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Unfortunately we're going to need to start demanding fewer vices in the people we spend time with. Your friends dictate your life to a large degree, if your friends can't give up vices, you may need to give up those friends.

It is sad, but it is true.

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Stock sprouting seeds and even just a mason jar to sprout. If you run out of fresh veg, you can at least eat sprouts no matter how big or small your place is. There are a lot of resources out there to learn how to grow things like spinach and lettuce from mason jars hydroponically. You may want to pick up some of the basics. And learn how to barter. It will be a good skill.

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That is not true. If the US is to survive the people must rise together and remove the corrupt officials which plague the country. Then they can build skills and voices. Right now the country is almost turned to communism. Once that happens your vices means nothing. The all about me syndrome must end now. WE must unite at community levels and work together. No compliance of any kind and total resistance to all forms of tyranny. No CBDC, no vax, no mandate, etc... It's we the people, not them the gov.

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1 - Identify your friends that are either working against you or are disloyal and dump them. Just fade away.

2 - Dump you rown vices and make sure you aren't the friend you don't like. Dump the drama and games and take a wartime footing.

3- get a new network of friends who are successful in either personal life or business life. Get them to mentor you.

4 -Take Tarls good advice and dump your vices and learn more meaningful skills. It's good for another reason. If you just do or learn something like home food canning, then it gives you more confidence on other things and then you will start rolling all your wins forward.

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Anything is possible. Having lived in urban, suburban, small towns and very rural areas I have observed that the parasite class deliberately avoids living in places where self sufficiency is the norm. The hard necessity of producing at least as much as they consume is their Kryptonite.

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Thank you Tarl for making this discussion board. You’re the best white pill around in dark times and I look up to you getting sober and being successful.

I’m still trying very hard to drop vices and pick up skills. However, the best advice I can give people are as follows:

Actively visualize yourself being what you want to be.

Beware of self-fulfilling prophecies. You think the world is going to hell and there’s no point in trying? Well, you’ll fulfill a prophecy that you’ll be living in hell regardless of whether the world actually joins or not. Don’t let negativity pull you down.

15-minute rule. When I have things I really don’t feel like doing but need to so I can become a better person, I go head on at the task with everything I got for 15 minutes. That’s it. You don’t feel like doing it afterwards, then that’s fine. When you start a new task, it can take your brain a little bit of time to get into full gear. So, that partially explains “not being into it” or easy distraction when you first start.

That’s all I will share since I don’t want to be too long. I’ll end it with a quote that people may appreciate.

"The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.”

-John Maxwell

Bonus and relevant quote (paraphrase)

“The most optimistic thing you can do in life is pick up a new skill because it means you are investing time into the future despite its uncertainty.”

-Tarl Warwick

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Starting becoming more self-reliant. Learn to grow a garden, can food, bake bread, etc. With that comes the need to stockpile food, water, ammunition, cooking fuel, medical supplies. Switch off electronic devices and devote to more useful hobbies. Stop watching porn, stop doing drugs. If you're White, find a good spouse and have kids.

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Apr 7, 2023·edited Apr 7, 2023

Buy lots of candles, matches to light them with and books. You may need to entertain yourself when there's no power.

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Apr 7, 2023·edited Apr 7, 2023

When I learned that the coof was more likely to bump you off if you were fat, I spent my (now abundant) free time during lockdowns at home doing a bodyweight fitness routine using this website, it doesn't cost a penny to begin and the total necessary equipment costs are low, too: http://www.startbodyweight.com/2014/01/basic-routine-infographic-poster.html

At the same time, I roughly calculated my body fat percentage with this tool: https://www.bizcalcs.com/body-fat-navy/

--Then found out what my Total Daily Energy Expenditure was with this tool (use the default "Sedentary Lifestyle" setting, even if you actually exercise):

https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

Then I just eat less calories than the calculated TDEE (though a calorie deficit of 500-1000 calories will work better), and weigh my portions of non-prepackaged food with a scale to estimate how many calories they have. That's all that's necessary to lose weight even if you do nothing and eat twinkies (though a nutrient-filled diet with meat, vegetables and fewer low-fibre grains, and less carbs, sugar and over-processed foods will definitely do it better). If the calorie counting/weighing is a drag, there are a lot of apps that may help you find out how many calories various items are, processed and not.

