This sort of feels like a stupid question.
I have a small food supply that could last a few weeks if needed…
but I do not have solar powered power banks, tents, gas masks, and things of that nature…
There’s been a lot of really impressive hacking lately… Could things like power grids and banks be hacked, creating chaos, and as a result I actually should be prepping this way? (Edited for clarity: my concern is especially about hacking damage to the US power grid, where I am, or other infrastructure, not about being personally hacked. As of this edit, no one has responded to whether that specifically is a realistic or unrealistic concern.)
I’m a pretty poor person. Buying some extra food is easy, buying solar panels and a portable power bank for hundreds costs a lot more. I already have an emergency radio.
More than that, as someone who is often poor, I may end up needing to move due to rent increases. I often think about the physical weight of anything I am buying, because I don’t drive and weight means moving or shipping costs.
With the FAA grounding thing, my initial reaction is “They are all morons, they can’t listen to advice, and so they pushed some AI slop to production because they are egomaniacs too stupid to listen to IT, or they have created a culture in which IT knows if they say something they will get fired, or IT is so exhausted from their stupidity they just do what they are told and don’t care.” But I’m actually not sure if that’s true.
Russians and other smart hackers probably knew those updates were being pushed. What if they have used that as an opportunity for hacking and confusion?
Should I actually be prepping right now out of fear of hackers?
Hey, full disclosure I’m a mental health provider so you are wholly in the right to question the position I stand on this but for that it’s worth, I’m in the field because I had very similar feelings to you and fell validated by letting my experiences help others.
There’s a lot in this post that is an accurate read but I do genuinely want to emphasize that the past 15 years has seen a lot of these things become the albatross of this field as it shifts culturally towards doing better. My company for instance is the government approved mental health provider for one of the most populated counties in the state and it’s not even remotely capable of medicating people, let alone giving shock therapy. The best we can do is med management which involves interviewing you once every 3 months and getting refills ordered for you.
More importantly, they provide a lot of services that aren’t Therapy and that’s what I really want to point you towards. Personally, I do parent peer support. My job is to visit other parents of children with behavioral and mental health issues and just encourage them to fo the best. I joke that I’m something between a well meaning neighbor and a state appointed friend.
I really think you would benefit from some genuine peer support. I’m going to be frank, some of what you’re saying is pushing the crazy line and while I’m not one to judge I think your focus could really use an outside perspective and some human contact. I want to emphasize that I’m not calling you crazy, our infrastructure is held together by zip ties and bent clothes hangers, a stiff breeze can probably knock out the power grid where you are, because it literally does every June around here. That said, a bunker full of canned beans and 9mm isn’t going to improve that.
Get yourself a camping stove or a propane grill, learn a few good recipes for rice and beans, but fumpingball your money into solar and generators isn’t going to get you anything but less money. The banks getting hacked would only be possible if the wealthy didn’t need them to control the masses and the tiny cabal of wealthy pedophile psychopaths already run the world. Prepping for an apocalypse isn’t going to give you the security you’re looking for.
For what it’s worth, I take that control back in my life by deciding how I engage with the culture I have grown to resent. I make as much as I can and when I can’t I try to learn how before I go buy it. Turns out nice furniture is a lot cheaper when you build it yourself.