[Part 2] If something is coming… why are only a few preparing?
Posted by kenjoncan@reddit | collapse | View on Reddit | 146 comments
Last week, I shared some thoughts about the strange unease I’ve been feeling—
as if the world isn’t just going through random problems, but moving toward something more final.
The response I received made one thing clear:
I’m not alone in feeling this.
So here’s Part 2:
If something is indeed coming, then who’s preparing for it?
And maybe more importantly… why aren’t we included?
Over the past few years, I started noticing patterns:
- Billionaires building bunkers in remote areas.
- Tech elites investing in Mars colonization projects.
- Governments quietly conducting continuity-of-government exercises.
- Experimental cities designed for “resilience,” only for the ultra-wealthy.
- Sudden shifts in narratives, fear-driven laws, and digital control.
It’s as if there’s an unspoken agreement among a small group:
“Let them live their lives. When the time comes, we’ll disappear quietly.”
And honestly… I don’t think this is about surviving a single event.
It’s about controlling the next version of civilization.
If this world resets, who gets to write the rules next time?
I don’t think all of them are evil.
But I do think most of them don’t trust the rest of us.
They don’t see us as part of the “plan.”
And that’s what really scares me.
I’ll go deeper in Part 3:
What kind of future are they preparing for—and do we have any chance to shape it?
Until then…
If you’ve seen the signs too, or felt the same thing—
I’d love to hear what you’ve noticed.
We are not supposed to talk about this.
Which is exactly why we need to.
(Side note: Some replies to my previous post mentioned this might be AI-generated. I understand why—it’s cleanly written. But the thoughts, the questions, the unease… they’re mine. I’m just using AI to help me express it more clearly. Sometimes you need a silent editor when you can’t say it all out loud.)
– Still watching.
BadAsBroccoli@reddit
Prepare for you and your family. And do not talk about your preparations unless you want everyone who didn't prepare relying on you to support them for nothing.
Maybe that's why you don't hear about it, because people are being quiet about their preparations and not sharing their information. You can't save a lazy and uninformed world, but you can save you and those you love and trust.
infiltrating_enemies@reddit
There are quite a few prepper subs actually, along with forums, YouTube channels, websites, etc. People are very much sharing their info
BadAsBroccoli@reddit
To their own detriment when the time comes.
infiltrating_enemies@reddit
Oh? I'd like to hear your opinions q
BadAsBroccoli@reddit
"The Bunker" by R.J. Keller.
In "The Bunker", a man named Dale has prepared for a catastrophic event by constructing a bunker for himself and his family. When the disaster strikes, he locks himself and his family inside, but soon his neighbors begin pounding on the door, begging to be let in. The story grapples with the tension between self-preservation and moral obligation, as the protagonist struggles with the decision of whether to let in those who didn't prepare.
Alternatively, another short story that features a similar scenario is "The Shelter" by Ray Bradbury. In this story, the protagonist and his family have a fallout shelter, and when the neighborhood learns that a nuclear disaster is imminent, the neighbors begin to gather at the shelter, putting the protagonist in a morally complex position. The themes of trust, survival, and ethics come into play as tensions escalate.
whim-sicles@reddit
They desperately want us to have more kids. They're poking their filthy moses into our governments to make sure we do. They're building bunkers and consulting experts on how to keep their security teams loyal after the collapse. They know what's coming and they know that their greed is the cause, they'll be blamed. They will enslave the poor (which will be all of us by then)and harvest us for sex and labor.
alovingmommyof3@reddit
Why do they want us to have more kids? It seems like they are hell bent on causing many of us to die. Do they want more kids to be born to replace those they cause to die? Another idea I have is the very young are more easily maleable.
whim-sicles@reddit
People who have children are more likely to stay in the workforce, I think. Gotta have that perpetual growth our labor provides for them. Because the only thing that matters to the billionaires is who has the biggest pile of money when it all falls down.
atdoll10@reddit
Tesla Cybertrucks perform excellent against riots. A baseball bat to the window looked stupid to us middle and lower class people, but I think the rich saw something different.
SecretsStars@reddit
I'm too busy going to work so that I keep my health insurance, and don't go homeless....
alovingmommyof3@reddit
Yes and for me dealing with health issues doctors refuse to diagnose and treat.
KryptonianBleez@reddit
☝️☝️☝️
BeetleBones@reddit
We have 17 years until life as we know it today is utterly unrecognizable.
Yes, op. The world is ending and we are bearing witness.
Round_Try_9883@reddit
17 years?
alovingmommyof3@reddit
I 2nd this question.
AbradolfLincler77@reddit
What do we prepare for? Nuclear holocaust? Climate change? Economic collapse? Most of us will likely die anyway, so I'm gonna enjoy what bits I can, while I can.
alovingmommyof3@reddit
Besides money and health issues making it difficult for me to prepare, I dont know how the hell to prepare and what to prepare for. My adult kids want to bury their heads in the sand.
