To be truly free, we must move quietly and conduct our resistance to the regime discreetly, so that they do not notice. I remember my Father telling us stories about growing up under the Franco regime in Spain. How my Grandfather had to hide in the mountains because the Spanish Police were looking to kill him for fighting back. He would tell me of "Black Markets" and how they used them to get the things they needed. Many of us Latinos still use "Black Markets" in our neighborhoods here in America. So when it comes, and trust me it will, we could still be able to live and make ends meet.
For me, I can always pick up and leave for another country, and being bilingual, it will be much easier to make the transition. We are in the process of doing this as we speak. Have it ready for a "just in case" situation that happens.
This Quiet Manual is unsettling and depressing to me, though thanks for writing it. Is it meant to have a chilling effect?
Isn't that just what the far right wants? To silence our free speech, to acquiesce to their rule of law( lessness) !?
to be invisible?? & weak & in fear?
Surveillance is so far advanced now a burner phone and Aliases won't do much to keep them from parsing key words and locating us plus carriers give up the goods to the feds anyway & are stored for months +
If we are all going to be disappeared anyway for voting against 🍊🤡, might as well live it up and protest.
I don't know why you are thinking this would matter at all to the likes of our present regime.
Animals who have lots of love & gratitude to give are mass euthanized every day all across our country for lack of a human to commit to them.
I don't know if you are contemplating this group act of protest( ? )because of fear or depression. I don't know what your life experiences so far have been. I myself can't see another Guyana kool aid or helium situation being any more than a blip on the six o'clock news, and being dismissed as a bunch of troubled people. In fact , I get the feeling our present govt would endorse us all
( except ma ga sycophants ) to off ourselves, the ultimate self deportation! We'd be doing them a favor.
Who wants that?
I do however support physician asst euth for the terminally ill, in cases of extreme suffering and pain, as long as there are sufficient legal guardrails to prevent others offing a relative to get inheritance, or crooked elder affair attorneys to do the same.
The other thought I have is that we are living history in the making, and the devolution of kindness, & m a y b e we are here for a reason to try and fight it ?
Maybe the planet needs us alive not dead?
IMHO People need to be out in nature more instead of in front of a screen all day FAFOing how all this AI & crypto & greed is going to effect us as a civilization when clearly we are less civilized with each passing year. Narcissism is on the rise, empathy is scorned & a bunch of ersatz Christian groups that apparently don't know the teachings of Jesus or what"Christ" is, are nothing but hate groups thinking they are so f'ng superior to anyone who can think for themselves...or are of a different religion or ethnicity. It's overwhelming on the daily!! But so far I don't see the need to remove myself. I'm glad you are engaged with your friends. I mis read your comments to mean you were in favor of an act of group um, final deportation. Which now brings to mind some group maybe in the 90's ? Did this... they all wore black clothes and slept and died in bunk beds. Can't remember their group name or their cause. Was it something AI/god related? So...
This has been a ramble!
Posting it anyway
Nature is enough to keep me here for now, and if & when the bootjacks come I'll kickemintheballs .
Jonestown happened in 1978 and you just referenced it. Blips in the news don't get referenced over 40 years later. Privileged people self deporting is a blip on the news. Nothing wrong with touching grass or animals but those will soon likely be the only freedoms you have.
Mother Jones had a recent article about how dogs have extensive and multifarious environmental impacts. And then there's the carbon footprint of just the average human, not to mention the humans piling into jets to fly off to their utopia.
Enjoy playing in nature till the jackboots come for you. At that point it will be sad to see whose balls are kicked by whose jackboots. They'll probably make your animals watch. Better to not give them the satisfaction.
I replied to your original post as it worried me as I know the effect that policies are having on some factions of our society as well as ALL ( caring) factions of our society.
To suggest to the author of this substack that he should include pros& cons of mass suicide is troubling in a number of ways & trying to promote & recruit for such an event may be legally problematic. I hope for your sake that is not what you are about or proposing.
I was alive and voting in ‘78 so naturally Guyana popped into my brain. It was more than a blip.
