What can a Libertarian do in this day and age to bring real freedom a little closer? You could try to lobby the government or hold a protest. But, unless you have tremendous wealth and resources or you can get a million people behind you the sad truth is that you will be ignored. As Libertarians are still a very small minority, alternative strategies and tactics are called for. I hope to expound on this in future posts.

The following start with simple, easy, and nonthreatening activities and move to in-your-face confrontational activism. Let me assure you that all of these are effective and not one is a waste of time. Each of these can have a profound effect on our society.

1. The first one is simplicity itself. Stop using Google. Google is notorious for collecting data and sharing with various agencies. There are now alternative search engines that make a point of not collecting IP addresses. That is they don’t match your searches to your location. Don’t like data collection? Think privacy is important? The market has to shout these messages loud and clear. The best response to privacy violations is withdrawal from using the bad services. Even Google is not immune to the marketplace. Giants have fallen for less. (In (Firefox) click on the little blue arrow in the search engine box. Click on Manage Search engines and click on Get more Search engines. In (Internet Explorer) click on Tools then Internet Options and then Settings in Search Options. Consider DuckDuckGo and Startpage as two good alternatives. Simplicity itself. ) This is an age old strategy that is the best counter to the new technological world of privacy violations. Want to go a step further? Make fun of people still using Google search. Apply some social pressure. This applies to any company that does not put its customer’s privacy first. It is interesting that kids are already getting away from Facebook and Google because they demand privacy.

2. The next one is just as easy. Use HTTPs Everywhere. It as a Firefox, Chrome, and Opera extension that encrypts your communications with many major websites. All communications are normally sent over the internet clear and unencrypted. Think about what that means in this day and age of hackers, thieves, and the NSA. Got nothing to hide? Doesn’t matter. One day you might. Protect yourself and others. Crypto works best when everyone is using it. (https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere)

3. The next one is risk free and already has a lot of libertarian action. It is one of the most utilized resources on the internet. It is the epitome of crowd sourcing. It is Wikipedia. This is how a lot of people learn about our ideas. Libertarian ideas have exploded because of our presence on the internet. But it requires work. Update it. Edit it. Defend it. Let our powerful arguments make a difference! I find it unimaginable that so many libertarians pass this opportunity by to speak truth to power! Create new articles. Fight bad memes. Counter bad arguments. Let our consistent message of freedom and individual responsibility shine! You get the satisfaction of exposing others to the Libertarian point of view. Everyone else benefits by learning about our ideas. This chance to present our ideas without the terrible biases that pervade much of mass media’s articles should not be passed by. Don’t expect fairness or even a retraction when the New York Times, Rolling Stone, or the Huffington media empires are shown their lies and distortions. Here is the key: present facts with links that back up your argument. Present solid moral arguments. Expand this meme fight to the whole of the internet and you have a powerful force for good. (https://www.wikipedia.org/)

4. This one is going to cost you. Support the countless libertarian organizations. Each of these groups has people that have been working tirelessly for the advancement of liberty through a multitude of strategies. Choose the strategy that best fits your ideas of effective action and support the organizations that have spent years learning the ins and outs of these various proposals. We all get the letters in the mail pleading for a donation. If you agree with the strategy adopted by the organization do not set the envelope to the side. Just put a dollar or a five or a ten and send it right back. It’s that simple and most of these organizations will tell you that they go broke because of folks like us setting the envelopes to the side to “write a check later” that never happens. With every donation you have now invested in your strategy of what is needed to bring about liberty. You are now a participant. Welcome to the team!

5. The next one is not risk free but potentially profitable. Libertarians have countless articles about the dangers of fiat money and inflation posted on the internet. The answer is buy gold and silver! Can’t afford gold? Invest $25 a week in a generic silver ounce. Invest in these hard commodities because there are way too many libertarian economists predicting a financial crash and we need more rich libertarians! Mind you, keep a diverse portfolio – please don’t invest your entire fortune in gold and silver and come crying back to me. Technology changes everything. This is especially so when it comes to hard commodities. Potential innovations in nanotechnology could cause the price of gold and silver extraction to plummet. If you are going to invest be an informed investor and stay knowledgeable about technological innovations that are game changers. ( Check out: http://www.europac.net/, http://www.cato.org/case-for-gold, http://www.humblelibertarian.com/2009/01/should-libertarians-invest-in-gold.html, https://medium.com/libertarian-medium/4b3e4d451e1d, )

