One of the things that bit me is one of those anti-system videos where they tell you not to speak to police or whatever. Turns out it's better just to say "hi officer, yes officer, no officer" than spending the night in jail for absolutely no reason other than "the internet taught me how to react to police answering questions."
A more harmless example is when I read that the best way to clean cooking oil spills was to add salt to absorb the oil. Didn't work, leaves more of a mess.
I got rid of a fine but just being nice, acknowledging my mistake to the officer and apologizing without the intention of getting away without my well deserved fine.
Human nature may be to help. It is always a risk to talk to officers. If you are being obstinate, prepare for someone with an authority complex to sit on you. Be also ready for that same person to sit on you for no reason and twist anything you say into a problem. Just don't give them ammo against you.
Biggest thing I missed is that I don't live in the US.
Even if I lived in the US, and the times I visited, I'm still disregarding most of the recommendations. It feels more like these people are making political statements of what should be and recruiting me and other viewers to help move towards that ideal.
Especially they want regular citizens to do this shit so that everyone has plausible deniability. The issue is that I strictly want to differentiate myself from criminals, in my experience any of these movements or technologies like Tor, cryptocurrency, pool me with people doing really bad shit.
If I'm in the US with a visa, and someone asks for my ID, I will show it to them, I will not shield illegal immigrants by refusing to show my visa. I will no longer do that in my country either, I literally thought "what if a Venezuelan was walking down these streets and the police stopped them, I must shield them by not revealing my identity" Fuck that, not my problem, here's my ID, officer.
Similarly if police ask me what I'm doing at 2 am, I will now tell them that I was working and there was an incident with the server at 2 am. I will no longer shield criminals that may be up to no good at 2 am in my neighbourhood, i will make the cop's job easy.
If my bank asks me for documentation of my business I will give it to them. If my ISP wants to see what servers I'm contacting for my porn, they may check my DNS requests and see that it's not a child pornography distributor. That's fine.
It's ok, take your tinfoil hats on. Use your judgment instead of listening to online extremists with an agenda. (Getting regular people to act like criminals so that criminals associations and behaviours can appear as legitimate)
"First they came for…" by Niemöller wants a word with you.
By not doing your social duty of providing plausible deniability wherever possible, you are recklessly endangering your future self, and everyone else you care or not care about.
Being scared to not stand up for your rights is understandable. On visa too. If I was in Mexico, I'd probably pay the bribes to dirty cops myself.
The advice is like not plugging in a random usb stick into your computer or wearing a condom. Risk vs reward. There is real risk unfortunately talking with police in the US.
The point of that video (by a lawyer and a cop, really, watch it if you haven't for those in the US) is that you open yourself to real legal risk talking to a cop. They can lie. They have pressure to perform, are often in potentially dangerous situations, are often jaded and assume you are guilty of something, the role self selects for bullies and weeds out those deemed too smart. Everyone and anyone can be a target depending on the officer. I have had positive experiences with a couple cops. I have also tasted lots of negative experiences.
We got pulled over and all of us were separated and the cops grilled us, lied about finding drugs on other passengers, tried to get each person, including minors who were isolated and now alone, to admit to illicit activities. We were completely straight edge and had nothing to hide.
Ah yes, the classic "I have nothing to hide". Just know that you are being cowardly if your response to an authority figure exceeding their legal authority is to immediately capitulate. Go ahead and make your life easier in the present if you must, but don't pretend the moral high ground; someday the shoe may be on the other foot.
It is worth considering why, if it is such a social good, you are not legally compelled to explain yourself to a police officer to their satisfaction on no more than a whim.
Conversely, it's better to spend a night in jail because you exercised your right to remain silent, than five years in prison because you accidentally confessed to something.
A more harmless example is when I read that the best way to clean cooking oil spills was to add salt to absorb the oil. Didn't work, leaves more of a mess.