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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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.
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 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 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. 
@pteryx @Chip_Unicorn @Nagaram @pluralistic
@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.