the great firewall of <unspecified country>

I currently find myself in a random coffee shop in a country that western media touts as ruled by a regime that does not uphold freedom of information. Before coming here and seeing for myself how exaggerated these allegations are, I was quite anxious myself. I brought a second burner phone that I will wipe as soon as I get back to another country with less surveillance, I keep all my communication tunneled through a Wireguard VPN at all times–there is no excuse for not following good OpSec, but in the end my worries thus far have been completely unwarranted. After crossing the border, circumventing the local internet restrictions is as as simple as flipping the switch on my iOS Wireguard app. No "bridge servers", no "Tor", no nothing necessary. Just connecting to a wifi, flipping a switch and we are good to go. I understand that someone with less security mindedness or a lack of technical know how will have trouble setting up their own Wireguard server. However, people I know are just using a paid VPN service that support Wireguard and they have it equally easy.

People without any knowledge of how to sideload an app or acquaintances that are able to do that will be left behind. "Horrible!" would my plugged in western friends say. People who fail to go with the times always have been left behind. Additionally, I would advise them to take a long and hard look at western media. There is nothing free or true about the media in our developed EU (or the other western countries for that matter). In any functioning system that is looking for the truth there should be a messy process emerging that fails to produce "the Truth" at times. Reality is simply not black and white, yet the past decade or so has shown that the so-called "free media" is running too perfectly in lock step. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and once you pay attention, once you had a taste of the red pill, you cannot unsee. You'll notice the propaganda everywhere. The regime led country I am in is equally manipulative as the "free media"of the west. They all have their agenda, they all have the enemies they conjure.

I have travelled, and lived in enough countries now that I have seen how blinded the citizenship in each country is. I have met so many IYI's that have travelled extensively, yet they fail to open their eyes. Travelling alone is clearly not enough. Once you open your eyes however, you cannot unsee, you stop participating in this modern incarnation of bread and circuses. I just wished more people would open their eyes, they would notice we are all equally being played here, our gaze directed away from the flames consuming our society, and veered towards "the enemy". Maybe once they'd notice how we are all more equal than different, and that the ones to blame is the intellectual ruling class, then we would all show more empathy for each other.