Noe_b0dy@reddit
Yeah when the food runs out I'm just going to blow my brains out. Good luck to the rest of y'all.
alovingmommyof3@reddit
I figure it will just die. I don't have the money or physical ability to prepare much. I have health issues I have dough for years to get diagnosed and treated. They get so bad I am bedridden more days than not. And I'm only 47.
alovingmommyof3@reddit
Oh crap you stated one of my fears. Are the rich elite working towards being the rulers of humanity after collapse? Are they trying to cause it so that they can remake humanity in their messed up vision?
Celmeo@reddit
Um... might seem like a pedantic minor detail, but that was just 1 hour ago???????
icyhail@reddit
I know right!? This sounds like some creative writing bs and karma farming.
demonrimjob666@reddit
Not even creative, this has chatgpt written all over it
bristlybits@reddit
I don't really like AI written posts and the more of them I see here, the less I want to bother reading here.
I'm serious, I hate it. I prefer bad grammar and not very clean writing, I don't need to see this crap here. it's accelerating collapse and I hate it being in the collapse sub.
I don't know what the mod stance is about this but it disgusts me.
use your own words, no matter how badly formatted. speak like a person with your own human words and thoughts, I am only engaging with this post to express disgust. usually I down vote and move on, or occasionally block the poster entirely.
I really wish there were more ways to prevent AI junk (these LLMs ) from spreading on subs where the very subject relates to how they're destructive of... well, just about everything.
BBR0DR1GUEZ@reddit
I’m with you. I do use ChatGPT a lot for cooking and baking. When I sold cars, I used it to organize to-do lists and help me prioritize tasks. Using it for as long as I have helps me spot its writing style pretty much instantly.
And goddamn it’s all over this fucking site. It’s truly everywhere. You’re not alone in being repelled by it. It gives me a profoundly lonely feeling to know I’m so often being tricked into reading text that a human didn’t even write.
I wish more people had the respect for themselves and their audience to forgo its use on this site. We’re so atomized by our surroundings already. Why add to it by removing even more of the humanity from how we communicate with each other?
I’m sad now. I didn’t use ChatGPT for this comment. But I did use it to make me a recipe for dairy-free blueberry muffins last night. I’m now going to eat them all and contemplate some bullshit
FunkmasterJoe@reddit
"I hate AI so much, the people who like it are garbage, and it's helping to destroy the environment.I use it 500 times a day, this comment smells a lot like AI, in fact. I will never stop."
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BBR0DR1GUEZ@reddit
Take a breath Joe. It’s gonna be okay. We’re gonna work through something called nuance together, just you and me.
I don’t hate AI at all. In fact, I use it frequently and it’s enriched my life a lot. For example, I do a shitload of delicious cooking with recipes written by AI.
What I hate is reading text purported to be written by a human, which is actually written by AI. I want you to know that I write a lot on this dumbass website and you are the very first person who’s ever accused my writing of “smelling” like AI.
Congratulations Joe. This has been fun. Now kindly fuck off.
7101334@reddit
You can cook without using absurdly energy intensive tools. People have been doing that for a long time.
BBR0DR1GUEZ@reddit
You play video games. Your game console is an absurdly energy intensive tool. People have been entertaining themselves without video games for a long time. Why don’t you do that instead?
Look, I’ve made some awesome meals for my family and friends using ChatGPT recipes. My gf told me she loved me for the first time after I made her some roasted veggie pasta sauce and cinnamon sugar donuts for desert.
I use energy intensive tools to enrich my life, just like you do as well. Only difference is I don’t go around virtue signaling about why your choice of tool makes you morally inferior. I’m too busy making delicious fuckin home cook meals and baked goods for my friends and family.
7101334@reddit
I mean it's not really you cooking them, but do your thing.
BBR0DR1GUEZ@reddit
I’ve thought a lot over the last day about this comment. You’ll probably ignore this but I’m just very curious if you can see the same flaw in the logic that I do. No nastiness or snark intended. Just looking for an honest discussion.
7101334@reddit
Nope no flaws observed.
BBR0DR1GUEZ@reddit
Ok then. A couple questions if you have the time. If using recipes from ChatGPT means I’m not cooking, then would using recipes from a cookbook mean I’m not cooking as well? Do you think it only counts as “cooking” if you don’t use a recipe?
7101334@reddit
No :) Try that instead!
BBR0DR1GUEZ@reddit
So you admit I am cooking, you just don’t like where I get my recipes. That’s what I figured but thank you for confirming. I’ve been cooking for 20 years and I teach an after-school baking class. Do you do a lot of cooking yourself?
7101334@reddit
I missed the part where I said that. You're letting AI use your hands to cook.
More than you I guess!
Why are you, an apparent enthusiast of unnecessary energy consumption, on r/collapse?
BBR0DR1GUEZ@reddit
“Letting AI use my hands to cook.” …This is the type of schizo-posting that I was hoping to hear. I just had to be sure that you were actually as crazy as I thought you were.
Thank you for not letting me down. Enjoy your totally eco-friendly “galactic hub,” my friend. I’m sure your enjoyment of procedurally generated planets is not hypocritical in any way whatsoever.
I’m off to make some delicious food for my friends and family. Enjoy your chicken tendies <3
7101334@reddit
Yep, just a crazy guy who thinks you're lazy and bragging about nothing. Just another day on the internet.
...Do you think "procedural generation" is AI? 🤡 For someone so insistent on how unbothered they are by my eco-friendly schizophrenic rantings, it seems odd that my anti-AI sentiment got to you so much that you're stalking my profile to find straws to grasp at.
I hope your friends and family enjoy AI's meal! Maybe one day you'll figure out how to read a book.
BBR0DR1GUEZ@reddit
Yes, it’s very lazy the way I spend hours preparing ingredients and turning them into meals… I should do something more productive, like playing video games.
If I’m letting AI “use my hands to cook” then why am I not letting an author use my hands to cook when I use a cookbook?
There is no logic to what you’re saying. The labor of cooking is entirely done by me when I use AI for recipes. The exact same way it would be if I used a recipe from a cookbook.
Again - I literally teach cooking classes. I get paid to cook and teach cooking techniques. Guess where I learned some of those techniques from.
7101334@reddit
Great. Go back to doing it in a way that doesn't unnecessarily impact the planet we live on.
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BBR0DR1GUEZ@reddit
PS here are the cinnamon sugar donuts I just made with a recipe I memorized after getting it from chatGPT months ago. What have you been up to today buddy?
BBR0DR1GUEZ@reddit
Sure! As soon as you sell your unnecessary gaming consoles, I will get right on it. Do you see how all you’re doing is virtue signaling? You haven’t convinced me about a single point you tried to make… This entire conversation was a waste of electricity for you. How can you live with yourself 🙀
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BBR0DR1GUEZ@reddit
My friend, I would pay real money to hear you walk me through your logic on this one. This isn’t the reply I expected but it did make me laugh and I appreciate you for it. If I’m not cooking this food, how do I end up washing so many dishes afterwards?
7101334@reddit
How much?
BBR0DR1GUEZ@reddit
Probably like three dollars but I’d love if you could do it pro bono
bristlybits@reddit
OMG please find cookbooks instead. eventually you're going to get the poison mushroom guide directions.
BBR0DR1GUEZ@reddit
The concern is appreciated but I promise to be careful. I do have cookbooks. But they have drawbacks and limitations that are completely resolved for me by using ChatGPT. Two years of experience using it for this purpose have served me very well. I have no intention of stopping.
demonrimjob666@reddit
Hate to break it to you but you’re part of the problem lol
BBR0DR1GUEZ@reddit
I don’t care. And you’re just feeling pissy right now because you quit smoking weed and you don’t even have any muffins to take the edge off.
BrilliantSpecial3413@reddit
Damn your AI model is set to "snarky" huh lol.
BBR0DR1GUEZ@reddit
Ha my AI model has two custom instructions: first is to curse at me in the first sentence of every response and second is to make all my recipes without any dairy products. I wouldn’t use it for Reddit comments because I write better than the robot and that wouldn’t be fun for me at all.
demonrimjob666@reddit
For real use of chatgpt (for anything) directly contributes to collapse in more ways than one. Would love to see mods come down on it somehow.
gangofminotaurs@reddit
So does reddit. There's nothing "evil" that chat-gpt does that we're not already doing here on this social media.
bristlybits@reddit
how many resources were wasted by me thinking this and typing it and sending vs firing up a llm, typing into it, having it process, then refining that prompt over and over again until it's readable?
I call bullshit. I don't want to see this in collapse of all places
gangofminotaurs@reddit
You. What you ate was wasted. Which ecosystems was destroyed to make room for your way of life was wasted.
Peeps here acting all innocent lol. The main difference between a LLM and you is that the LLM is less prone to immense denial for the kind of moral onanism you're sexting to us here.
kingrobin@reddit
the most annoying quality of the collapse aware is the sense that they're somehow enlightened, and thus, less responsible. You could do everything by the book and it won't be a drop in the bucket. No one is saving anything by not using chatgpt (something that the vast majority of the population does everyday without even thinking about it).
bristlybits@reddit
"may as well burn all the coal, fellas. people are alive"
demonrimjob666@reddit
I may not agree with you but I thank you for the cool new way to say “circlejerk”
Anxious_cactus@reddit
Maybe it was just written and published on some other social first and OP copy pasted without editing timeline.
I do agree 2 posts in an hour is a lot in that sense though, could've at least given it a day so more people can see part 1 before part 2.
SeaOfBullshit@reddit
Okay cool cuz I thought I was tripping
OldTimberWolf@reddit
An hour equals a week for those raised on social media.
ask_me_about_my_band@reddit
Man, the first of the year was only 90 days ago and it's already been a long decade.
catlaxative@reddit
faster than expected!
