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Jan. 11, 2024 - Ron Paul Liberty Report
22:12
"Green" Tech Tyranny: "Smart" Thermostats Taken Over In Colorado

Another form of tech tyranny was recently on display in Colorado, as 22,000 households lost control of their "smart" thermostats to their power company. The ability to change the temperature in your own house was taken away! Corporatism, driven by an authoritarian "green" ideology, continues to do damage to our liberties.

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Government Expansion Amid Heatwaves 00:09:46
Hello everybody and thank you for tuning in to the Liberty Report.
With us today is Chris Rossini, our co-host.
Chris, good to have you with us today.
Great to be with you again, Dr. Paul.
Very good.
You know, some parts of the country are still very, very hot for a lot of reasons.
This state of California, it probably deserves a little heat, you know, excessive.
But you have some politicians out there that are pretty excessive in the wind blowing and the messages they give.
But they're in a mess.
But the rest of the country isn't nearly as bad.
But it seems like when the temperatures get a little higher, higher than normal, they need more government.
So yes, so it's pretty hot out there.
And we had a hot summer, but actually I have the greenest grass I've ever had.
And I don't know how it survives so well because we did go several months without rain.
But anyway, in the West right now, especially, they're having trouble.
In the West, they've been using government a long time to make sure that there are no problems ever.
Everything is to be taken care of.
Of course, they use the problems that exist as excuses for building their governments.
When you look at these governments in California, including New York and these other places, a problem is there.
They'll solve it.
And the government gets bigger.
And the more chaos there is, the bigger the government gets.
And sometimes they help create the chaos.
But right now it's a temperature thing.
And it's going to last a couple more days, I'm sure, and then it's going to go away, and they'll find another one.
There'll be a snowfall they'll be worrying about.
But so right now, people do suffer from it.
I've gone through one hurricane here in Texas, and I did not leave, and I didn't have electricity for must have been close to two weeks.
And it's not very nice.
But I chose not to leave for various reasons.
And this can be a problem.
But overall, what we see, Chris, is that when something like a heat spell comes along and people are really upset, they turn to the government.
What's the government going to do?
What's the government going to do?
They don't ask, did the government do anything to create some of these problems?
Maybe the electricity is a problem.
And all of a sudden, Chris, it makes us think about, you know, all those greenies out there regulating all this stuff.
I wonder if they could have contributed to our problems.
And right now, though, the only answer we hear coming from those in charge of these particular states is the government sees us as a problem.
They want to do something about it.
They have to appease the constituencies.
And guess what?
They don't do the right thing.
They tend to make the problems much worse.
Sort of like the Federal Reserve, when it comes to a problem of inflation, they make it worse.
So right now, Chris, I see this not changing significantly very soon.
But eventually, what we hope to do is get people to be more rational and realize that government policies create a lot of these problems.
And therefore, you can't go crawling to the government and say, just send us more money.
In a way, the tragedy of our consequence of the COVID, it was the way the government was managing things.
And the worse it got, the more money they pumped out.
So far, we have our work still available to us to try to straighten this out and get people to understand that there's a role for government, but it's not to micromanage our lives and the economy or the thermostats.
Right, Dr. Paul.
Speaking of thermostats, that's what caught our attention in an article of what happened in Colorado recently, where 22,000 households, they lost control of changing the temperature in their own homes.
And it was hot.
They had these smart thermostats, and they got the message that it's fixed at this temperature.
You can't change it.
And that's one of the reasons, the main reason I've avoided those smart thermostats, because as long as so many people are governed by this climate ideology, I don't want it, because they're going to take control of your house.
And that's a shame because I like the smart thermostats.
I like the idea.
There's people that I know that have it, and I would get one if this crazy ideology wasn't dominating at the moment.
Perhaps someday.
But the point is, technology itself can be used for good or for ill.
Airplanes can take you around the world so you can see the world, or they could be used to drop bombs on people.
Nuclear energy, same thing, internet.