Heaven’sGate was the other instance I spoke of, and since I remembered seeing a 60 mins report or something about the cult but could not remember the facts of who they were means perhaps they are more of a blip than Guyana .
I am not playing
I am fighting for everyone’s rights to our constitutionally provided protections .
This Substack author has made it pretty clear that he plans to write about helping privileged people leave the country to enjoy freedom while true allies remain to resist. Running from the fight is and blogging about it is how he's going to exercise his freedom.
Blips don't get a Wikipedia page. But I see what you're saying. A Wikipedia page if for notoriety and notoriety does not always equal effectiveness. Good point.
I'm glad you are fighting and willing to take a Jackboot to the balls. That's really the best attitude and course of action. (Much better than running and abandoning allies.) But if that fails, and it's not looking good, it would be good to have a backup plan to avoid giving the Jackboots the satisfaction of pressing their boots into our faces. Bluesky is probably a better place in general and anywhere else is better than this cut-and-run Substack for serious conversation about options to resist.
Cultists who propose and carry out group suicides are prob no better than school shooters, tho their reasons may differ.
In the end they don't make a difference, Just inflict needless pain & take away the rights of others to have a life. They just want their fifteen mins.
There are plenty of reasons to not want to live under oppression.
I really do not harbor resentment to those who can afford to leave.
I do harbor some disdain for the morbidly rich who don't care about all of society & taking care of our extremely beautiful planet. I do disdain when govt hates its people & I feel that is what we have now. I do equate AI, crypto, self driving this&that and the general undoing of human jobs very very related to greed. It only serves your corporate masters.
I do not understand people who don't vote and could care less. My whole life I've voted for whomever I thought would do the least harm to the American people and to our standing in the world. We have a lot of overhauling to do to make the process fair. All THESE guys want to do is destroy. They are truly the party of hate. It depresses me.
I am glad I am old so my time here is finitely limited and I no longer experience myself as being invincible like one feels in their teens & twenties. I have tried my entire life to be kind. But not to this.
We all have our limits & I hit mine during several periods of my life. A happy productive creative peaceful retirement has been stolen from my generation now. I think you may be younger than I am. If so, you have more to lose than I ever will. Some of my favorite people in my life committed suicide. I carry them with me wherever I go. I don't endorse it, even as an act of protest. Nice talking with you. Take good care!
As I am old & no one would miss me except my pets . And I would not do that to them. Though I have thought about it.
This is horrible history we are struggling through brought upon us by one deranged guy & his admin and a bunch of people who just didn't care enough to go vote, or even study history in school.
I hope we will survive this together as a people who do care about our society.
If you are able, engage with like minded people near you & try try try to keep a little faith that we collectively can change the course of events.
There may be ways mass self-euthanasia could include pets. Our pets do not want to see us suffer. They feel our pain. Something to think about.
Engaging with like-minded people is what I do. I never engage with non-like-minded oppressors. But since I was not able to convince enough allies to vote their values, now I'm working to convince them to not give the oppressors the satisfaction of driving their Jackboots into our faces as we writhe screaming and sobbing on the ground.
I can't afford to move anywhere that would affirm my lifestyle and I refuse to live in a world that will not devote at least one month a year to celebrate it.
True borderless living would include self-euthanasia and the pros and cons of that should be covered in future editions including mass self-euthanasia as an act of resistance and solidarity.
This is an interesting perspective, given your identity is a pseudonym and this could be deliberate provocation. I understand the perspective. I've seen many women do it in cultures all over the world. It has a time honored tradition. I've also seen women crack and be beaten down under the pressure. Families destroyed, countries torn apart. There is also something to be said about deliberately leaving a paper trail, & using your identity. It is not just an act of rebellion, it is game theoretical. It is patriotic, it is love, it is ethical, it is human. To view the act of expression as subversive is to deny what feeds the soul. Art, literature, freedom of thought and ideas, truth. I've kept my head down most of my life and still somehow managed to 'get noticed'. I was not raised to watch injustice unfold. I didn't have an issue with Trump 1.0 accept that the cockroaches who crawled out of the woodwork. It was a long standing issue that had nothing to do with the president or his family. All manner of political animal used the moment. Corruption and abuses of power DO really ruffle my feathers so to speak, particularly under the guise of religion. I even came to this administration with an open mind. Criticism should be welcomed if the idea has merit. Ideas are to be vetted. I will not let my children or anyone else's be buried for loyalty. Pick your poison.
