There Is Still Room for Hope

Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.

My words are:

daylight ~ see ~ bug ~ collapse ~ woods

They were submitted by: https://Bakinginatornado.com

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A lot of us look ahead and see the potential of a societal collapse.

I'm certainly guilty of that myself, but Im trying to get better. Obviously I get that line of thinking, though. We're in a post normal world now. The damage done to our climate and the related side effects from progressing climate change and atmospheric heating cannot be undone. Experts agree now that even if we went to net zero carbon emissions tomorrow, we couldnt erase the changes we are facing (and will continue to endure) before the end of this century, and we aren't even close to any sort of net zero emissions even as many countries are beginning to come together for timelines of when that may happen. Raging fires, ice storms, heat domes, lack of water sources, billionaires looking to space for the answers... it's all here to stay in our life times. Combine that with growing fascism in multiple countries, increasing street violence in those countries, civil wars, our fears about Afghanistan and the Taliban, weaponized unreality, the culmination of decades of science denial for the sake of profit, and a going on 2 year fight against a pandemic, and it's no wonder so many of us cannot see a future that isn't at least somewhat apocalyptic. Add in that it doesn't help when even the more "liberal" parties make promises of going back to easier times, promises that sound so good to many of us in theory but are outright lies in the face of climate change science, and you have a pretty heady mix of negativity. Yes, even without Trump or any of the other shit of even the last ten years, we would still be pretty royally screwed when it comes to being able to live and breathe easily from this point on. And constant promises of returning to a state of normal make it harder for folks to consider bracing for an ever changing future.

What I think we're getting wrong though is an end to everything as we know it being the immutable result of all this. I think, or at least want to hope, we can do better than that.

I live in a hurricane zone so I tend to keep some things on hand for emergencies, but I've made lists even on this blog for resources in case we do experience black and brown outs here and how to live off the land or pack a bug out back if things were to get really rough. I think there's a lot to be said for preparation, for the anxiety relief that tends to come with knowing you can weather most storms with a little know-how, work, and a few tucked away items.

But I think we also have to focus on the potential for rebuilding something new and better and to do that through mutual aid and community building. If there was one strong take away from the last couple of years at least, I would hope it's that we can, in fact, come together to handle most things for each other even while our politicians fight over which party can do as little as possible for the populace and get away with it. We can come together and build communities and mutual aid networks. We can be the hope we want to see in the world.

And perhaps most importantly, we can adapt.

Even if you just consider the changes that have come since 1900 when industrialization here in the u.s. was in full swing, our country grew, we got the automobile industry, plane travel, telephones and tvs and all manner of improved methods to listen to music, space travel, undersea exploration, the internet, computers that were as big as houses with barely any capabilities to computers we carry in our pockets. We've worked on defining human rights and adapting what those should be and who they should apply to. We've survived world wars and pandemics and companies hell bent on profit over people. And while some of us have done so with less grace than others here we are considerably better now than 100 years ago and still changing. It's entirely understandable to look at the last several years at the very least (and much of history for many folks) and feel like the pendulum has swung too far into hate and division and greed and destruction to be corrected, but the future is still wide open, and we could still make it swing the other direction with the right kind of work.

I'd love to run off into the woods and hang out with my pet alligator in a bayou hut far from civilization. I even painted myself one to look at every now and then. But there's still daylight at the end of this tunnel if we choose to make it that far, and I have to believe we can do better. There's no less reason to be prepared, but for all of us and everyone that comes after us, we have to build something different than we have, than we've ever had.

The challenge is in the not giving up, in seeing this through, in doing more than voting and going back to the day to day. We have to build not subsist on the same bullshit we've been fed all these decades. The challenge is in reimagining everything we know to be unchangeable and building something that works and not just a marginal step at best that will be undone every 4 to 8 years. We have to listen to the folks hurt by existing systems and who have always done their work to protect the world, and we have a limited time to stop questioning them and hear what they're saying.

We have to take "impossible" off the table.

