Protecting Yourself From a Predatory StateJeff Berwick, Contributor Youve got to love the Internet and all manner of technology. I left glorious Acapulco at 1pm Central and arrived to freezing rain in Vancouver at 9:15pm Pacific. After being grilled by a young Asian man in a bulletproof vest about my intentions here in Kanada, and not being sent to the back room for a change (Im getting better at answering those questions correctly) I then took a taxi downtown and immediately hit the bar to numb myself from the boredom. I walked in, and within five seconds one waitress said, TDV. I thought I must have misheard so I smiled and kept walking. The Dollar Vigilante, she then said. I stopped and turned my head back. Um, do I know you? I asked. My husband and I just watched one of your videos from Acapulco, she said, What are you doing here? I looked out at the three feet of visibility and ice fog, I have no idea. The truth is, however, I am here for the Vancouver Resource Investment conference. It starts on Sunday and I speak on Monday at 2pm with my presentation which TDV subscribers already got a sneak preview of in the January issue of TDV, Stop Living in the Investment Past, Man. I also, in just a few hours, will be speaking at a fundraiser for the Gold Anti-Trust Action committee (GATA) which you can hear about here. Youre an anarchist, right? she asked. Yes, I replied proudly. Did you hear there was an anarchist protest a few days ago here? she asked. No, I said . . . and was a bit confused. Most anarchists dont protest. But, I gave her the benefit of the doubt, What was it about? She then went on to tell me that a bunch of people in black masks were protesting and confronting the efforts to build an oil pipeline. She continued to tell me more about what was recounted here. According to these people: The capitalists dont care what we think, they only care about the millions to be made from exploiting the land, water, and from our time spent working away from our families and loved ones. Continuing to dialog with these vultures helps to maintain the illusion they can be swayed with moral arguments. We encourage you to instead talk to one another about how to self organize and take action to stop them and protect whats left. A diversity of tactics are needed; from social confrontation and attack to social outreach, popular education, fundraising, building on the land, cooking, cleaning, child care and so on I nearly gagged as I read that and heard her interpretation of it. To paraphrase: People taking risks and investing money in order to bring a product to market that is in high demand by most people dont care. They only care about the money to be made (correct). They are exploiting land, water and peoples time by paying them money! You cant talk with them (because we are crazy) so we must use violence and confrontation and attack them. And, also, vaguely take charge of your own life and use social outreach (??), popular education (yes, thats the best kind of education, the popular kind), raise funds (isnt having or wanting funds bad?), building on the land (takes funds), cooking, cleaning, child care and so on. That, I think is my most favorite sentence in this insane diatribe cooking, cleaning, child care and so on. They must have been thinking, Hmmm, Im out of stupid ideas, why dont I just mention things that people need to do daily. They could have ended it with, bathing, vacuuming, window tinting and so on and it would have made about as much sense. After the girl explained it all to me, I put my hands to her lips and made a shhhh sound. I then whispered to her, Those arent anarchists. Those are communists. Big difference. She looked confused as I walked down Granville Street past some leather clad, heavily pierced people who were lighting a garbage can on fire. F**k the rich, man said one hoodlum with an anarchist logo emblazoned on his sweater. I kept walking, shaking my head. As I did, one of the anarchists asked, Got any change, man? I responded, I thought you didnt like money? and walked into the night. FORGET THE NORTHERN 2/3RDS OF NORTH AMERICA I had only stopped over in Houston at the Bush crime family international airport for two hours and had spent two hours on the streets of Vankouver and had already reminded myself why it is a lost cause in the upper 2/3rd of North America. In my two hours in Houston, CNN-sponsored televisions shouted at me constantly about the need to steal guns from morally correct people and only allow guns in the hands of criminals. Two people behind me on the airplane were parroting the views they here on TV and one said, We need to ban guns or more tragedies will continue to happen in our public schools! said one moron. I cringed at the word, we, but turned to them and said, Youve just made an excellent case for banning public schools. They both looked at me like I was from outer space so I ordered another chardonnay and put on my Bose noise-and-stupidity-cancelling headphones until I reached Vankouver. Once here there isnt much talk about guns because, of course, they are already banned. So, most people just talk about how bad capitalism is. In only a few hours I remembered why I hate coming up here. In Mexico, politics is rarely discussed. And if it is, it is with a worthy disdain and the conversation usually quite quickly goes to music, food, sex, life, dancing and happiness. A much more civilized state of affairs. TDV GROUPS Thats what makes TDV Groups so great. We have a network of freedom-loving individuals around the world who can help you visit and/or move to their area without most of the headaches of trying to figure it out all on your own. We have TDV Groups around the world. Below are just a few of them (note the links only work for subscribers). If youd like to start a TDV Group in your area, please contact James Guzman (jguzman@tdvmedia.com). For anyone wishing to start a new group in an area not already covered we will offer a free subscription to TDV. Here are a few of the groups we already have: Argentina Cafayete Floyd Wayne Shackelford Brazil Sao Paulo John Meagher Cambodia Phnom Penh Col McLaurin Canada Toronto Redmond Weissenberger Chile Santiago Ken Carpenter Colombia Medellin Marco Bolivar Costa Rica San Jose Sebastian Ortiz Dominican Republic Cabrera Barry Soloman Las Terrenas Terry Hawaii Honolulu Mike Zentz Honduras Roatan Amy Murphy Mexico Acapulco James Guzman Merida Richard Nichols San Miguel Jim Karger Nicaragua Cornito Paul Scott Phillippines Ozamiz City Peter Krueger Thailand Pattaya Sonny Addison Uruguay Punta Del Este Ronald Yoder Dont see your area on the list and are a devout TDVer and freedom-lover? Contact us today to start up a group where you live! VIDEOS OF THE WEEK I had the pleasure of speaking with James Turk of Goldmoney.com this week. The topics covered a wide array of issues from anarchism, gold, gold stocks, bitcoin and more. You can see it here: As well, I was thrilled to hear that Stefan Molyneux will be attending the upcoming Global Escape Hatch conference in Belize in March. Stefan is one of the best thinkers and speakers on the planet and will only make the conference even better! I have been told there are not many spaces left in the limited amount of attendees so if you are looking to attend a life-changing conference on internationalization and freeing yourself from a number of the worlds top experts on the beach in a tropical paradise, here is your chance! Stefan Molyneux and conference organizer, Bobby Casey, did an interesting video this week on Protecting Yourself from the Predatory State to whet your appetite: OFF INTO THE FOG Thats it for this week! Im about to bundle up and head off into the fog over to the Granville Island hotel for the GATA fundraiser with Bill Murphy and crew. And then spend the next few days amongst some of the worlds best precious metals analysts including Doug Casey, Peter Schiff, David Morgan, John Embry, Louis James and Rick Rule, just to name a few. Our own Senior Analyst, Ed Bugos, will also be in attendance and meeting with dozens of companies trying to unearth a future 10-bagger for TDV Premium subscribers. Until next time, stay warm and try to live free! linkwithin_text=Related Articles: 