- MyFitnessPal (better for prepackaged food)

- Cronometer (better for generic food/macros)

- LoseIt (great for both)

Have lost more than 44lbs since, and gained decent muscle with the bodyweight routine (weight lifting will give you more muscle in less time, but it requires more upfront purchases, or relying upon gyms always being open). If you're poor or in debt and don't know how you can contribute anything to the betterment of the world at large, at least doing some of what I did will help you be physically fitter than before, which helps in any kind of trying situation. It will also help you feel mentally better too, some studies are showing that exercise is one of the best ways of kicking depression and feeling less of a sad sack in general.

Other than that, create (or add to) a community of friends and/or family, that you're able to meet relatively easily in person, and that you trust. If a genuine shit-hits-the-fan situation happens, you can gather together and not be alone and vulnerable, which is what's most likely to happen if cities start losing their infrastructural integrity. Do this in urban or rural settings, though the former is more important because of the general atomization and greater lack of self-reliance people tend to have in cities by design.

Hope that helps, fellow clankers.

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Become more self reliant, if only gradually. Do one big project a year, and as many small ones as possible besides. Since 2020 our family has set up an herb garden, started growing our own produce, set up a greenhouse, and is in the process of digging a root cellar. And that's not counting the many smaller projects like minor landscaping and stockpiling of long-term foodstuffs/canning. It doesn't matter where you start, just that you do start.

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Learn to appreciate time spent with family and friends. Start finding your pleasures in game nights and family dinners.

Also, when buying something, even if it costs a little more but it is reputed to or seems like it can more easily be fixed or will last, go for it.

And pay off everything you can so you can cut expenses to just the bare necessities if you need to. A well-running and paid-for vehicle is priceless.

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Hmmm, I think that my homemade wine stash will probably become excellent barter...just saying.😎

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Try not to get to hurt when you warn extended family members and they dismiss you! Protect yourself from discouragement!

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Apr 7, 2023·edited Apr 7, 2023

First of all, recognize that all humans need distractions, they need things to take them out of the moment, out of that level of consciousness etc. It would be foolish to think that you can just drop vices and never replace them. The key is learning to replace costly vices with ones that don't take such a toll. Ones that you will not have to stop what you're doing to participate in, ones that don't tether you to a certain place or person, and definitely ones that aren't expensive.

When dropping a vice I recommend starting with a relatively drastic taper. You will still have plenty of your substance, behavior, or emotional vice of choice, and you might find that you were consuming far too much of it and that you can actually feel just as good with only half as much consumption. Anyway from there you must continue to taper, but at the same time you must introduce your replacement vice. Again we're looking at something that is far less intrusive and demanding on your life, but something you can still look forward to as a reward after getting everything else done first. Whether this is switching five energy drinks a day for a cup of herbal tea at the end of the day, or switching out hardcore porn with multiple "viewings" daily with limiting the self-abuse to absolute horny emergencies, this is a way to maintain your progress and still honestly have something that makes life worth living.

Once you have successfully replaced your vice, you may end up beginning to lose interest in that realm altogether. You may find yourself dropping even the secondary vice and going with a completely different experience. The most important part is choosing something that's not costly in any way and doesn't tether you or stop you from doing important things. If the world is getting worse, we do need something to soothe us, but we are also going to need to demand more of ourselves to get through it.

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I’m not gaming any more. Time waster - great for fun now and then - but I need to pay attention to my garden, work to insulate my house better, etc. to keep up with the utility and grocery bills! #BidenEconomyKillsGameplay

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Plan as if next Tuesday electric power ends in America and all social services vanish. A world where grocery stores sell zero perishables or fresh goods and vegetables.

Also plan for legions of inner-city zombies roaming the countryside in search of what little YOU have. Defend that.

Do these things and you MIGHT survive.

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We've built a chicken coop and we're building up some Garden Boxes next.

Top advice. Learn to work on cars and learn how to fix things around the house. Read. Learn as much as you can. Learn how things work. You don't need 800 guns you need to know how 800 things that you use every day work, where they come from, and how to fix/maintain them.

Master your immediate environment. Clean your room, bucko.

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I’m not sure the US is going to survive as a nation. We are watching it being destroyed on so many levels, piece by piece. So yes, individuals can be resourceful and self reliant but we might end up living on the defense.

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learn to duck.

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Kinda fundamentally I think we need a right wing social solution to a low scarcity environment, starting a mere 100 years ago chemicals made it so your life doesn't depend on a local farmer or more likely yourself. The growth of a farmer feeding maybe 3 people with one mans work to 1000 or 10,000 has been slightly captured by modern society, but far from fully.

