Stupid Sexy Privacy

Privacy Tips Episode 1 Transcript
"Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Privacy Tips, the sister podcast for Stupid Sexy Privacy.

I'm your host, B.J. Mendelson

Today's show is made possible by our friends at DuckDuckGo.

So if you enjoy what we do, check out their DuckDuckGo Subscription. It comes with a simple and easy to use VPN, identity theft protection, data removal service, and more.

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Now, my friends ...

Stupid Sexy Privacy has wrapped, and you can now find all of the episodes online at stupidsexyprivacy.com on the "Episodes" Page.

I'll be joining you for most of this year, same Bat Time, same Bat Channel as Stupid Sexy Privacy, with a new episode of Privacy Tips posted every Thursday at 11:59 p.m. (Or Friday at midnight.)

We'll occasionally have interviews, including an upcoming one with the authors of How to Survive Authoritarianism, but this Privacy Tips is a little different from Stupid Sexy Privacy.

My hope is to present you with a couple of things each week.

First is how to do something we talked about in our new book, how to protect yourself from fascists and weirdos with easy to follow directions.

The second is that I'm going to read to you ... Well let's call it the Director's Cut of How to Protect Yourself From Fascists and Weirdos.

My version of the manuscript is different from the final version in a couple of ways. First, it's got a little more of my personality in it. And second, there's some stuff that was cut due to word count constraints in the final version.

And for those asking, you can read the full, finished manuscript over at stupidsexyprivacy.com by clicking on where it says "Book."

The Audio edition, read by Kiff Vandenheuvel, should be out to buy in early October. I don't yet have a set date, which is why I haven't sent an update out to everyone on the stupidsexyprivacy.com newsletter. As soon as I do, I'll send out that update. But we're definitely locked for October.

Now without further ado, this week we're going to get right into our reading, after a word from our friends at DuckDuckGo ...

Book Excerpt
"My goal is to train 5 percent of Americans to be 1 percent better at protecting themselves from fascists and weirdos. If you follow only the checklist at the end of Chapter 2, you will help me accomplish that goal.

I seek this goal because America finds itself amid a rupture. We've had two political parties going back to the 1790s. Today that's no longer the case. The Republicans no longer exist in any meaningful form; what remains is a cult made up of fascists and weirdos. The Democrats have been hijacked by the people who fund those fascists and weirdos. And neither party wants to solve the problem that creates fascists and weirdos in the first place: the money. Who has it—the oligarchs. And who does not—99.9 percent of us. A Gallup poll in January 2026 reported that a record number of Americans, 45 percent, do not affiliate themselves with either political party. That means there are around 154 million people who do not like the way things are going. If they were counted as an independent nation, those people would find themselves between the eighth and ninth most populous nations on Earth. Something I'll discuss in more detail later is that Mobilized is what you see at a protest. Organized is what you see at a general strike. For now, just imagine what just 5 percent of those politically unaffiliated people could do—if they got organized—and demand the passage of the Second Bill of Rights. The rest of this book is meant for that 5 percent.

As long as our system of government remains captured by oligarchs, we're in danger from the fascists and weirdos they fund. The closer we get to sealing the rupture, the more money the oligarchs will spend to protect it. That's because they created the rupture—the wicked combination of extreme income inequality, rising fascism, and the global climate emergency—with their greed. There is no negotiation to be had with the oligarchs. You can't appease them. They will not willingly give back the money that they stole using tax shelters, intentionally vague tax laws, and financing almost every politician. This includes most of your choices in the primaries, for both parties, and the two left standing for the general election. Nothing changes until we take that money back. And until we do, that money will be spent sowing discord. If we are too busy fighting with each other, we can't count the tax dollars stolen from public schools to pay for luxury yachts."

Show Outro
Today's episode of Privacy Tips was recorded in Hollywood, California, and is sponsored by DuckDuckGo.

It was written, produced, and hosted by me, B.J. Mendelson.

Before we go, I want to give a shout out to the production team at Stupid Sexy Privacy which includes Andrew VanVoorhis, Rosie Tran, and Amanda King.

And, of course, our friends at DuckDuckGo.

If you enjoyed today's show, we hope you'll take a moment to leave a review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you may be listening.

This won't take more than two minutes of your time.

You see, we have this crazy goal, and we need your help to achieve it.

We want 5 percent of Americans to be 1 percent better at protecting themselves from fascists and weirdos.

Leaving us a review can help make that happen.

That's because your reviews will help other people find this show.

So, please take a moment to leave us a review, and we'll see you next time on Privacy Tips.