FWIW, I've been doing a few things since the election that may help in case the worst happens.
I've been slowly buying up extra nonperishable food, basic medical supplies, and such. My aim is to have enough for a month for two adults and our pets. I figure that if we need more than that, we'll have much bigger problems than we can cope with alone. Even though I'm a senior with a bad back, I'm planning a vegetable garden for spring. You don't have to go full prepper. Just consider what you would need in case a bad storm took out everything for a while (Ashville, I'm looking at you).
I've always been a voracious reader. I've shifted my focus to reading up on preparing for hard times. Knowledge is key. Physical books (online books can be removed from your account at any time) about the Great Depression and its history are your friends. Depression era cookbooks are great for eating on a shoestring. The book "Just In Case" by Kathy Harrison is a good start. I've also been reading up on ways to detect propaganda, defending against it, and learning about good reasoning. There are many good books out there. Used bookstores are your friend. For those with a more academic bent, a good annotated copy of Aristotle's "Rhetoric" is valuable. So is an annotated copy of The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. None of the techniques being used today are new. You can defend yourself.
Pay off as much debt as you can manage. Anything will help.
Dogs are great for home security (and don't need batteries) because they bark and attract unwanted attention to bad actors.
In times like these, some preparation is common sense.
Thank you for this encouragement and support. You are a beacon of light to those of us still in shock! You have some great ideas in this essay about how to move forward.
Preparation for times ahead includes taking time to enjoy life. Paint, photograph, make or listen to music, enjoy nature. At the same time, stay aware of what’s happening and stay engaged with others.
Think about how much we have to do just to coexist with these fuckers. We only asked them to be grownups and to try not to shit their diapers every time they encountered somebody with a different perspective -- they called this "woke." They didn't want to evolve over the, you know, CENTURIES, so WE are asked to put up with shrinking wages and rising rents, no health care, unpunished rape, cop murders, obscene income inequality, hate crimes, endless war, mass shootings and domestic violence, churches that are in reality pedophile rings, laws that punish women's and queer sexuality, social media platforms that amplify the loudest male-est most aggressive voices, and a Congress and courts that serve their interests almost exclusively. And even that is not good enough. They are too exquisitely sensitive to be challenged anymore, in the workplace, at home, in college classrooms, in the streets, or in a goddamned library book. They are going to try to outlaw and enslave us all. Let's make that really hard for them.
I imagine us all trying to survive in the woods as part of the resistance... What do we do about our phones and methods of communication? They can be co-opted by phone manufacturers, the service providers, software, the internet, Elon Musk. How do we communicate when they take it all over? I'm not kidding. We have to be able to communicate with like-minded people. They have taken over health care, education, the government, the media, et al. The rest is only a matter of time.
I've also been thinking about communication -- first about security, then about connection. It may well come to pass that, like the WW2 Resistors, we will rely primarily on one-way communication from a central source -- to stay informed and receive direction.
This will take centralized leadership which is yet to emerge. One element required is trust and verification. Over the past seveeral years, I've identified a number of trusted sources: Jared is certainly one of them; Hearher Cox Richardson, Joyce Vance, Rachel Maddow are others. There are of course many more and at least some of them will inform and guide central leadership.
Thank you so much Jared for the book recommendation. I picked up Gary Getstle’s Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order from the library yesterday and I’m digging into it today. Excellent recommendation!
As the world rang in the new year all I could think about was the feeling of dread heavy in my heart. How could the world ( especially the US) carry on like everything is normal knowing that in 20 short days everything our country was will no longer be. I was the 4 th generation military service member and now feel like it was entirely a waste of my time with the exception of the few benefits I receive. Anyway, thanks again for your insight, guidance, and wisdom in these dark times.
This was hard to read. Not literally--beautifully written as always. I am towards the end of a PhD journey and what keeps coming to the forefront of my mind is what if this effort has been a fucking waste. I have loved it, truly have never felt more alive. So much learned but so much work still to do. But what if I am never able to use it. What if we are going so far backwards that education is not valued, and I am only seen as a uterus past prime fertility?
Great article! I agree and have said myself we need a new paradigm. We have a mass media that has talked about a horse race, red vs blue, urban vs rural, for years. This serves to reinforce people's stereotypes and keep us divided.
I have been spied on before over 5 years ago. I've used a VPN for years, and wouldn't do it any other way. Second, I found out from when I was being spied on, there are anti-spy apps you can install that will tie up your camera and mic which prevents rogue apps from using them to spy.
Be very careful what access rights you give to apps. There's a lot more, but if you're targeted, the best move is never carry anything important on your person. Everything else should be fully encrypted with a master PW that only exists in your brain and the hardware in a separate location or none at all, depending on what unfolds.
I really liked this piece. It gave me some new ideas and also confirmed some that I already had, including storing food like I did before the pandemic; returning to vegetable gardening; and diversifying my news sources. I have a question about that: what news sources would you recommend? Currently I read the NYT—probably too much—and have thought about renewing WSJ for access to news (not opinion) because its news section has been rated “center” by All Sides.
FWIW, I've been doing a few things since the election that may help in case the worst happens.
I've been slowly buying up extra nonperishable food, basic medical supplies, and such. My aim is to have enough for a month for two adults and our pets. I figure that if we need more than that, we'll have much bigger problems than we can cope with alone. Even though I'm a senior with a bad back, I'm planning a vegetable garden for spring. You don't have to go full prepper. Just consider what you would need in case a bad storm took out everything for a while (Ashville, I'm looking at you).