For the record... this came out of READERS asking me to post it. This isn't my strategy. The whole reason Borderless Living exists is I think the future belongs to the free...
But if you're idea is to ride it out... I think this is the plan based on what I know.
It's funny... NOBODY is happy with this piece. Readers wanted it... they all hate the answer.
I suppose it's like what Ford said, "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."
(eye roll)
Back to our regularly scheduled programming soon... an update on Italian citizenship and the new guides...
I loved the article, and it spoke the truth at least for me. Being exposed to these types of events in Latin America does make you see the world as not as safe as we think it is. I believe that many people did not like this because the very notion of this happening in the future is starting to materialize, and when people start seeing it, they question it and refuse to accept what is coming down the road. They fail to realize that those events don't just happen "over there" but can happen here as well.
I remember growing up hearing about how terrorism would never happen in the US, and then 9-11 happened. After that, COVID almost brought down the entire system because we chose not to believe what was happening until we got close to the edge.
Life is uncertain, and things will happen whether we are ready for them or not. The best we can do is prepare and be aware of what is coming down the line. You may not like it, and it may scare you, but you have to face it.
Well, I did say thanks. It is a rather thorough piece with lots & lots of good advice.
Having a visceral reaction more to the comment section than to your advice.
Also after i initially commented or replied to a comment, you sent two messages to my inbox about wanting to know my story for some unnamed publication which I felt was contrary to what your article was about: being quiet , keeping one's head down, and was left wondered if those emails were really from you...?
I don’t see any way but by certified receipt requested snail mail then !!👀 But thanks. You should get Roger’s story, not mine, anyway.
I have a feeling he’s way younger than I am & you might want to find out why he thinks group suicide would be a topic you’d cover. A quick look at who he follows & what they promote & I see why .
I think there’s a ton of research to be done on why our two party system fails generation after generation… but nothing like what we are now seeing with maga. Or are they (maga) the cumulative result of our collective parenting, govt & societal failures? Did we cause this?
I enjoyed the piece. I just don't agree with it. I have children that will be off to college soon. I love this country and the nation I was born in, Canada. Having traveled a lot, I appreciate what democracy and free expression provide. As a former research scientist, it is the basis of scientific exploration. So yes, I'm staying for the time being and do as much as I can in small way. You can love your nation, be a global citizen and embrace humanity. My dad always taught me, all roads lead to god. I was taught to be very tolerant of other people's beliefs. So I feel the tug of both options. The bitcoin, city-state (I hold none) and the desire to watch young people prosper in a cultural tradition that sometimes goes back centuries or longer. People often call me a contrarian - roots and wanderlust.
To cut and run would be failing my kids. I made a promise to myself and to them when I chose to have them. An analogy would be capital flight out of a country. Intellectual flight is problematic. I have a great appreciation for teachers, whether they are nation states, cultures, books, religions or people. I've never been known to quit easily. It might be a feature not a bug. Each person gets to decide for themselves. My suggestion is that it may not make for an easier life but perhaps a more rich and fulfilling nation.
My chicken scratch unfiltered answer. Instead of faster horses, I'd want more honest, organized, efficient breeders? Or more open space perhaps.
To be truly free, we must move quietly and conduct our resistance to the regime discreetly, so that they do not notice. I remember my Father telling us stories about growing up under the Franco regime in Spain. How my Grandfather had to hide in the mountains because the Spanish Police were looking to kill him for fighting back. He would tell me of "Black Markets" and how they used them to get the things they needed. Many of us Latinos still use "Black Markets" in our neighborhoods here in America. So when it comes, and trust me it will, we could still be able to live and make ends meet.
