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:
pluralistic.net/2024/11/25/mal…
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GhostOnTheHalfShell
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •WhistlerInTheDarkAges
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Cory Doctorow reshared this.
Switch
in reply to WhistlerInTheDarkAges • • •Luna chan
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Cory Doctorow reshared this.
Amanda Bee
in reply to Luna chan • • •Sam Fleming
in reply to Amanda Bee • • •Cory Doctorow
in reply to Sam Fleming • • •@ravenbait @amanda @Luna Doug Rushkoff, SURVIVAL OF THE RICHEST. Initially a Guardian article, then a great book.
pluralistic.net/2022/09/13/col…
Pluralistic: 13 Sep 2022 Survival of the Richest – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.netAphrodite ☑️ :boost_ok:
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •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.)
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Paul Cantrell
in reply to Aphrodite ☑️ :boost_ok: • • •@Aphrodite
I recommend this @naomikritzer short story:
uncannymagazine.com/article/th…
It’s very much what you’re talking about, and serves as a counterpoint to the kinds of fantasies @pluralistic is discussing.
The Year Without Sunshine - Uncanny Magazine
Uncanny MagazineCory Doctorow
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Nagaram
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •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.
Nagaram
in reply to Nagaram • • •Nagaram
in reply to Nagaram • • •Nagaram
in reply to Nagaram • • •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.
Chip Unicorn
in reply to Nagaram • • •@Nagaram
@pluralistic
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.
Pteryx the Puzzle Secretary
in reply to Chip Unicorn • • •StevenSavage
in reply to Nagaram • • •Nagaram
in reply to StevenSavage • • •@StevenSavage
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.
bignose
in reply to Nagaram • • •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.
craphound.com/radicalized/
#BookRecommentation #Preppers #Delusion #ItTakesAVillage
Unauthorized Bread | Cory Doctorow's craphound.com
craphound.comJeff Moss
in reply to Nagaram • • •@Nagaram 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?
Nagaram
in reply to Jeff Moss • • •foo ✅
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •MaybeMyMonkeys
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Winter Trabex
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •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.
Andy Gates
in reply to Winter Trabex • • •Oblomov
in reply to Andy Gates • • •CBinNYC
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •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?
Delta Sierra
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •bookmarking this, so I can share it with the next person who (incorrectly) labels me a prepper (yes, I have a generator and fuel/food/water reserves; it's also not unusual to be snowed in for up to a week here).
Really intriguing breakdown of the mindset behind behavior I've always found bizarre, thank you!
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Pteryx the Puzzle Secretary
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •In my case, fear that in the wake of this election result, some combination of MAGA undermining of the government and corporate acceleration of the inequality machine will result in infrastructure and necessary bureaucratic processes breaking down has driven me to some last-minute prep.
I know full well that fighting off angry mobs is fantasy. I'm not even trying to prep for that. But I can at least take some steps to just... survive if things go that bad.
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Daniel Pratt
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Nicole Parsons
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •commondreams.org/opinion/who-c…
"Socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the rest."
The malign influence narrative that "joint problems cannot be solved jointly" has to be one of the most successfully pervasive myths by conservatives...
washingtonpost.com/outlook/202…
nytimes.com/2021/01/26/opinion…
robertreich.org/post/186831208…
prospect.org/economy/myth-rugg…
inequalitymedia.org/the-myth-o…
salon.com/2019/08/11/robert-re…
That myth ended social mobility in the USA
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
The 'American Dream' of upward mobility is broken. Look at the numbers
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pawkypaul
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •@Npars01
"Without the burden of income taxes, they’re now richer than any humans ever before in the history of the Earth. Richer than the pharaohs, richer than the Caesars, richer than any king in European, African, or Asian history.
Do they care that they’re leaving the rest of us a dying planet?"
Ima guess no.
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Bartek Tatkowski
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •USAOffers
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Madeleine Morris
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Cory Doctorow reshared this.
James Wallbank
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •It seems to me that the whole survivalist proposition is an attempt to collapse the long term into the immediate. It's about a life lived at only one tempo—the speed of the action movie.
There's very little consideration of the longer term—planting and harvesting, raising and educating children, developing and preserving knowledge, resolving conflict without alienating the neighbours that your successors will live with for generations to come.
Offersonlyusa
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Tinnitus911 Now - #1 Weird Trick To End Tinnitus This Thanksgiving In Just 30 Seconds A Day
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Julie Goldberg
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •We survive together, or not at all.
perfectwhole.wordpress.com/201…
Survivalism
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LightlySearedOnTheRealityGrill
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •gokul112
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Speak 40+ languages instantly with ENENCE Translator – 35% off this Black Friday!
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CM Thiede
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •bouriquet
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •The only negotiable tender will be food, water, shelter or some sort of personal service, whether essential or ahem ‘personal’.
It’s Maslow’s hierarchy on crack.
Frank Bennett
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •