some way um I know
Chile certainly is but as far as you
know uh money goes you know for someone
on on the income I make chile is a lot
more affordable um I have two young kids
uh Health Care babysitting School costs
all of that is much more affordable here
uh than if I was in the US um actually
if I was in the US instead of here uh
because of a health issue with my with
my 2-year-old I probably would be
saddled with Decades of medical debt if
I was in the US and here uh thankfully
I'm not uh so you know I have my reasons
for being here but I don't think it's
necessarily what everyone should do like
if you wan to um prepare for whatever is
coming in the US or another country it's
a very individual decision but I really
recommend doing a lot of research um and
if you plan to go to another country
please visit it before you decide to
move there uh cuz there I have met
people that have not really done that
and have regretted it um but really you
know um I think at the end of the day
what's really important is to have
people you you know and care about and
can trust when things get crazy around
you like that Network whether you're in
the US or South America or really
anywhere is likely to be you know the
most important thing to keep uh you know
yourself in a better situation uh if
things get really you know Rocky
externally all right let me see if I can
get a barometer for just how dark you
think the future is going to be do you
think that whatever Calamity crisis uh
befalls us in the future will it be just
a thing that happened that people take
advantage of uh meaning the government
as they power grab or will it be an
engineered crisis that they ensure we
encounter so that they can grab more
power um it's really hard to say but I
think you know as far as the economy
goes it's a mathematical inevitability
that this debt monstrosity will hit a
wall at some point right so something
has to happen there there has to be some
sort of major change uh to for the US
government to get out of that problem
and there's a lot of other issues that
have been going on in the economy for
some time and that's why you've had
people after 08 you know looking at the
numbers and being like economic collaps
this year and it didn't happen because
all these other uh you know all these uh
I mean the
would you have powerful people in in
finance and also in the government uh
you know able to make markets behave
certain ways you can sort of Kick the
Can down the road longer than it
normally would if they weren't doing
those things so I think at some point
there is going to be some sort of event
that happens um and I think the goal as
I said earlier is to at least make
people scared enough that they're that
they would acques to this Advent of
programmable surveill money whether it's
a stable coin or a cbdc um and be like
yeah I'll take that because I the
alternative is too bad like losing all
of my money and purchasing power
something like that um but you know that
the way that sort of phenomenon could
play out uh could be uh a short-term
thing or a protracted crisis it's
honestly really hard to know uh but if
you're like me and you have a red line
of no programmable surveill seizable
money for me thank you it's very
important to think about how you would
avoid that if that type of Crisis comes
out and that's offered to you as the
only alternative to losing all of your
wealth if you like that clip check out
the full powerful episode here and I'll
see you there