Welcome to another Friday mailbag edition of The Daily Cut.
This is where you get to ask your most pressing questions to your favorite analysts.
It’s also where you get to share your thoughts with your fellow readers on the big ideas you read about in these pages.
Today, I (Chris) want to feature some of the emails you’ve sent in about a big theme on our radar right now – the rise of the Surveillance Society.
As I’ve been showing you, governments are using the coronavirus pandemic to step up their levels of digital surveillance.
They’re tracking people using the GPS (satellite geolocation) data in their smartphones.
That means government officials can know where you are 24/7. It’s a scary prospect. And it’s outraged a bunch of people…
Before we get to that, I want to try to put to rest once and for all the health concerns surrounding the next generation of wireless networks – 5G.
As you may already know, our tech expert, “State of 5G” summit on Wednesday. It was all about the opportunity Jeff sees ahead for beaten-down 5G stocks.
But there are some concerns doing the rounds that 5G is causing the coronavirus to spread. Take these reader emails…
Are you aware of how damaging 5G is… and that the COVID-19 deaths could actually be attributed to 5G rolling out?
– Sandra F.
It is no coincidence that the first city in China to go online with 5G with thousands of antennas all over the city in the late fall of 2019 was WUHAN.
– Mark D.
But as Jeff put it to the team at Legacy in a recent note…
5G absolutely, most certainly does not cause COVID-19 to spread. Nor is it the cause of the coronavirus mutation in the first place. 5G is all good!
Jeff even went on former Fox News host Glenn Beck’s podcast to debunk this claim. (You can listen to Jeff explain everything here.)
And it’s not the first time Jeff has fielded questions about the health risks of 5G. Here’s a question Jeff got before the coronavirus pandemic…
Reader question: What do you think of the concerns that 5G technology is hazardous to our health?
– Lauren S.
Jeff’s answer: I get that new technologies – and media reports about potential risks associated with them – can be scary, especially if you’re not a scientist or researcher.
But let me say outright that 5G doesn’t pose a health risk. The research backs this up. Many of these same health concerns emerged during the rise of 4G – but the problems failed to materialize.
Cell phones emit radiofrequency radiation (radio waves). That’s a form of “non-ionizing” radiation.
This kind of radiation is normal. It’s all around us. Non-ionizing radiation has only enough energy to excite a molecule. And the by-product is just heat.
But there’s another type of radiation – “ionizing” radiation. Ionizing radiation is higher-frequency. So it can be a health hazard. It can cause radiation sickness, burns, cancer, and even genetic damage.
Ionizing radiation is the kind of radiation in nuclear power. But it’s not the kind we find in 5G technology.
Radiofrequencies (RFs) have been used in radio, TV, wireless networks, and many other services for decades. So regulators study them carefully. They want to be sure RFs have no negative impact on consumers’ health.
And to be clear, there’s no conclusive evidence that wireless technology causes side effects in consumers who use – or are even in the presence of – it.
If you’ve been hearing scary stories about 5G and wondering if they were true… I hope that puts your mind to rest.
For more from Jeff on what 5G is all about (including a personal demonstration of some blazing-fast 5G tech in action), catch up on his summit here.
Now, on to a question for Jeff about the rise of the Surveillance Society in the age of COVID-19.
As I showed you here and here… governments are forcing citizens to give up their civil liberties under the guise of emergency powers. And they’re tracking millions of people via billions of data points from smartphones.
The problem is that when governments take away liberties… they rarely give them back.
And folks want to know more…
Reader question: Aside from the fact that the government can trace my every move, what other information can it retrieve from my phone? Is it able to get bank account information, my crypto purchases, or where I spend my money? Just curious…
– Bruce B.
Jeff’s answer: The sad reality is that any consumer that has a smartphone is exposed to an extraordinary level of behavioral surveillance. Google and Facebook are the two worst perpetrators, but there are many others.
