Good. I enjoy network security as a hobby and at one time a profession but even still I don’t envy your threat model. A state level actor as your adversary is next to impossible to foil. Tech-wise if it exists, they can crack it or recover it. Even a (software) shredded drive can be restored, it would just be very costly and time consuming for them. Heck it’s even possible to recover a physically smashed drive. On physical security, no amount of guns or prep can evade them. You’d basically need to hit the road in a car made before 2010 registered to someone else and use only cash to pay for things for the rest of your life. And even that’s not a sure thing thanks to the growing surveillance state.

Honestly there is little that could be done to protect one’s self in your situation. If going to prison isn’t an option for you, Hunter S Thompson always carried a revolver on his person in case he needed a way out, which he eventually felt he did.

My ex-wife. I have never loved anyone as much as I loved her. Unfortunately for me she couldn’t handle my transition and stopped loving me about the time I started to have a modicum of passing privilege. Being cooped up together during lockdown didn’t help either. It’s now been longer since we’ve been apart than we were together, but I still miss her and wish we were still together. But she’s remarried, has some kids, and lives halfway across the country so that door is solidly closed.

If you’re tech savvy, use an anonymous crypto wallet to setup a server outside the 5 eyes countries and their allies and put all of your info there. Then destroy (with fire) any hard copies of the data you have. Be sure to ‘shred’ the local files with at least 50 passes once they’re uploaded, or better yet shred the entire drive and reinstall your OS. Then configure a dead man’s switch so that if you don’t log into the server as root every seven days the server will automatically send a full copy of the data to the press (the more places the better).

But you’d need to use tor plus a VPN from a car parked outside the range of any security cameras that has access to a public wifi network. A burner laptop with a hardened linux distro would be advised, and your server should be hardened as well.

Even with hyper paranoid levels of security that still doesn’t guarantee anonymity.

If you’re not already fluent with security tech, it would be highly advised that you don’t attempt the above. My advice would be to ditch tech entirely and get the data out of your possession. Put it all in a freezer bag and bury it somewhere. Give the coordinates to at least three people you would trust with your life with instructions to retrieve and distribute it if you get arrested, go missing, or die. That way if the feds do raid you there is nothing for them to find. Also don’t write anything down, memorize it and burn anything physical.

I wouldn’t say we’re past the point of reform, we lack the political will in our elected representatives and the numbers to force the issue. It is possible, but very unlikely, that we could flip the house and senate with enough progressive politicians that reform would be possible. However the establishment democratic party is unwilling to take the necessary steps or support the needed candidates. Their aim seems to be to become more centrist than they already were and maintain the status quo.

Unfortunately though the reality of the situation is very complex, ambiguous, and inundated with misinformation. Most reforms in the federal government won’t change the policies in red states, which are by far more egregious than what’s happening in Washington. While it’s likely true that there are no true red states, just gerrymandered purple states, there are still a sizable portion of the US population that want some or all of what’s going on in red states and the federal government.

There doesn’t seem to be enough political will among the left to carry out a revolution. Even if there was, there are almost as many right wingers (who are better armed, equipped, and trained) who would stand in opposition and turn the revolution into the second civil war.

Realistically while there are things that could be done to mitigate or stop the far right, not enough people seem to have the bravery, resources, and will to do what needs to be done.

I think it’s a human problem. It’s in our genes. Some of us are supremely selfish and some of those people have no regard for the health and wellbeing of anyone who gets in their way. Just look at our history.

Pretty much. I don’t see how we can fix what’s wrong with this country from within the system. The US is fundamentally broken because we have lost any semblance of a shared reality. There are four distinct and incompatible realities fighting for dominance: MAGA, republicans, democrats, and leftists. All four groups believe in a different set of facts about the world we live in and let their fear and cruelty drive their actions. It’s not sustainable.

I wish there was something we could do to reunite our understanding of the world we share, but it’s too far gone now.

As an outsider, I promise the grass is not greener over here. Being part of a community, be that family, friends, or local groups gives you much more ability to affect change. Alone you have no chance of changing even the most local and basic issues.

The best thing you could do is have this conversation offline with the people in your life. You’d be surprised how willing people are to work together towards a larger goal if given some direction and concrete goals.

