At least Ru told us her plan, which was also her mistake
March 14, 2024 6:52 AM Subscribe
RuPaul is building a bunker, and Kate Middleton has gone missing. One of these things is definitely confirmed. RuPaul is taking things to a place of societal collapse. He said so while promoting his forthcoming memoir “The House of Hidden Meanings.” He’s fortifying his compound in Wyoming for him and his hot rancher husband with morally ambiguous wealth to ride out the civil war he believes is imminent.
♬ Wait, wait, I wait for Kate.
No!
I wait and wait, but Kate's so late. ♬
posted by elmono at 7:13 AM on March 14 [1 favorite]
No!
I wait and wait, but Kate's so late. ♬
posted by elmono at 7:13 AM on March 14 [1 favorite]
Have any of these doomsday billionaires figured out how to keep their staff working for them after the apocalypse? I always figured that the Thiels and RuPauls will be served on a bed of greens for breakfast to the staff on the first morning of the apocalypse.
posted by cmfletcher at 7:15 AM on March 14 [49 favorites]
posted by cmfletcher at 7:15 AM on March 14 [49 favorites]
Maybe RPDR All-Stars is a meta-audition for a role in the post-apocalypse bunker compound. The very best of the very best, if you will.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 7:18 AM on March 14 [2 favorites]
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 7:18 AM on March 14 [2 favorites]
Have any of these doomsday billionaires figured out how to keep their staff working for them after the apocalypse? I always figured that the Thiels and RuPauls will be served on a bed of greens for breakfast to the staff on the first morning of the apocalypse.
If you've not seen Triangle of Sadness, please find a way to stream/rent/buy/watch. You're welcome.
posted by Fizz at 7:21 AM on March 14 [21 favorites]
If you've not seen Triangle of Sadness, please find a way to stream/rent/buy/watch. You're welcome.
posted by Fizz at 7:21 AM on March 14 [21 favorites]
Alright, guys, Ru's bunker gets busted last.
posted by ocschwar at 7:22 AM on March 14 [14 favorites]
posted by ocschwar at 7:22 AM on March 14 [14 favorites]
I imagine in the next decade we’ll watch more and more of our stars slip into the expanse, away from all of us, away from the weather and gore. And people will take to X formerly known as Twitter to complain and tattletale while walking to work waist-deep in floodwater. What are we expecting to them to do? Wait around with the rest of us in solidarity?
Shades of Heaven or High Water, IMO, as some of the more emotionally real writing about climate change.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 7:37 AM on March 14 [3 favorites]
Shades of Heaven or High Water, IMO, as some of the more emotionally real writing about climate change.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 7:37 AM on March 14 [3 favorites]
Previously: The Privileged Have Entered Their Escape Pods.
posted by Pitachu at 7:40 AM on March 14 [6 favorites]
posted by Pitachu at 7:40 AM on March 14 [6 favorites]
Have any of these doomsday billionaires figured out how to keep their staff working for them after the apocalypse?
Seems like the thing to do would be to tell all of your staff/guards that they need to get some advanced medical stuff done to help secure them against potential diseases or radiation but in reality use that as an excuse to implant tiny remotely-activated explosives in them. Then have the medical staff who did those procedures killed by an unrelated hit team. Ideally you’d want the explosives linked to a heart monitor implant on yourself so that if you die they die, and also some kind of dead man’s switch that sets off the explosives if you’re merely captured and unable to fulfill the necessary conditions.
Of course you’d want also want secret failsafes built into your bunker facility like the ability to lock down various subsections or flood staff or guard quarters with toxic gas, things like that.
posted by star gentle uterus at 7:44 AM on March 14 [10 favorites]
Seems like the thing to do would be to tell all of your staff/guards that they need to get some advanced medical stuff done to help secure them against potential diseases or radiation but in reality use that as an excuse to implant tiny remotely-activated explosives in them. Then have the medical staff who did those procedures killed by an unrelated hit team. Ideally you’d want the explosives linked to a heart monitor implant on yourself so that if you die they die, and also some kind of dead man’s switch that sets off the explosives if you’re merely captured and unable to fulfill the necessary conditions.