These companies track our locations every minute of the day, every website we visit, what we purchase online, what we search for online, things that we say, which smartphone applications we use, where we spend our money, where we work, and where we play.
Yes, they will know that we use digital wallets or go to cryptocurrency exchanges to transact. But the tax authorities will also know about cryptocurrency purchases, as they are recorded on a blockchain, which is a public ledger.
Government surveillance has been a hot-button theme in our mailbag lately…
You asked, “Are you happy to have the CDC track you by the GPS in your phone if it helps stop the spread of the coronavirus? Do you think the feds will stop this practice after the pandemic?”
Not only NO to both, but hell no!
If a person understands the stimulus-reaction-response method of population control, he will know that the virus was promoted into a worldwide panic just because it gives the feds a plausible excuse to implement the controls, tracking, and spying that they were itching to do anyway.
You just need to give people a reason to do what you want them to do. Then they begin doing it voluntarily. As one of the feds baldly stated, never let a good crisis go to waste. From there, the obvious next step is to create the crisis yourself to facilitate your preplanned response.
– Stephen K.
People – or “sheeple” may be a better word – have to wake up and smell the coffee. Now is the time to become aware of these dangers and take to the streets to stop them in their tracks!
– Ray F.
Anyone who thinks it is okay for the government or any other entity to track you has lost their mind.
If you are willing to have your rights so easily taken away, why don’t you pack up and move to China or some other communist or socialist country so those of us that truly value our freedoms can keep them?
Men and women have fought and died, and families have made life-altering sacrifices for the rest of us to be able to keep the freedoms we have.
I am sure some people will find my comments offensive, but as of right now, we still have freedom of speech, and I would love to keep it that way! God bless the free United States of America!
– Yvonne S.
America was founded by people who valued liberty and life over protection and safety. Unfortunately, it seems far too many Americans are happy to give up freedom for a sense of security.
The government never gives up something once it gets it. So it will use COVID-19 as justification to track us and erode privacy and individual liberties.
– Daniel F.
Finally, one reader put together a list of books and movies he believes will help people wake up to what’s going on…
Regarding the police state and its acceptance by the majority in the United States: In my opinion, most people in our society are so programmed/hypnotized/indoctrinated, they have already either consciously or subconsciously accepted the police state.
I suggest the following books and movies for those who are beginning to realize what is happening…
Books:
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- 1984 by George Orwell
- The Creature From Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve by G. Edward Griffin
Movies:
- Enemy of the State, starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman
- Network, starring Albert Finney and Ned Beatty
- Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise
- The Matrix, starring Keanu Reeves
- Elysium, starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster
– Roland C.
Thanks for your recommendations, Roland. I’ve also put together some resources since I first put the rise of the Surveillance Society on readers’ radars back in August 2018.
That’s when we created the Cut as a premium bonus e-letter for all paid-up Legacy Research readers.
You can start catching up on our advice with the following…
- “The Battle Against Online Snooping Starts Here” – Teeka Tiwari (The Palm Beach Letter, Palm Beach Confidential) shows how you can use cryptocurrencies to keep your financial transactions safe from online snoops.
- “Your Guide to ‘Going Dark’ Online” – Four simple steps from Bonner-Denning Letter coauthor Dan Denning you can use to reduce your digital footprint.
- “How to Escape the Digital Prison” – Teeka has an important addition to Dan’s “going dark” action plan that will come in handy when you’re surfing the web – no matter where you are.
- “Your Roadmap to Escape America” and “More Spots to Consider for Your ‘Escape America’ Roadmap” – If you’d rather get out of Dodge altogether, check out some of our top destinations.
Are you okay with government officials tracking your every move? Or is it right to sacrifice personal freedom for the greater good – if only for a short time?
Write us at [email protected].
Regards,
 |
Chris Lowe
April 10, 2020
Dublin, Ireland
Like what you’re reading? Send your thoughts to [email protected].