For me, I can always pick up and leave for another country, and being bilingual, it will be much easier to make the transition. We are in the process of doing this as we speak. Have it ready for a "just in case" situation that happens.
Excellent article William
You seem to be saying protests should not happen.
This Quiet Manual is unsettling and depressing to me, though thanks for writing it. Is it meant to have a chilling effect?
Isn't that just what the far right wants? To silence our free speech, to acquiesce to their rule of law( lessness) !?
to be invisible?? & weak & in fear?
Surveillance is so far advanced now a burner phone and Aliases won't do much to keep them from parsing key words and locating us plus carriers give up the goods to the feds anyway & are stored for months +
If we are all going to be disappeared anyway for voting against 🍊🤡, might as well live it up and protest.
I don't know why you are thinking this would matter at all to the likes of our present regime.
Animals who have lots of love & gratitude to give are mass euthanized every day all across our country for lack of a human to commit to them.
I don't know if you are contemplating this group act of protest( ? )because of fear or depression. I don't know what your life experiences so far have been. I myself can't see another Guyana kool aid or helium situation being any more than a blip on the six o'clock news, and being dismissed as a bunch of troubled people. In fact , I get the feeling our present govt would endorse us all
( except ma ga sycophants ) to off ourselves, the ultimate self deportation! We'd be doing them a favor.
Who wants that?
I do however support physician asst euth for the terminally ill, in cases of extreme suffering and pain, as long as there are sufficient legal guardrails to prevent others offing a relative to get inheritance, or crooked elder affair attorneys to do the same.
The other thought I have is that we are living history in the making, and the devolution of kindness, & m a y b e we are here for a reason to try and fight it ?
Maybe the planet needs us alive not dead?
IMHO People need to be out in nature more instead of in front of a screen all day FAFOing how all this AI & crypto & greed is going to effect us as a civilization when clearly we are less civilized with each passing year. Narcissism is on the rise, empathy is scorned & a bunch of ersatz Christian groups that apparently don't know the teachings of Jesus or what"Christ" is, are nothing but hate groups thinking they are so f'ng superior to anyone who can think for themselves...or are of a different religion or ethnicity. It's overwhelming on the daily!! But so far I don't see the need to remove myself. I'm glad you are engaged with your friends. I mis read your comments to mean you were in favor of an act of group um, final deportation. Which now brings to mind some group maybe in the 90's ? Did this... they all wore black clothes and slept and died in bunk beds. Can't remember their group name or their cause. Was it something AI/god related? So...
This has been a ramble!
Posting it anyway
Nature is enough to keep me here for now, and if & when the bootjacks come I'll kickemintheballs .
Jonestown happened in 1978 and you just referenced it. Blips in the news don't get referenced over 40 years later. Privileged people self deporting is a blip on the news. Nothing wrong with touching grass or animals but those will soon likely be the only freedoms you have.
Mother Jones had a recent article about how dogs have extensive and multifarious environmental impacts. And then there's the carbon footprint of just the average human, not to mention the humans piling into jets to fly off to their utopia.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/04/bad-news-for-mans-best-friend-dogs-are-environmental-villains/
Enjoy playing in nature till the jackboots come for you. At that point it will be sad to see whose balls are kicked by whose jackboots. They'll probably make your animals watch. Better to not give them the satisfaction.
I replied to your original post as it worried me as I know the effect that policies are having on some factions of our society as well as ALL ( caring) factions of our society.
To suggest to the author of this substack that he should include pros& cons of mass suicide is troubling in a number of ways & trying to promote & recruit for such an event may be legally problematic. I hope for your sake that is not what you are about or proposing.
I was alive and voting in ‘78 so naturally Guyana popped into my brain. It was more than a blip.
Heaven’sGate was the other instance I spoke of, and since I remembered seeing a 60 mins report or something about the cult but could not remember the facts of who they were means perhaps they are more of a blip than Guyana .
