I'll check that out, thanks!

Could I ask, who did you get involved with and why were they shitty?

I'm not in the US but the SRA looks pretty cool. One big criticism I have though is it being explicitly far-left. That's just begging to be a major target for state infiltration & surveillance.

Of course, the state will infiltrate any left wing organization regardless of how tame it is, but maybe they would take it less seriously if it was just advertised as an anti-racist queer-friendly alternative to reactionary gun clubs.

Would you be able to elaborate? Personally I think lacking a large, international organization is a major barrier to progress. I guess it depends on your politics, but the way I see it, if people aren't coordinating a global movement, we might never truly abolish capitalism. Just a constant back and fourth between different factions from different geographical areas with different languages and different cultures.

I'd like to hear your thought process though. Maybe there's something I'm not seeing.

Thanks for sharing. I was thinking of joining the IWW myself but they're so small that I question if I should even bother. But at the same time, they're the only explicitly left wing organization I know of that's somewhat popular internationally.

Almost exclusively focused on convincing people to join.

Have you thought of trying to make change from within? I find an issue with political junkies is that many are focused on fantasy and culture rather than real world organizing and change. I was that kind of person for a while until recently. I think it could be beneficial if we could get other "radicals" to see that side of things and turn them into effective organizers that focus on what people actually care about, rather than being ideological larpers. What's your take on that?

Method 2) Infiltrate for the purpose of intel gathering, espionage, sabotage, etc.

De-googling Android is a challenge that's why projects like Librem 5 and Pinephone are important.

Linux phones are… not great to say the least. But afaik GrapheneOS is completely de-gooogled and looks like a far better alternative in terms of privacy and also usability. Just about every other ROM I’ve found (except maybe Calyx) has issues with security as well.

Lineage and Postmarket seem to be pretty terrible. They might be good for tinkering and customization, but not for security.

I’d only recommend GrapheneOS, CalyxOS, or iOS.

don’t have a phone have a dumb phone

Dumbphones have very rare legitimate use cases. Generally speaking they are actually worse than smartphones. You’d be unable to use anonymous VoIP numbers, unable to have any acceptably secure communications, etc. These are essential for having some privacy when using phones.

Where I can find a clear article about our smartphones actually listening to us, I found contradictory claims on the subject

I’ve never heard of phones which automatically record and transmit audio on the general public. However phones can obviously be tapped, bugged, and hacked, which would pose a threat on an individual level if you’re concerned about that. Phones also use insecure communications, such as SMS, which would be a threat to anyone really.

And what can we do to stop our conversations being spied on ?

Depends on your threat model. It could be as simple as using an end-to-end encrypted messenger such as Signal with ephemeral messages enabled. Or it could be something as complex as throwing out any mobile phones you own and sending encrypted messages from an airgapped machine via external storage such as a USB or CD. Even then, there are ways to infiltrate and exfiltrate date on airgapped computers. If that’s a concern for you, I’d suggest doing your own research on it. TEMPEST might be a good place to start, but it would probably be very difficult to perfect with an untrained person trying to replicate it in a home environment.

Is it only facebook that spy on our conversations or also others apps ?

It’s just about everything. Even the very hardware and operating systems you use can’t be trusted. Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android all have their own issues with security, privacy, and freedom. GNU/Linux is a little better for freedom and privacy, but their security is even worse than that of the previous operating systems I mentioned. And that’s not even talking about the hardware and firmware.

In the meantime support projects which have a focus on security and freedom. seL4, Genode, RISC-V, Power9, etc all seem like promising foundations. For now just pick whichever is best for your situation. For some people it’s Mac & iOS, for others it’s GrapheneOS & Qubes, etc.