I've always been a voracious reader. I've shifted my focus to reading up on preparing for hard times. Knowledge is key. Physical books (online books can be removed from your account at any time) about the Great Depression and its history are your friends. Depression era cookbooks are great for eating on a shoestring. The book "Just In Case" by Kathy Harrison is a good start. I've also been reading up on ways to detect propaganda, defending against it, and learning about good reasoning. There are many good books out there. Used bookstores are your friend. For those with a more academic bent, a good annotated copy of Aristotle's "Rhetoric" is valuable. So is an annotated copy of The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. None of the techniques being used today are new. You can defend yourself.
Pay off as much debt as you can manage. Anything will help.
Dogs are great for home security (and don't need batteries) because they bark and attract unwanted attention to bad actors.
In times like these, some preparation is common sense.
Thank you for this encouragement and support. You are a beacon of light to those of us still in shock! You have some great ideas in this essay about how to move forward.
Preparation for times ahead includes taking time to enjoy life. Paint, photograph, make or listen to music, enjoy nature. At the same time, stay aware of what’s happening and stay engaged with others.
Think about how much we have to do just to coexist with these fuckers. We only asked them to be grownups and to try not to shit their diapers every time they encountered somebody with a different perspective -- they called this "woke." They didn't want to evolve over the, you know, CENTURIES, so WE are asked to put up with shrinking wages and rising rents, no health care, unpunished rape, cop murders, obscene income inequality, hate crimes, endless war, mass shootings and domestic violence, churches that are in reality pedophile rings, laws that punish women's and queer sexuality, social media platforms that amplify the loudest male-est most aggressive voices, and a Congress and courts that serve their interests almost exclusively. And even that is not good enough. They are too exquisitely sensitive to be challenged anymore, in the workplace, at home, in college classrooms, in the streets, or in a goddamned library book. They are going to try to outlaw and enslave us all. Let's make that really hard for them.
I imagine us all trying to survive in the woods as part of the resistance... What do we do about our phones and methods of communication? They can be co-opted by phone manufacturers, the service providers, software, the internet, Elon Musk. How do we communicate when they take it all over? I'm not kidding. We have to be able to communicate with like-minded people. They have taken over health care, education, the government, the media, et al. The rest is only a matter of time.
I've also been thinking about communication -- first about security, then about connection. It may well come to pass that, like the WW2 Resistors, we will rely primarily on one-way communication from a central source -- to stay informed and receive direction.
This will take centralized leadership which is yet to emerge. One element required is trust and verification. Over the past seveeral years, I've identified a number of trusted sources: Jared is certainly one of them; Hearher Cox Richardson, Joyce Vance, Rachel Maddow are others. There are of course many more and at least some of them will inform and guide central leadership.
Lot's of work to do ;-)
I've been talking to someone who is going to put together a tutorial regarding security and VPNs. He'll put it on Substack.
Update: ManyRoads - Mark Rabideau just posted an excellent tutorial on Security.
big yes to all this. started prepping his first term. found your writings and followed the same time.
onward we all go !
Thank you so much Jared for the book recommendation. I picked up Gary Getstle’s Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order from the library yesterday and I’m digging into it today. Excellent recommendation!
As the world rang in the new year all I could think about was the feeling of dread heavy in my heart. How could the world ( especially the US) carry on like everything is normal knowing that in 20 short days everything our country was will no longer be. I was the 4 th generation military service member and now feel like it was entirely a waste of my time with the exception of the few benefits I receive. Anyway, thanks again for your insight, guidance, and wisdom in these dark times.
This was hard to read. Not literally--beautifully written as always. I am towards the end of a PhD journey and what keeps coming to the forefront of my mind is what if this effort has been a fucking waste. I have loved it, truly have never felt more alive. So much learned but so much work still to do. But what if I am never able to use it. What if we are going so far backwards that education is not valued, and I am only seen as a uterus past prime fertility?
The list of resources you provided is worth bookmarking. Thank you.
Thanks Jared for another timely piece. Everyone have a peaceful and loving 2025.
You spoke about the weather. Here is my take from a few months back:
https://rbdgeologist1.substack.com/p/a-few-thoughts-from-a-geologist-4ab?r=48rfsc
https://open.substack.com/pub/rbdgeologist1/p/a-few-thoughts-from-a-geologist-29a?r=48rfsc&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Some troll on Instazuck opined that the NoLa terrorist must ‘Definitely [be] a kamala supporter’ I reported it as stochastic terror threat…but Meta…?
Great article! I agree and have said myself we need a new paradigm. We have a mass media that has talked about a horse race, red vs blue, urban vs rural, for years. This serves to reinforce people's stereotypes and keep us divided.
I have been spied on before over 5 years ago. I've used a VPN for years, and wouldn't do it any other way. Second, I found out from when I was being spied on, there are anti-spy apps you can install that will tie up your camera and mic which prevents rogue apps from using them to spy.
Be very careful what access rights you give to apps. There's a lot more, but if you're targeted, the best move is never carry anything important on your person. Everything else should be fully encrypted with a master PW that only exists in your brain and the hardware in a separate location or none at all, depending on what unfolds.
I really liked this piece. It gave me some new ideas and also confirmed some that I already had, including storing food like I did before the pandemic; returning to vegetable gardening; and diversifying my news sources. I have a question about that: what news sources would you recommend? Currently I read the NYT—probably too much—and have thought about renewing WSJ for access to news (not opinion) because its news section has been rated “center” by All Sides.