How To Take Back Local Government Without Violence

Your “smart” home might not be working for you. We dig into how the Internet of Things, connected appliances, and unexplained device features can turn everyday life into a control surface someone else understands better than you do. Heidi walks through the uncomfortable idea that we’re already out-teched, not just by phones and laptops, but by refrigerators, cars, and systems built with capabilities most owners never asked for and can’t easily verify.

From that wake-up call, we pivot to what we can actually do. The argument is simple and relentless: you’re not shooting your way out of a tech-enabled power gap, and you’re not hacking your way out either. Real change comes through people and local civic engagement, city by city, using legal processes and the structure that already exists in charters, policies, and local offices. We talk about starting at the ground level with school boards, city administrators, judges, and prosecutors, then building momentum to county and state leadership.

We also get practical about nonviolent community organizing, including a Puerto Rico tactic that’s as low-tech as it is effective: show up in numbers and bang pots and pans until leaders can’t ignore you and choose to step down. If you’re tired of feeling stuck, this is a direct push toward local accountability and sustained public pressure. Subscribe, share this with a friend who cares about local government, and leave a review. What’s one local office you could help change this year?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Hey there, it's Heidi, and this is the Surviving Changes Podcast. Today is a day off, so let's um do a quick 10 minutes and uh then we'll start again tomorrow. But so let's get back to why and how you're gonna take things back. And it's gonna have to be city by city. Um, and it's gonna have to be through legal processes. I've already gone through all

Why You’re Already Out-Teched

SPEAKER_00 0:44

of the patterns, and it doesn't end well for you guys. You're um way out armed, and you don't even realize it, even though you think that you have enough arms, you don't. Um, and you're way out tech'd. And some most people don't even remember realize how out-teched they are. So if you have a brand new fridge right now, if you have a brand new fridge right now, it's probably hooked to the internet of things, or at least it's capable of hooking up to the internet of things, and you think that you have to hook it up, but it just has to be wirely connected and it's already able. But they have little weights in there to even weigh your milk and crap like that. That's how much tech we're talking about. Call the Internet of Things. They sell it in that it'll be wonderful for all of us. Um oh, sorry. And that it'll make it to where instead of having to write a grocery list, it will just write one for us, right? When it sees that the milk is low. Shit like that. But that's how out tech you are. It look around your house. Um, I've worked in manufacturing, I've worked in law, I've worked in a lot of areas. Take any device in your house right now. Now, if it has a spot where there's a light or something like that that you're not using, if it's an on or off light, that's one thing. But if it's something that has like three or four different lights on it and you don't know what those lights are for, that means it's not for you. Somebody took the time to build that, to build the machines to build that extra spot that is not for you. So it's got to be for somebody. They have people in factories that have redesigned things specifically to have that spot there that's not for you. They've had lawyers write times and conditions about that thing that you're not using, that spot that is specifically not for you. So look in your house. You've got devices. I'm not just talking laptops and phones and iPads. I'm talking refrigerators, shit like that, um, gun lock boxes, cars, they're required to have that automatic pill switch before here too long. But they've a lot of them have had it for a while. Do you really think that that um what's that guy, Paul Walker? With everything that he had to live for and everything he had to lose, um, and with where he was at in life, do you really think he just drove fast and crashed that car? No, somebody crashed that for him. Somebody crashed that for him. Um simple as that. And so you're out tech already. Any targeted individual, anybody that's been put on that terrorist watch list that's still alive already knows all of this stuff. I might get into a car um with electric windows and stuff like that. I always keep something to be able to bust those windows. I already know. I already know what they're capable of and what they're willing to do. Um I have a lot of dead man switches, so I don't worry about that anymore. They now recognize so. But you should think about that. It's when you wake up in the morning. Oh my god. Why didn't you listen to? You call me names. You called me names. Um, not you specifically, probably, but I can tell you who. Um we can't do anything about it now. We could barely do something about it when I recognized it in 2009 and started telling people. So let's just get past that. You're not shooting your way out of it, you're not teching your way out of it. The only way you're getting out of this is to people your way out of it. Simple as that. And you're gonna have to do it the way um the founders and the way the constitution is set up for. That's that's how you're gonna get out. And you can't say that it's so bad now that it's too late. If you do, you're ignorant and grab a history book. There's a lot of countries that were a lot worse off

