eat the rich

Gurathin: Was someone ill there?

(SecUnit: wAs sOMeOnE iLl THeRE?)

It feels like a uniquely American capitalist take to assume these traditions will make you completely self sufficient. You need a lot of people, a lot of time, a lot of knowledge across a lot of subjects, and a lot of luck to provide for everyone's nutritional needs.

So should you even bother trying to be more self sufficient with your food? I argue yes. Foraging and gardening are fun and will teach you so much about many things. They are deeply rewarding activities that can supplement your diet. There are herbs I haven't bought in years because I grow my own. There are dishes I can only make with foraged ingredients because I can't get them in stores.

It's all very "rugged individualist" in a way that's both dangerous and unrealistic. For example, the propaganda is that homesteaders did it all themselves, built cities from nothing, etc. etc. Reality is that they had significant support from the federal government. That's before getting into the racism/genocide of it.

Anyway, I love gardening as a hobby. Great way to get outside, be active, etc. It'll help you learn more about food production and your local environment, and plenty of places will also have gardening groups where you can meet friends.

In addition to this, they also had massive trade networks. So not only was it a community level undertaking versus a single individual or family, it was an undertaking between communities.

OpenAI scraped the entire web. All of which had been a labor of love from humans. Wikipedia is the backbone of a lot of LLMs, and that was volunteer human labor. They stole it and now they're selling it back to us.

you deserve comfort, its not something you need to earn. even if you are getting by, if something could help you get by easier, you deserve it. you dont need to make yourself as small as possible. you dont need to be as little trouble as possible. you dont need to try to disappear. i promise you are worth it.

and never fall into the trap of thinking your lack of something means you dont deserve it. the world is so absolutely fucked with systems keeping resources from those who need and deserve them. it is never something you have brought on yourself. you are not uniquely undeserving. it is never divine punishment or comeuppance.

so often its second nature to shrink ourselves down as small as possible. it feels bad to do anything but that. these are not changes to be made all at once. i want you to find something youre denying yourself, become aware of it, acknowledge that its something youre doing, and try to change that.

And then I went to the USAmerican Midwest

Rains frequently, but the worst is like standing under a bathroom shower. Genuinely inhospitable rainstorms are uncommon.

Along the coast, it's pretty easy in most areas to walk to at least one store, or else there's usually a bus or shuttle available. There are sidewalks and bike lanes everywhere.

It's a temperate boreal rainforest, so while there are many freshwater lakes and rivers, they're usually pretty cold. The biggest danger is typically getting caught in a strong current, and the most dangerous animals in swimming distance are on land.

Earthquakes happen almost every day, but the vast majority go unnoticed. Buildings are designed to withstand bigger seismic activity, so unless it's a 5 or higher it just kind of feels like having low blood sugar for a second. There are no tornados

Rural Illinois, USA:

One minute it's sunny, then ten minutes later that distant smudge on the horizon has swallowed the entire sky in black clouds and the water is coming down like waterfall and you literally CANNOT SEE. Then there's a crash like cymbals and you need to get indoors because the thunder and lightening are on TOP of you

No sidewalks until you are in the smack dab center of town, which is a three hour walk or twenty minute drive from wherever you are.

There aren't many natural bodies of water other than small ponds and creeks, and because the environment is so much warmer, those are filled with snapping turtles that can grow bigger than a nine year old child and cottonmouth snakes that are incredibly venomous. These are paired with leeches and mosquitos for that sweet umami flavor.