There's still more than enough time for the future we have to be one of building a new way forward and not like you know being cannibals that eat each other to survive in a Mad Max landscape of hellfire and water shortages. We don't have to fight each other to the death for a bit of water. We just have to believe in how much better we can be and make it happen.

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Links to the other “Use Your Words” posts:

Baking In A Tornado https://bakinginatornado.com/

On the Border https://dlt-lifeontheranch.blogspot.com/

Wandering Web Designer https://wanderingwebdesigner.com/blog

What TF Sarah https://crazymamallama.blogspot.com/

Part-time Working Hockey Mom https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/

Facebook, Scams, and Cults

Welcome to a Secret Subject Swap. This month 5 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.

My subject is:

Have you ever had a chance to directly confront a scammer? How?

It was submitted by: https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/         

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 I don't answer my phone or go through emails enough to have been scammed in the usual way. I don't really have the money it would take. I don't have the assets. What are they going to get? A few litter boxes and some dog toys? I mean maybe someone out there has their eyes on my vintage Merry Mushroom kitchen decor, but I have yet to actually get a call about it. 

But. I do have a story. A long story. Complicated maybe. But I've been rolling around the idea of talking about it for awhile.

It involves mutual aid and a facebook group and cults. 

Mutual aid is mostly a leftist concept with roots in anarchist theory. It basically means a community coming together to benefit everyone in that community. It could be money or a service. In Portland leftist communities, there are several great examples. At the height of protests after George Floyd, there was a mobile food truck. Everyone pitched in whatever funds or food they could and every night at protests, the people who ran the truck would cook mostly ribs but all kinds of food for *anyone* who wanted to eat. You didn't have to be there to protest to take a plate. There's a particular bloc or mutual aid group that provides eye exams and free glasses for folks. Raccoon PDX cleans up after protests, provides gas masks and respirators and has a filter exchange program for these masks and respirators (used to prevent a lot of the most severe effects of the tear gas being used). They pass out storage for old filters and then people bring in the old ones to be studied by scientists in the area to determine what is in the non-lethal munitions being used on them and get new ones for free in return. There are dozens of these, and they provide community assistance publicly and transparently (accountability of funds are public). I particularly like the idea of mutual aid. It's essentially the same concept as using taxes to provide for citizens, but these groups actually do what they're designed to do because they're in the communities they serve and care and are so very transparent. It works quicker and more easily than the government, and it's a cornerstone to the ideology I subscribe to.

So when I stumbled on a mutual aid group operating on Facebook a couple years ago when I was slightly better off financially, I was pretty excited.

Cue doom music.

I joined a place called "give me your money" that was promised to be a place where people crowdfunded directly for the needs and wants of their peers. Can't make rent? You could post proof and ask. Can't afford food until your paycheck? Ask. Just want to treat yourself to a vibrator or a haircut or a coffee? Ask. You could ask for anything. And the idea of it was fantastic. I went in the group a bright eyed baby leftist leaving neoliberalism behind, and I was excited. I helped someone get meds for their dog and someone else get tickets to their favorite band after a particularly rough patch of life and money for a parking ticket...a haircut after a depressive episode left the person's hair matted. It was a great feeling. I had enough money for our needs, and it felt great to join in with others to help people who didn't have enough.

But it soon became clear that the premise wasn't exactly what it was advertised to be. And I think if you follow along you'll see why.

First, people were allowed and encouraged to pay money to ban people from the group. What benefit does this serve? A person being racist or homophobic should just be banned anyway to keep the community free of hate, and the rules said these kinds of folks would be banned for free but in practice this was not true. It became a competition for a fairly large segment of the group and ultimately for anyone who wanted to "fit in" to comb someone's profile to find things to suggest they weren't a good person, dogpile them for it (meaning several hundred people would comment and join in on the yelling for thousands of comments in a relatively short amount of time), and ultimately pay to ban them without them having their need answered, and if you went against the main consensus and tried to help that person because they needed it despite what the group decided about their worthiness, you would also find yourself in hot water as well. Were there terrible people? Sure. But as mentioned they should have been removed for free as promised. The point is, though, that many people weren't offered a chance to grow or even realize what they did wrong. People were expected to come into the group perfect little leftist echoes. Need help and posted that you like jeffree star makeup 2 years ago? If you didn't immediately denounce him and his racist antics you would immediately face the wrath of the group. But how could you know unless you follow youtube influencer drama? Trump supporter whose kid hasn't eaten all day? Christian asking for a Bible? Said "spirit animal" 5 years ago? Shared a meme that used "savage" a couple years back? You were going to be publicly eviscerated and probably your kid too for being unlucky enough to be born to someone deemed Unworthy of help. 

