I’ve had a couple of friends ask me if I’m prepping.
Prepping for what?
I see the UK is doing a Be Prepared campaign and Fucking Dan Bongino said something on a podcast. What’s that about?
Notice the world is rearming with alarming haste? The post WWII calm, the rules based order, just died, due to Russia’s military agression of conquest, China’s weaponization of trade and America’s unmittigated use of both.
The predictable world marked by moderation in good things and bad, is gone now. When the hits come, you can expect the bullies to take your lunch money. Partnerships with other countries are just one election away from turning on you or changing allegiances. You can’t even count on geopolitical analysis of rational behaviour and self interest. This being exemplified by Russia and the USs self immolation.
The governments around the world understand the risks, and expect more discontinuity of services. Pandemics, freezer hackings, war, AI, planetary boundaries and climate change and more all mean that our previous quests of efficiency and profitability instead of resilience and sustainability as a goal, make everything hyper fragile.
When the government says stock up to last a while during disruptions, its because they know they aren’t capable of shielding everyone from everything. They are warning you “we’ll take care of the big stuff, but for the small stuff you’re on your own.”
China’s weaponization of trade
Eh, I don’t think the threat of Chinese trade is that it is being strategic. The problem is that China has set itself up so that it only really needs natural resources to maintain its economy and won’t/can’t open itself up to import other manufactured goods of significant quantity.
It is incredibly hard for any industrial or service led economy to export enough goods and services to China to make up for the goods that China wants to export.
In general yes, but don’t forget China’s witholding critical minerals for example. China wields trade policy like a bludgeon, not a tool. Trade policy of China, between business interests and strategic interests are inseperable.
This is entirely Putin’s plan to dismantle America and attack Ukraine so Europe rearms.
LOL with the Russia stuff. In the meantime, how much did the US do? Israel?
The fact that we’re running out of cheap easy high quality fossil fuels? Nothing? No connection?
Everything is connected. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is driven primarily for the desire for their resources, primarily their fertile black soils. It’s a globally significant breadbasket that under increasing climate change becomes a strategic asset.
Don’t assume that a lemmy post will be a complete picture of everything.
Russia is a threat to Europe again. You may have left the EU but you’ve not physically moved anywhere. They probably won’t bomb UK directly but they can and will try to sabotage things. You’re a member of NATO still.
Extreme weather and storms will be more common with climate change.
Critical infrastructure is all connected. One vulnerability could take banks offline for a few days for example.
Yes yes yes, Russia. Check under your bed too.
bro is commenting under every comment thats not pro-Russia.
As a radical progressive leftist it is possible to acknowledge:
- the empire of the United States has committed uncountable war crimes and crimes against humanity to maintain control and spread capitalism
- the historical USSR had many issues of human rights abuses and while its people did not struggle in the same way as in America, it was not a perfect system nor was the socialist/communist vision ever truly implemented in its entirety
- the current Russian government is an incredibly corrupt dictatorship that does commit human rights abuses and crimes against humanity and while it may not have the influence the United States has, it is also an enemy of the people
No on is free until we are all free. Both The United States and Russia are oppressors of the people.
Ah yes, another “leftist” who takes time to shit on the USSR for no reason and who believes the US and Russia are somehow in the same ballpark as imperialists.
Saying that Russia “may not have the influence [of] the US” and then judging both states exactly the same is wild.
Critical support for Russia. America will fall.
I don’t judge them the same at all. As someone with a lot of family from a lesser developed country I have seen the devastating impacts that capitalism has on local people and populations. I’ve seen lush forests green with life from my childhood stripped for mining and resources. Ive seen people and family members exploited by wealthy Americans and Europeans. I watched as the people I loved were the last to receive critical resources during the pandemic. The US has killed and oppressed hundreds of millions and will continue to do so until it is dedtroyed.
But from where I stand Russia is not a saviour nor paragon of leftism. It is a state-capitalist country and has been for a while. as a trans and countercultural person I would not be accepted in contemporary nor historical Russia, and I know that because I have friends with family in Russia right now and who has visited that family with drone strikes overhead. The USSR was not safe for many people and has committed great atrocities in the name of communism. It was an oppressive authoritarian regime that has directly led to this moment in history. Would I rather live in the USSR than contemporary America? If I could be safe in my queer identity then absolutely. Note that I am not saying the US is safe for queer people; I am very lucky to be in one of the few safe places in this country. But if there was a third (non-European) option, I would preferably take that.
I refuse to dickride for dictatorships, and I qualify both the US and USSR under that. Maybe its just because im an anarchocollectivist/anarchocommunist but you’re going to have a very difficult time convincing me we need oppressive authoritarian powers when I have seen and experienced effective community organizing and planning to direct resources into meaningful action and change. Buildong strong resilient communities that are sovereign and self sufficient is how we fight fascism, not by becoming better fascists than our enemies.
Anything.
Could be an unfortunate freak accident that disables the electricity grid.
Could be that all trees around your home all fall down and block the roads so you can’t get to the store.
Could be that you break your leg and can’t go to the store to get food or water for 10 days.
Could be flooding, could be drought, could be wildfires, could be a reversal of earths magnetic field or a solar storm that destroys all electronics and throws us back to the stone age.
3-10 days is the realm of “something could happen that meaningfully disrupts the general supply chain”. and also still reasonable to expect of people. Like, they’re not going to ask you to stock up 6 months worth of water and food in a 50m² apartment. That’s not going to happen. Too expensive, don’t have the room. And they’re also not going to ask you to stock one (1) cookie for an emergency in case you get hungry tomorrow afternoon.
And also, if the problem is so huge that the government, military and NGO people can’t fix it in 10 days, that’s a pretty damn big problem and it could be that stocking up from 1 month doesn’t help much more than 10 days, because they can only solve it in 5 years.
3-10 days also buys time to figure out evacuation without having to think about literally the next meal.
Everybody else here captured the uncertainty in the world, but even without specifics you can still do a tabletop exercise without jumping all the way into a rabbit hole and see what you’d need to have to spend three days without being able to buy supplies. Most of those kind of lists just end up being things you’d need anyway: water, food, any prescriptions, some local currency if credit card machines are down, etc. Decide how much you think some event is likely and how much budget you have and react accordingly, or don’t. Take it as an opportunity to change out the batteries in any smoke dectectors or battery powered radios, maybe top off any power bricks you have for charging phones.
If you decide to stock up on something there are a lot of resources out there already on what makes sense. If you decide not to stock up on anything then be aware that people might not be willing to share if something does happen; you had the same opportunity to prep and the same information that everyone else did.
Most of my knowledge of UK preparedness is either from WWII documentaries or dubious sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgwaOEg0Uqo
Bovinejonyono is a grifter dumbass
That being said, my nearby gas station just ran out of fuel, which is weeeird.
You enjoy bridges? I hate them, especially the super tall ones and the ones with metal grates. What part do you like? What are your favs?
What the fuck did you smoke, mate?
… looks at username…
…ooooooh… nevermind…Maybe they meant the card game…
No. Bridges.
Oh. Ok.
Quite a lot of EU and UK politicans expect the Russia-Ukraine military confict to spread into Europe, and many even seem to want that. So they want people to prepare for disruption from stuff like drone attacks. Why is this happening? IDK, you’ll have to use your own wisdom to figure out what is going on.
Go back and read the news from after some recent natural diasters - winter storms, hurricanes, landslides. People can be suddenly cut off from supplies and even with an immediate response it could be a week or more until basic food and water is avaiable to everyone. Most stores in cities need daily or at least a couple times a week of deliveries to keep shelves stocked. Rural areas aren’t any better. None of them are set up to have every customer show up in the same 24 hour period to restock. Having a bunch of stuff on hand that doesn’t need refridgeration and can be eaten as is, not cooked, is very important.
Yes, totally agree but, why are they pushing now to have people prep? Stores have been like that for years already.
Because we are preparing for war
It’s probably nothing but anxious news cycle before the elections picking up any “abnormal” signals. However, these kind of announcements are most likely unrelated to any expected threat and more to prepare population for general instability, whatever it might be.
The idea is that in a longer outage you’re fucked anyway
but if you have “toilet paper” for 3 tot 10 days that will put less strain and panic in the system
it’s not saying it’s coming or coming soon but having “toilet paper” for a couple of days is good
Mostly prepping to go without food, electricity, travelling or communications because of sabotage of vital infrastructure (in Europe and UK is happening on a weekly basis) and climate catastrophes which are regular in the UK since 2020(ish) and increasing. There are also potential lockdowns because of pandemics (e.g. measles from US). Also Brexit Britain is now inoperative in terms of food safety, really, since it relies on mainland Europe food imports to survive. If something fails or there’s a mega-storm, supermarkets will be empty for days like they were in 2018 or 2020.
Fuel protest blockades that caused some amount of supply chain shock have happened at least 4 times since 2000, then there’s been random riots in cities that in some cases materialized out of nowhere (though widely suspected to be a Russian social media op), then covid, and now there’s the super El Nino threatening to cause droughts and global food shortages. So there’s that.
Just preppers being too twitchy as usual. The U.S. military ordered bases to prepare to be without power and now they all think it’s the apocalypse.
I’ll take sailing around Africa for $100.
This writeup here goes into it in some depth. Wish I had the full non-paywalled version, but hopefully that’s enough.
