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The core of the prepper fantasy: "What if the world ended in the *precise* way that made *me* the most important person?" The ultra-rich fantasize about emerging from luxury bunkers with an army of mercs and bitcoin thumbdrives to a world in ruins that they rule using their "leadership skills."
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/25/mall-ninja-prophecy/#mano-a-mano
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@pluralistic 'Destroying zombies at the risk of a fate worse than death is fraught, but at least you don’t have to go into the office Monday morning.'
(alternate:)
'[…], but at least it’s not alienated labour.'
But to your point, yes: it's a Robert E. Howard view of the world in which civilisation is corrupt and corrupting, so bad they'd likely call it 'female' or some such, as opposed to a blighted hellscape where RealMen® would shew their True Worths.
See also: "The Honourable Crichton".
@pluralistic If society collapse thier money would be worthless so rhose mercs would turn on them.
@Luna @pluralistic Yes. The worst thing about these types is not that they'll ever have any power in such a scenario but that they'll involuntarily transfer all the power they had during a functional society into the basest most violent shitheads they stupidly think will be serving them.
@Luna @pluralistic ...which is basically the Russian system.
@Luna @pluralistic this is what just confuses me. Who is going to enforce those contracts?
@amanda @Luna @pluralistic I read an article a couple of years ago - or it might have been a podcast - where an expert in disaster response was invited to meet with some rich guys who were planning their end of the world bunkers to advise them. They were talking shock collars for their security goons. It's turtles all the way down.
@ravenbait @amanda @Luna Doug Rushkoff, SURVIVAL OF THE RICHEST. Initially a Guardian article, then a great book.
https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/13/collapse-porn/#collapse-porn
@pluralistic @amanda @Luna Thank you. Yes. That was it. I should get the book.
@ravenbait @Luna @pluralistic shock collars? I don't even want to know.
Gods I've gotten so many books to read now.
Anyways, as someone who fancies himself a "rational prepper" I love the post!
It's always been my biggest criticism of right wing preppers that they're assuming they're the hero. That their singular stash of food, water, and guns is all they're going to need to save themselves and their family from the vague "end times" or "Boogaloo".
But they're not and society is not going to collapse like they do in zombie movies.
I call myself a rational prepper because I'm honestly not convinced we're going to see an all out civil war or guerrilla revolution anytime soon. I'm personally equipped for partisan combat, but I have no desire for it. But I know having the equipment that I do encourages me to train and be comfortable with a firearm should I need it for normal self defense purposes.
It also has the benefit of being a fun and productive feeling community building exercise with like minded local comrades. Yeah, we all know we're larping when we go out hiking in kit. But again, very fun.
@pluralistic
Food prepping is also something I hate talking to right wing people about because they hate when people joke "oh I know who's house I'm going to when things go bad" Bec they're not planning on anyone else needing their resources.
I have the means to cook for several people for a few months on hand.
And again, not just good for an assumed end times, but also great for inclement weather like long snow periods or any other scarcity problems.
Anyways, that's just my disorganized thoughts on why I think prepping is good and fun when you don't have the delusions of wanting to just murder people you don't like politically or made up individuals to begin with.
@Nagaram @pluralistic honestly sounds like you should be writing a book!
I’ve been working on some guides! Trump winning caused a bit of a stir amongst the local commies. So community defense and disaster preparedness has been on my mind a lot.
I haven’t released them yet because I’m working on a blog to host them, and I don’t want to talk out my ass.
And the philosophy of prepping is very fascinating once you can get past the wall of wannabe Rambo chuds.
@Nagaram @pluralistic I'd like to hear more.
Something I was contemplating with my hope to work in disaster prep is that preparation for the WORST is how you build the BEST. To be ready for disaster is to also prevent it, to make good choices, to build community with each other.
So Disaster Prep doesn't just respond, it strengthens, it prevents, and it guides.
@StevenSavage @pluralistic that’s the obvious ideal of making sure these institutions we rely on stay healthy and functional, but the healthy paranoia of asking “but what if they’re not stable” is something I don’t think anyone can afford to lose.