I understand the concept of wanting to know where your money is going, but that isn't mutual aid. That isn't what mutual aid is about. It doesn't require someone to be ideologically pure to take part. And the people who ran the group would understand these particular posts grabbed attention and ended up profiting a lot of money for paid bans for anyone who defended the original post and paid mutes for people who annoyed someone. Honestly, you could get banned just because someone didn't like your face or how you worded something. So a 30 minutes dogpile could result in 100s of dollars for the group owners and all it required was a few button clicks.

This happened a lot. And it was encouraged. And because it was encouraged, the people who participated most often and were the loudest made a name for themselves within the group--the "cool kids" essentially. People would fund their requests no matter how ridiculous in minutes to stay on their good sides sometimes multiple times a day even if the requests were expensive. This ability to get money made people more cruel and also allowed predators and scammers to reign supreme because no one would dare question someone popular with the group until they pissed off the wrong person. When I first joined a predator who manipulated nudes out of multiple women was untouchable. If a woman expressed discomfort with his advances, she was dragged and exiled...until he did it to enough popular women and they tired of it. The same ones to drag others now had space to express their discomfort. So by the time anything was done, people had been exposed to predatory behavior and scams over and over and taken advantage of, so it was really too late. People could easily make enough money to afford trips, meals, weed, and video games consistently for being a particular brand of cruel and every single request might be based on a lie. No one would care until it affected them personally, and by then it would cost the group at least $100 to ban them instead of the 10 bucks for usual bans. Yeah that's right--people who scammed and lied and manipulated STILL cost the group money to get rid of them. It's still happening, too. Sometimes the drama from within the group spills out into friends' timelines, and every couple months like clockwork someone who was trusted is outted as having scammed or lied or preyed on others. 

And then comes the cult...

The group owners started creating more exclusive levels of membership. You paid a $10 to $15 fee to get access to another aspect of the group. You could pay $10 monthly to be in an even more exclusive group. And if you were among the cruelest and most influential, you got invited to a secret group to discuss how the group worked and hold even more influence. There were hundreds in the monthly group alone, so if you're keeping track, the people who started the whole thing were making thousands and thousands of dollars a month in just fees related to the group by encouraging "exclusivity" and predatory behavior.

On top of that, someone revealed the original intention of the group was to make fun of poor people who were asking for money only someone didn't get the joke one day and asked genuinely and had their request fulfilled. It was the ill intentions of the two souless grifters who run the thing that started this whole mess and who ultimately realized money could be made off people in need. And now they grift to the tune of tens of thousands of annual income AT LEAST and do so by harming people repeatedly while pretending to just be the most wholesome people you could ever ask to be around. 

For instance...

The group rules suggest that tipping a mod or the group itself when making a request is "customary" but not required. This way of wording it--"not required"--allows the group to skirt facebook rules. You cannot require people in a group to pay money to participate in that group. Only facebook can take your money for shitass features that don't actually really promote your page or group to anyone that gives a shiiiit 🙃 But tips were required. If you did not provide proof of tip within seconds of making your goal, people would start asking if you were going to. If you didn't show proof, you would be banned. You would be publicly dragged and named on a scammer page and all the friends you made in the group would immediately unfriend you and talk shit about you. (More about that to come.) So if you're following (or not), this means that if you needed $20 to buy some ramen and tampons to make it through until you got food stamps again in two weeks, you had to give the group $2. Despite this group making 10s of thousands of dollars annually off all the things they were doing and scams they were running, they were scraping every cent they could off the poorest people. Homeless and need to get out of the cold? Better pay your fucking tip! The excuse was always that you could crowdfund your tip on top of your need but how the ever loving fuck can a mutual aid feel good about squeezing two dollars out of a starving family's hands and if they didn't get that $2 publicly insure they would never be able to get help again by framing them as scammers? It's disgusting. And despite there being some very good people in this group who would give their last dollar to someone who needed it too, they are absolutely brainwashed into believing this group is ultimately good. It almost got me too. 

