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.
Which is precisely why powers will try to make all these illegal
I don't think they are going to make libraries illegal mate.
But what about entering one anonymously?
You could download few terabytes from torrent site which will contain almost all books published prior to current date and use it offline btw.
No, you won’t be able to do that, because going online, or even logging into your PC will require ID verification.
But why wait? Do it right now and just store somewhere
use linux then, use a vpn, there's always a workaround
In 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/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
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.
Libraries track what books you read (nowadays via some database and in the past via paper)
They track what you lend, not what you read. Many people just read on location.
I 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)
Unless you read it directly at the library (at least in my country), without borrowing it.
Ah, like how we don't have pay phones any more because they were made illegal.
I saw a working payphone at Pinecrest Lake a month ago. Presuming you didn’t literally mean illegal, what did you mean?
You 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.
This is happening as we speak.
I 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.
I second this. Get off the net and away from the established society and into the parallel ones
Got 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).
agree with most of what you wrote but "Find like-minded people and meet in person." this is where things can escalate
This 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.