I only learned the term recently but “parallel infrastructure.”The idea is to make a redundant support network in case state or national institutions fail. That’s a safety net idea some local comrades are working on.
@Nagaram @pluralistic I also see some places already having that in place - but I'm in Cali. Others are not so lucky.
I think volunteers are important so you are part of the existing structure AND a parallel structure. I've got an entire theory on this I really need to write down since org structures are part of what I do.
Would love to hear more of what you're doing.
@StevenSavage @pluralistic I’d love to get it written down to share, but it’s getting late for me.
The short is I’m making friends and planning for a worst case while working towards and hoping for a best case.
@Nagaram @pluralistic that sounds familiar.
My idea is stick with my friends, lean into involvement locally. Plus I work in health care and education, so I get to do a lot of good that way.
All of us who lived through 2020 lived through an end of the world.
We should have learned: The most important skills for prepping are cooking, cleaning, and keeping ourselves occupied.
@Chip_Unicorn @Nagaram @pluralistic I mostly remember the ability to get a haircut.
@Chip_Unicorn @Nagaram The cooking part seems largely lost on the kinds of movie-protag-fantasy preppers @pluralistic is talking about. There's definitely a gradient from people mostly recommending different weapons to people mostly recommending pantry contents and cooking methods.
@pteryx @Chip_Unicorn @Nagaram @pluralistic There seems to be two kinds of preppers. The first kind is hoarding supplies and refining techniques of survival, the second kind is hoarding weapons and planning violence to take the supplies from the former type. If one had sufficient cooperation between both types of hoarders, that would be a form of order, and preppers do not believe this is possible because for preppers do not anticipate cooperation is possible.
@profdc9 @Chip_Unicorn @Nagaram @pluralistic
Me: "This solar setup is light enough to walk off with, so I'll get a steel cable and lock to keep them in place while charging unattended. And if someone charges their phone from it while it's out there, I just charge for longer."
Them: "Your disaster prep should involve wire cutters! Unlike our other tool recs, we're not saying why! :D "
@pteryx The other part those I’m the hero preppers don’t realize is not only the cooking but the growing. An astonishing amount of what we buy at the store can be grown easily in a kitchen window. @Chip_Unicorn @Nagaram @pluralistic
@Pineywoozle @pteryx @Chip_Unicorn @Nagaram @pluralistic 100-200ft^2 per person
@kelleynnn Sorry, not sure what you ment. 
@Pineywoozle Sorry, I should not have been sleepy posting. I was trying to say, it only takes 100 to 200 square feet of garden to grow all the veggies (and only the veggies) to support one person. At least, according to DDG.
@kelleynnn Exactly, It’s weird how fast lettuce & celery & scallions and tomatoes grow in a weirdly small space. I stopped doing it after the pandemic but I think I’m going to start again. I just watched a vid on how to do ginger in a medium pot LoL Potatoes & carrots take up a lot more real estate.
@Chip_Unicorn @pluralistic @Nagaram
Don't forget the ability to wear a mask for hours on end.
@Nagaram @pluralistic these are people who are really just doing "elite panic" of assuming we're all a slavering mob as opposed to people who will work together.
Of course people who work together tend to regard violent individuals who want to be king as the BAD guys . . .
@Nagaram @pluralistic I always ask what country or example in history are they modeling their preps off of?
For example if you think the U.S. will become Venezuela that is a different situation than Argentina.
When “One Second After” (EMP attack) scenarios are proposed they always happen in a vacuum. Canada and Mexico not helping us recover? Europe and Asia what doing?
@thedarktangent @pluralistic don’t you know that Red Dawn was a documentary? By gods! It happened twice!
In the short story collection _Radicalized_ by @pluralistic, you'll find _The Mask of the Red Death_.
It brutally interrogates the assumptions of the kind of right-wing prepper you're describing @Nagaram. They've used their big brains, they've thought of everything they will need, they are *prepped*.
And they are woefully underprepared. Because a bunker of a dozen people, shut off from the outside world, *cannot* be self-sustaining.
It does not end well. Strongly recommended.
