"Internet Badasses" aren't going to stop Digital ID

A response

TL:DR for Internet Tough Guys:

I oppose Digital ID, but I also oppose the idea that there is nothing to do between now and when one is launched.

This is a response to a conversation that many people refuse to discuss in detail.

Dr Mike Yeadon

wrote a post “The Hill to die on” talking about the urgency and necessity of refusing digital ID. These are all things I agree with. I’ve written and spoken about digital IDs in the past. So I’m putting these here to ‘virtue signal’ about how much digital ID is a very bad thing before questioning people’s egos.

Digital ID: The basics

Tools of the Technocracy: #4 Online Identity

Cyberwar & Digital ID with Hrvoje Moric

The EU Cyberwar on People & the Web

Digging Deep into Digital ID

We’ve all been concerned about Digital ID for quite some time, but I’ve noticed the many conversations about it haven’t gone anywhere useful. Is a Digital ID only from governments? Is Network State citizenship a digital ID? It doesn’t matter! Just tell everyone from your (Verified and ID-verified) X profile that you’re gonna refuse whatever it is. That’s how we win, right?

I made the mistake of commenting on a larger Substack, it seems that these battlegrounds are full of people ready to accuse each other of nonsense without even engaging with the words written down.

What I wrote

Telling people to refuse digital ID is pointless in a scenario where there's no support structure for people who refuse. Can/UK/Aus all had large amounts of people lose employment and be put into very difficult situations. If there's one lesson that many people have learned is that opposing these mass agendas is often too costly to bear. How "free" is somebody without an income, digital ID notwithstanding? It seems that people are a lot more interested in pontificating about what they know and can see, rather than actually building support structures to resist tyranny. This is understandable considering how much the system discourages actually building meaningful connections.

Speaking as somebody on the younger end of the spectrum, I think people vastly underestimate the demands the 'freedom movement' puts on the youth that are already struggling with a very predatory economy with little sympathy much less support. So I'll ask again, what opportunities are we working on to help give people a place to retreat TO when digital ID starts becoming mandatory for employment or other necessities? It's important to remember it's not just the youth who are struggling, many older people are being effectively forced out of the workplace with age discrimination.

This isn't an attack on you, you've absolutely highlighted the actual solutions many times. I just want to caution against people thinking "well I won't get it, so I'll be fine." Institutions have a lot riding on the implementation of Digital ID (lots of serious cybersecurity issues have been left un-addressed to create a pretext for it) it's worth considering what capacity actually exists to resist before rushing to condemn people for their choices.

It also helps to be clear that digital ID isn't just a single thing. If Elon Musk truly does turn X into the "everything app" then all the people waiting to refuse a government digital ID while they've already KYC'd on X, will have been tricked into the same thing. Pardon the angry rant, but this has been well understood for years and there has been little to no meaningful movement on this front.

Edit: I have no patience for people who care more about sounding badass over the internet than taking what's at stake seriously.

I woke up to

Tim West

following up with:

Because of spineless irresponsible cissy people like you, tyranny, corruption wins.

Let’s hope your own particular brand of

‘better to turn round and let me and my children get royally buggered up the arse rather than make a necessary courageous stand’

isn’t universal.

This isn’t where Tim and I have finished.
I recommend reading the pinned comment for more context.

There are similar points made all around. The basic idea is that merely suggesting we should proactively work to help people resist tyranny is somehow making me a dirty communist. What many people in the thread don’t know is that I actually HAVE the courage they deride me for lacking, I’ve just seen where it leads. I was terminated from Canadian Blood Services for refusing the Covid shots, joined the local groups, participated in the discussion and SAW what happens to people who refuse. Many people in that situation haven’t even recovered their original income despite insane inflation, and I’m no exception. If you want to blame me, fine I get it because I have particular problems, but if you want to put the blame on all the others I can’t stand for it.

Someone else followed up with

It will be every man women and child for himself, just like it was during the plandemic.

What you are asking for are new societies, new communities that can survive and thrive outside of the cbdc/fifteen minute cities.

This is exactly what we need but I suspect these will be built day by day as we try to survive. Some have started communities around me but that's .0000001%

I appreciate the post ❤️

My response:

"What you are asking for are new societies, new communities that can survive and thrive outside of the cbdc/fifteen minute cities."

This is actually partially what needs to be pushed back against. Too many people are thinking "when digital ID comes, then I'll resist" if there's one thing we need to consider is how much can be done in advance to make mass resistance more effective. Is the goal to actually oppose the agenda, or survive it alone in obscurity? Our societies and communities can exist intact if we just prioritize in favor of independent support systems.

"It will be every man women and child for himself, just like it was during the plandemic."

