When the Abyss Stares Back

What happens when susceptible people focus an inordinate amount of attention on people or things that are harmful?

In 1634 the Dutch became enamored of tulips. So much so that many neglected their ordinary affairs in order to pursue the tulip trade. Soon, tulip sales were posted on the Stock Exchange of Amsterdam. People bought tulip bulbs on credit hoping to recoup their expenses as the value climbed. By 1637 the market turned, as markets always do, and investors had to sell their bulbs at a loss, some declaring bankruptcy. Prices returned to normal the following year.

It could be argued that these are examples of social contagion, which occurs when a message is amplified and ‘goes viral.’ We've seen it recently with idiotic challenges such as those involving Tide Pods, cinnamon, and hot peppers. Tragically, when certain crimes are glamorized they can inspire copycats who then drive cars through crowds, participate in smash-and-grab robberies, or attempt to assault or even assassinate public figures.

A particularly disturbing recent development involves pediatric transgender surgeries. Once extremely rare, the occurrence increased rapidly in the new millennium, with one estimate placing the number of pediatric gender clinics as high as 300. Children who avail themselves of these treatments receive puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries. I'll leave it to the reader to investigate the details of phalloplasties and metoidioplasty. I recommend you not eat beforehand.

And feelings change. A Loudon County, Virginia boy ‘felt’ like a girl and began wearing a skirt to school. Then his feelings apparently changed and he sexually assaulted a female schoolmate in the girl’s bathroom.

Or maybe the young man in question was a two bit liar who took advantage of any idea the made him feel "with it" and/or cool - and he dropped those idea when opportunity presented ... like when he sexually assaulted a young woman.

The real problem here is too much 'understanding and acceptance of immoral choices. Rudderless young people with 'fluid shallow values': going with the flow of the sewer. I'm guessing fatherless homes, silly bimbo mothers, and values created on 'fashion statements of the moment'.

My over-prepping will be utilized by my wife and I having more in our Roth IRA's growing tax free.

I haven't been concerned with a Mad Max style society of everyone fighting for food and such. My prepping has been against the left's slow boil approach to controlling our access to energy and transportation. They push their policies, ostensibly to save mother erf, and make it harder and harder to produce energy, and more expensive for the consumer to buy it, with less suppliers for refining oil into gasoline, and regulations that make it more expensive to drill for natural gas, and regulations that force power companies to shutter coal plants and replace them with natural gas fueled plants that already have rising natural gas prices they have to pay, or make power less dependable by making the grid depend on intermittent sources.

Right now most Americans' energy costs are bearable, but more expensive and less dependable than it used to be. When the left gets back in control they'll turn the slow boil up a little more, then a little more. Until they bankrupt us by us trying to simply cool and heat our homes and drive.

Hence the reason for our home solar project, and the energy improvements to the house, and converting one of our cars into an EV so that at least most of our local driving is powered by homemade power. This year we spent $1,100 in energy for our home (just power bills because it's now all electric) plus local driving (what little we drive the gas pickup). All while driving our EV 16K miles in home charged miles, and keeping our 2,300 sq ft home comfortable.

Will it be worth it? So far it is. The loan payment I make to pay for all of those improvements, plus the small power bill, is less than would have paid in high power bill + high natural gas bill + lots of gasoline at the pump. The energy portion of my budget is fairly predictable (it's not like the loan payment is volatile and based on the price of oil or the Henry Hub price of nat gas). And by not spending as much on energy, it equates to not having to pull as much from our Roth IRA's (or if I'm working, it means more I can put into our Roth IRA's and sometimes Roth 401K).

Would that work for everybody? Not unless you live in the deep south where we get tons of sun. (By deep south I include the southwest.) And an EV won't do unless you need two cars (married) so that one of your car is a gas car for the times an EV won't do (i.e. pickup chores, or long trips in areas with few charging options, or trips up north during the winter). Also, an EV is unwise unless you drive tons of home charged miles to get the gas savings.

But everybody ought to at least do the research to see however they can make themselves less dependent on energy or anything else the govt over-regulates.

Maybe ask someone in North Carolina if Trump being elected means no need to prep. Trump being elected didn’t change the fact that America is the biggest debtor in all of human history and the economy is far from a sure thing just now. Or believe it or not but covid lockdowns were very basic, a truly bad disease happens and you really could be in your own for a while.
War is impossible also. At least it seemed that way just before WWI, or a dozen other places and times.
From the biblical days forward, storing and prepping for hard times is just good sense.
But the biggest threat is America’s dire economic condition.
We’ll be lucky if all we face is a crushing version of what they call “austerity”.
A lot of people in 1933 looked back on 1928 and think of what they could have done had they only known War was coming.

No… no prepper likely thinks that now they can sell all their preps.

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