In my 20’s I had three dreams. The first I was at my parents house preparing for a zombie invasion. I knew we would be fine if I found “it” (no idea what it was) but was unable to in the dream. The second dream I was at the office trying to find “it” again and knew I only had three chances. The third dream I was in the desert at the mouth of a skull shaped cave. I had a shovel and knew it was my last chance to find “it”. I failed and awoke knowing I had lost something important but undefinable. The dreams were all about a month apart and so vivid they felt real.

Another interesting note on my dreams is almost all of the really intensely real dreams I’ve been able to recall take place in different parts of the same “world”. Sometimes in the dream I can recall other dreams and where they are in relation to the current dream, most often I make the connection after waking.

If you do make one be very careful. A lot of countries have laws about what people under 18 can do online. Running afoul of those laws could get someone in a lot of trouble. Besides lying about your age and making an account anyway is an internet rite of passage.

I can’t find a link, but I saw an article the other day that said /r/assholedesign was going to be one of the first in protest of the move.

Don’t feed the trolls. If you find a bigot willing to have a good faith debate, maybe, but there is no reasoning with cult members. They have to want to change.

This was years ago, but I was driving around listening to music with my windows down and a couple guys in a van pulled up next to me and asked if I wanted a deal on stereo equipment. Being the naive idiot I was I followed them into a parking lot.

They claimed to be home stereo installers and had accidentally received two premium stereos for a customer order instead of one. They wanted to get rid of the second one for beer money and asked for like $200. They had a magazine that showed the stereo was worth several thousand and I thought I might make a quick buck by reselling it to a pawn shop or online.

I didn’t have $200 but I had overdraft protection so I thought I would pull that money out anyway and pay it back once I had sold the stereo. The guy at the pawnshop was the one who told me I got scammed and I have never felt more embarrassed.

Oh for sure, especially with the ghost and alien abduction stories, but I always got the sense a lot of the callers were either, bored, lonely, crazy, or some combination of those three.

For me it was a call on Coast To Coast AM. I used to be suuuuuuper into all that shit. I was a regular listener to C2C and believed 70% of the crap they shoveled. The 30% I didn’t believe (ghosts and the supernatural) were because I had personally tried astral projecting, recording evps, ghost hunting, etc. and none of it worked for me.

Anyway the call was in the early 2000’s and Art Bell was hosting. The caller claimed to be a scientist working for a secret government lab working on portal tech and had accidentally opened a doorway to another where filled with hostile beings who took control of the facility. When the caller identified themselves as Dr. Gordon Freeman I realized anyone could just say any bullshit and these idiots would believe it.

It took like 10 years to fully flush conspiracy thinking out of my brain and I overcorrected hard by becoming one of those obnoxious skeptics for a while.

Though given the times we live in today I’ve seen a few theories online that have an uncomfortable amount of truth to them and have to admit I have been tempted.

Realistically, no. You need luck more than anything.

Besides, what value does telling him that have?

Billionaire “genius” unaware that to find leaks you tell different people different things and see what gets out.

Earlier that summer my father had made me clean a deer that had been shot in the gut and he did some hollywood style child abuse when I barfed about it, so I was pretty numb to the gore. What really bothered me was some of the dialog. I shudder 30 years later when I think about the line, “where we’re going we don’t need eyes to see.”

My stepdad was horrified he’d taken his stepdaughter to see something so graphic and made me and my friends promise not to tell anyone what we saw and to downplay the gore.

I saw Event Horizon on my 13th birthday in theaters with some of my friends.

There are a lot of things that have to happen for us to go from the world we are in today, to a world where individuals need to avoid being critical of the state online or face reprisal.

Advice like this seems helpful, but regular citizens being punished (by the government) for what they say online is very unlikely. Instance owners and influencers sure, but not your average netizen.

The world has changed significantly since you were your kiddo’s age, but it sounds like you might be stuck thinking you can regain the things you’ve lost. Time only goes one way and you have to find new ways to live and express yourself.

Look for parts of your life where you are just killing time. Browsing social media, watching a streaming service, playing video games, etc, and see if you can do less of that. Look at what things you buy and see if you can buy less, used, or local to free up some budget for pursuing other interests. And if you feel tired all the time, get some exercise, it really does help with fatigue over time.

Both your partner and kiddo can also help, they would prefer a happy, authentic husband/dad and probably would support you if you asked them for specific assistance.

Ultimately you have to make it a priority or nothing will change.