The tactics for dealing with persecution are not at all like military tactics. It’s more like espionage.
There is a high probability the federal government will begin to oppress via any number of “social justice” measures. This signals a rising hatred for traditional moral assumptions, and even more hatred for genuine biblical moral standards. It’s a new brand of social orthodoxy that puts extreme pressure on nonconformists. The government will tend to respond quickly to SJW complaints. And where the government itself cannot do anything, it will encourage private efforts, encourage the organization of mob action and lynching — figurative and sometimes literal.
This is on top of economic collapse. Thus, any form of limited economic recovery will be tied to a collection of agenda items. There will be a “social credit score” — you’ll be denied access to markets on the grounds that you don’t sufficiently support various forms of oppression. So we would expect lots of noise about climate change, enforced social equality, hatred for whites, confiscation of privately owned firearms, confiscation of other forms of property for any number of reasons, soaring fees and taxation on everything imaginable, etc.
It’s already upon us. As more and more of the federal bureaucracy is subverted into this effort, as more and more commerce and various private institutions join this trend, your life as a Christian will become a target for their spite. Sure, there’s a place for bold and honest resistance, but the majority of us aren’t called to that. Our mission is to preserve the truth, even if it means keeping it out of sight for awhile.
Granted, the primary threat is someone shoving a test of social orthodoxy in your face. Some of the most innocuous activity will get their attention. Everywhere you go, you are under surveillance. In the privacy of your own home, everything you do online is being surveilled.
It’s as if you are some kind of foreign agent. During the worst of this madness, your mission is small. It’s really more like simply keeping your identity intact while in a hostile atmosphere. You aren’t here to change the world; the aim is not to change the government. The whole point is simply to be here and to maintain fellowship and communion. Keep the network alive for some later date. That’s really all you have to do. The tension will pass somewhere down the road.
Anything else you might do will be a matter of opportunity. This amounts to sabotage in reverse: You can occasionally identify someone ready to come over to your side. But the primary objective is simply to strengthen the resolve of those who have already sworn allegiance to your King.
Sometimes you can be totally unseen, avoiding the surveillance. At other times you are simply unnoticed. You don’t want to trip the alarm until it doesn’t matter. You will trip it, sooner or later, but the timing and context have to be just right.
Meanwhile, you have to understand the context of persecution. It’s oppression at large. It’s hard on everyone for all kinds of reasons. It’s hard on the police, too. Their enforcement will show the difference. Most of them are not gung-ho unless they’ve been somehow juiced up mentally to really believe in the mission. People with that kind of drive rarely bother with the slim pickings of policing the general public. In a really rough situation, perks are just as valuable as money. What kind of perks are offered to the various agents of oppression? There won’t be all that many true believers.
The current oppression will use CCTV surveillance and lots of AI. Expensive stuff, so it won’t be ubiquitous. There are places where the surveillance will be high, and you have to adjust your actions to match that. Try not to be noticed. In other places, it will be nonexistent. The issue there is human observation. How likely are you to encounter active enforcement? How probable are snitches?
A major element in such espionage is to reduce dependencies. Try to be self-contained for everything that matters. You have to examine the cost-risk ratio for everything you do. What kind of thing can tip them off and draw attention to yourself? What kind of things must you do regardless of the risks? How can you reduce your exposure?
Let me cite an extreme example to indicate the kind of thinking it requires. I’m not facing any real threat right now, but I’m thinking in these terms. Now, on the one hand, the truth is I have a very real need to work at keeping my heart healthy. Whatever the doctor’s diagnosis means, a significant element of therapy means keeping up my cardiovascular fitness. So that means engaging in cardio exercise without exposing myself unnecessarily. On the other hand, let’s imagine that I face a high threat of persecution.
In a high threat environment, riding a bike makes me a moving target. And if I tend to ride out into rural areas, I’m less likely to be noticed, unless I present a nuisance on busy roads. So I practice staying away from high traffic areas. Nobody is likely to track my route on longer rides, but the shorter ones need to be randomized. I need to know the back roads well enough to mix it up. A part of my advantage is that most cyclists are some brand of SJW, so it’s an approved activity already.
But the rest of my body is involved in heart health, so I have to work out my entire musculature. Go to the gym? That leaves a record, establishing a habit profile. It also increases social exposure. Go to the park? That raises a fairly high risk of snitches and actual policing in most of our parks. Work out on the mat in my front room? That’s pretty secure. Not as much fun, but I can tweak the workout to give a good physical benefit that, for the purpose of my heart health, can match a workout anywhere else.
None of these are genuine issues right now in Oklahoma, but you get the idea. Part of the game is assessing the real threat. I could easily add things like mask mandates as another factor. Right now I live in a state where the government doesn’t always cooperate so well with federal authorities, but we have way more SJWs than I like. We need to begin preparing now for what is likely to come. We need to be aware of how to calculate costs and risks for every little thing.
The issue of anonymity online is a part of this picture. Anonymous posting of the gospel truth is a clandestine attack on the system. It will not go down smoothly in the future. It’s not paranoia to be aware of a very real threat.