If someone is banned from the group, current members are not supposed to remain friends or talk to this person about the group. If you remain friends with banned members, you often find yourself banned as well unless you're one of the meanest money bringers. So not only are you cut off from the group, you are paraded around for laughs and then socially isolated. Someone once got called out for being too big of a bully and gave what the group collectively decided was a fake apology, and their apology was printed on shirts and sold. For months, people would post making fun of this person, and their pics were used to do it. So keep in mind THEY were too big of a bully but for literal months if not years the group has used that person's pic and apology to make fun of them repeatedly after banning and socially isolating them. 

You're not allowed to criticize the way the group runs. You're not allowed to have issue with the way people talk to and about others. You're not allowed to belong to groups who have banned members that are critical of the group or be in groups that formed to be actual mutual aid groups that don't require the paid bans or tipping. Essentially, people are isolated from any person or persons who will point out all the issues with the way the group runs. The owners make flowery posts talking about the group like they're family--like shitty bosses do-- and talking up the group fairly often. It's cult behavior. Isolating people socially while stifling any criticism even for the most racist and transphobic behaviors of those in charge is what cultists do.

Which brings us to the merchandise.

Of course there is merchandise. Grifters always have merchandise.

It started out with a few pins--limited run designs of pin up girls in settings that allowed for the group name to be included. And that's fine. Making pins myself now I realize how much of a markup was being put on these pins (like 400%), but people were buying them so whatever. But then the drops became open exclusively to people who paid monthly money  before anyone else. It became competitive to have the pins. People would buy well over the amount needed for themselves then auction them off. Before I left I saw with my own eyes that one pin was sold for $1200 in an auction. If you have that kind of money, sure. I mean, why not have a golden toilet too? But in a group full of people who can't afford to eat? A group supposedly designed to help them get money to eat? And then of course came the claims that people who asked for money shouldn't also buy pins as it was indicative of them scamming for money they didn't need despite the pressure people felt to own some of these pins to get into the inner circle and win favor in that in group so that asking for money would ultimately be easier for them. The culture was made clear to everyone through words and actions: give your all the to the group and never question it, be incredibly cruel, and own the merch. That would be the only way to succeed in getting the kind of money others were consistently raking in. People sometimes *would* forgo eating to buy a pin. And if you're thinking the owners couldn't make money off auctions from private sellers, you're wrong. They required the auctioner to give a percentage of the money made to them. Of course they did. What an easy way to siphon off a few hundred more bucks a week from the cult.

Since then more designs have been added every week, but for a group with nearly 100,000 people having a limited run print of even 300 pins (and sometimes only 25) manipulates the kind of scarcity that enables these auctions and this culture to continue. And now they have bags, stickers, shirts, and more. A group wanting to have merch? Not a problem. This group and in this way? It's not a good look.

After several issues in the group regarding ongoing ableist behavior and very obvious attempts to discredit anyone who dared criticize or discuss problems with the way things work, I left it. There were plenty of times supposed scammers were revealed in the group, but after seeing people in action, it wasn't something I ever really felt keen on participating in. I didn't feel comfortable commenting much. I never asked for help myself, but I made some friends I do really care about who probably won't like this blog post. I made other friends I lost to the group when I finally left it who can't even remain friends with anyone who leaves or has anything to say about it whether they were banned or not. And I never felt like calling them out as a group would work because everyone remaining and new people who join have to figure out on their own why it's not as wholesome as it tries to frame itself as being. Not nearly. 

