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
I actually don’t hide any information. I practice privacy out of principle.
Because my privacy is already f’d. I don’t like being tracked but the government would already have plenty of data on me if they really cared to collect it.
I do a lot of risky and dangerous shit on the internet.
well… this seems to be the bigger issue. I’m not going to tell you what to do, but if it ain’t worth it, then it ain’t worth it. That seems to be what you are telling yourself.
If you’re ready to cut bait, then you just need to drop every connection that existed during that period. And start anew putting a solid line between before and now. Be the ringpop you want to be and act like old ringpop never happened. I suspect that guilt might be playing a part in your angst as well. The only way to fix that is to be a better man.
I’m very paranoid. I do a lot of risky and dangerous shit on the internet.
I don’t want to know what you do, however, if it’s causing this much paranoia, perhaps you should not do risky and dangerous shit on the internet. I know that sounds overly simplified, but if it’s that risky and dangerous, what’s the roi? Sooner than later, risky and dangerous activities get noticed. When I constructed my threat model, it included a lot of potential adversaries. However, I do this because I am a rather private individual, not because I want to do risky and dangerous shit on the internet.
Im not sure what to say with the risky and dangerous shit but as a person living in a country where an unmarked, untrained,unregulated paramilitary masked militia are going after people on pure pretense. I can say Im going to live my fucking life and fuck them all. Never before have I more understood this part of the lord of the rings:
“I wish it need not have happened in my time.”
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
I would speak with a professional therapist about this.
If op is legitimately doing things that can get them serious legal time or worse, then the last thing they need to do is talk about it with someone who can identify them.
I have thought about this but if I disclose my activities they could report me to the police
I don’t know what country you’re from but at least here in the USA the things that therapists are required to report to police are pretty slim, mostly just things that could cause direct physical harm to yourself and others.
Beyond threats to hurt another person, threats to sexually assault another person, neglect of a child, or threats of harm to oneself… almost everything else is covered by HIPAA patient privacy rules.
If you live elsewhere perhaps you could look into your local laws in terms of what is required mandatory reporting for therapists?
I’m unsure if the consequence with HIPAA could convince the therapist to not tell the police. And it is a super long story and even some of it does involve threats to harm others, and it is not drugs and not CP
Edit: I agree with you though I do need a therapist. I’m going crazy
If you go to a therapist, make sure they don’t keep any computerized records of your therapy sessions. :(
Hypothetically, if you were the most wanted man alive you would still go to a therapist and confess all your crimes as long as it is off camera and not a HIPAA violation?
I don’t know, it might depend on the crime. I believe that clergy get a higher level of privilege than therapists. You can literally confess a murder to a priest and they aren’t allowed to (and won’t) tell anyone.
Famously, in the 1970s, Daniel Ellsberg stayed out of jail after it emerged that Nixon’s fixers had broken into Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office to get his case files. These days they would just break into a computer.
Hey mate, besides the therapist recommendations, which are great, I would make a plan on how to make an exit from any criminal and all risky/dangerous activities you do.
If whatever you’re doing is seemingly necessary, someone else will fill that role. Make the plan and follow it. If it involves moving or even switching countries, do that.Creating a plan to exit will probably be calming and at the same time helpful when you make your adieu.
What’s the point of life if crippling, paralyzing fear is all there is to it? I work on being a good steward of my privacy as much as it brings me joy and satisfaction, not so much that it consumes every waking hour.
Whatever it is, review your threat model. What’s done is done and there is little that can be done to redact any evidence you may have left on the internet. Are you able to stop doing whatever it is that is putting you at risk of legal trouble?
If it’s an drug or psychological problem, you need to seek professional medical attention. Many people die or suffer life-changing illness each year fearing that their doctors will rat them out for substance abuse. Don’t be one of them. Patient privacy laws, at least in the US, prevent your doctors, therapists, etc. will protect you if you go and seek help. The main thing that they would have to disclose is if you make direct, credible threats to other people.
If it’s a criminal operation or worse, lawyer up and good luck.
I am calm in the knowledge of my enemies dying before society’s grandchildren.
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.
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/
maybe the guy is just brown and afraid of the ICE?
being brown is a dangerous activity nowadays.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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Drugs or journalism, knowing the current political climate. Godspeed to OP either way - you’re (possibly) fighting the good fight 🫡
or maybe fascists are the problem and need to be tackled???
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.
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.
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.