So there's nothing good, inherently good or bad about technology.
The problem we face today is our government does pretty much whatever the heck it wants.
So whatever technology exists, whether we know about it or technologies that we don't know about, they're going to try to use it to try to control us.
And that is why on this show we try to focus in on it's so important what the role of government should be.
If government has free reign, they're going to use it.
And they're losing it each time with the censorship on social media, with the war on cash, with this.
More and more people are like, this is outrageous.
Government should not have these powers.
So with each power grab, more and more people are going to have that desire to restrain government again.
You know, so much of our liberties we give up are a reaction by the government for problems that actually exist.
They may have created them.
There might be some other causes, maybe natural causes, but an opportunity for some of these people who believe that government should be very much involved, more chaos, the bigger the government, and it marches on.
But on this technological issue that has been going on, I remember when this particular bill passed that I think introduced us to this.
And that was, you know, that was 50 years ago.
In 1970, they passed a bill because technology was getting really modernized.
It was recognized that doctors' records, bank records, these were secret things.
And that was back when people believed that Social Security number was never to be used for identification.
And then the technology moved along and people started worried about that.
So the people talked to their Congress and, yeah, well, we're working on it.
And then they came up with a bill called the Bank Secrecy Act.
They're going to make sure your bank account is secret.
So that should have been the tip-off.
And I've talked about this ever since then, is no matter what they say in the title, be prepared.
It's probably exactly the opposite of what they're going to do.
And that's what's happened.
I mean, there's no secrecy in bank activity.
And the more technology we have, the more control they have.
And the government just loves this stuff.
But the technology is available.
It should be to protect our privacy.
And it is something that was important to the founders.
They thought they had it clarified in the Fourth Amendment, but they also had a problem that they weren't quite aware of all the technology.
But the general terms still fit.
The government doesn't have a right to interfere in your privacy.
And, oh, well, we'll get a warrant.
Oh, yeah, that's worked out real well, especially when you want privacy in election and who's voting and who isn't voting and who's cheating.
So it's something, so this issue of privacy is key.
It's going on in the monetary issue, not only in the dollar, but those individuals who are looking for alternatives to the dollars, other currencies, everybody regulates and knows exactly what's happening on every international currency transaction.
There was a time when they didn't even have futures markets in the foreign currencies because they were temporarily locked to the dollar and the dollar was locked to gold, but that of course ended in 1971.
So it wasn't so, but now there's so much effort made.
And even when there's alternatives, such in the crypto world, you know, the one thing I've feared about the crypto world is what's going to happen.
Is it going to be anonymous?
And is it going to be clear for everybody to see it?
Well, I bumped into a couple people in both fields and in the government.
And I'm not all that optimistic about it being secret.
And I think the government, because the very first time I heard a Federal Reserve official respond to the cryptocurrencies, I was shocked.
I think it was yelling.
And she didn't sound like she was worried about it.
Oh, yeah, this is just technology.
Move along.
We'll deal with it.
And I thought, boy, that was much too soft.
And I think that's what happened.
So anytime they're coming here to take care of you, to give you perfect health care and privacy in health care, there's no more privacy in health care than the man in the moon.
It's going to go instantaneously.
You know, if a doctor calls a drugstore now and calls in a prescription, that is immediately gone into the federal records.
And it's available.
EU's Consistent Dumbness? 00:05:39
The pharmaceuticals benefit by it because a lot of their promotions are there.
So this whole idea of privacy and technology and the ability to regulate our thermostats.
And they're determined to do this.
And it will be done in the name of green technology.
Everybody, oh, well, this is a different story.
The world is being polluted.
But I think we've been polluted for sure with excessive government intervention.
That's where our real pollution is.
That's right, Dr. Paul.
And the biggest polluter on the earth is the U.S. government.
How about that?
Via the military empire.
Now, there is zero appetite to change that.
The military empire is not going anywhere.
So do they even believe their climate rhetoric?
By actions, they do not.
They want to instead control everybody else's life.
