Catastrophe-Mode, and Maintaining Privacy In Authoritarian Times
Timothy Snyder's book, On Tyranny, offers 20 lessons on how to survive authoritarianism. I share some thoughts on Lesson 14 -- Establish a private life.
Being a “Professional Cynical Bastard (PCB)” has generally been an asset as a privacy professional and consultant. After all, when your default assumption is that humans are generally opportunistic and self-serving, prone to panic or irrational decision-making (especially in groups), and easily swayed by charismatic fabulists or impossible promises, it becomes easier to detect when a given statement or decision is self-serving bullshit, or a situation risky.
That said, there are some downsides. Anyone who knows me well knows that I can be a bit of a catastophizer. When I get into “catastrophe-mode,” it’s overwhelming. It feels permanent—like a constant, mental doomscroll of risk identification and gaming out the worst of the human condition. In my younger days, I could live in this place for weeks or months, feeling powerless, immovable, stuck in a really dark place, with no ready answers.
It wasn’t until I hit my mid-20s before I learned how to catastrophize and apply my PCB thinking constructively. It turns out these traits can be profitable and positive, for example when you’re helping an organization understand its risks and weaknesses, or to design better products, provided you’re able to come up with solutions and mitigation strategies to compensate. Similarly, learning how to control and harness worst-case scenario thinking in a structured way that leads to plan of action, just in case the inevitable zombie apocalypse does happen.
Or y’know, the rule of law dies in America.
But given all the insane shit that keeps coming out daily, I’ve found myself slipping back into catastrophe mode. I don’t feel equipped. I don’t have any ready answers or mitigation strategies. So, I’ve been spending less time on social media, and more time reading about how others have survived dictatorships and authoritarian rule. I’ve been reading about what to expect when the rule of law dies, and how democracies fall.
I mentioned reading the The Dictator’s Handbook in my earlier post on Privacy as Resistance.
But today, I want to talk about Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. Snyder wrote On Tyranny in 2017, during the first Trump administration, and he’s not subtle about which authoritarian he’s speaking of. Each chapter explores a single theme of how to survive authoritarianism, and they include things like:
Do not obey in advance (Lesson 1)
Beware the one-party state (Lesson 3)
Be kind to our language (Lesson 9)
Believe in truth (Lesson 10)
But he also has one very important lesson on privacy—Lesson #14: Establish a private life, and that’s what I want to write about today. Here’s the relevant bits:
Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you around. Scrub your computer of malware on a regular basis. Remember that email is skywriting. Consider using alternative forms of the internet, or simply using it less. Have personal exchanges in person. For the same reason, resolve any legal trouble. Tyrants seek the hook on which to hang you. Try not to have hooks.
What the great political thinker Hannah Arendt meant by totalitarianism was not an all—powerful state, but the erasure of the difference between private and public life. We are free only insofar as we exercise control over what people know about us, and in what circumstances they come to know it. During the campaign of 2016, Americans took a step toward totalitarianism without even noticing by accepting as normal the violation of electronic privacy. Whether it is done by American or Russian intelligence agencies, or for that matter by any institution, the theft, discussion, or publication of personal communications destroys a basic foundation of our rights. If we have no control over who reads what and when, we have no ability to act in the present or plan for the future. … No one (except perhaps a tyrant) has a private life that can survive public exposure by hostile directive. …
Totalitarianism removes the difference between private and public not just to make individuals unfree, but also to draw the whole society away from normal politics and toward conspiracy theories.
So much has changed in the eight years since Snyder wrote this book, and yet so much is the same. There’s concrete stuff here, that we all should follow. But I’ll add a few supplemental thoughts:
Email is skywriting. But it doesn’t have to be. As critical as I’ve been in the past of Proton Mail, it’s still the easiest end-to-end encrypted email service out there. If you’re planning anything that could be used as ammunition by this administration, stop doing it in cleartext. If you’re not comfortable with Proton, consider alternatives.
Have personal exchanges in person. But only where you can be certain you won’t be overheard. We live in an age of increasing surveillance—always-on listening devices (hello Alexa, Google Home, and Smart TVs), cameras everywhere, Ring cameras, spywearables, and of course, constant tracking and surveillance tech in our pockets. And even if our phones aren’t always listening, metadata still can tell a story.
Try not to have hooks. While Snyder was referring to having your legal situation sorted, it’s worth noting that tyrants can exploit anything that might be embarrassing, compromising, or makes you vulnerable. Especially if you’re in the US as an immigrant, minority, LGBTQI+ person, a woman, lawyer, or likely ‘target’ of Trumpian wrath.
I recognize that this is a bit rich coming from some loud-mouthed cranky white lady posting on Substack who has openly lambasted the administration, but I live in a non-fascist country unlikely to extradite me, ship me off to a forced labor camp in El Salvador, or black bag me to Guantanamo. I have also committed to not returning to the United States in the foreseeable future. Know your personal threat model and respond accordingly.Americans took a step toward totalitarianism … by accepting as normal the violation of electronic privacy. Our devices snitch on us. As do our social media profiles, posts, unencrypted phone calls, and search queries. And that’s not even counting adtech and the scummy data brokers in the business of monitoring us. Privacy Nihilism and the uncritical acceptance of Big Tech doesn’t help. I am working to wean myself away from services likely to make me a target. I regularly scrub my info from the internet, use privacy-focused search engines, and I’ve dropped most social media. LinkedIn will probably be next. We all need to get better about curating our online lives, because the administration is absolutely weaponizing our online lives against us.
Totalitarians draw society away from normal politics and toward conspiracy theories. Verify first, then trust. I am not always immune from conspiracy theories, but I’m trying my damnedest to keep myself grounded. Keep to trusted sources of information, especially primary sources, and try to get corroboration as much as possible, especially if a thing sounds unbelievable.
Don’t trust nonsense peddled on TikTok, X, Instagram/Facebook, Reddit, or dodgy news sites you’ve never heard of before. If you’ve read something shocking or heard a rumor somewhere, find supporting evidence. And for all that is holy and good, get off Facebook and Twitter/X. Right now, we all need to be a lot more skeptical, practice better media literacy, and demand actual evidence, especially for extraordinary claims.Protesting: Snyder didn’t mention protesting, but if you’re going to do it, do it right. The EFF has an excellent guide to protesting as safely and anonymously as possible. I highly recommend you read it.
Did you find this helpful? Let me know in the comments. I’ll likely be sharing more like this, because I think it’s important, and most of you probably don’t go around gaming out worst-case scenarios. Consider this my attempt to apply my catastrophic thinking in a more constructive way.
Obligatory cat photo:
