What I recommend

Blogs, News Organizations, Independent news, Press outlets

CrankySec - unapologetically snarky, deliciously funny, and very informative at the same time. It's a blog with infrequent posts about the infosec industry. One popular post you might have seen from the blog, that I also recommend reading, is Your Security Program Is Shit.
Field of Vision and its YouTube channel - docummentary unit that commissions, creates and supports nonfiction films, often collaborates with Freedom of the Press Foundation, The Intercept, and various other independent journalists and news.
Mysk - Independent security researchers. Also active on Mastodon, they revealed that Signal still hasn't done anything regarding local encryption on the macOS Signal Desktop app, even if the issues were reported all the way back in 2015-2016. Signal has finally, allegedly, begun developing this feature following pressure from the community. Fucking finally. Mysk also revealed about how 2FA apps are spying on you - do NOT use Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, or Authy. All details are in the post I made, as linked here.
Pluralistic - Very useful link-blog where Cory Doctorow posts links with some commentary and analysis. For example, the very recent "carbon neutral" Bitcoin operation founded by coal plant operators wasn't actually carbon neutral (to no one's surprise). Or, the largest campaign finance violation in US history (again, unsurprisingly, some cryptocunts from Silicon Valley back the GOP because they want tax cuts for the ultra-rich and the ability to continue running crypto Ponzi schemes. What fun!).
Recorder - incredible independent, long-running, press outlet that has both documentaries and sometimes, daily or weekly catch-ups on current news on YouTube. Has a podcast as well as a website that contains some more reporting. Has made some of the best reporting in this country, highlighting the literal mafia that the Romanian Orthodox Church is behind its facade and its massive, expensive and megalomaniac cathedral in Bucharest, the crumbling medical system, the 30 years of 'democracy' in Romania, numerous logging thefts, or better said, another literal mafia group, the disastrous and inefficient COVID-19 response, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis' secret flights that cost millions of euros, and so, so much more. It's among the top, best and actually independent, news outlets in the country. They have no sponsors. They can be contacted securely or anonymously depending on what you have to share with them, they support SecureDrop, Signal, PGP email and phone calls, even if not the best option. You can support or donate to them here. Primarily left-wing leaning.
Rise Project - a small independent community of journalists, programmers and activists that investigate organised crime groups and regional corruption in Romania. Similar to Recorder, has investigations up on their blog, and projects such as articles on the Tate brothers and recent sexual abuse and harassment in the education system. You can donate to them here.
Seirdy's blog - Interested in software, web design, accessibility, thankfully not a fossbro, interested in security and privacy. Recommend reading the articles and notes, they're helpful and detailed. You can support him if you like what he does.
Simon's old Blog & Simon's new Blog - great, short posts about privacy, piracy, Android, software and other topics. The old blog currently has the most posts, they might eventually be added on the new blog.
Soatok's Dhole Moments blog - A blog by Soatok on software, security, cryptography and furries. Some of the 'best hits' are his posts on why AES-GCM sucks, why XMPP+OMEMO sucks, what does it mean to be a Signal competitor and why Threema is bad. You can donate to Soatok on Ko-Fi if you like his stuff.
Solène Rapenne's website - A long, long list of posts regarding primarily BSD, OpenBSD, security, debugging and games. For example, there's a really nice OpenBSD setup guide for extreme privacy that you can follow, or how to install GNOME on OpenBSD, a guide I might have to follow if I'd ever move to, or try out OpenBSD.
Starea Nației (State of the Nation) - incredible independent, long-running, daily 'show', weekly live show and podcast that talks about current things that are good and bad with Romania, has podcasts, and sometimes invites some people for interviews - show is available on YouTube - Starea Nației Oficial, has a website and you can donate to the project. They're also building a theater in Ploiești, from independent donations. The show's host and 'owner', Dragoș Pătraru, has spent most of the money he earned over two decades, and even borrowed some from banks, so that he could invest almost a million EUR into this project. They're not sponsored by anyone. Primarily left-wing leaning from the politics side, LGBTQ+ friendly, with a somewhat nuanced take on capitalism. I love watching this. Some premieres have auto-generated Romanian captions, so it's possible you could translate them to your language if you want to watch the show. It's REALLY helpful if you want to know what happens in Romania, on a day-to-day basis. Highlights corruption, hypocrisy and lies by the Romanian government, and its institutions. ; Vocea Nației is the podcast, same thing really, just less of a show, and more focused on one topic at a time, such as health, education, or a larger topic. ; Starea Sănătății (State of Health) focuses only on health topics (e.g. dangers of vaping, chickenpox disinformation campaigns, a healthier lifestyle, why more young people get cancer), and is similar to the podcast, plus a mini-show, Starea NEsănătății (State of un-Health, as in unhealthiness), where they highlight the lies and the unhealthy foods you can buy in the store, in any and all categories. ; Vocea Nației (Voice of the Nation) is a weekly podcast where the host talks about one topic per episode. They do have a partner for the podcast, Server Config.
Techlore - You might not like all of the takes or opinions, but it's generally a decent enough starting point into privacy, with the Go Incognito guide, even if somewhat outdated in my opinion.
The Intercept - Left-wing nonprofit news organization. Great reporting, managed to uncover many things governments have tried to hide or censor. Additionally, regardless if you're a whistleblower or not, their guide on how to remain anonymous is helpful, if you'd ever want to share secrets or blend in with the crowd.

People

3kliksphilip, 2kliksphilip, kliksphilip - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Counter-Strike 2, Source Engine, Source 2, Half-Life: Alyx, Source mapping, old guides, general gaming, photography and videography, Philip's story about developing his own games, developing his own CSGO maps, etc. All-round, equal parts entertaining and informative, I really recommend his channels. I keep looping his playlists regarding his mapping and game development journey when making my own stuff, it helps me concentrate. Also publishes music, has a CS:GO / CS2 music kit.
Adam Something - satirical, funny, yet very informative videos about current topics regarding the Russian-Ukraine war, cryptobros, right-wing bullshit, alpha male bullshit, alt-right BS, debunking Elon Musk and other techbros' utter drivel, etc. For example, one video I really recommend at the moment is a video regarding ~2500 Russian propaganda books where Stalin saves the day, spreading communism (ugh 🤮). These books seemed to have been overlooked, but they could be very important as to why many people in Russia still support the ongoing war. Wrote a nice little thread on Mastodon about this exact thing after watching it. Really useful information.
Alan Fisher - known for his YouTube series, The Armchair Urbanist. If you like Not Just Bikes, you'll like this channel as well.
Babish Culinary Universe - Also known as Cooking With Babish. Really good recipes, nowadays also does tierlists which I like, but I kind of wish they live-streamed cooking again, those streams were pretty interesting.
Boy Boy - "making communist propaganda for idiots", but now really, I do like some of their investigations, such as the recent Pine Gap video. Their views seem to be socialist, and this is seemingly confirmed by a stream by HassanAbi. I'd be a little disappointed if they turn out to be actually communist, but I'd still watch as long as the content is good.
Crowbcat - Highly edited, experimental game analyses, comparisons and compilations, such as overpromise, sell, underdeliver Cyberpunk 2077, Remember Halo, Back 4 Blood proves Valve carried Left 4 Dead (as the B4B team had, at most, 3 or 4 ACTUAL former Valve/Turtle Rock Studios employees, so B4B isn't actually "from the people that made L4D", that's just a blatant misrepresentation), some painful console launches, Todd Howard (Bethesda)'s little lies, various supercuts of events such as E3, etc. Cool stuff, even if the videos are posted very rarely!
Cymaera - Minecraft mod / framework developer. The latest video is about a procedural galloping animation system, based on a procedural walking animation system unveiled in March 2024.
Dean Ashford - Unreal Engine 4 and 5 tutorials. He stopped uploading a year ago (in 2023), however most, if not all tutorials still hold up well.
Drew Gooden - somewhat mindless entertainment content, however he does make some more serious videos on topics such as how AI is ruining the internet, how cars are getting dumber (and therefore, worse), or how delivery apps fuck over everyone.
Eddy Burback - in a similar fashion to Drew Gooden, however with fewer mindless content. Some of the 'best hits' are videos on the truth about ghost kitchens and the soulless, dystopian, shitty $3500 Apple Vision Pro.
Highland Kall - trans gal that likes to draw, has a few short videos from time to time.
InsertNameHereGameDev - Some Unreal Engine 4 / 5 tutorials, mostly related to vehicle NPC AI.
Jay Versluis - He creates useful videos and posts regarding Unreal Engine (145 posts), Blender (146 posts), DAZ Studio, Photoshop, Marvelous Designer, ZBrush and Premiere.
Lusiogenic - Physics-related Unreal Engine 4 tutorials. Stopped uploading videos in 2021, however he still seems to be active on Twitter, resharing posts as recently as August 10, 2024.
Madaidan's Insecurities - Useful resource with quite a lot to read on topics such as how to harden your Linux installation, why Linux phones suck ass, and a few more guides. Madaidan is a security researcher that works mainly on Whonix, and other open-source projects. However, the blog hasn't been updated since the beginning of 2022, unfortunately.
MadMaraca - Also known as Mari, she has a big portfolio of voxel art, some of which were auctioned on OpenSea for tens of thousands of dollars (a couple ETH a piece). She is one of the reasons I got into voxel art using MagicaVoxel. I don't strive to do something as detailed as her, but to do my own things in my own way and art style(s). Either way, her art is really, really detailed and breathtaking. Some of her art was showcased in various exhibitions, and was displayed on iconic billboards such as Times Square. Very cool stuff!
Matt Aspland - Good Unreal Engine tutorials, especially if you're a newbie. Also hosts game jams from time to time.
münecat - rare, but good investigations into pseudoscience, MLMs, scams, the 'manosphere', capitalism, and politics.
Not Just Bikes / Jason Slaughter - Take the orange pill. Not Just Bikes focuses on urbanism isusues in primarily the US, Canada and the Netherlands, but has some videos on other countries such as Japan as well, on topics such as cycling, car-free infrastructure, public transport, walkability and debunking some lies here and there. Did/does some livestreams at times, very irregularly, when cycling.
Ordinary Things - not quite an ordinary channel. Has great docummentaries and yearly recaps.
Patrick Breyer - member of the EU Parliament, affiliated with the German Pirate Party, Patrick is a digital rights activist and jurist. His posts are usually related to topics and initiatives he backs or creates, such as StopChatControl or iBorderCtrl.

Podcasts

For everyone's convenience, links here are direct RSS links to the podcasts, so you can put them in your preferred music app or client, such as Rhythmbox.

Fesshole: The Podcast - Two guys reading dumb confessions (shortened to fesses) and laughing at them, every Tuesday.
Opt Out podcast - A privacy-focused podcast where guests come and talk about what tools and techniques they use, to protect their privacy. Interestingly enough, one episode was about the Samourai Wallet, back on January 16, 2022 - way before the owners got caught by the FBI for running a cash mixer and allowing criminals to mix their money with clean money. That doesn't really matter now anyways. They also had people from the Tor Project and Safing.io join them, which is cool! I recommend it, even if uploads are seemingly very scarce nowadays.
Psychology in Seattle Podcast - A psychology podcast that is quite informative. Each episode mainly focuses on one or a few topics at a time, such as 'Polyamory and Sister Wives', 'Pedophiles and Infidelity', 'Awkard asexual dating and unworthy for therapy', etc. Would recommend if you're interested in psychology and/or human behaviour.
The Break Down podcast - non-profit run, started in May 2024. The podcast is dedicated to how capitalism works, and how it's being changed by both climate change and a possible economic crisis.
The Official Podcast - (Formerly) four guys, Jackson, Andrew, Charlie (penguinz0, also known as MoistCr1TiKaL) and Kaya would gather to talk about one major topic, plus a few smaller ones every Thursday. 400 episodes since its inception back in 2016 (a whopping 8 years of podcast episodes!), Charlie has decided to step away from the podcast, so it's only Jackson, Andrew and Kaya now, as of episode 400.
The Self-Host Cast - Ran by the selfh.st team, they invite an influencer or a developer from the self-host community to talk to and learn about their projects and ideas.

Posts, Articles, News, Media

Look Inside the Windowless New York Skyscraper Linked to the NSA // The Intercept - 1992 photographs from the interior of the 33 Thomas Street building were published shortly after the TITANPOINTE article revelations, by a 60-year old artist from Brooklyn, Stanley Greenberg, who took these photos after AT&T granted him access to the building for his research on a 1998 book he was writing, however these photos never made it into the book. The cover photo shows 4ESS switches, NSA has tapped into such switches in TITANPOINTE, 'RIMROCK access' as the NSA calls these switches. The building also houses batteries, that can be used for up to two weeks in the event of a power failure. Additional photos were provided by a former AT&T technician, Mark Klein.
Same-Sex Mothers: Letting Albatrosses Be Albatrosses // National Geographic - A cute and yet, slightly sad article about same-sex female albatross couples on an island in Hawaii. Some females mate with a male, but then find a female partner to help take care of the egg, because the island is mostly inhabited by female albatrosses, and relatively few males. Usually, the females would alternate which year, as to which one will be the one to lay an egg. If both lay eggs, one of the eggs will die. The female that lays the egg will immediately go into a three-week incubation shift to take care of the egg, and being unable to return to the sea to find food, she will starve for that time period, putting her health at risk of death - one of the reasons why same-sex couples of albatrosses have fewer offspring than mixed sex albatrosses. It's also been observed over the years that some same-sex pairs will stick together, instead of finding a male and becoming a couple. This also serves as evidence to those 'traditionalist' cunts that same-sex and mixed sex couples (or no couples, sometimes) are natural. To imply humans, a much more complex and social mammal, does not naturally have same-sex couples and families, is horseshit, and I'm sick of hearing otherwise. A 'traditional' family composed of a man and a woman is purely a social construct fabricated by humans that think they're the gatekeepers of relationships, because some fabricated cult, book or religion tells them that's the only 'normal' we should accept. The fact of the matter is that ALL couples and relationships, no matter their sex or gender, are 'natural'.
The NSA's Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities // The Intercept - The NSA has hidden spy hubs in at least 8 US cities, to The Intercept's knowledge: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC, they're all in AT&T buildings. AT&T has always been friendly with the Pentagon and in turn, with the DoD, FBI, NSA and possibly the CIA, among other agencies. AT&T is unique, in that it maintains relationships with other phone and internet providers, which the NSA can exploit for surveillance purposes. The facilities owned by AT&T that the NSA can tap into are valuable, because they're 'backbone' or 'peering' facilities, they're very important for both AT&T and the NSA. These 8 facilities and AT&T are part of NSA's FAIRVIEW program (AT&T is the only company involved in FAIRVIEW), and within a few months since launching new Internet mass surveillance tools in 2003, the NSA collected 400 billion records about people's Internet communications and activity, and FAIRVIEW is forwarind >1 million emails/day to a "keyword selection system" at NSA'S Fort Meade.
The NSA's Spy Hub in New York, Hidden in Plain Sight // The Intercept - 33 Thomas Street, 'Project X' is a building designed to withstand an atomic blast, with 29 floors, 3 basements. But its main purpose is to house a telecommunication hub for the AT&T, the largest center for processing long-distance calls in the world, and the NSA has tapped into it among 58 other phone and Internet hubs owned by AT&T in the US via a secure room in the building (a SCIF), in order to intercept or collect anything that passes through there, such as phone, VoIP or teleconference calls, faxes and Internet data (the NSA BLARNEY program). The NSA has collected billions of emails, metadata records, and has speid on the UN, World Bank and 38 countries through such hubs, especially through TITANPOINTE. Additionally, 33 Thomas Street is also used for NSA's SKIDROWE program, which focuses on intercepting satellite communications. A collaboration between Field of Vision and The Intercept resulted in a YouTube Video, if you want to see a more artistic, narrated version of the article. It's even narrated by Rami Malek and Michelle Williams! As for the actual building, I really like it. This is brutalist architecture done right, in my eyes, for a windowless skyscraper. // For a TL;DR - AT&T works with everyone, the NSA is tapped into AT&T in many places, but specifically 8 important places in the US. If you're calling someone, sending an email, a fax, a VoIP call, a teleconference, or just use a US provider's Internet connection, it's all passed through such sites, and if you're a POI, without a doubt your stuff is getting passed through to the NSA. Additionally, they monitor emails through the FAIRVIEW program. If your email contains specific keywords, the email is forwarded to NSA's Fort Meade headquarters.

Projects, Websites

Arkenfox user.js + Arkenfox GUI - a really nice guide on what you should and shouldn't do to improve your privacy on a Firefox-based browser. Arkenfox is a template, not a browser. It just provides a 'saner' default experience. LibreWolf uses Arkenfox, but they tweak some of the defaults. Just note that Arkenfox + (your Firefox browser) is not a replacement for Tor, where you need the most anonymity and the most advanced fingerprinting protection. For that, you'd use Tor Browser, and Tor Browser ONLY. Unless you know what you're doing, don't tweak Tor browser settings, as this might make your browser 'stand out from the crowd', which reduces anonymity and fingerprinting protection. There's a handy thread on PrivacyGuides that compares Arkenfox + Firefox, vs Mullvad, and vs Tor Browser. Essentially, they all have different roles and goals in mind.
idcaboutprivacy (I Don't Care About Privacy) - A useful website with a list of real-life situations in which privacy matters. Send this to the people that say they don't care about privacy.
Opsec101 - Unfortunately seems to be abandoned, as it wasn't updated in three years. Still, a good place to start regarding OPSEC.
privacy.sexy - A handy little website with a customizable selection of scripts to clean up your privacy, disable OS data collection and to configure programs to be more privacy-friendly. Supports Windows, macOS and Linux. I wouldn't recommend you run the scripts though, you can easily find what the scripts are doing and do it yourself manually, if you think the script could maybe not work on your installation for whatever reason. There's also PrivacyLearn that just acts as a 'documentation' page that refers back to the scripts. There's nothing else there, unfortunately, which is disappointing for a website named PrivacyLearn.
PrivacyGuides - non-profit volunteer-run community project that hosts guides, news and recommendations related to privacy and security. Better than PrivacyTools.
PrivacySpy - a community-run project (website + browser extension) that grade and monitor the privacy policies of the most popular websites out there. Unfortunately, hasn't been updated in 10 months and might be outdated. At least you get some realistic scores for companies such as Google (4.9/10), Microsoft (4.4/10), Apple (7/10), Discord (4.2/10), Element (7.2/10), FurAffinity (2.4/10), and so on. Mega scores a respectable 8.8/10, while Epic Games scores a 4.3/10. Invidious and DuckDuckGo score a 10/10.
PrivacyTests - continuously updated, detailed table of browsers and how they compare in privacy, with their default settings, in both normal and incognito (private) modes.
PrivSec - a useful collection of guides and tips on how to embrace privacy and security, with guides related to Linux hardening, Android tips, and a knowledge base. May not always be up to date, but it's a good resource.
Wallet Scrutiny - decent enough open-source database with ratings for all kinds of cryptocurrency wallets, for all kinds of platforms (e.g. Android, Desktop), however they mostly focus on BTC wallets, not general-use crypto wallets. It is open-source, but commenting/replying (community opinions section under each wallet's page) requires a Nostr account (Fediverse, but built by libertarian/anarcho-capitalist cryptobro imbeciles), which is fucking stupid, but unsurprising for a crypto-focused project. One of the good things through is that it has a rating scale from 0 to 10, and one of the things they focus on is reproducible builds that matches the source code. IF you genuinely want a crypto wallet, please, always choose a self-custodial (YOU hold the keys to your wallet, so the wallet can't steal your money), reproducible wallet. Also check for possible binary obfuscation, and perhaps build the wallet yourself from the source code, or download from F-Droid, if possible.

