Outside of losing a war, I’m not sure of any civilization that’s changed as hard and fast as America is at the moment. And it’s only going to get worse as the economy crashes.

Yeah but their velocity is much much lower atm.

That’s what I call it as well. Got clipped by a forklift. Just a welt and a really bad scrape, but it could have been much, much worse.

I work in manufacturing in America. There’s NO FUCKING WAY. You’d be fired immediately if caught. I don’t even think the union would try to back you up. It’s simply too dangerous of an environment. However, reeking of booze from the night before? Apparently totally fine.

Same problem. Why does every single individual anime need their own VERY specific instance?

Just wait til the CDC is gutted while at the precipice of a bird flu pandemic.

I feel it works pretty good because some communities have good quality posts with only a handful of people that would otherwise turn me off from it but once I started doing that, I realized it didn’t take a whole lot of blocks to clean up my feed significantly.

If it’s 196, just pick an individual post you don’t like, and search that users posts. Then block them individually. That page has some really out there posts and by blocking individual users, I don’t see it nearly as much, and the quality is higher.

Kind of, me and the other commo guys used a Morse code network to talk shit about our leadership in Iraq. Even when they were in the room, using ancient US military tech.

I agree, but maybe leave the industry?

Sounds more like a roundabout way for the server or bartender to steal from the company.

Smell is the strongest sense tied to memory.

The US military is shrinking and getting more inept every year with lowered physical and aptitude standards. So at least there’s that.

5 years.

Alright well just forget what boomers say. American boomers had the easiest lives in human history. But the greatest generation knows struggle. Listen to them, but not on gold. Gold isn’t what it was, it’s volatile at the moment. It’ll stabilize again if the world comes to peace, but that isn’t likely.

How old were your elders? We don’t have the gold standard anymore and gold prices are only loosely tied to the economy anymore. In a dire enough scenario, lead becomes more valuable than gold. If you’re going to try to make money off of this situation, put all of your chips on China. As we collapse, they’re right behind us. In many parts of the tech tree, they’re ahead of us already. Despite their population problem, they’re trending up while America is trending down. They’re leading the way in solar, fusion and drones. Ahead in hypersonic, hacking, manufacturing, and AI. And they’re on par in space, and I know I’m forgetting something. Oh, they’re also way ahead on worldwide public opinion at the moment. So likely to get better deals.

Literally the only advantage the US has right now is military and logistically. But if we keep alienating (ironic, right?) allies, our logistics is shot to shit. (It’s actually worse, because if we can’t supply our bases around the world, those bases are sitting ducks.) The Chinese are masters at stealing tech. What they don’t have is a navy capable of projecting power, but that’s changing quickly.

If you want to make money off the fall of America, bet on the next superpower. Which is china.

Skills are a good bartering chip. Things others can’t do, or can’t do to your abilities. A rare skill set or talent/ability will get you really far. But you have to advertise that ability. An engineer that can make a working electrical system out of car batteries and alternators will be worth more than a literal tonne of gold. Someone who can cut hair, valuable. The more you can help a community, the more accepting they’ll be of you. A biologist would be amazing.

“Yep, that’s hen of the woods, totally good to eat.”

Vs

“I mean you COULD eat that, it won’t kill you, but you’ll be seeing pink Floyd’s music”

“Never heard of pink Floyd”

“Doesn’t matter, you’ll know it if you eat that”

Vs

“If you fucking so much as touch that, I’m leaving, because you’ll start projectile shitting your internal organs”

Yeah, biologists will be super valuable.

Edit: I am not a biologist.

Spend absolutely no money that you don’t need to. This saves money for you and keeps it out of people’s hands that don’t need it. The faster the collapse, the more equal it will be.

I don’t want to advise this, but I’m pulling all my money from the larger of my 401(k). (Keeping the smaller just in case it turns out I’m crazy, and if I am, I can always reinvest, with only some minor losses in time)

I bought a couple ATVs with trailers, with camo netting, working on filling those trailers with supplies and a lot of gas. I also bought an old jeep CJ7, with a trailer for the ATVs. Think lighters, camp stoves, portable solar panels, blankets, water filters, a good axe or hatchet, a couple knives, some emergency rations.

This is America. There’s more guns than people. Make sure you have at least one.

The economic hardships, you won’t be able to escape. When we lose hegemony/petrol dollar, it’s likely to be the fastest collapse in history.

This is just a quick summary. Some of us have been planning for something like this for a decade or more. There’s no way to be able to give you anything much more specific without knowing where you live or your current circumstances, experiences, or skills. But rely on any skills, training or knowledge you do have. Emphasize them and try to improve them. Make yourself a useful member of a rebuilt (small) society. I.e. growing, sewing, defense, engineering etc.

Whatever you do, do not give up. And be creative. Lighting a fire, and putting some seriously hot peppers in the fire can be a good area denial defense, light the fire and travel in the direction the wind is coming from.