I am not playing
I am fighting for everyone’s rights to our constitutionally provided protections .
This Substack author has made it pretty clear that he plans to write about helping privileged people leave the country to enjoy freedom while true allies remain to resist. Running from the fight is and blogging about it is how he's going to exercise his freedom.
Heaven's Gate has its own Wikipedia page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven's_Gate_(religious_group)#Mass_suicide
Blips don't get a Wikipedia page. But I see what you're saying. A Wikipedia page if for notoriety and notoriety does not always equal effectiveness. Good point.
I'm glad you are fighting and willing to take a Jackboot to the balls. That's really the best attitude and course of action. (Much better than running and abandoning allies.) But if that fails, and it's not looking good, it would be good to have a backup plan to avoid giving the Jackboots the satisfaction of pressing their boots into our faces. Bluesky is probably a better place in general and anywhere else is better than this cut-and-run Substack for serious conversation about options to resist.
Cultists who propose and carry out group suicides are prob no better than school shooters, tho their reasons may differ.
In the end they don't make a difference, Just inflict needless pain & take away the rights of others to have a life. They just want their fifteen mins.
There are plenty of reasons to not want to live under oppression.
I really do not harbor resentment to those who can afford to leave.
I do harbor some disdain for the morbidly rich who don't care about all of society & taking care of our extremely beautiful planet. I do disdain when govt hates its people & I feel that is what we have now. I do equate AI, crypto, self driving this&that and the general undoing of human jobs very very related to greed. It only serves your corporate masters.
I do not understand people who don't vote and could care less. My whole life I've voted for whomever I thought would do the least harm to the American people and to our standing in the world. We have a lot of overhauling to do to make the process fair. All THESE guys want to do is destroy. They are truly the party of hate. It depresses me.
I am glad I am old so my time here is finitely limited and I no longer experience myself as being invincible like one feels in their teens & twenties. I have tried my entire life to be kind. But not to this.
We all have our limits & I hit mine during several periods of my life. A happy productive creative peaceful retirement has been stolen from my generation now. I think you may be younger than I am. If so, you have more to lose than I ever will. Some of my favorite people in my life committed suicide. I carry them with me wherever I go. I don't endorse it, even as an act of protest. Nice talking with you. Take good care!
Keep fighting, old man. We need more like you and that's what I aspire to do.
There's nothing for me at this Substack. I've gotten more useful info from reading rightwing propaganda. I'm out.
Roger
I hear you,
As I am old & no one would miss me except my pets . And I would not do that to them. Though I have thought about it.
This is horrible history we are struggling through brought upon us by one deranged guy & his admin and a bunch of people who just didn't care enough to go vote, or even study history in school.
I hope we will survive this together as a people who do care about our society.
If you are able, engage with like minded people near you & try try try to keep a little faith that we collectively can change the course of events.
There may be ways mass self-euthanasia could include pets. Our pets do not want to see us suffer. They feel our pain. Something to think about.
Engaging with like-minded people is what I do. I never engage with non-like-minded oppressors. But since I was not able to convince enough allies to vote their values, now I'm working to convince them to not give the oppressors the satisfaction of driving their Jackboots into our faces as we writhe screaming and sobbing on the ground.
I can't afford to move anywhere that would affirm my lifestyle and I refuse to live in a world that will not devote at least one month a year to celebrate it.
True borderless living would include self-euthanasia and the pros and cons of that should be covered in future editions including mass self-euthanasia as an act of resistance and solidarity.
This is an interesting perspective, given your identity is a pseudonym and this could be deliberate provocation. I understand the perspective. I've seen many women do it in cultures all over the world. It has a time honored tradition. I've also seen women crack and be beaten down under the pressure. Families destroyed, countries torn apart. There is also something to be said about deliberately leaving a paper trail, & using your identity. It is not just an act of rebellion, it is game theoretical. It is patriotic, it is love, it is ethical, it is human. To view the act of expression as subversive is to deny what feeds the soul. Art, literature, freedom of thought and ideas, truth. I've kept my head down most of my life and still somehow managed to 'get noticed'. I was not raised to watch injustice unfold. I didn't have an issue with Trump 1.0 accept that the cockroaches who crawled out of the woodwork. It was a long standing issue that had nothing to do with the president or his family. All manner of political animal used the moment. Corruption and abuses of power DO really ruffle my feathers so to speak, particularly under the guise of religion. I even came to this administration with an open mind. Criticism should be welcomed if the idea has merit. Ideas are to be vetted. I will not let my children or anyone else's be buried for loyalty. Pick your poison.