Of course you’d want also want secret failsafes built into your bunker facility like the ability to lock down various subsections or flood staff or guard quarters with toxic gas, things like that.
posted by star gentle uterus at 7:44 AM on March 14 [10 favorites]
Giiiiiiirl if the last few years have taught us ANYTHING it's that not only white straight men can be evil and selfish! Everyone has that spirit in them and is ready to fuck over another the second the opportunity arises, we are truly all Trump's children!
posted by kingdead at 7:47 AM on March 14 [19 favorites]
posted by kingdead at 7:47 AM on March 14 [19 favorites]
There's a coldness and selfishness in RuPaul that I don't like, but I know very well it's not there for me to like. I suppose it would have to be how you lived through such hard times as an openly gay man, pretending feelings are unimportant, some people are just fated to drown, etc. It's not something I can judge. (Fracking is, of course.)
posted by Countess Elena at 7:47 AM on March 14 [10 favorites]
posted by Countess Elena at 7:47 AM on March 14 [10 favorites]
In theory, if you set up a relatively self-sustaining base, and welcome the support staff to living there, you can build loyalty pre-apocolypse.
Dolly Parton is an example of someone who is seeming to do this on a state-wide basis: if the world ended and Dolly Parton showed up anywhere in her entire state, she'd probably be welcome.
posted by NotAYakk at 7:48 AM on March 14 [69 favorites]
Dolly Parton is an example of someone who is seeming to do this on a state-wide basis: if the world ended and Dolly Parton showed up anywhere in her entire state, she'd probably be welcome.
posted by NotAYakk at 7:48 AM on March 14 [69 favorites]
I mean, the part about the US being at imminent risk of violent collapse is probably not wrong.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:49 AM on March 14 [8 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:49 AM on March 14 [8 favorites]
also some kind of dead man’s switch that sets off the explosives if you’re merely captured and unable to fulfill the necessary conditions
so basically a death drop
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 7:49 AM on March 14 [1 favorite]
so basically a death drop
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 7:49 AM on March 14 [1 favorite]
I assume the thought is that the post-apocalyptic world will be so bad that life working for your boss in their compound will be preferable to leaving. That's why Zuck's compound is aiming for self-sufficiency; so he can feed his serfs.
posted by timdiggerm at 7:53 AM on March 14 [7 favorites]
posted by timdiggerm at 7:53 AM on March 14 [7 favorites]
A friend and I were, both old enough to have been traumatized by Cold War-era "Day After/ Threads"-style programming and thus baffled by the popularity of post-apocalyptic wasteland as setting for entertainment, spent a solid amount of time recently discussing how little interest we had in surviving whatever flavor of armageddon.
"With our luck," she said, "the billionaires and preppers will all go and we'll just end up still alive being two miserable, sickly old ladies picking through the rubble for cigarettes we will definitely start smoking again and complaining about how shitty life is without decent cheese."
Exactly.
posted by thivaia at 7:54 AM on March 14 [46 favorites]
"With our luck," she said, "the billionaires and preppers will all go and we'll just end up still alive being two miserable, sickly old ladies picking through the rubble for cigarettes we will definitely start smoking again and complaining about how shitty life is without decent cheese."
Exactly.
posted by thivaia at 7:54 AM on March 14 [46 favorites]
The only way a bunker survives more than a decade, let alone a year, is with like a thousand people, minimum, with very diverse educational backgrounds and skills who are all treated extremely well with a significant amount of arable land and access to fresh air and water, and even then the best you can expect is an early 20th century standard of living. There is no possible factual future where people are in bunkers or castles and also have ongoing access to any kind of technology requiring factories more complex than a kiln/smelter.
That's why this is all hilarious to me. Maybe you're gonna stockpile everything you need until you die, but your kids are going back to stone knives and bear skins and there's nothing you can do about it without like a million people to create and operate all the technologies and machines and factories needed for what we had even in the mid 80s.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:55 AM on March 14 [53 favorites]
That's why this is all hilarious to me. Maybe you're gonna stockpile everything you need until you die, but your kids are going back to stone knives and bear skins and there's nothing you can do about it without like a million people to create and operate all the technologies and machines and factories needed for what we had even in the mid 80s.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:55 AM on March 14 [53 favorites]
I don't think the issue is so much working for the boss or leaving, but rather working for the boss or killing the boss.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 7:56 AM on March 14 [12 favorites]
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 7:56 AM on March 14 [12 favorites]
My logistical complaint is: why try and endure a new civil war if you clearly have enough money to like, fuck off to the south of France or something? Why would you want to be in Wyoming for that?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:59 AM on March 14 [46 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:59 AM on March 14 [46 favorites]
Wyoming's low humidity means better survival for your wig collection.
posted by mittens at 8:02 AM on March 14 [56 favorites]
posted by mittens at 8:02 AM on March 14 [56 favorites]
I do wish Farrow had asked that. Wyoming is definitely not friendly to the LGBTQ+ community. Kind of a rough place to ride out the apocalypse if you're not straight, white, and Christian, no matter how much money you might have.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 8:06 AM on March 14 [7 favorites]
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 8:06 AM on March 14 [7 favorites]
I mean even just antibiotics. How many people do you need to create and operate the lab and all the chemical feedstocks for it and all the tooling and glassware to just produce a fairly reliable fungal or bacterial extract that has a better than even shot of helping someone who got jabbed with a splinter much less took some damage from an invader with a rusty knife. And if you don't have a variety of those antibiotics, your siege compound will develop resistant strains of strep and staph and then you're back to people just flat out dying from silly mistakes. Maybe solve the resistance dilemma by trading fungi with other compounds but here you are, needing an external society to keep your own healthy. It just doesn't work. And everything is networked like that! The mind reels.
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:12 AM on March 14 [31 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:12 AM on March 14 [31 favorites]
The fundamental problem here is that rich people have been conditioned to expect money to fix all their problems, but that this adaptive survival behavior does not work absent a society in which to spend the money.
posted by rhymedirective at 8:14 AM on March 14 [78 favorites]
posted by rhymedirective at 8:14 AM on March 14 [78 favorites]
Yeah, my thought too - if I had lots of wealth and was worried about societal collapse I'd probably invest in a place somewhere in a well-resourced country like Switzerland.
posted by coffeecat at 8:15 AM on March 14 [5 favorites]
posted by coffeecat at 8:15 AM on March 14 [5 favorites]
The best I will be able to afford if the shit hits the fan is a country where no one is after my head personally and the cost of living is enough lower that I could just retire earlier and keep my head down. That's sort of cowardly, but I don't have invest in Switzerland money.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:25 AM on March 14 [5 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:25 AM on March 14 [5 favorites]
Chicken Little, the sky is falling! They must all be afraid of dying.I wonder if some of them are religious or pious, in the traditional sense of the word...not "Oh I believe in a higher power, and crystals and stuff"...This was never meant to be a permanent place to stay.
posted by Czjewel at 8:25 AM on March 14 [2 favorites]
posted by Czjewel at 8:25 AM on March 14 [2 favorites]
“I wouldn’t call it a bunker,” he said. But it is designed to withstand calamity. “It’s a lot of concrete and a lot of things. I keep thinking about these castles that I’m going to bed to.”
Funny, I keep thinking about the ending of David Macaulay's Castle where the impenetrable castle survives the siege only to outlive its usefulness and be left to rot and decay as the town around it grew and prospered.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:28 AM on March 14 [19 favorites]
Funny, I keep thinking about the ending of David Macaulay's Castle where the impenetrable castle survives the siege only to outlive its usefulness and be left to rot and decay as the town around it grew and prospered.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:28 AM on March 14 [19 favorites]
hmmmm so perhaps instead of thinking in terms of "staff" they thought in terms of "community" (they don't) this might all make more sense (and be more plausibly a survival strategy for the long term).
agreed with above, if I had this kind of money I would be spending it now to enjoy the things that are sure as hell not going to be available then, like really good cheese. maybe in the south of France!
posted by supermedusa at 8:33 AM on March 14 [6 favorites]
agreed with above, if I had this kind of money I would be spending it now to enjoy the things that are sure as hell not going to be available then, like really good cheese. maybe in the south of France!
posted by supermedusa at 8:33 AM on March 14 [6 favorites]
I dunno, I think a castle in Wyoming isn't the worst idea. It's not a to be a post-apocalyptic power fantasy. It's not investing in some VC stuff that makes life worse for everyone. Until we can tax excessive wealth, this isn't the worst way to get money back into circulation.