But another incident that caught our attention, Dr. Paul, as bad as that Colorado incident was, this morning, the EU came out with a whopper.
The EU is even worse.
They want mandatory target for reducing electricity use at peak hours.
And the EU president said, what we have to do is flatten the curve.
She actually used those words, they want to flatten the curve on energy use.
I mean, they're making it so obvious that there is a agenda here.
You know, with COVID, it was to control your movement and try to get you used to taking forced injections whenever they deem that you need one.
And this is for energy use.
Now, that doesn't mean that they're going to get what they want, of course.
They wanted 7 billion people to have jabs.
They got, I think, 1 billion, which is an extraordinary amount, but it's not 7, not even close.
And they wanted vaccine passports.
And you have to show that you got your forced injection.
You have to prove it to everyone, no matter what you do.
And with very small exceptions, that is not the case.
So they don't get what they want, but just because they have something in their imagination.
So that's a good thing.
And this instance with the EU, they're the ones, and just like California, that created the problem, like Dr. Paul mentioned.
And then all of a sudden, everyone else has to suffer and you're all in it together.
I mean, what a bunch of nonsense.
So this is yet another example of why power should be decentralized and should never be centralized like this.
One thing I'm thinking, though, we might give credit to the EU is they're pretty consistent in doing dumb things.
Look at how they handle energy and look how they handle U.S. dictates on them whether or not they can import oil and energy from Russia.
So they self-inflict all these penalties on themselves.
It doesn't seem to help them at all.
So whether it's energy, they do the same thing.
And it's connected because we are talking about the energy.
The energy that they mess up on providing their own energy and staying away from these international fights internationally, it's damaging because their enemy is Russia, and so Russia becomes stronger and they sell more and make more profits and align themselves with China.
So it's something that is utterly amazing why they go along with this, and then they end up with shortages.
Why would the governments have shortages?
They're powerful.
They're all powerful.
They're either really dumb.
Some people say, no, they're not dumb.
They know what they're doing because some of them want chaos.
And I think it's a mixture.
I can't sort all that out.
All I know is they take advantage of the chaos.
And no matter what their deeply rooted motives have been for the policies that they have been using and issuing, I don't think anybody can have an absolute understanding of that.
But one thing for sure, it makes things worse.
So if they're going to do it with their economic policy, their foreign policy, have this intervention, then they come along.
And the biggest issue of the day, of course, is we've got to discipline these individuals who think they have the right to adjust their own thermostat.
My goodness, what kind of a throwback idea is that?
I mean, this is strange.
This is going back to the very dark ages, as far as I'm concerned, when they started doing that.
So it's the whole issue is what's the role of government and what are they doing?
And they're not protecting our liberties.
They're destroying our liberties.
And it's hurting us economically.
And that, of course, finally wakes people up.
Constant, long-lasting wars will wake people up.
And certainly long-lasting lockdown for COVID, people woke up to that.
And we've made a little bit of an advancement getting away from that.
But I just think that if we present our case in the best form possible, maybe people will grasp this before the problems come.
I mean, how long has it been since the understanding of the monetary policy in the Federal Reserve causes booms and then the bust?
It's been known a long time, but there's still, I would say, 90-some percent of the people, they still think the main thing we need is more money, you know, because people can't afford to rent.
Best Form Possible 00:05:58
But if we could just reach people with this common sense, but it seems like the temptation to have an easy way out and take the benefits and the promises of politicians.
I think one place to stop is be very cautious on believing what the politicians tell you.
That's a good rule of thumb, Dr. Paul.
Unless their last name ends with Paul, then you can trust them.
But I will finish up by saying this agenda for control is fundamentally flawed right from the get-go.
And it stems, in my view, from industrialization, which brought tremendous blessings to humanity.
Tremendous.
And it gave mankind tremendous control over our natural world, which is good.
That's why we're created.
We have dominion over the earth.
However, a big mistake was made, and I understand how it could be made.
