this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2025
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Privacy
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Thank you. I don't know what I was thinking, posting this (edit: ~~on lemmy.ml~~ anywhere on the internet) where any useful advice will immediately be countered with "no no don't pay attention to that, I just thought about it for 3 seconds and I'm pretty sure I have a better answer than whatever the people whose whole job and organization is this." I won't repeat the mistake.
Edit: You know what, it's really unfair of me to single out lemmy.ml for this. People who are convinced they don't need to read the article and are experts already because they figured out not to bring their phone to a protest, and need to share their wisdom in the comments instead of reading the article and learning things, are common in every corner of the internet's globe I think.
lemm.ml is “a community of privacy […] enthusiasts, run by Lemmy’s developers,” and, after over a century of US state propaganda, repressions, purges, and assassinations upon us, communists might know a thing or two about militancy against US state power, including protests.
The EFF might know a thing or two about OPSEC as pertains to activities against US state power. They know more than you do.
You don't automatically absorb all the knowledge of "communists" and a century of real-world experience simply because you're on lemmy.ml. Again: EFF knows more than you do, on this topic. If that kind of thing is a confusing concept, you need to get out more, and stop looking at lemmy.ml as conferring a special type of power that the EFF isn't privy to.
I didn’t say the EFF isn’t also knowledgeable, nor that we are more knowledgeable than them in all areas.
But we also didn’t just pull things out of our asses 3 seconds ago.
The guy certainly did, who said "Don’t bring anything with a modem and you’re good to go," ignoring quite a bit of additional advice that the article gives that could really help some people out and explicitly implying that they don't need to read it as long as they don't bring their phone.
Maybe it's not fair for me to ascribe that to all of lemmy.ml just because that one person did it. There are plenty of people in all corners of the internet who are sure they're instant experts on everything, y'all don't have a monopoly. What I was actually trying to say was that "being a community of privacy enthuiasts" and a history of communism doesn't give anyone a pass on ignoring advice from the EFF and instead offering their own 2-second take on it as an expert opinion. I think that's a foolish habit of thought to get into.
If you had responded with, "Hey, don't blame this guy on lemmy.ml, we're concerned with US state power and of course we take seriously what the EFF has to say about this topic" then I probably wouldn't have been snarky about it. But I do apologize about being snarky about it, I think it was a little un called for.
All good 👍 and the EFF link you posted is a good jumping off point as well.