So here I am redeeming myself for never saying anything before-- give me your money is a scam. Don't join it. Don't encourage other people to join it. And if you have an opportunity, I highly recommend you report them for violating Facebook terms of service. Oh and if you see their new app, report it too.

There are more than enough cults out there as it is.  

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Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

Baking In A Tornado https://www.BakingInATornado.com

Wandering Web Designer https://wanderingwebdesigner.com/blog

Part-time Working Hockey Mom https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.com/

Climaxed https://climaxedtheblog.blogspot.com

The Crazy Mama Llama https://crazymamallama.blogspot.com/

Preparedness and Shit

Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.

My words are:

French toast ~ wallet ~ dog food ~ trail mix ~ iPad

It was submitted by: https://crazymamallama.blogspot.com/

Being prepared and skilled *shouldn't* be a radical concept, but it's treated like one. Let's go forward from this point with an open mind. 

______________________________

A lot of people are still ignoring what should be obvious more and more every day. There have been calls for a second civil war, and the more violence that keeps occurring propels us further along that route with every passing week. To some experts, it’s all but guaranteed. The question, to them, is when not if, and this summer has done more to progress that possibility than any others in a long while. And while I hope that I am wrong, I also feel like ignoring the slowly accelerating descent into fascism that’s happening is what has allowed it to fester…to grow and spread and taint more and more of our way of life. I also think it’s better to be prepared for something major than to sit back and hope and pray you never have to deal with it while you dine on French toast and hashbrown waffles at brunch downing mimosas to hide your anxiety.

Yes, it’s more numbing to grab an ipad and scroll through the same 3 apps while dissociating for hours, but there’s also benefit in being prepared for emergencies, to have a plan in case something bad happens where you are that forces you to leave quickly or to hole up and do your own thing for awhile, and I’m going to give some resources to you in this post that might be helpful in making that plan and taking at least a moderate amount of control in a life that currently feels like chaos if you pay even a modicum amount of attention to the news especially as more and more countries have alt right governments. India’s prime minister is a literal Nazi, for example. He’s a member of the Nazi party in India. We haven’t learned much from our past mistakes, and we ignore even more.

Some of this will be common sense for any kind of emergency situation like having waterproof storage for your wallet, but obviously it’s more than that. Survival medicine, foraging, how to use every bit of land that you have access to for gardening, how to prep food for long term storage, how to make trail mix and homemade dog food, etc. Use them as you need to. And also keep in mind that in any scenario, your best bet is to find a group who all share these skills to make it longer term. Talk to your friends and family about these things and help them learn.

An overall base guideline 

· Checklist: https://theprepared.com/prepping-basics/guides/emergency-preparedness-checklist-prepping-beginners

· Tips for different scenarios: https://theprepared.com/emergencies/

· Survival tips: https://hueypnewtongunclub.org/survival-programs

· Intro to Mutual Aid: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/andrej-grubacic-david-graeber-introduction-to-mutual-aid

· Building community groups and mutual aid: https://www.paperrevolution.org/mutual-aid/

· Activist tools: https://www.paperrevolution.org/activist-tools/

Good overall resources 

· Coal Cracker Bushcraft (youtube)

· Gray Bearded Green Beret (youtube)

· Tacticool Girlfriend (youtube)

· Live Like the World is Dying (podcast. I listen on spotify)

· The Prepared (online site)

· https://nchfp.uga.edu/tips/tips_home.html (food tips)

· The Anarchist Library https://theanarchistlibrary.org/special/index

· Free publications, books, audiobooks, videos: www.archive.org

· War on Everyone by Robert Evans (also check out his podcasts It could Happen Here and Behind the Bastards)

· The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker

· https://www.paperrevolution.org/library/

Emergency Prep for if you have to leave your home or “bug out” 

· Ultralight bag with gear recommendations https://youtu.be/t4GYjhwfvwU

· Supplemental kit for urban environments: https://youtu.be/4vNEIJLk56I

· Several articles discussing individual items for your kit: https://theprepared.com/bug-out-bags/