Rebuilding Power Through Local Replacement

SPEAKER_00 5:00

than we are right now that are doing just fine now because their citizens decided to turn it around. So if this fails, um it's directly on the citizenship and the citizenry and whatever you want to call them, the people. Uh, not always, but the people. So um, it's gonna have to be that way. And you're gonna have to start from the ground up. Because here is the honest to God truth. Um, and I know it because I was in practice and I saw it and I watched it. Anybody who is in practice or a judge or a prosecutor, any anybody in any of those fields, politician, anyone in any of those fields who's been there more than five years, you gotta get them out. And at this point, you guys just need to get them all out. Because here's the problem: after five years, you've either joined them or you're complicit, or you're fighting them, and then shortly thereafter you're dead or disbarred, or you have no credibility and no things, no bank account. I lived without a bank account for like nine years because of these pieces of shit. Imagine traveling the globe and not being able to get a bank account. You might not need to imagine it if you keep on the path you're going, but it's not too late. Don't believe anybody that says it's too late. But so um, it is not hard to run a city. I know you would think that it is, or it's not hard to run a courtroom, I know you would think that it is, or it's not hard to run a prosecutor's office, I know you would think that it is, but it's not. They have charters, they have systems, they have policies, processes that have been like set up for years, probably decades, maybe centuries, depending on what what we're talking about. Um what you need to do if you if you truly want to get this back without um fighting, and there is another way that I'll talk about tomorrow that Puerto Ricans do. That's a fabulous way to get their way without um without harm. So, and I'll probably talk about that tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. Um, but you're gonna have to go literally um school board administrator by city administrator by local judge and get every single one of them out. However, you need to do it. Um it would be great if you could get them voted or whatever, but it's not hard to fill their position, and you don't want somebody who has experience. Because if they have more than five years of experience, they're complacent or part of it. So find somebody with integrity, people who care to be put into these positions. And as long as they have an IQ of 90 or above, you're gonna be just fine. They're gonna run everything just fine. So start looking through your communities. Probably they've already, you probably need to look back 10 years because those people probably already tried to tell you um what they saw, but they've rebuilt lives now. They walk if they're still alive, um after what every you know what they've been put through, they probably don't want to help too much. Um but it's kind of like the shooter guy. You can pull the right the right strings and they'll get their Patriot um their Patriot back about 'em. We've been pretty let down. But so find those people. Find um youngsters that haven't been corrupted yet, but also don't have participation trophies hanging. You want nobody who has look at that. Should be the very first question that's asked of any candidate. Do you hang up participation trophies? Do you collect them? Those people do not belong anywhere in government. In my opinion, or parenting for that matter, but um, and probably it's gonna have to be a lot of us gen Xers, quite honestly. And I don't know what would motivate a lot of those guys. A lot of them are happy and content, and they've already we've we've put in our time. Um so, but I don't know. You need to, that's where you need to start. Oust anybody who's been there five years or more and replace them completely. Start at the city level and then move to the county level, and then you'll have enough momentum to move to the state level. And there are plenty of nonviolent ways to do it. I'm gonna just tell you real quick and then I'll tomorrow I'll actually pull the example. Puerto Ricans are fucking awesome, man. Um, they literally look at this is what you need to do to Senator Murray and um the other Gonzaga one, what's her name? On the other side, they're look at they're all horrible. Um, I'm not saying go out and hurt them. Um, but what I am saying

Nonviolent Pressure With Pots And Pans

SPEAKER_00 10:23

is you need to make them uncomfortable to where they voluntarily step down. So what happens here in Puerto Rico, and it hasn't happened for a while, I don't think, but when they do pull together because they're mad enough, it might over this water deal. Um when they get mad enough, they will literally all gather in front of the politician's home, sit in all of the areas, like hundreds of people, and start banging pots and pans. And they'll do it for a day, two days, a week, however long it takes, until them fuckers are ready to up and move and quit. And it works, man. Banging pots and pans. They don't lift a finger, they don't, um, you know, in in um, like there's no fight. They they don't have to do anything but beat on those drums or pans and pots. Or drums, some of them do drum circles, but essentially just clang the shit out of it. They can't live. They can't, if they go to their office, they're clanging in front of their office. So if you're not willing to bang some pots and pans for a few days, then I don't know how to help you. But if you are, I promise you'll get a lot of people to voluntarily step down. And we'll talk about that more tomorrow. I'm Heidi. This is Surviving Changes.