Lots of this freed up resources and labor went to wars or middle managers or corporate politics or other forms of bullshit. Cancerous growths them all, and it depends on the working class to play along with systems that despise them.

I think we should try to convince the religious hyper-conscious people who feel the need to prevent their hands from being the devils play things of fly over america to stop working for corporate jobs with middle managers trained to hate them and move towards anything else even if they have to do it for free and as charity work. That could be building new churches for all I care, but realistically maybe managing hunting/camping grounds, small farms, talking to wayward youths; doesn't matter just needs to be not working for disney to have them tell children to nag their parents into buying "white fragility". There are things with value that corporations don't value and the people hated by corporations need to go doing them for themselves rather then waiting around for a job listing.

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Extreme localization of essential resources. That would include food, energy, water, and as many other products and services as practically possible. A nation full of individual Galt's Gulch like communities can survive all but the most direct intervention from bumbling technoctrats and corrupt tyrants.

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One very, very simple thing that can be done to make your life better is to switch to a web browser that automatically blocks ads, and then switch to a default search engine other than Google or Bing. I use the Brave browser and Qwant, a French search engine (but English language) that has no particular reason to selectively block Americans from searching on sensitive topics. So far the Brave browser estimates "4,251,701 Trackers & ads blocked, 56.22 GB Bandwidth saved, 2.46 days Time saved". Not bad for just a single download.

I'm not paid to flog these, I just think that people need to at least look at alternatives. This strategy blocks a revenue stream to Google and / or Microsoft from ads, and also bypasses some of the sneakier algorithmic manipulations that Google & MS use to 'nudge' people towards the MSM for their daily diet of propaganda. Starve the beast and free your mind at the same time.

You can also use the time saved for more productive purposes than watching advertisements.

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Stop drinking alcohol, but learn how to make it. They ban gasoline you can run your old cars, generators, and other equipment off "white lightning". It's also good to sterilize wounds and dull the pain from wounds. Learn how to fix and maintain your vehicles and equipment. Also get into 3d printing you'll be able to make parts and tools you won't be able to buy in the future. Then the obvious stock up on freedom sticks, freedom seeds and learn how to use them. Grow your own fruits and veggies and raise your own chickens.

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I like Tarl’s approach. It’s important to remember one’s former, more wholesome life if we don’t like who we’ve become. Our memories are used to help us survive. Many may recall that they were better people years ago or as a younger person. It’s important to start with the basics: eat right, get good sleep, curate your newsfeed, socialize with family and friends, be spiritual and religious, do the things you love especially with self care. Get exercise and take vitamins and supplements. Limit or eliminate how much decadent culture you have to consume. Monitor everything that your five senses are ingesting. Just do enough to remember what’s good about life and that you have to fight to maintain your true view of reality. Stay away from most old legacy media.

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I like how Hemingway did it.

1. Get up early and write until noon

2. After lunch, start drinking.

3. Repeat. When dementia sets in, blow your brains out.

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I've always liked this excerpt for Charles Potts’ essay “The Recession and How to Live Through It.”

"The powers that be with their printing presses will print money and throw it at the wall until enough of it sticks. Some activities will appear to return to normalcy. But you shouldn’t wait for the influx of money to turn deflation into inflation, just as you shouldn’t wait for the bailout to trickle down to you. Unemployment is going to increase and stay high for some time. Challenging moments are upon us.

My advice in hard times would be the same in good times: find something you love to do and master it, become as good as or better at it than anyone has any reason to be. Look up the people who do it really well right now. Study the masters. A musical instrument, a physical activity, painting, movies, art of all kinds, the writing of poetry or other books, whatever makes you feel better about yourself and contributes to our well being. Try enough things until you are satisfied that your fascination with the subject will lead to mastery. Six or eight hours of focused effort a day should suffice. I think this is reasonable advice, coming from an old man who has squandered most of his life by being interested in too many things to master any of them.

We don’t exist as individuals; we exist as the sum total of our relationships. You’ll need all the friends you can get, so be honest, fair and generous in your dealings with other people. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or take unseemly risks. The future does not belong to the risk aversive.

It will be difficult to get rich in the onrushing hard times, but it will be easy to get poor or poorer. Watch where your money goes. Make sure you get good value for it. Avoid buying things you don’t really need. Add value to your activities by putting forth effort. Expect others to do the same.

Spend time with children and if you have children of your own, take the time to understand the world from their point of view.