· Winter supplemental kit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JilgutU2a5k

· Another Winter/super cold quick camp setup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1dYj9IbmPA

· Longer term wigwam setup if you’re in one area for a while before moving on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KbjX92VxnI

· Hygiene while on the move including info for people with periods (cw: cisnormative language): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ju01IPSwc4

· High calorie trail mix recipe: https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/yummy-recipe-high-protein-sweet-salty-trail-mix/

· Making fire in rain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lZcPzyg014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0Il5_F-ZAg

· Concealed wilderness fire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29woKujuuFs

· The beginning of a series on map reading (all are recommended): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLSanPt1BQc

· 5 minute tarp shelter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtnssu5gobk

· 10 survival shelters in under 10 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1jhcepnnCY

· Ultralight medical kit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaCTzaCZnWI

· Diy firestarters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BFu3dVmwQ0

· Best dry bags (for your wallet and shit): https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-roll-top-dry-bag/

Cooking for camps and blackout/brownout situations 

(also keep in mind if this will call people to you and leave you vulnerable. Only cook when it’s safe). We’ll have complex and simple recipes depending on what food sources are still available) 

· Complex probably wishful thinking recipes with subsections for “car” camping and vegans https://www.freshoffthegrid.com/camping-recipe-index/

· Camp bread (this same channel has many others that are good to watch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-Qo6kTkVDo

· Cooking fire building and how to make cowboy coffee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9m9KdtzILQ

· Jerky and tipi smoker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmCjeXK0_S0

· Off grid cooking: https://storageprepper.com/food/top-8-grid-cooking-methods/

· Warm weather survival food kit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOgajE-Mfis

· Survival trapping kit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrpbffX6vOQ

Foraging:

· How to create a medicinal plants reference guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJUjxreelF4

· 3 part series on plants (video 1): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4aTF_F9-oI

· Finding and harvesting fatwood for good fire starting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enXEPGwWRG4

· Urban foraging: https://fallingfruit.org/docs/David%20Craft%20-%20Urban%20Foraging.pdf

· Natural vit c: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMDKK8GQnDc

· 7 nuts that can be foraged: https://storageprepper.com/food/7-edible-nuts-can-forage-fall/

· List of recommended products from foraging knives to resource books: https://www.wildedible.com/wild-food-resources

· Resources: https://identifythatplant.com/foraging-resources/

· Online resources list: https://www.kitchenunnecessary.com/stories/2020/4/16/online-resources-for-wild-food-foraging

· Using Black Walnut for iodine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tMP8B06uHA

· Milkweed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xxRu1Pezco

Trauma, emergency, and wilderness medicine:

· A list for bag essentials and recommended links for self teaching: https://iaf-fai.org/2020/08/31/skills-for-revolutionary-survival-1-trauma-medical-gear/

· Wound closure in the field https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYmmZStW2wY

· Podcast with pdf downloadable transcripts for emergency medicine: http://embasic.org/podcast-direct-download/

· Survival Doctor’s guide to wound care (there’s a second book available for burns): https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B008M2E4IM&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_NdfuFbXMMCKC0

· In the extreme case you are in the wild without a first aid kit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O65FC8AEzIU

· Military medicine downloadables: https://fas.org/irp/doddir/milmed/index.html

· Another ifak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZacUj_mADWs

· Applying an Israeli bandage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj8tJhXX-8w

· How you lose body heat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RX7cDrUSi8

· Street medic guide: https://www.paperrevolution.org/street-medic-guide/

Bushcraft for long term scenarios 

· How to choose and use a knife: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOymA4RG638

· 18 Essential knife tactics for bushcrafting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCNoPuZw3oM&t=27s

· How to maintain your knife in the field: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qImoRFy8Wbk

· How to build a “camp” bathroom if you don’t have running water or housing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmNfmRMqYD4

· Lashing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ystfcYBmxk

· L7 trigger traps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2SHSK4vPF0

· Ridgeline toggles (for shelters): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7HxCBzcNBQ

· Making needle and thread: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJzIf_2fR00