You know, this idea of automation and machinery and engineering and science, you know, it was taken from the successful production of goods and mistakenly believed to be like, well, let's automate humanity.
And this is a failed idea.
This will not work.
We are not robots.
We are not software programs.
Our bodies are not operating systems that you upgrade with vaccines.
This is all nonsense.
But this is where the idea stems from.
They feel like they should control everything.
Look at how we can control nature.
Well, humans are a part of nature.
Let's go after them next.
The difference is we are not robots.
We have our own free will, our own goals.
We do not obey like a robot does.
You know, they wanted 7 billion arms to get shots.
Only 1 billion did.
Why?
Because people have their own minds.
They search for the truth.
And if they find out that this is not what they should be doing, they don't obey.
And that just bothers the authoritarians.
They want us to act like a software program, but we will not at any point.
So they're constantly trying to trick us with a new scheme, new scheme, new scheme.
They are doomed to failure, and that is very good.
Good.
You know, you bring it up the subject of the automation, depending on how you do it, it makes a big difference.
Excuse me, in economics, it also says that if you believe in freedom, freedom of choice, and freedom and prices in the market, you could defend it on a moral principle that you have a right to your life and the fruits of your labor.
And I'm in that camp.
I believe we have a moral right.
And, you know, if you have your freedom, it's up to people who are freed, decide what really ends up and how you use this technology.
There are others, and Mises talks about this: that freedom to have a free market is best because it's the best system.
And he would go and compare freedom and no tariffs and no taxes and all this and compare it to an authoritarian state.
And obviously, you know which side wins.
But I separate them for another reason, too, is because the technology is also used for different reasons.
If you have advancement of technology, and I think I can use nuclear power as an example, there's so much technology.
It's been so great.
And Chris points out some of the shortcomings if it's used to control people.
But I see technology having been used over the centuries as being motivated for that information to go in and be used for fighting and killing each other.
And a lot less just promoting peace and prosperity.
And the technology is there, but how it's used.
So it does fall down on the morality of the people, what kind of a system they have, what kind of a government we have, are the laws moral and sensible.
And then the choices end up as individuals.
It's this business when the government takes it away and promoting some automation which isn't very good or taking this technology and take nuclear technology and think how many millions of people have been killed with that already.
But not in the good sense.
You can use nuclear technology and nuclear power for really, they're starting even somehow on the side of the green and saying, hey, you know, it's one of the cleanest, cleanest, you know, cleanest energy sources is nuclear energy.
So it can be, you use them to kill people of the other.
And I think people are just, you know, it seems like the winners of that little contest going up is the technology has gone into the hands of the government and the hands of fighting war.
And that's why this issue of privacy, government ends up totally controlling the privacy at the expense of the privacy of the individual.
And that, of course, is our goal here, is to emphasize the importance of what it's like to have liberty, where the individual makes the decisions.
If an individual makes a mistake, they suffer the consequence.
If a government agent, if somebody like a Dr. Fauci makes a mistake, more than just Fauci suffers the consequences.
That's why you don't want people in these positions.
And that doesn't mean that everybody that ever ended up in government didn't have, they weren't well intended.
But people make mistakes.
And even though the motivations might be good, they make mistakes.
Then everybody suffers.
So everybody that wants to do something with the energy issue, they're not necessarily bad, but they have some bad ideas.
And there's a lot of people who take advantage of that.
So that's why we have to sort that out.
Why Freedom Matters 00:00:48
Because one thing I've come to conclude and understand and believe in is that if I had a choice on what kind of a society I want to live in, I want to live in the freest society I can find.
And I think I've been fortunate, as so many Americans have.
We have been born in a country that at one time was the best example ever of a free society, which is now not quite as robust as it used to be.
But it's up to us all and everybody who cares to also invest their time not only in protecting themselves physically and spiritually, but to protect oneself, you know, in the sense of being able to protect your freedoms.
That is what we'll continue to do.
I want to thank everybody for tuning in today to the Liberty Report.
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