@bignose @pluralistic I’m excited to see how they compare to my years of experience with Dale Gribble caricatures I actually know from years in the Kentucky gun and outdoorsman scene!
To me all the preppers failed the test miserably by not having or militantly opposing #Masks
@n_dimension @pluralistic
That's my weak point right now. I don't have proper gas masks or night vision.
Good selection of COVID quality masks and flashlights though
@n_dimension @Nagaram @pluralistic fun fact, my group of leftist disaster prep group did have masks and donated them to medical workers when the pandemic shortages hit.
Of course there are leftist #preppers
Just as there are leftist gun owners.
I'm sorry my mind felt into a lazy rut.
@n_dimension @Hex @pluralistic
The overlap of Lefty Preppers and Gun owners is almost a circle
@Nagaram @n_dimension @pluralistic if I still lived in a country where guns were legal I would probably still be armed.
It’s fascinating to observe these folks.
I admit to a little of a “prepper” mindset but I focus on building community since every disaster makes us naturally go to our true nature as prosocial communitarian beings.
And baking bread.
Nothing like fresh bread to start to feel human after a disaster. (Assuming no gluten issues of course.)
@Aphrodite @pluralistic I'm taking CERT training and looking to help at an urban farm to bond with people for the tough times we face - and to learn.
@Aphrodite
I recommend this @naomikritzer short story:
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-year-without-sunshine/
It’s very much what you’re talking about, and serves as a counterpoint to the kinds of fantasies @pluralistic is discussing.
@inthehands @Aphrodite @naomikritzer always read Kritzer
I was once friends with a prepper. This was years ago. She was a bit eccentric. COVID turned her insane, and now she's just an out-and-out fascist.
The problem is the overwhelming selfishness and egotism in supposing that one can survive alone in a disaster type situation.
Those sorts of things generally need community support with people helping people.
@trabex @pluralistic The arbitrariness of a contagious disease disaster challenges Main Character Syndrome. You can't be "worthy" and escape it, and everyone needs some level of support.
@andygates @trabex @pluralistic fun fact: Main Character Syndrome is called something like “middle-schooler syndrome” in Japan.
@oblomov @andygates @trabex @pluralistic that’s apt. In the US we have clinical terms for it due to how common the disorder has become.
@oblomov @andygates @trabex @pluralistic
Yep, 中二病, “8th graders' syndrom”
@oblomov @andygates @trabex @pluralistic
Makes sense. All about the self centered drama of adolescence.
@andygates @trabex @pluralistic The mediocrity principle only applies to everyone else.
@trabex @pluralistic The weird thing is, I think having a (reasonable) stockpile of emergency supplies could actually be a big help to the community. Food shortages? Dip into what you've stored and take pressure off the shops. Water problems? Useful to be able to purify what's available. Natural disaster? First aid supplies would probably be handy. And the great thing is the more people there are to share this kind of stuff, the less likely you are to have Mad Max gangs form in the first place.
@trabex @pluralistic Also, just, imagine actually being the one guy sitting out the apocalypse in a fully kitted-out bunker like some kind of bottlecap-hoarding Scrooge McDuck. If things really did fall apart entirely, I'd sure rather have done what I could to help everyone else up until that point rather than be the one everybody's happily settled on eating first.
@DamonWakes @trabex @pluralistic You need a local stockpile of some stuff, you need some things directly to hand because there is a period any many disasters where you can't move around an a period before you can get stuff in from further. You don't help others if you unnecessarily need rescuing, after that point though it's all about co-ordination and sharing.
A lot of the most useful stuff though is just building general resilience you can use whatever is going on good or bad locally
@DamonWakes @trabex @pluralistic It's why I get annoyed at governments who obsess about specialist terrorism stuff when the correct fix for a lot of it better general policing and better medical stuff because it's useful in all situations
@pluralistic a solution looking for a problem
@pluralistic
Good luck with all that bitcoin when there is no infrastructure.
Do you think Bezos has a thumb drive chock-a-block full of ephemeral bitcoin or a New Zealand bunker stuffed with gold?