· Basic knots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrOc3L9s4fQ

· More knots: https://theprepared.com/survival-skills/guides/best-3-survival-knots-every-prepper-should-learn/

· Choosing bladed tools: https://theprepared.com/gear/guides/how-to-choose-bladed-tools/

· Spring pole traps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrVVIMQNagY

· Making rope: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrhgeSgYxgM

Staying hydrated/clean water/additional hygiene 

· Beating dehydration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LejPsJEcCp0

· Survival water kit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N96mFI-CKyA

· Sourcing water from the wild: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miuXQ6QqLGc

· Water storage at home: https://theprepared.com/homestead/reviews/best-two-week-emergency-water-storage-containers/

· Staying clean without running water: https://storageprepper.com/water/get-clean-without-running-water/

Gun and defense basics

· Ballistics protection: https://iaf-fai.org/2020/09/01/skills-for-revolutionary-survival-3-ballistic-protection/

· Personal protection equipment: https://iaf-fai.org/2020/08/31/skills-for-revolutionary-survival-2-basic-personal-protective-equipment/

· Various firearm basics, reloading ammunition, chemical exposure: https://socialistra.org/edu/ https://theprepared.com/self-defense/

· Basic gun safety: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvTrIMvK6cs

· Black Bloc: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anti-racist-action-the-green-mountain-anarchist-collective-black-bloc-tactics-communique

Long term food storage 

· Pickling: https://storageprepper.com/food/preppers-guide-pickling/

· Building a pantry the LDS way: https://theprepared.com/blog/review-lds-food-plan/

· Best techniques for long term storage: https://storageprepper.com/food/the-best-techniques-for-long-term-food-storage/

· Canning tips: https://storageprepper.com/food/12-canning-tips-save-life/

· Best foods to buy in bulk: https://storageprepper.com/food/the-7-best-foods-to-buy-in-bulk-and-where-to-get-them/

· Freezing: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze.html

· Storing guidelines and lengths: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/store.html

· Smoking fish at home: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/cure_smoke.html

· Most recent consumer guide for buying a deep freezer: https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/freezers/buying-guide/index.htm

· Freeze drying techniques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzoHJn1lo_w

Gardening and homesteading: 

· Keeping rabbits and hens for protein: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpQS-I2ViZo

· 5 indoor fast growing veggies and herbs: https://storageprepper.com/food/5-fast-growing-foods-you-can-grow-indoors/

· Edible landscaping plants: https://storageprepper.com/food/10-edible-plants-to-add-to-your-landscaping/

· Starting seeds indoors: https://storageprepper.com/planning/start-seeds-indoors-better-summer-garden/

· Variety of gardening techniques, instructions, top survival scenario choices, etc: https://www.youtube.com/c/CaliforniaGardening/videos

· Building raised garden beds (see Gardener Scott’s channel for other raised bed tips and so much

more. Super valuable source): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRAieQI4SWo

· Easy fruit trees to grow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_FUwWtxVz8

· More gardening and small animal keeping videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/Selfsufficientme/videos

Communications: 

· Ham radio basics and resources: http://www.arrl.org/what-is-ham-radio

· Beginner’s guide: https://theprepared.com/survival-skills/guides/beginners-guide-amateur-ham-radio-preppers/

· Ham radio guides for hobbyists and for survival https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChAu6Cof9KlfFxSbL9ytosQ

Pets 

· Fema tips for pets: https://www.ready.gov/pets

· Cheap recipes for dog food if you can’t loot any: https://thebark.com/content/save-money-homemade-dog-food

· Some emergency care tips for pets: https://www.merckvetmanual.com/special-pet-topics/emergencies/emergency-care-for-dogs-and-cats

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Links to the other “Use Your Words” posts:

Baking In A Tornado https://bakinginatornado.com/

Wandering Web Designer https://wanderingwebdesigner.com/blog

On the Border https://dlt-lifeontheranch.blogspot.com/

Part-time Working Hockey Mom https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/

The Crazy Mama Llama https://crazymamallama.blogspot.com/