I appreciate your reply, but this is akin to saying "nobody could have resisted 2020/21" Many people did, with varying consequences. If anything we should have so many more plans and ideas on how to do much better 'this time around'. Defeatism isn't the answer, even if I concur with your analysis.

I guess I have to concede that “support structure” is a little triggering to people who want to 1-man-army the world. People want to decry me as lazy and entitled when I have the audacity to suggest we do something else than just shout we’re not going to take it. It seems like a lot of people need to watch How NOT To Build Community – #ProblemsWatch again and again until it sticks.

It’s possible there have been lessons that could have been learned in 2020-2022 that we should be focused on addressing. But no, I’m sure these guys are correct that shouting “just say no” then going ‘every man for himself’ is the surefire path to victory. It worked so well for holding Fauci accountable.

Blimey. You really don’t understand this at all.

Nice people make the best Nazis

Best if we just let tyranny kill our children eh?

You spineless coward.

…
Read the fucking essay properly to understand the nature of this line we must not cross.

Tim West

What’s funny, is that many of these commentators claim I don’t understand the threat of Digital ID. Data and surveillance is my entire area of focus. I would argue I’m a lot more aware than THEY may be. They’re just ready to be a tough guy internet army for their parasocial hero rather than actually caring about results.

How to actually oppose Digital ID

Oddly enough, many of the things Yeadon & Catherine Austin Fitts recommend work quite well.

Do

• Re-integrate yourself into your local community, getting to know your neighbors

• Using cash & local currencies

• Building support groups (Yikes! Sorry!)

• Supporting and expanding independent local businesses

• Understand that Digital ID is a system not an implementation. There are both public and private sources of Digital ID, consider them both.

• Care about results

  • Do you know how dependent your local economy is on government & blackrock?

  • Do you know how many people have already opt-ed in with or without knowing?

Now of course, I have to be a buzzkill and rain on the “I’m a super cool internet soldier” parade.

To Avoid

• Don’t dehumanize the compliers

  • This is going to be pretty controversial too, but if you’re going to ask people to not feed their kids/family, support themselves or take care of their parents you should have the humility to recognize it’s a big fucking ask.

• Don’t lecture people on the spiritual importance.

  • Not all Christians are going to agree that Digital ID is the mark, how many thought the covid injections were? (sorry, gene therapy, transfections, whatever the terminology your favorite hero prefers)

  • Odds are you’re going to need to cooperate with people who aren’t even Christian, what’s your approach then?

• Don’t go into the fight alone.

  • If your only goal in this fight is to care about your own soul, that’s fine and wonderful, but have you considered trying to help others make it too? The work overlaps a lot more than you would think.

  • Connecting and working with others is a lot more productive than keeping your thumb firmly in your rear while shouting “I’ll resist! Someday!”

• Don’t forget other fights

  • I know this is really hard with Trump being elected and all, but remember there’s a lot more to the institution of tyranny than any one issue. If you truly understood how bleak things are you would recognize that the vast majority of people, even those who fall short are just trying to optimize what they can.

---

These really are just a starting point for discussion, I’m only expecting more attacks and hate for having the audacity to suggest community and caring for people is part of resisting tyranny. I guess that makes me a ‘soft sissy collectivist’. This is officially the last time I care what a libertarian-adjacent person thinks of me, despite leaning in that direction myself. I have my doubts that many of the people saying “just resist harder bro” have experienced what I and others have over the last few years. I wonder how many of them would have the strength to persist it at all.

But I’m not special. When I went to IRL meetups to talk about these things I got to know other actual real people who struggled to resist. Since they were Canadian like me, almost all of them have very little to show for it and are now more vulnerable to the ‘carrots and sticks’ used to impose whatever comes in the future. This is a mistake that must be corrected if we actually care about opposing anything.

Atomized, “Fuck you, I’ve got mine”, “Suffering is good anyways” bros are not going to be the people making a meaningful difference to oppose any nefarious agenda. Too many people refuse to think back to what was dismantled and severed prior to 2020 and learn that those are the things we have to work to rebuild. Social bonds, mutual trust, entire families and communities, all the human infrastructure that makes society actually function.

The fact of the matter is that what the technocrats want you to not care about the people around you. It makes things so much easier for them when people have nowhere to go but their products. They want you to call other people whiny and entitled or weak. Anything they can do to help you blame and not understand. If anything “you can do it alone” is something they really want you to believe. Because if you won’t work with others, the technocrats will happily cooperate against you. They’ll kidnap and draft your kids while you’re busy saying “I would just refuse”, they’ll inject your community members with poison while you console yourself “I’m a pureblood!”, and you’ll wonder why there isn’t anybody else with you in your digital concentration camp.