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Assuming no revolutionary changes are coming to the USA, I am planning to opt out of the digital world when I retire. Physical media only. No subscriptions.
by HoldOnAMinute 4mo ago
Assuming no revolutionary changes are coming to the USA, I am planning to opt out of the digital world when I retire. Physical media only. No subscriptions. Spend lots of time in the library. Find like-minded people and meet in person. Will only keep the bare minimum for survival, like banking.
- echohack5 4mo agoWhich is precisely why powers will try to make all these illegal
- Jtarii 4mo agoI don't think they are going to make libraries illegal mate.
- pluralmonad 4mo agoBut what about entering one anonymously?
- u8080 4mo agoYou could download few terabytes from torrent site which will contain almost all books published prior to current date and use it offline btw.
- Hendrikto 4mo agoNo, you won’t be able to do that, because going online, or even logging into your PC will require ID verification.
- u8080 4mo agoBut why wait? Do it right now and just store somewhere
- krieger_857 4mo agouse linux then, use a vpn, there's always a workaround
- rvba 4mo agoLibraries track what books you read (nowadays via some database and in the past via paper)
- reddalo 4mo agoUnless you read it directly at the library (at least in my country), without borrowing it.
- PurpleRamen 4mo agoThey track what you lend, not what you read. Many people just read on location.
- rvba 4mo agoI guess it depends on the library. When I was writing my masters thesesis most rare books had to be requested - they wpuld bring them from the archive. The books you could freely take was mainly Stephen King and year 1 stuff. They registered what you requested and returned (to prevent theft)
- Tangurena2 4mo agoIn the US, if you do not have a passport and want to apply for a new one, you have to go to certain places where an authorized person will check your paperwork, see that you match the paperwork and send that directly to the passport office. Generally, county clerks and large post offices are the places that most people go. In some states, libraries are also authorized to do so. In 2026, Trump signed an executive order banning libraries from doing so. Libraries were doing the service for free. County clerks in my state charge around $50 for the service. The libraries doing this service were almost always in "blue" districts. The SAVE ACT [0], which passed the House of Representatives last year (and is stalled in the Senate) only allows 4 types of identity documents to be allowed to register to vote in federal elections: 1. A US Passport, 2. A US Military ID with proof of US citizenship. 3. A US REAL ID with proof of US citizenship [1]. 4. A US REAL ID without proof of US citizenship, plus a US birth certificate and the names must match [2]. Notes: 0 - https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/22/text https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/22/t... 1 - This is called Enhanced Driving License. It exists in only 5 states (Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont, and Washington) and is an additional $35-40 above the cost of a regular driving license. https://www.tsa.gov/realid/realid-faqs https://www.tsa.gov/realid/realid-faqs 2 - In the US, it is common for a wife to take her husband's surname. This means that 74,000,000 US women will lose the right to vote in federal elections if they don't spend $150 (for a new passport) or hundreds-to-thousands of dollars changing their name legally.
- simpaticoder 4mo agoAh, like how we don't have pay phones any more because they were made illegal.
- derwiki 4mo agoI saw a working payphone at Pinecrest Lake a month ago. Presuming you didn’t literally mean illegal, what did you mean?
- simpaticoder 4mo agoYou don't need to make libraries illegal to get rid of them, you just need to undermine their value and they'll be defunded and disappear. No passing laws necessary, just pubic ambivalence.
- shmeeed 4mo agoThis is happening as we speak.
- HerbManic 4mo agoI have been slowly moving towards that for a decade or two now. I still do some internet stuff (mostly here) but it is greatly diminished. The rest is just at work.
- thefz 4mo agoGot to the same conclusion. Guess I will go back to in-person only, and lots lots of time away from devices (which I already have).
- monssooon 4mo agoI second this. Get off the net and away from the established society and into the parallel ones
- zuzululu 4mo agoagree with most of what you wrote but "Find like-minded people and meet in person." this is where things can escalate
- b40d-48b2-979e 4mo agoThis reminds me of a recent story I heard where a FEMA administrator had a militia organizer infiltrate his home as a "handyman" and the administrator was contacted by the FBI about who the handyman really was spying on his home and family in person.