If we were in North Korea and the government came and said, we want to put this smart speaker

in your house and it'll do things for you, but it will also record what you say.

You would know that exactly what this was.

But in America, if it's sold to you as something that makes you more comfortable and

improves your consumer convenience, you open the door right there to bring the speaker

into your house.

The following is the audio version of a video released at peak prosperity.com.

Visit peak prosperity.com to watch the video and to find other insightful content, such as

articles, discussion forms, and exclusive subscriber-only content.

Hello everyone and welcome to this peak prosperity podcast. I am your host, Chris Martinson.

Look, there's a great battle underway, one whose outlines have suddenly and really crisply

been outlined by the lockstep approach to COVID by numerous countries that are all similarly authoritarian, I should say.

Individual and property rights have been summarily dismissed in favor of putative collective

benefits. Now, I say putative because the macro data does not support the idea that there have

been any benefits really at all. India's COVID case count and death rate are a fraction in the United

States. The UK's same metrics are horrifyingly bad as compared to say Africa's. Canada's COVID case

survival rate is one-tenth that of the Dominican Republic's for 45-year-olds. Now, in a sane society

or culture, such disparities would spur immediate inquiry,

some self-reflection, and maybe the replacement of one or two inept public health officials.

In a culture of worship of central authority, those same officials only seem to gather more power

and never suffer any consequences. Now, to help us put all of this in a new frame is Rod Dreher,

an American writer and editor. He is a senior editor and blogger at the American Conservative,

...