6. The previous paragraph was for conservative attitudes when it comes to investing. Now for the get rich scheme – and like all get rich schemes it has vast risk. Buy and use Bitcoins. Digital currencies have had some controversy within the libertarian community. Many claim that they are nothing but bubbles of air waiting to pop. My perspective is that Bitcoins which are entirely a decentralized software construct create tremendous opportunity for freedom. Although every transaction is public and recorded, through the use of mixing services that anonymize your transaction for a tiny fee – you have access to a device that can transfer tremendous wealth anonymously and quickly. As governments seek to control all forms of wealth such a technology is a free market solution to that oppression. Its decentralized nature prevents a government takeover and its widespread adoption creates alternative solutions to government monopolies of money. Take a day to educate yourself about a fascinating resource and if you like it use it! Check out: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW_wYvZ1eZg&list=UUvjt0No0sOsJPBZE_2gdjug)

7. We have to create more members of the 5th estate. In fact with the internet we are all members of the 5th estate! We need the truth when it comes to the government. Our media has become so entrenched with our government that independent critical investigations by established media have become virtually nonexistent. We need independent and powerful voices that provide insights into the workings of our government and all governments. Libertarians need to create more websites and we need to contribute to such sites. When the government lies or violates the social contract – it is up to us to make sure that it is revealed in that context. Unfortunately there are plenty of conspiracy sites out there and if you dig long enough you run into a sad truism – if you are going to make exceptional claims, you had better have exceptional evidence to back them up. Hard facts and hard evidence have to back up the revelations and remember video is best. All the conspiracy sites that discussed NSA spying couldn’t budge the world until Snowden’s hard copies backed up all the speculations. If you have qualms about this type of expose. Ask yourself -when our government outright lies to us – how can we make educated decisions as to elections and policy? We need independent means of confirming the truth. We need independent voices and investigations. We need more Libertarian websites! Create a website or a blog that exposes local corruption. Get enough traffic and you can sell advertising or ask for donations.

8. Now some of you are really going to hate this one. Most of us have heard of the terrible things that are a part of the Tor network. Murder for hire and child porn are typical descriptions of the “other” internet. However, I consider the Tor network to be a true frontier. There are two parts to Tor. The first is that Tor is a service that gives you an anonymous IP address when surfing the internet. The return of the novel and necessary condition of anonymity on the internet should be embraced by everyone. The second is that with Tor hidden services you can create an anonymous website. With anonymity comes real freedom and real power. Why is this important? Want to make real changes? Use of anonymous communications is vital. This is the ideal means of communicating with journalists and keeping yourself safe. Want a place where you can post something that can bring down a major politician and still keep your anonymity? You will need to use Tor. Anonymity is not really important for most of us that is until a moment or circumstance arises where it is absolutely necessary. We all need this option. For anyone living under an oppressive regime it is a conduit for freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom from mass surveillance, and the freedom to trade. The Tor network is small but growing fast. It needs participation. Again, you cannot have real anonymity unless there are others using the service. The more the merrier. Yes freedom means anyone can do anything, including bad things and currently most hidden services are scams. But this type of freedom also means that one person can have a tremendous impact on our world. The effect of one website such as the Silkroad or Wikileaks cannot be understated. This is real power and real change as opposed to just beating your head against the wall of lobbyists and ineffectual politicians. Use Tor for anonymity and help others be anonymous as well. Use this powerful resource. Create a hidden site. (Let me throw out one more thought – Every Libertarian organization, think-tank, and Libertarian State Party office should host a Tor Relay.) (https://www.torproject.org/)

9. This is a tough one. Should you ever be called upon for jury service, act upon your convictions. Learn about FIJA the Fully Informed Jury Association. Did you know that part of the reason that alcohol prohibition was overturned was that prosecutors had a tough time getting convictions? Juries would not convict for possession of alcohol. Juries not only have the power to determine guilt or innocence they have the power to determine the validity of a law. Believe that a victimless crime is not a crime – deadlock a jury. (FIJA.org for more information)

10. Now for the ultimate in your face. Film the police. Film your bureaucrats in action. Film your representatives. Record the truth! We have the right to record anything in public areas that includes any government official. Objective video proof is a powerful tool in fighting oppression. Let people watch our government in action and learn. (http://www.copblock.org/)

So here is a big ugly secret: real freedoms are messy and scary. But most importantly, real freedoms have real impacts. Technology opens up new frontiers and opportunities. Act on them and you further your own freedoms as well as others and that is absolutely necessary for real change to take place. Real change disrupts the current systems and replaces them with better alternatives. Real change affects the core and the foundations of social systems. Every libertarian should be searching for these freedoms.

So remember, you can’t have freedom without giving it to others and all freedoms have the potential for abuse. This is where the ethics and the morals of libertarian thought come to the front. Otherwise we are no different than the rest.

Let the revolution begin.