• TootSweet@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago
        • As Tar_Alcaran said, most of them are really really right wing.
        • …and neck deep in 7 conspiracy theories and get-rich-quick schemes of the week.
        • As Cory Doctorow puts it, “Prepping is a way of playing out a fantasy in which you are elevated to savior status, not an exercise in disaster-mitigation.”
        • The prepper market is absolutely rife with grifts.

        Prepperism is a rabbit hole that your uncle falls down that makes Thanksgiving awkward and makes the whole rest of the family worry about them. Not a benign hobby. And certainly not effective disaster preparedness.

        There’s of course nothing wrong with having a kerosene heater in your garage or owning a generator in case your power goes out for a few days. But luxury bunkers full of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of MREs bought from Alex Jones’ online store? That’s someone who thinks the government is all disguised extraterrestrials who drink child adrenal fluid to stay young and and inebriated. Except Trump who is prophesized to throw them all in jail.

      • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        10 months ago

        A LOT of them are right wing nutjobs hoping for a nuclear apocalypse to stop the gays from defiling their precious bodily fluids.

        Nothing wrong with being prepared for a disaster, but hoping for the chance to remake society in your image isn’t exactly healthy.

      • 474D@lemmy.world
        0·
        10 months ago

        Run while you can. I like to think I am a normal person. But there are so many high performing flashlights and batteries for certain situations that I now have a set of 7 flashlights. They are part of my everyday carry. I have a laser beam flashlight that can reach a nearby island.

        • FiFoFree@lemmy.world
          0·
          10 months ago

          7? Psh.

          Try 40.

          No but seriously, it’s addictive. One moment you’re like “I just need a good flashlight” and the next you’re telling somebody how the flashlight they got from Lowes has terrible tint and CRI compared to your hand-assembled copper and titanium pixel camo Emisar D4v2 with dedomed Nichia 519As you got for like $120 from a Chinese guy named Hank.

        • ouRKaoS@lemmy.today
          0·
          10 months ago

          I have a laser beam flashlight that can reach a nearby island.

          I’m going to hate myself for this, but…

          Link?

  • Buttons@programming.devEnglish
    3·
    10 months ago

    I get so aggravated by video games with weak flashlights. Like, we live in an age where my keychain flashlight can light up the nearest mountain.

  • BoxerDevil@lemmy.world
    1·
    10 months ago

    Every time I see them on my feed I always misread the name of the community. Really weird when I see one about how their dad used the same one and I think they are talking about fleshlights…

  • S_204@lemm.ee
    1·
    10 months ago

    Where the heck y’all live where the power goes out so often?

    I’m in the middle of the frozen tundra in Canada, we’re powered entirely by renewable energy, we’ve got snow storms, blizzards, floods and some serious thunder storms and I can’t even recall the last time we lost power for any noticeable amount of time. If anything having to reset the clock on the microwave is the only reason I’d know it went out. There’s talk of moving to a smart grid system because ours is dated, so wtf are you people working with?

    I do love me a good flashlight though, I’ve got a couple around the house just in case and one in my bag at all times.

    • itsJoelle@lemmy.world
      2·
      10 months ago

      Florida. You’ll be out at least a week or so every year. The summer sometimes can cause outages.

    • CulturedLout@lemmy.ca
      2·
      10 months ago

      I am also in Canada. Our province runs the power grid on coal and sold the utility to a private company that doesn’t bother with the expense of upkeep on infrastructure. They built a sweet skating rink though.

    • Hathaway@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      10 months ago

      Likely Texas, they have a private grid(as far as I last checked) and are prone to rolling blackouts.

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      10 months ago

      Looking back at the last two years, the causes of power outages lasting long enough to do something about were caused by drivers hitting and damaging power poles, the annual winter ice storm, severe thunderstorms sending trees down on the line, and those idiots who shot out the substation last year.

      Power interruptions for a fraction of a second are a weekly to daily occurrence. Lights slightly dim and the stove forgets what time it is and that’s about it.

  • pingveno@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    I have three niblings (2 nephews, 1 niece). Each one is getting a flashlight and a tiny Nitecore whistles when they get to a certain birthday, not sure which age yet. I know their parents would never forgive me if I gave them the whistles now.

    The power was off for a little over two days, so we used our flashlights and other lights a lot. It really doesn’t take much money to prepare. A lot of the gooseneck lamps these days use USB, so you can combine a lamp and a power bank to create a task light away from the backup battery.

    • GiveMemes@jlai.lu
      1·
      10 months ago

      I can tell you from experience of being a boy scout camp counselor: Do NOT give whistles to minors!

      Tho tbh, would’ve probably helped with what was happening in scouts in the 80s.

  • jonsnothere@beehaw.org
    0·
    10 months ago

    This is like the r/edc guys whipping out their knives at every opportunity or r/guns hoping some day they can justify shooting someone

  • Dandroid@dandroid.app
    0·
    10 months ago

    I have solar panels and a backup battery. I was actually disappointed when the power didn’t go out when it got cold here in Texas last week.