When I first saw the acronym “CBDC,” I may have betrayed my California roots when I thought it was some new cannabis product that will join all the other CBD products sold everywhere, including at truck stops. I’m not so naïve now, and I know that CBDC, which stands for Central Bank Digital Currency, is possibly the most dangerous idea ever bandied about in American politics.

The plan is that the federal government would end paper and coin money in favor of purely digital money—all under the government’s control. Suddenly, in addition to your bank’s ATM, you would be dependent on the federal government’s ATM for every penny you possess. It would be the Chinese social credit system and the Canadian “let’s shut down the bank accounts for anyone protesting the government” system all rolled up into one.

Tucker Carlson discussed it on his Friday night show, during which he said, correctly, that it would be the end of America because it would make us all slaves to the government. Do what the government says, and you can buy food and pay rent. Offend the government, and you will be cut off. Suddenly, every American would be a potential January 6 prisoner.

Image: ATM (edited) by fanjianhua.

Sadly, Fox News doesn’t seem to have posted a video of that segment, nor can I find any other videos. However, the gist of it was that our government is claiming that we need CBDC because it’s what China is doing (remember: social credit system) and it’s the only way to keep up with China. Tucker’s guest, whose name I cannot remember for the life of me, said that the flip side of this approach is arguably better: As “money” becomes a button in a government office, people are going to flock to a country that still has actual currency outside of the government’s control.

Neither Tucker nor his guest discussed something that would be obvious to me, which is that if money lives on the computer, that computer can be hacked. Can you imagine if a hacker, with the push of a button, starts draining government funds or your personal bank account? Or perhaps the hacker defunds an entire state or stops all payments to members of the military. The risk of a bad outcome is so overwhelming I cannot believe governments are arrogant enough to think they can insulate themselves against it.

But back to the core issue, which is that a government that controls money’s very existence controls you. And just to make sure you know that it can happen here, keep in mind that, after Biden bullied him, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordered banks to abandon any semblance of due process and simply freeze the accounts of those truckers protesting Trudeau’s draconian (and useless) COVID policies.

And now I’ll do what Tucker did and turn to Russell Brand, the British comedian and political commentator, who is utterly appalled by what will happen in the UK if the new Tory prime minister is able to impose the CBDC system there (language warning because Brand likes the “F” word):

It’s already past time to let your congresspeople know immediately that CBDC is a terrible idea. The great thing about a Russell Brand video is that you can share it with your leftist friends because Brand identifies as a leftist—although he has destroyed his brand, excuse the pun, because he’s opposed to tech tyranny and is slowly realizing that, as Gerald Ford said, “A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”