TheBladeguardVeteran@reddit
I mean, OP could be in a timezone where it was sunday 1 hour ago lol
icyhail@reddit
What a generous take, but even then, no one talks about something you did yesterday as last week, even if the week flipped over. And, they're in Turkey based on their comments on their profile.
Ghostwoods@reddit
There is no next version of civilisation. You could prepare hard to extend a truly wretched existence by a year or ten.
blitzm056@reddit
First I think people are genuinely fatigued by it all. Covid, riots, inflation, Biden (if you're on the right side), Ukraine, Israel Gaza, Iran, Trump (if you're on the left). I was biting my nails for years. The wake up call for me was the 2008 crash. Now I just accept that at any time the @%$# can hit the fan. I don't stress over it anymore but rather take pragmatic steps to prepare my family and I for whatever the disaster is. Right now what I think what will directly impact my family and I is multiple attacks by cells spread throughout the country on easy targets instigated by the growing tension with Iran from nearly everyone. Think Oct 7 but all over the country. The reason people are not prepping is they think what's the point, it's too expensive, and where do you even begin. In the case of my current concern, think it through. What happens if I'm where it occurs. What if I'm in the local area or city? Do I wait or get out immediately? What will be repercussions? Will we need to stay home for a couple of days or weeks? Covid should have taught us lessons on that. Genuinely think through these so that when it happens you have some sort of plan and supplies to get through.
elihu@reddit
Most of the ways billionaires prepare aren't available to those of us without the financial means they have.
Astalon18@reddit
Oh no, why do you say I have not prepared.
Have you ever ask yourself what lifestyle blocks are?
They are the middle class attempt at prepping in many cases. We are just too polite to say anything. We are doctors, lawyers, engineers, dentist, tradies etc.. We decide we want some land and some space away from the city to live a lifestyle.
I realise that I was not alone in doing this when I spoke to my neighbours in the lifestyle blocks. We suspect bad things will come at some point in the future, and this will be a safe place when it does happen.
That is why we have large water catchment systems, solar panels etc.. I have a large library in my lifestyle blocks with many practical books, as well as a tool shed and work shed and greenhouse. Why do you think I maintain this with my family?
ditchdiggergirl@reddit
Because nobody really knows what to prepare for. If the extreme doomers are right I don’t need to prepare, because I am not a survivor. (I’ve always told my kids that in the event of the zombie apocalypse my role would be meat shield for one of them, but that’s a first come first served offer.) If society is going to completely change short of outright destruction I’ll roll with that for lack of any better options. But I can’t see into the future now any more than I could in the 80s, when I could have bought shares of Apple, so it’s hard to know which preparations would pay off. If it’s going to be a slow steady evolution into something else - which I consider the most likely scenario - I probably won’t live to see much of it.
Specter313@reddit
I watched an interesting video by Neil deGrasse about how cities currently are only adapted for what the city has experienced in the past 100-150 years. When things were predictable, a flood or drought could be expected every certain amount of years, hurricanes or earthquakes created new building standards where they are common.
The problem is Neil makes it seem like a very simple solution that cities in today's climate simply have to adapt to weather they haven't experienced in the past. That is impossible to be done preemptively. You will not get support or funding to implement climate protections for your city because it will be seen as a waste of time and money.
I'm under the belief that governments will become insolvent as natural disasters continue to happen more frequently and with greater intensity. It seems impossible to unite people towards a problem we don't even really understand. We know things will get bad and there are government reports about cities supporting climate resilience. However we just don't know how bad things will get or how quickly.
Do flood prone cities need to start building aqueducts right now? 5 years ago? Or not at all because it will actually become a Drought prone city as the climate changes and becomes increasingly unpredictable.
It seems most cities have no plans in place to deal with climate change because it would be very expensive and possibly a big waste of money if things go in the opposite direction of what they planned for.
unseemly_turbidity@reddit
The city I live in is being adapted to deal with the more unpredictable, rainier climate we're expecting for the next 100 years (so, realistically maybe 50. Faster than expected!) The idea is that it should be a permeable 'sponge' city with networks of ponds and green spaces, and also a huge network of pipes underneath, separate from the sewer system, which can be used for storing water as well as moving it out to the sea.
You're not wrong though. The only reason it's happening is because we had a 'once in a thousand years' flood about 15 years ago. In a sense I think we were lucky to have that, because I don't think there'd be near as much investment otherwise, no matter how certain the climate models were.
Specter313@reddit
People want to be prepared and it is nice to know your city is doing their best. I often recall the story of the Japanese mayor who spent a lot of money building a sea wall because when he was a child there was a devastating flood. He was quite old so most people did not remember. He built the seawall for around 30 million dollars of today's money and faced a lot of backlash and retired in shame, people saying he was stupid and wasted their tax money.
It was built in 1970's and in 2011 it actually saved the village from a tsunami. Since that event he is now praised by the people living their as being a visionary who saved their village of 3000 people.
He took a risk and he died being hated by his people, though he was happy because he knew it would help them one day.
I feel this story mirrors our current situation well. There are a lot of people who want to help and do good but any mistake will be used against you and can destroy your career as a politician or public official. I think a lot of mistakes will happen regarding climate change preparedness and many good people will be beaten out of the system and replaced with more "economical" people. The same type of people who in 1970's called this Japanese visionary a fool for wasting money.
Astalon18@reddit
Do note the mayor died before seeing the effect of the wall, and people only deferred to him when he was alive due to seniority ( they are Japanese ) but he was widely mocked.
Now of course his tomb is a shrine and people go and make offerings of thanks to him, but there not many people willing to be seen as a fool.
Codicus1212@reddit
I agree 100%. Worth pointing out that Tyson is not the first to consider this though. Look into Nassim Taleb, specifically Antifragile. The whole book is about how outliers and statistically improbable events shape and change our world, how poorly we typically deal with it, our inability to forecast, and how to actually think and structure systems so that black swan events help us, rather than destroy us.
unbreakablekango@reddit
I was watching the new The Day of the Jackal and there is a scene where these billionaire media idiots are debating whether or not to hire The Jackal for an assassination and the main billionaire says something like 'Models show that half of humanity could disappear and it would have absolutely no impact on GDP, we just have to make sure it is the right half"
I think that is the closest scenario to what we are facing. The elites realize that the best way to make our presence on the earth more sustainable is the dramatically reduce our population. I believe that the billionaires are preparing for a decade long slog of a massive depopulation campaign. If that is the case, it will be the worst hell imaginable for us proles. Food shortages, predatory lending, abusive debt collectors, violent neighbors, wage slavery, prison slavery, massive curtailing of personal liberties, starvation, property destruction due to climate change, no social services, media censorship, etc. It will be the collapse but it will be devoid of all fun and joy. Mad Max + Judge Dredd + Elysium. Horrid plan for humanity. Our only hope will be complete revolution/destruction of the government.
hyacinth_house_@reddit
Parable of the Sower takes place in 2025. Just sayin
Bozhark@reddit
Any chance, July?
PantsLio@reddit
This should be on everyone’s reading list. And Parable of the Talents.
Delicious_Reality619@reddit
This is exactly the scenario that has been occupying my mind lately. And it's been driving my mad dash of prepping as well.
unseemly_turbidity@reddit
If that was the goal, they'd be funding birth control and education for women. Giving women choice about how many children to have combined with other options is an extremely efficient way to reduce the population. Unfortunately, I'm not seeing much of that.
No, the billionaires are just out for themselves at this point.
Miserable-Day7417@reddit
No, they want people giving birth and getting educated. But they want “THEIR people” to receive that healthcare, they want “THEIR people” to procreate and receive education. Let the rest eat cake, and die.
Laws are suggestions to the owner class. Have you been watching the USA? Honestly, anybody with money anywhere not just the states usually gets what they want. Don’t know where it all leads, but I figure something gives one way or the other.
DivinityBeach@reddit
this, and it fucking sucks.
unbreakablekango@reddit
you a billionaire?
DivinityBeach@reddit
no, i'd die
unbreakablekango@reddit
Everything in the news makes a lot more sense when you view it through the perspective that the people in power want us to die. You can see it with what they are doing to Social Security. Social Security would be infinitely sustainable if we could just get people to die as soon as they are unable to continue working.
DivinityBeach@reddit
You're correct. I promise to try not to die, not going to succumb on purpose, but i try to be realistic and consider my medical issues when i factor and think out the collapse in my mind.
unbreakablekango@reddit
I'm less worried about how I am going to die and more worried about how I will choose to continue living. I want to collect some sense of security, but I also want to have fun with the time that we have left. I still haven't figured out how to do that! Although my wife and I have been talking more about turning to a life of crime (we are still joking about it for now!)
DivinityBeach@reddit
I like your outlook on things better than i like mine.
OldTimberWolf@reddit
1) I’m not a billionaire 2) I’m not a “tech elite” 3) Prepping for the apocalypse is just not me. Not only do I not have any “postapocolyptic warlord” in me, the whole experience sounds hellish and I’d rather throw in the towel early, maybe take a few fascists out on the way with me but that’s about it
NegotiationExtra8240@reddit
Yep. Saw this coming years ago. Every casual conversation turned into crypto schemes and real estate grabs. everyone scrambling for a piece of the pie. And what pie?? More useless Amazon junk and vacations to ‘exotic’ beaches that have been whitewashed and gentrified beyond recognition. But no, I was the doomer. Well, here we are. I did my part. They can live in it.
ourladyPattyMeltdown@reddit
I'm in the same place. Exactly.
Maybe it's a lifetime of burying myself in dystopian and post-apocalyptic literature, film, etc., but I just have absolutely no desire to live in that world. I've seen Threads. I'm good, thank you. I just need to decide exactly when it's time to go. Like you, I just hope I can do some damage to the brand-new crop of Nazis before it's over.
GivMHellVetica@reddit
A lot of good folks are preparing, but preparation looks different for everyone. Most folks don’t discuss it out in the open, but there are lots of discussions being had.
For people that have differently abled people in their home it’s getting doctor visits done and getting extra meds. Putting back some extra bits and bobs, upgrading medical equipment.
For some people it’s pivoting to needs only purchasing. Paying down debt. Securing their home. Planting gardens. Getting to know the people in their community around them. Learning where to get needs locally and close.
Some people protest and try to slow things down. They try to be an annoying active cog to give the rest of us a chance to breathe and catch up. Maybe give the slow wheels of justice a chance to work through some things.
Some people are helping other people to get their houses in order, paperwork printed for hard copies in case of website deletion or internet issues.
Some people are watching and info sharing. Teaching. Communicating.
It takes all different sorts of people doing things in all different sorts of ways. In all these aspects and many more there are different things each one of us can do to prepare for whatever tomorrow brings. We aren’t helpless. We have to survive.
In difficult times finding joy is even a powerful form of resistance. Get creative, think about outside of the box ways to get yourself prepared and then help others. Find a little bit of happy every day. Ask for help when you need it and try to help others when they ask you.
PentaOwl@reddit
I like your optimism, no /s
GivMHellVetica@reddit
The reality is, things are going to get rough in large waves. They are going to be waves that most of us have never experienced or have experienced to a much lesser degree. Some people will be affected sooner than others and even if corrective actions are taken right now it is going to take a long time to get to a more stable place.
We are going to need each other in ways that we can’t see right now. As much as some politics tells us and tries to show us we don’t matter -we do- that is why those powers try to convince us we aren’t. Our obligation to ourselves and each other is to not believe it. Hope sometimes is a tiny pin point, so small it is difficult to find but as long as it exists, so will we.
You are powerful too. There are little things and big things you can do every day that will ripple out in huge ways and they not only help you but helps your community around you too. Even reaching out and making a connection to someone can be a game changer for you and for them.
We will get through this and see another side, I can’t promise it will be better but it will be movement in a direction. We may have to course correct but we will keep moving.
collapsewatch@reddit
AI is part of the problem we have and anyone using it is part of that problem
Kinkajou4@reddit
Yes. Using it for a Reddit post screams ‘global energy resources be damned‘
DiscountExtra2376@reddit
It makes me so sick that chat gpt queries are like 60 times greater than the emissions of a conventional search and 10 year olds are using it as a form of entertainment. Or yes, a reddit post.
Kinkajou4@reddit
Me too. And the irony of using AI to publicly mourn one’s feelings about collapse of the environment is not lost on us!
Vegetaman916@reddit
All I do is prepare for it, and try and teach others how to prepare for it. That is the sole focus of my life for these next (last) few years.
But those in denial of collapse, well, trying to get them to prepare is a lost cause. They are too attached to jobs, to societal functions, to Amazon Prime shipping and air conditioning. Because of that, they refuse to even consider that something is drastically wrong. They won't even prepare, or if they do it will be in a half-ass fashion that keeps the hope alive that society and civilization will continue... when you hear "but my job," or something like "I have bills to pay," you know its a cop out.
Denial is comforting. It is an emotional defense mechanism against a reality that some people can't consciously handle.
The elites aren't like that. Many of them are a bit sociopathic anyway, but either way, they are more concerned with continuing to be on top no matter what kind of world emerges. And so they prepare because, why not? What's a few hundred million for a bunker/island?
Regular people are still worried about credit scores, college debt, and retirement plans. They just don't want to know about reality.
Party_Image5023@reddit
very well said
Consistent_Prune8717@reddit
there are 3 kinds of people about this problem:
those that know nothing about the climate, so do nothing.
those that know a little about the climate, so do something.
those that know about the climate, and know there's nothing that can be done.
if you compare what we're doing to Earth now to what extinction events have been like, we are an extinction event comparable to the Great Dying. to believe humans will survive is the very hubris that kills us.
there will be no second civilization.
there will be no more humans.
mericivil@reddit
I don't have enough money, live in a geographical area subject to migrations and wars for millennia and knows it will get worse the next decades, and frankly do not really want to live in a world that will be in constant violent decline.
Kinkajou4@reddit
Last sentence 👆. We need only to look at what women in war torn areas undergo with the enormous amount of sexual violence. Survival after collapse is unimaginable, but women and girls in particular will have a particularly horrific time. I think some overlook this at times when asking this question. It’s a privilege in the prepper community if one does not have to also factor sexual violence of themselves or their daughters in on top of everything else.
kenjoncan@reddit (OP)
you can follow on part 3
https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1jotbji/part_3_what_if_this_has_all_happened_before/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
rayn26@reddit
If the world is ending, peace out. I’ve seen enough apocalypse movies to know I’m not cut out for it.
Inside_Ad2602@reddit
AI is killing genuine intellectualism. It is breeding a generation of people who are incapable of critical thought.
cruisingforapubing@reddit
If they’re not evil they’re compliant because they have to be. They need class solidarity the same way we do, we just don’t have a cohesive movement or the means to destroy opposition the way they do. They know how the game works and whether they feel bad participating in it or not doesn’t really matter - what matters is that they are. I, personally, feel it is too late and that with the upswing in fascism globally any tangible movement will have its head taken off swiftly along with anyone involved in it. It’s scary times. There are a lot of us who feel this way and know what’s coming but it’s really difficult to know how to prepare, how to mobilize and how to fight back. I’ve turned to focusing on bettering myself and building good community locally because the strain of feeling hopeless just led me to addiction and a worse version of myself. I’m not saying focus on only yourself, but on localized community efforts and stabilizing the elements of collapse that you can have a tangible effect on. It’s the only way to stay sane in this chaotic era.
Antani101@reddit
This is, quite frankly, bullshit.
The amount of energy needed for Mars colonization, and the amount of support from Earth a Mars colony would need makes colonizing Mars a quixotic pipedream at best and a laughably doa endeavor at worst.
Caucasian_Thunder@reddit
God, its like they didn't even watch that documentary about the one time Matt Damon tried to live on Mars
Heartinthepaint@reddit
Or Total Recall, hello! Beyond impractical
Heartinthepaint@reddit
Or Total Recall, hello! Beyond impractical
mofasaa007@reddit
Of course it is. But telling people to colonize Mars gets more money than saying you want the $ to build a mobile space bunker.
shatteredoctopus@reddit
Yup, my response to people who treat Mars as if it will be some planet B or backup for humanity: there's nothing humans or nature could do to the Earth to make it less inhabitable than mars. Making hundreds of redoubts, housing hundreds of people each, with years of supply at the bottom of our deepest mines would be cheaper (and feasible with today's technology) than establishing any human presence on mars with supplies or industry. Credible technology for long-term life support, protection against radiation, and all the psychosocial implications of colonizing another planet have yet to be demonstrated.
All our industry/ infrastructure etc is here on Earth, without having to escape and re-enter a gravity well. Whatever is spent getting some piece of equipment or person to Mars could be used to place thousands of those on Earth, spread out everywhere, as redundancy. Even if every nuke in our arsenal went off, there will still be oxygen in our atmosphere, and water in the ground that can be gathered and purified. Stockpiling food is much easier when you don't have to do so across interplanetary distances. Mars has toxic dirt, unknown if it can be transformed in a way that could support plant life, non-breathable air, water is harder to gather, and the long term effects of Mars gravity on human health are not known.
karl-pops-alot@reddit
So Now What? movement ecology, collapse and rising fascism by Gail Bradbrook - https://buymeacoffee.com/gailbradbrook/so-now-what
CntonAhigurh@reddit
I prepped! I tied a noose, when it’s time I’ll finally hang
Blitzed_Alien@reddit
Stop using ai to write about this and unite, rise up and change this within your country. I am absolutely gobsmacked watching the apathy from the US citizens. You all just gonna roll over and get ….
tyler98786@reddit
It's alternative 2 and alternative 3 being put into action slowly but silently by those at the top. They actually thought S would HTF by 2000, by their own metrics we are doing better than they forecast. Val Valerians the matrix 2, pages 409 onwards. Please look into it, it's exactly what you are talking about. The Matrix II : Valdemar Valerian : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/The_Matrix_II/page/n694/mode/1up
altpopconnoisseur@reddit
your point is really wrecked by the use of AI. and I really don't like that being sprung on me at the end
NorthRoseGold@reddit
Oh you started noticing these things that are ALL OVER THE NEWS AND I'M MAGAZINES AND IN HUMAN INTEREST STORIES ALL OVER THE INTERNET?¿?
ooo u must be SO OBSERVANT
theyareallgone@reddit
How do you prepare for your children to live like it's the 19th century?
The actual answer is become a farmer now so they'll have a chance at becoming the landed gentry. But make sure the land is good enough to make a living on, but not so good as to be worth fighting a lot over.
Nobody wants to move to a remote farmstead and start the gruelling work of breaking raw land. Nobody can afford to buy a turn-key farm of a few hundred mixed acres.
EmptyLiminalBox@reddit
It’s interesting how we, like animals, can tell when something is just off. It’s like a 6th sense. I’ve been feeling this for a while now, but lately it’s been amplified.
RoamingRivers@reddit
I have a few theories based upon observations;
Normalcy bias; people think that nothing of such magnitude can happen.
Denial; self explanatory.
Blind Optimism; they think that everything will "go back to normal" one day.
Some people just don't want to ever acknowledge the bad stuff that can go wrong.
They have too much faith in the system/ruling class; be they think that the system is "too big to fail" or that the people in power will fix the issue.
ChaosLitany@reddit
A friend of mine thinks that whatever is coming won’t be so bad, and that human life will continue.
I disagree and think we’ll all be dead, aside from maybe a few isolated settlements, by the end of the 21st century.
I read climate change news. To my knowledge she does not.
KeltarPecunia@reddit
What you're describing aligns with the Anglo-Saxon Mission. Project Camelot put a video out on it back in 2010.
https://youtu.be/TmWM51mTY_c?si=EbzwcM0J8F965aGP
unseemly_turbidity@reddit
Have you ever read the Ark series by Stephen Baxter?
In most respects it's a terrible piece of writing imo, but one thing I think it gets right is that you can maybe prepare a bit for the early stages (like don't live in a basement flat in a low-lying area, and ideally be a climate expert with access to a helicopter in an emergency) but as things get worse, what you need to do to survive changes and all you can do is be adaptable. In the end, the elite's kids born in the billionaires' space ship, underwater ecosphere and self-sustaining cruise ship end up exactly the same as the masses huddled on rafts.
rgs2007@reddit
Technofeudalism. People will own anything, all the assets will be owned by big corporations. All the infrastructure, logistics, the internet, the communication will be controlled by then. And ultimately since we will depend on big corporations for everything, they will write all the laws. Democracy will be obfuscated. Artificial Intelligence will do all the customer services, and personal relations with the regular people, and we will not have a chance to get our voices heard.
velvetleaf_4411@reddit
Just watch the video for the Lorde song ‘Fallen Fruit.’ Tells the whole story.
KryptonianBleez@reddit
Because only the wealthy can hope to prepare. Also, a whole bunch of people are saying "it's not x yet, so, stop worrying"
uninhabited@reddit
find a decent shrink. you need meds. there is no master plan. the super rich know less than the average Muppet on this sub. most of their bunkers are wine cellars
kamo-kola@reddit
Because people still have that mentality of "nothing ever happens" but if it does, "it's no big deal", at least here in the USA. There's an underlying sense of pride that we're too big to fail, that we're untouchable, that even if things go sideways, our financial, political, and military might will sway the odds back in our favor. But who do the odds truly favor? The ruling class - everyone else will feel the brunt of an economic downturn, unjust laws, and be the ones sent off to war and you know what? We'll accept it willingly, because we're sold the lie that one day we might become one of the ruling elite.
Due_Charge6901@reddit
I highly recommend watching this video in its entirety. We are part of a bigger cosmic dance and we are just the leaves blowing in that wind, it’s time to remember our roles friends.
SouthernWindyTimes@reddit
Because comfort. To be prepared is either to sacrifice money and buy the things needed to prep or build the skills needed; and with people barely making it paycheck to paycheck and feeling burnt out they don’t allocate the time they need to for it. Honestly I’m at the point I can’t really prep anymore. It’s either bug in, or get out to the land I’ve been scoping for years I could bushcraft on. At this point anything else I can do, I did, and it’s marginal returns.
OmnipresentAnnoyance@reddit
Yeah, its about to kick off... and you don't even need a sixth sense to feel it.
LunarMuphinz@reddit
Unless there is a concerted effort of the many to L ouji style D-D-D against the big money masters, no preparation will save anyone.
tsyhanka@reddit
podcast ep: Psychological Barriers to Confronting Collapse
Escudo777@reddit
Most of them are evil. Their actions have directly caused this mess. There is no trust issue. Most of them consider us inferior and a waste of resources.
Jaybird149@reddit
I’ve made peace with my maker. This is why U am not preparing. I also am not made of money lol.
I guess if it has to happen..this finality…I hope it’s in my home state, right now I moved across the country for work and it fucking sucks. I hate where I am.
Hyphen_Nation@reddit
Multiple points on your list are all direct actions the billionaires are taking. They are driving the acceleration of the crumbling of society...because they want small kingdoms. Curtis Yarvin, Peter Thiele and Balaji Srinivasan are driving the thinking behind the ending of liberal democracy and replacing it with monarchy by billionaires.
kiwittnz@reddit
'monarchy by billionaires' --- this has been in place for decades already (e.g. Bilderbergers, WEF, etc.), just that people have been too busy keeping their heads above water to notice it develop over time. It all started, really, with the introduction of Neo-liberalism, which is now too embedded to remove from society.
TinyDogsRule@reddit
I have been prepping specifically for Trump 2.0 right after watching the "peaceful"J6 protests. And I do not feel even a little bit better about what is coming.
DisabledVeteranHelps@reddit
I got a months supply of ramen noodles and hopefully a bunker the feds take me too whenever it hits the fan
monday_madrigal@reddit
May I recommend reading Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself--While the Rest of Us Die