With my blog post about Deborah D. Moore novels a couple days ago and my politics rant post about the right-wing conspiracy theory hamster wheel, I may have come across as flippant about preparedness and that was not my intent. I believe learning how to cope with uncertainty and staying calm and focused on the things that really do matter is more important than obsessing about financial “collapse” hysteria or the latest right-wing conspiracy theory that everyone’s talking about on social media or right-wing media – or even some hyped list of possible shortage items.
A “collapse” in America has already happened, but it’s not the one I see the online prepper community talking about all the time.
Our American news and information systems have already collapsed. This collapse has been in progress for decades. The political spin information war, corrupt media, corrupt politicians, hostile foreign information operations, social media and probably a whole host of factors have played a role in this collapse- including we the American people. When I keep adding links, it’s because I try to verify as much information as I can and it’s gotten harder over the past decade. I’ve found Google isn’t always where I find a reliable way to search for information.
When I keep warning conservatives and right-wingers – trying to debunk the conspiracy theories or warn about guarding against trusting the right-wing media echo-chamber as much as they distrust the liberal media echo-chamber, I’m not trying to pick on online preppers and homesteaders for believing in conspiracy theories. It is virtually impossible not to fall prey to some incorrect or bogus information online. I’ve fallen for information that was bogus many times. I’ve encountered the same thing with emails in the past.
I’m alarmed, because if the only people who are proactively working at being more self-reliant and urging people to be prepared for emergencies are constantly hysterical, trust in a failed information system, and so easily race down one conspiratorial rabbit hole after another, who on earth is left in America to help lead and hold anything together?
We’ve all been along for the ride as America’s information systems collapsed and it’s been an integral factor in the escalating divisiveness and instability in American society.
What concerns me is so many people are invested in getting worked up based on information they saw or read online (and yes, I was doing a bit of that in my rant, I know, and I’m trying to stop doing that), because we’ve all been conditioned, for decades, to respond to 24/7 media incitement theater, that now masquerades as news.
In my blog post a couple days ago about the Deborah D. Moore apocalyptic/prepper novels, there were some some very important preparedness themes in her stories. We all should be buckling down and be more like the Wonder Woman Survivalist, Allexa Smeth, the main character. Smeth had practiced a lifetime of preparedness and building all sorts of skill sets. She had her supplies organized and inventoried. She also was always forward-leaning and not waiting around to take action to become better-prepared. She was always trying to motivate everyone around her, even her 12-year-old granddaughter, to learn skills and take some responsibility for their survival. And she was always trying to adapt and thrive no matter the circumstances – even as she was reacting to crisis situations, she kept looking ahead. Preparedness and self-reliance were fundamental parts of her mindset.
In my book review blog post, I mentioned the collapsed information systems Smeth and other characters kept dealing with and that part struck me as totally realistic. She kept focusing on the situation around her home, family and community that she had some control over and that seems like a sensible approach. This is a sensible approach for us too, I think.
Quite a few of the other characters in Moore’s novels reminded me of people I know – people who don’t know how to do much of anything, people who are always blowing money on fun stuff, but don’t have even a week’s worth of food stocked up, people who believe the government will take care of them in an emergency, people who will show up expecting you to take care of them. I had a neighbor years ago, who talked to me in my driveway, the day before a hurricane was expected to hit. We chatted and I asked her if she was ready and she didn’t even have a flashlight, so I gave her an LED camping lantern and extra batteries. I have some close friends and family who think even stocking up extra food is a waste of money or crazy, because they believe the stores will always be open and full of merchandise. I also have family and friends who are well-prepared.
Somehow though, I suspect the people who are totally unprepared for any kind of emergency far outnumber the people who are even a little bit prepared. However, one thing I’ve seen in my life is often people possess skills, knowledge, experience on all sorts of stuff that can surprise you. They might not be a “prepper,” but they might provide a vital skill set or knowledge, so it’s always important to be open to blessings that come in unexpected ways.
In the first Moore novel one of the first problems Smeth encounters is an unprepared local man, who knows she’s a prepper, showing up at her door – trying to forcefully take her stuff. She shot him when he tried to force his way into her home. While many of the natural disaster situations and events in these novels seemed far-fetched to me – that situation with an unprepared man seemed very realistic to me now, after seeing the rise in crime and violence around parts of the country. I always had a very Pollyanna type attitude toward helping people and not thinking about personal/home defense much, but since the 2020 Summer of Love rioting and watching that chaos, I’ve done some major rethinking.
I hope we never have to deal with an apocalyptic crisis, but we can lose our country in many ways beyond some apocalyptic event, if we have citizens with no clue about our American history, our American heritage and most all the virtues of hard work and sacrifice that built our nation. Finding ways to preserve our American ideals is as important as preserving all of our other vital items. A country that can’t pull together on anything is in as precarious a situation as a massive financial collapse and unfortunately we are already there.
I don’t have a plan for defeating the spin information war or a means to build a reliable information system. I’ve debated trying to comment and provide verified information on sites in the past and then I decided against doing that, because people consider that trolling if you post a comment disagreeing with the content creator. I’ll continue to try verifying information, doing some research and writing my blog. Whenever I see a lot of social media hysteria churning, I start trying to figure out what’s going on – I try not to buy into it – no matter which news organization, pundit, politician or whoever is spouting it.
This information problem will only increase as AI develops and other ways to manipulate information develop. Back in 2017, there was this report: A Russian Facebook page organized a protest in Texas. A different Russian page launched the counterprotest. There have been incidents I’ve mentioned many times that were carried out by American political operatives, like Dem operatives & some Silicon Valley bigwigs creating fake Russian bots supporting Roy Moore, in an AL Senate race. In that false flag operation, Dem operatives then turned around and were hyping that Roy Moore was backed by Russians. Two situations here with “Russian” disinformation – one likely perpetrated by actual Russian information operations and the other by one of our own domestic political parties.
The information chaos and confusion will only grow, as AI becomes more widely used. Manipulated images and videos are everywhere online now. Just being aware that our information systems aren’t reliable – especially the political news – can help us become more skeptical and learn to take a wait and see approach rather than running around yelling, “The sky is falling!”
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