25 points

Honestly, I hate these kinds of replies.

None of them answered the question, they just told him that he was wrong for wanting it.

It’s just… Unhelpful.

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2 points
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Indeed.

Even if you try to convince them of their wrongness, at least also give an answer to the best of your abilities.

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37 points

well then you need to understand agriculture, animal husbandry, construction, woodworking, become a certified electrician, plumber and gas installer, brush up on sewing, first aid, and be prepared to starve to death or freeze to death if you fuck it up, or just die from standing on a rusty nail.

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14 points

Your terms are acceptable.

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3 points

The most vital thing isn’t doing everything the hard way - just being smart about doing it all yourself. It’s the sense that freedom is a function of actual independence, and actual independence is a consequence of ability.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/outdoors/a24399/the-art-of-staying-alive/

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2 points

Ok, then explain those topics instead of just telling them they are wrong.

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2 points

agriculture is the act of cultivating soil and producing crops…

should I go on or is that a good illustrative example of how the original request is so far reaching and unspecific as to be functionally useless.

It’s like asking “how do I make a game?”

a video game? a board game? a playground game? a card game? all of which require skills, disciplines, planning, research and understanding of mechanics that no one can summarize even in a single full length book, let alone a forum post reply.

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5 points

welcome to IRC, SO and many other places. you’re always asking the wrong question and everything is an XY problem.

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4 points

Sometimes true, sometimes not.

In some situations I feel like there’s some validity to not answering the question and saying what someone should do instead. Like, for example, if someone asked me how to bypass a security mechanism I don’t think it would be wrong to say they shouldn’t do that and not provide instructions for how to do so. Further, you might even argue that it’s unethical for me to provide guidance that I know (or believe) is wrong.

This is why a root cause analysis is so important. I feel like often in those situations, the problem trying to be solved is really a symptom of the issue as opposed to the actual issue.

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1 point

You’re not wrong, I absolutely agree. At least in the places I’ve been I do feel like things are more often wrongly considered an XY when they’re not though. And a lot of times people will just dismiss questions because “you shouldn’t WANT to do that” for dubious reasons they might have against it.

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57 points
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Tis a very wholesome meme, I hope this kind of cooperation is (or at least will be) possible

Edit: on a large scale, I mean

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18 points

A fuckload of people are really going to have to make an effort to get their shit together for that to happen. As things stand the majority are dead weight.

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9 points

I think at this point, we are just flat out overpopulated. There are simply too many people competing for resources and a significant number of them just merely exist without contributing a whole lot back to society.

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3 points

Yea, it’s really hard to get my head around any kind of communist type of ideals when I know I’d be doing 3x the work of pretty much everyone around me for the same outcome as them. Not that capitalism is much better but at least with that I get SOMETHING more to show for my efforts

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39 points

We’re overconsuming more than we’re overpopulated. It’s probably possible to reach sustainability with our current population if we curtailed consumption, but our consumption driven economy would have to change at a fundamental level. We’d need to impose strict taxes on waste and heavily subsidize efficiency while redistributing wealth from the ultra polluting ultra rich.

Overpopulation myths distract us from the real culprits of our unsustainable system. We need to cull the fat cats before we cull the masses. Population control should always be the last resort, while redistribution should always be the first.

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2 points

How does one unlearn this unhealthy idea of self sufficiency?

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3 points

Learning to love yourself?

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1 point

You say that as tho its a walk in the park You’re not wrong but isn’t there more than just that?

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2 points

There is more to it. Like, do you have the capacity to love yourself? Why not? Improving ones self is a continuous process.

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1 point

Just look around the room you are in and try to imagine creating every object you find all by yourself.

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2 points

Start getting involved in communal activities like sports, volunteering, town halls, and going to the local bar

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6 points

Huh… self sufficiency is not a myth. There’s many parts of the U.S. where citizens are off the grid, some more extreme than others. However, if and when the shtf, being self sufficient might make you an easy and weaker target. I believe men should be building relationships with other men in the community. To teach and learn from each other on how to be sufficient not just for themselves but for their community or communities even. Most importantly survival skills.

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8 points

Super skeptical. They mine their own metals? Produce their own magnets? Forget their own steel? Make their own batteries? Could you provide a few examples?

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1 point
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Hm… well for example in the U.S. we have the Boy Scouts of America, this organization teaches boys and young men survival and general life skills. There’s a spectrum of “off-grid” citizens. One one side of the spectrum, they still work and make under the table money, which in turn they use to buy some resources. On the other side of the spectrum there’s citizens who have no communication with the general population. I guess the best way to see these examples would be on YouTube - searching for survivalist, off grid, and or self sufficiency.

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4 points

There are a lot of prepper types out there who might be theoretically 'ready" for societal collapse, but yes, they get there by already having a stockpile of societal goods and materials and of course guns. These folks likely have a great plan for what they’re doing when the bombs fall, but likely not a shred of the social and communal skills necessary to keep a functional society alive for the long term.

Maybe some of the more isolated amish communities could subsist for a while without injections of modern supplies, but even still we’re talking about less an “off grid” lifestyle and more like “radically reduced technology.”

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3 points

Hey, I’m not disagreeing with you here, but keep in mind none of those things are necessary for survival, and most such products can last decades if properly maintained.

I think you’re arguing against the most extreme interpretation of what this person said.

To give you an example, I’ll show you what it looks like if I were to interpret your comment in the same way:

In some capacity, you have to admit, self sufficiency is possible. Forged metal, magnets, and batteries aren’t necessary to sanitize water, grow, forage or hunt food, or to build shelter.

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4 points
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It’s wild how many people out there have really solid plans for what they’re going to do when the apocalypse happens, but no plans for what happens in the subsequent months, years and decades after societal collapse.

It’s almost like the hollywood portrayal of survival in a post-apocalyptic world is as good at portraying the struggles and hardships of day-to-day survival as they at portraying people eating breakfast or having phone calls like we do in the real world or like, how many movies and shows give us the view into what real people really do all day long.

It’s that there’s just no views to be had from showing an audience the main character working at their job for nine hours a day and navigating securing a promotion, just like there’s no views to be had watching someone in a real survival situation shivering and crying every day for weeks at a time as they get sick and skinny and lose everyone they care about to infections and starvation.

Because fucking hunting and gardening won’t save you if World War 3 or the Turbo Space Covid Cordyceps Aids virus strikes unless you are already adept at living completely off the land, which outside a few absolute nuts out there, nobody is ready for.

What will save us if the shit really goes down is community.

People don’t survive, societies survive, it’s why we have one now.

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86 points

Exactly. Self sufficiency is definitely a myth. Humans cannot survive alone for long. You simply cannot make tools that will keep you alive for long. You’ll have to venture back to civilization to get anything worked via metal at the very least. Just the basic crafts for clothing, shelter, tools and food is more than any one person can handle. It took whole tribes and villages even at the earliest points.

Now if you mean: how can I live in a cabin off the grid with minimal contact (1-2x a year) then that’s doable.

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