Recipe for Freedom
==================

 Freedom from the norm of sin and death is not the only freedom. As
 disciples of Yeshua, and as people with God-given freedoms like
 everyone else, we want to live in a free society which

 - respects individual and collective freedoms,
 - preserves life, liberty, personal choice,
 - holds truth and freedom of speech as critical values,
 - allows freedom of association,
 - promotes personal privacy and freedom from pervasive surveillance,
 - permits freedom of belief, and the free expression of it; and
 - curbs the relentless pursuit of power by central governments.

 This is because

 - slavery,
 - total surveillance,
 - thought control and control of free expression,
 - curtailment of basic liberties,
 - extermination of life,
 - imprisonment and persecution of dissenters, and
 - other totalitarian repressions of human activities

 are antithetical to the dignity of every God-given human life, each of
 whom is made in the image of Yahweh.


What Can We Do?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 The most important thing we can do is to exercise wise choices while
 we still have the reasonable ability to do so, and while we still
 retain reasonable levels of personal freedom.

 A major part of the wise choices we should be making involve the
 technologies, products and services we use, because by using the wrong
 technologies, products and services, we are in danger of /feeding the/
 /beast/.

 Leave the tech giants who are censoring free expression of ideas and
 beliefs, and whose purpose is to increase control over society in
 order to further their own interests and agenda. You know who these
 are. Refuse to use them unless there is really no alternative. If you
 must use one of these services, do so as /little/ as possible, and
 keep searching for viable alternatives. But remember that just /being/
 on an anti-social network encourages others to likewise be on it.

 Create de-centralised networks using Free Software networking
 technologies which cannot be easily attacked or controlled by
 corporate behemoths, nor adversaries controlled and financed by nation
 states. Remember that Free Software is critical to your freedom,
 because you *do not know* and *cannot know* what secret, proprietary
 software does, nor whether it is working /for/ you or /against/ you.

 What software is running on your computer right now? Is it being
 controlled by the Windows operating system, for example? Or the Mac OS
 operating system? In these cases, /you/ do not control your computer:
 Microsoft or Apple does. They are magnanimous enough to give you the
 /illusion/ that you control your own hardware.

 For /most/ (not all) people, the GNU/Linux Free operating system
 (i.e., Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, to name some of the main "flavours") is
 a viable alternative, and for these people, if they value freedom as
 we do, there is /no excuse/ to plan to continue using Windows. These
 people should start planning now to switch over to GNU/Linux. There is
 plenty of help available on the Internet to plan this transition. But
 remember, as with all change, it may not be totally painless, and that
 is the test of how much freedom is really valued.

 If you do not control your computer, you have built your technological
 life, and your freedoms, on sand.

 You should be using and supporting Free Software as much as possible,
 because this type of software is the only type that can reasonably
 secure your freedom in the online and digital world. Full stop.
 Proprietary software is /secret/ and its workings are essentially
 /unknowable/. Do not trust what the tech giants tell you about what it
 does and does not do, because they have regularly been caught lying,
 and there should be no expectation that they will tell the truth
 unless they can be forced to do so (which usually they cannot be).

 Make it difficult for the tech giants and the State to surveil you.
 The most important step (but not necessarily the first) is to change
 out your operating system as soon as practical, as discussed above.
 Other steps include:

 - Use a Free Software email application like [Thunderbird].
 - Eliminate entirely, or reduce your use of, the free online web email
   providers like GMail, Yahoo, Outlook, and so on. You should pay for
   an email account, if necessary, rather than become the /product/ of
   a free service.
 - [Start signing and encrypting] your email using the OpenPGP
   standard. Encrypting emails end-to-end is the only strong guarantee
   of privacy, and it should be used on a daily basis. (And do not
   believe enterprises which lie to you about being able to send you
   information --- for example, pay slips --- /securely/ by email. Do
   not receive sensitive information via email that is not end-to-end
   encrypted.) Note that the FSF step-by-step instructions (in
   particular, Step 1.B) are slightly out of date now with regard to
   the Enigmail Thunderbird plugin. The current version of Thunderbird
   (78) has OpenPGP encryption built into its core, so no plugin is
   required to do encrypted email! If you are still using Thunderbird
   68, you still need to use the Enigmail plugin, or just upgrade to
   version 78.
 - Realise that learning how to use encryption may take an hour or two
   of your time. You need to deal with that, because the benefits are
   well worth the time and energy you will put into it.
 - Use [Delta Chat] for effortless encrypted de-centralised instant
   messaging over email. (The Delta Chat free software application is
   the only game in town for this, as far as I'm aware. It works in
   Linux, Windows, Mac, Android and iOS.) You can use it with your
   existing email address, or you could use a separate email address
   just for Delta Chat instant messages.
 - Encrypt your SMS/MMS messages using [Silence] (only on Android at
   present). This uses the same high-grade encryption that Signal uses.
 - Do not use anti-social networking services. You know who they are.
   /You/ are their product, and they are placing /you/ under total
   surveillance. Don't let them. Use Free Software like Delta Chat to
   keep in touch with the faithful, and with friends and family.

 If you value freedom, as I believe followers of Yeshua should, then
 these are some of the practical steps that /all/ of us are able to
 take in the digital realm that will result in real benefits to freedom
 in our society.


[Thunderbird] <https://www.thunderbird.net/>

[Start signing and encrypting] <https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org/>

[Delta Chat] <https://delta.chat/>

[Silence] <https://silence.im/>

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