Other Concerns to be Aware of

Hopelessness with the Current State of the World

Things are getting scarier every day. The current political state, climate change, technofeudalism, AI, corporations, the list goes on. It's extremely easy to give into the hopelessness of it all, but I implore you to not. Some things you can do to are:

• Volunteer : Bonus points if its something you're passionate in. I recommend looking into local community farming opportunities as you can provide your community with free healthy food while helping the environment and normalizing the idea of community farms and gardens.
• Organize : Join local political, advocacy, community, support, hobby, and volunteer organizations. The first bastion against tyranny is community.
• Educate yourself : Never stop learning. There's a famous quote that goes along the lines of "The day you stop learning is the day you stop growing" (ironically it isn't clear who said it first). It is much easier to keep an uneducated masses under control than it is an educated one. I recommend researching philosophy and political theory.
• Donate: Donate to local and global efforts. Also consider donating to things you might take for granted, like Wikipedia.
• Divest Don't support products, services, and corporations that wouldn't support you. Boycott companies like Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Amazon.
• Educate others: Not just on these other bullet points, but on the things you're knowledgeable about. If you're a med student, educate others on the dangers of pseudoscience like the anti-vax movement or horse medicine curing COVID-19. If you're into tech, make a guide for your friends on how to fight back against big tech (wink wink).
• Be a good person: Just generally. Be empathetic, be kind, be helpful, be ethical, be smart, be moral. Hopefully ou're doing that already, though.
• Work on yourself: Fix things you don't like about yourself, whatever that may be. Become a more complete and well rounded person. People are easier to control when they aren't competent. Exercise, educate, volunteer.
• Be active politically: Stay active on all levels of government. Vote, contact your representatives, stay educated, protest.

Technofeudalism

Technofeudalism is the economic idea that technology companies occupy similar roles to that of feudal lords in the past. It may seem far fetched, but in many ways we are already there (Yanis Varoufakis). It was championed in part by Yanis Varoufakis's book of the same name. Things like Peter Thiel's rise to power, JD Vance's upbringing, the US's interest in taking over Greenland, the corporatization of international politics, AI, and the inaction of global governments on climate change make infinitely more sense when you consider the possibility of corporations replacing governments. For a summary on the subject, I recommend this and this video by Epoch Philosophy or Varoufakis's own video summary of his book.

Surveillance State

Flock Safety cameras are everywhere. They’re supposed to be used for law enforcement and ICE, but they are extremely unsecure and publicly viewable with the right tools. To see a map of known Flock cameras, check DeFlock. There are some near your home, and likely more on the way if you don't advocate against them and protest on the local level (Benn Jordan). Before the controversial 2026 Superbowl commercial, Amazon's Ring doorbells also worked with Flock, culminating in an increasingly worrying and popular surveillance state (AP , 404 Media).

ID Verification Laws

Recently, multiple states, countries, and companies have either introduced or have started working towards ID verification rules that would require you to provide your ID before doing things online as simple as downloading any app:

• Texas Senate Bill 2420 would’ve gone into effect January 1st, 2026 if it wasn’t federally blocked by a judge after Attorney General Ken Paxton was sued by Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (KERA). This bill would've required app stores to require users to verify their IDs before downloading any app (Texas). Texas Republicans still want to make it law (Texas Tribune). This will mean the days of being private and secure on the internet will be over, as your internet activity will be directly tied to your government ID. This is also a huge safety concern, as companies often leak data.
• Australia has already implemented a ban on social media for those under 16, banning everything from Instagram to even streaming like YouTube and Twitch. Other countries are following suit (BBC). This means minors can no longer communicate on a mass scale, express their thoughts and opinions about issues, have their voices heard, or participate in the culture of today.
• Discord recently had a leak of 70,000 ID photos (BBC). Just four months later they decided to begin to roll out "Teen-by-Default" settings to all users unless you can prove your age with an ID, facial scan, or if their "age inference model" deems you to be an adult (Discord). Companies can not be trusted with your IDs.
• This is even scarier when combined with the fact that Google was going to ban installing apps from outside of Google Play on Android and would require app developers to verify their ID with Google before publishing their apps to Google Play (Android Developers Blog). This also would’ve gone into effect with the new year, but with consumer backlash they walked back the change (Android Developers Blog).