For the record... this came out of READERS asking me to post it. This isn't my strategy. The whole reason Borderless Living exists is I think the future belongs to the free...
But if you're idea is to ride it out... I think this is the plan based on what I know.
It's funny... NOBODY is happy with this piece. Readers wanted it... they all hate the answer.
I suppose it's like what Ford said, "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."
(eye roll)
Back to our regularly scheduled programming soon... an update on Italian citizenship and the new guides...
I loved the article, and it spoke the truth at least for me. Being exposed to these types of events in Latin America does make you see the world as not as safe as we think it is. I believe that many people did not like this because the very notion of this happening in the future is starting to materialize, and when people start seeing it, they question it and refuse to accept what is coming down the road. They fail to realize that those events don't just happen "over there" but can happen here as well.
I remember growing up hearing about how terrorism would never happen in the US, and then 9-11 happened. After that, COVID almost brought down the entire system because we chose not to believe what was happening until we got close to the edge.
Life is uncertain, and things will happen whether we are ready for them or not. The best we can do is prepare and be aware of what is coming down the line. You may not like it, and it may scare you, but you have to face it.
Looking forward to your other articles.
Understood
Well, I did say thanks. It is a rather thorough piece with lots & lots of good advice.
Having a visceral reaction more to the comment section than to your advice.
Also after i initially commented or replied to a comment, you sent two messages to my inbox about wanting to know my story for some unnamed publication which I felt was contrary to what your article was about: being quiet , keeping one's head down, and was left wondered if those emails were really from you...?
you can remain anonymous in that discussion... nobody is having their name used if they don't want it... I don't see a contradiction.
And yes, they are from me... you can decline. I'm seeking information for an article I'm writing... not to out others.
Thanks for your reply. Good to know it was you.
I don’t see any way but by certified receipt requested snail mail then !!👀 But thanks. You should get Roger’s story, not mine, anyway.
I have a feeling he’s way younger than I am & you might want to find out why he thinks group suicide would be a topic you’d cover. A quick look at who he follows & what they promote & I see why .
I think there’s a ton of research to be done on why our two party system fails generation after generation… but nothing like what we are now seeing with maga. Or are they (maga) the cumulative result of our collective parenting, govt & societal failures? Did we cause this?
And what is Erik Prince up to these days?
I enjoyed the piece. I just don't agree with it. I have children that will be off to college soon. I love this country and the nation I was born in, Canada. Having traveled a lot, I appreciate what democracy and free expression provide. As a former research scientist, it is the basis of scientific exploration. So yes, I'm staying for the time being and do as much as I can in small way. You can love your nation, be a global citizen and embrace humanity. My dad always taught me, all roads lead to god. I was taught to be very tolerant of other people's beliefs. So I feel the tug of both options. The bitcoin, city-state (I hold none) and the desire to watch young people prosper in a cultural tradition that sometimes goes back centuries or longer. People often call me a contrarian - roots and wanderlust.
To cut and run would be failing my kids. I made a promise to myself and to them when I chose to have them. An analogy would be capital flight out of a country. Intellectual flight is problematic. I have a great appreciation for teachers, whether they are nation states, cultures, books, religions or people. I've never been known to quit easily. It might be a feature not a bug. Each person gets to decide for themselves. My suggestion is that it may not make for an easier life but perhaps a more rich and fulfilling nation.
My chicken scratch unfiltered answer. Instead of faster horses, I'd want more honest, organized, efficient breeders? Or more open space perhaps.