Strength in Numbers: Fighting Internet Censorship

One of the hardest points to explain to politicians is that their own d-m spooks use Tor to hide their tracks when doing the things that they do, and yes, evil white supremacists--- some of whose day job invovles wearing a uniform or a badge--- use Tor to hide their (generally bungled but admittedly often alarming) plans to incite a race war, and Tor has no way of stopping them without making it impossible for someone living in a dangerous country run by an oppressive government to get outside information about things they need to know. Which is exactly why TP provides Tor and why the whole world needs Tor, despite the evil done by spooks, cyberwarriors, and would be race-warriors.

Back in the early days of something called the USA, a then young nation which no one including its founders really thought was likely to exist for survive in the face of internal tensions for more than another few years, a man known as Dr. Franklin forcefully argued for the creation of a uniquely American postal service whose carriers (unlike similar services in the European monarchies) would actually not read the mail they carried. Franklin argued that the benefits of freedom of communication and freedom of association would far outweigh the danger of potentially allowing conspiracies to develop unchecked by government spies. The correspondence of Aaron Burr (who conspired by mail to try to set up another new nation in what is now part of the Southern midwest of the USA) later provided a good example of the fact that sometimes real conspiracies really do happen--- and mostly fail, as did Burr's conspiracy. But the point is of course that Franklin has been proven correct by all the good things which have flowed from freedom of information and freedom of association.

And the point is that someone like Rod Rosenstein is really more of a "King's man" than a Patriot in the original American understanding of what it means to be a Patriot.

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The present government of Iran is not well regarded by human rights NGOs, and on that point I'd like to think I stand with the people of Iran, not all of whom are happy to be censored by the present government of Iran.

That said, you raise a valid point which I would rephrase thusly:

Many nations are ramping up government censorship and even more sophisticated population control systems such as "social credit" systems. Many of government censors use censorship-as-a-service systems from "Western democracies" such as Bluecoat. And many "US based" companies whose business model involves surveillance-as-a-service, cyberwar-as-a-service, and social-credit-as-a-service are quietly contemplating ditching USG contracts for ultimately more lucrative contracts with the Chinese government which in any case is apparently less unstable.

Censorship. Dragnets. Corruption. Endemic, drastic and worsening social inequality driven by offshoring. Legal travesties. Oppression. Hate crimes. Political police. Mass incarceration of innocents including children. Family separation. Dehousing. Apartheid. Forced relocations. Incarceration of dissidents. Extrajudicial executions. Invasions. The bombing and shelling of cities. The murder of journalists. Of land defenders. Genocide.

Some actions are so horrid that it matters not a jot which government does them or what their stated reasons are, because no good human being could fail to oppose these actions with every fiber of their strength.

Or rather, we need safe software from Tor and others, which requires legal and political advocacy sufficiently powerful to defeat such laws before they spread any further.

Perhaps I misunderstand what you have in mind, but neither direct connection or VPNs are not generally regarded by experts as helping much with anonymity.