I know a guy who's always talking about what he'll do if things get bad enough.

Things like "when everything pops off, I will X" or "If it comes to it, I'd Y"

and it's like...

My man, people are being murdered in the streets in our country and several others. The president is a convicted criminal. The media landscape started consolidating decades ago, but it has accelerated dramatically in recent years, to the point where most media is owned or produced by far right extremists or people sympathetic to far right extremists.

The US is dismantling most public institutions, removing funding from any public good. Housing and food and transportation keep getting more expensive while wages stay the same or drop and jobs are eliminated.

Everything is running on inertia, and it won't last. What are we doing now?

@ajroach42 Prepping as a performative individualist activity vs understanding community preparedness and taking concrete steps, an American Tale.

They have already given up any hope of a better future, and can’t reconcile the cognitive dissonance that creates with the lie of American exceptionalism they’ve been fed their whole lives.

This is a way of subconsciously self-soothing the guilt of deferring the real work of actual meaningful action. When in reality they are simply cosplaying preparedness and hoisting their crisis participation trophy.