Assets are things that have to be used up creating additional assets. Almost without exception, your biggest asset is your time. I could have gotten rich teaching a seminar I created called “Seize the Day,” essentially a series of sensory exercises to stimulate your imagination to take over and live your own life. But I preferred life in a small town and didn’t want to see the inside of every airport and convention center in the country.

Maybe it’s time to skip the addictions, look up old friends, or visit long-lost relatives. Life is a gift of such presurpassing value that we sometimes hardly notice. Learn to appreciate simple things, the taste of water, the odor of flowers, the great way gravity contributes to your ability to walk and run.

Some of the things people love to do and do well don’t pay that much: poetry for example. Nobody really gives much of a fuck anymore if you can understand the world and set it to music. You have to feed yourself, and if a family, contribute to their well-being. You may find yourself bearing an overload of dissonance, earning your daily bread and wishing, as the Colorado poet and painter Joe Lothamer said, “I dream of being a janitor.”

Every changed circumstance contains opportunities, which accrue to the first people to recognize them. Since circumstances are in constant flux, there is a steady stream of opportunities. Learn to spot them and make them your own.

Keep the basics in mind. People will still be buying food even if the rest of the consumer economy blows completely up, as it so richly deserves to. Heal the sick, wake the dead, feed the hungry. Food shelter and clothing. Eat slowly and chew your cud well."

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tee hee quit smoking. dumbest most annoying advice but most important.

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I have the opportunity to buy a lot next door to my house (2/3 of an acre). Turn it into a large garden/orchard. $15K is what I offered, they want $23K. So it sits unused.

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Im lovin the Gardening growing advice, something you can REALLY do.

Sprouts ? Sooo Cool

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I was fortunate enough to know a lot of people in my youth who lived through both the Great Depression and World War II. Poverty and ingenuity was the norm for those people. And they had a work ethic second to none.

So you would think I might have gleaned a lot from knowing those folks, but it's hard to take what they have and apply it to today's age, because even though things were tough economically, people were far, far, far more conservative back then. No sexual "revolution", no feminism, no civil rights, no affirmative action, no Vatican II, and racism was normal and fully accepted by everyone. The only evil of that era was communism, and a bit of fascism. Families were MUCH larger, and marriage much more common. Everyone went to church, and I do mean EVERYONE. Very few people went to college, and when you did, you went to be trained in a profession that demanded college level skills. Upon graduation, getting a job was easy. Even people who lived in the heart of big cities were incredibly self reliant. They were a completely different breed of folks.

My only advice: if you can, move as far away from the big Democrat controlled cities as you can. I've seen up close and personal what Democrats do to cities, and it makes the bombing campaigns of World War II look like Sunday picnics in comparison.

I will also add this: spirituality is vitally important. All religions are subject to corruption and decay, just look what a hot mess the Dali Lama got himself into lately. But, there are still some important insights into life that you cannot find anywhere else. It is critical to learn everything you can about the three great monotheistic religions, along with Buddhism and Hinduism. It's also critically important to learn Greek philosophy up to Thomas Aquinas. Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle are all critical. Most of the modern philosophers are totally worthless, with the possible exception of Any Rand. Two other great ones are Edith Stein and Simone Weil. Yep, the woman philosophers of the 20th century are some of the best.

And so what does religion and philosophy teach you that's critical? It teaches you how to tell the truth from a lie, the most important lesson of them all.

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Learn a marketable skill, one that is essential for infrastructure. Mechanics, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, pipe-fitters, gunsmiths, engineers, all those people have skills that will be vital for the hard times ahead. And worst case scenario, if you have to flee the USA, your skill is exportable and necessary in every country in the world. Skills are the one thing the government cannot take from you, cannot tax, cannot censor.

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If people took responsibility for their own actions or inactions that would fix the country, but that won't happen so we are doomed.

I'm just hoping that my wife and I will go senile before it degenerates too far.

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Train and organize and keep your groups small and with people who you have known for many years. Tough times are not coming, they are already here, and will likely get much worse considering the regime has crossed the Rubicon by arresting Trump on bullshit charges.

We're not going to win the country back by just using the ballot box, although we should still pursue this option. Stay frosty and stay alert.

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I think social skills are necessary. You will need to reform into communities for self-defense. Cities will become nightmare zones.

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https://jasonpowers.substack.com/p/institutionalized-the-system-and

Speaking of vice... for those that might not feel their freedoms are under threat.

Always enjoy the morning clank. Energy drink ON! (More water....preferably the good stuff!)

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Don't trust the Bignose tribe.

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