What I don't recommend

Brad Cohn - pseudo-science shill, liar
Elon Musk - famous nazi/fascist bootlicker or wannabe authoritarian dictator, wannabe Tony Stark, wannabe Mars ruler / authoritarian dictator. Comes from Apartheid South Africa, inherited some of daddy's emerald mine money, tried to name himself the 'founder' of Tesla, currently runs Tesla (into the ground), SpaceX (into space or blowing up on launch, launched the 1-year lifespan Starlink 'constellation' to further increase the amount of waste in space and putting the lives of people on space stations at risk, and currently working on a spy satellite network using a $1.8 billion contract signed with the National Reconnaissance Office), The Boring Company (already in the ground and Neuralink (into monkey brains, killing them). Bought Twitter for $44 billion, renamed it to X, turns it into a right-wing, nazi and fascist hellscape, tries to make it the 'everything app', suspiciously similar to CCP/Tencent's WeChat. Hmm, surely there's no coincidence there! Thinks Europe will have a civil war, sucks daddy Trump off like the dog he is, and tampers the 2024 US Presidential Election by fucking around against Kamala Harris and US Democratic Party accounts. Likes to censor people, suspiciously similar to the CCP/Tencent's WeChat, surely, no coincidence there! And lastly, his own daughter dumped his ass because he's a transphobe.
Marques Brownlee - "Corporate ball washer", as someone on the ResetEra forum put it. I mean, he's a shit person, as evidenced by attempting to blur the fact that he was speeding 154km/h in a 56km/h school zone - so, filming a literal crime, publishing it on YouTube, I hope the state of New Jersey suspends his license for a long time for this event - or his shitty Panels app controversy, not to mention both-sidesing the George Floyd protest as the video did not contain or link any resources, education about donating to causes fighting against racism and injustice, and being an Elon Musk fanboy. He was great once, a long time ago, but money, and his elitism as he's climbed up the ranks of tech YouTube reared their ugly heads. I mean, the latest video to me, seems detached from something he would do even half a year ago (as of Nov 2024), if not more. Drooling over the video sponsor with no camera comparisons or an honest take, just guzzling down the DJI dick like it's 'the norm'. Fuck's sake, Marques, what happened to you.
Philion / PhilionLIVE - Washed-out content creator that did great documentaries at some point, but fully focuses on slop videos on his second channel, with the occasional slop-adjacent main video on his channel. A shame, really, the documentaries were splendid, but as he rightly pointed out, they weren't worth the effort, as he'd get fewer views. Lately, he's just blackpilled, nihilistic, he gets angry and jealous at people that seem more muscular than him, regardless if they're using or not steroids. Want some more evidence he's washed out and much more skewed in favour of centre-right, or right-wing trad-Catholic views? He sucks off Elon Musk, has shit opinions about cars, and you know, reacts to the dumbest slop on YouTube. Not furry friendly, not so LGBTQ+ friendly either. Just watch videos older than September 2023, they're great, such as documentaries on cults and people such as Osho, Bored Ape Yacht(Nazi) Club, Jared Leto, philosophies such as Accelerationism, the history of MKUltra, the Bohemian Grove, the Illuminati, the cult of Mormonism, Heaven's Gate, NXIVM, among a few others. I greatly miss the old Philion, which used to upload well-crafted documentaries about various topics, but I think it's highly unlikely we'll see a return.
PrivacyTools - Fine project that hosts guides and recommendations related to privacy and security. It's a great place to start, however I wouldn't recommend it specifically, just because it's sponsored by certain brands such as Incogni, SurfShark, StartMail, and StealthEX, so they're obviously biased.
Ray Peat - conspiracy theorist, quack, pseudo-science promoter. Rest in Piss you idiot.
Shiva Ayyadurai - claims to be "the inventor of Email", he's a COVID-19 and anti-vax grifter and imbecile. His Wikipedia page should be more than enough information, unless you want to go down a rabbit hole. As of 2024, he wants to become a presidential candidate of the United States of America. FUNNILY ENOUGH, he hates Elon Musk, thinks he's a Satanist for adding 6666 followers/hour to @netanyahu's Twitter account, removing likes and followers from Shiva's Twitter account, and nicknames the idiots who buy the Cybertruck MAGAtards. Lots of respect for that, but still, Shiva is a lunatic through and through.
Terrence Howard - here's a video from Kahmal as to why, but in essence, he's a grifter that thinks all math is wrong, he could have earned $7 trillion, has 98 patents and thinks that 1x1= more than 1, but no actually, it's just a 'metaphor' when Eric Weinstein, a real mathematician, confronts him about this; and claims to have been conscious when his mother was 6 months pregnant (which is absurd and quite impossible)

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