Besides, I look forward to playing The Castles of Mad Queen RuPaul at some point.
posted by Garm at 8:38 AM on March 14 [8 favorites]
Besides, I look forward to playing The Castles of Mad Queen RuPaul at some point.
posted by Garm at 8:38 AM on March 14 [8 favorites]
MetaFilter: like really good cheese
posted by elkevelvet at 8:40 AM on March 14 [11 favorites]
posted by elkevelvet at 8:40 AM on March 14 [11 favorites]
k,cool.
posted by fluttering hellfire at 8:52 AM on March 14 [1 favorite]
posted by fluttering hellfire at 8:52 AM on March 14 [1 favorite]
I wish them well in their Douglas, WY bunker *checks notes* in south eastern Wyoming only a short drive from that region's estimated nuclear sponge zone. I'm sure that will be a super fun location when the balloon pops...
posted by inflatablekiwi at 8:57 AM on March 14 [14 favorites]
posted by inflatablekiwi at 8:57 AM on March 14 [14 favorites]
There’s an accounting coming, Mr. Stussy, and you know I'm right. Mongrel hordes descending, and what are you doing to insulate yourself and your family? You think you're rich. You've no idea what rich means. Rich is a fleet of private planes filled with decoys to mask your scent. It's a bunker in Wyoming and another in Gstaad. So that's action item one, the accumulation of wealth. And I mean wealth, not money.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 9:00 AM on March 14 [3 favorites]
posted by paper chromatographologist at 9:00 AM on March 14 [3 favorites]
Is this just a promotion for a new season of AJ and the Queen? I wouldn't complain.
posted by credulous at 9:01 AM on March 14
posted by credulous at 9:01 AM on March 14
Maybe you're gonna stockpile everything you need until you die, but your kids are going back to stone knives and bear skins and there's nothing you can do about it without like a million people to create and operate all the technologies and machines and factories needed for what we had even in the mid 80s.
Earth Abides, man.
You think these people really care about their kids? Or future grandkids? That would require caring about (gasp) society, and that's literally communism.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 9:02 AM on March 14 [11 favorites]
Earth Abides, man.
You think these people really care about their kids? Or future grandkids? That would require caring about (gasp) society, and that's literally communism.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 9:02 AM on March 14 [11 favorites]
Have any of these doomsday billionaires figured out how to keep their staff working for them after the apocalypse?
This Rushkoff article from a couple years ago is a really interesting window into that. Apparently he gets consulted a *lot* on this (or at least, did before writing that article), and tries to convince them that the only option is really to treat your staff very, very well (perhaps as equals), starting now. And as obsessed as the billionaires are with this problem, they just do not want to hear it; they're locked into what he calls in that article The Mindset, where as he puts it,'"winning” means earning enough money to insulate themselves from the damage they are creating by earning money in that way'. This worldview just seems to preclude any solutions except nonsense like remote control shock collars etc.
posted by advil at 9:02 AM on March 14 [35 favorites]
This Rushkoff article from a couple years ago is a really interesting window into that. Apparently he gets consulted a *lot* on this (or at least, did before writing that article), and tries to convince them that the only option is really to treat your staff very, very well (perhaps as equals), starting now. And as obsessed as the billionaires are with this problem, they just do not want to hear it; they're locked into what he calls in that article The Mindset, where as he puts it,'"winning” means earning enough money to insulate themselves from the damage they are creating by earning money in that way'. This worldview just seems to preclude any solutions except nonsense like remote control shock collars etc.
posted by advil at 9:02 AM on March 14 [35 favorites]
The novel, The Earth Abides is a great story for what happens a few years after some cataclysmic event. In so much that you can't keep things running with a small number of humans. A generation later will go back to arrows and hunting/gathering.
posted by ckoerner at 9:07 AM on March 14 [3 favorites]
posted by ckoerner at 9:07 AM on March 14 [3 favorites]
I mean, I suppose that the trick is to build an outpost that is (a) sufficiently hardened that roving raiders will go "ah, that's going to be tough, I'm going to target easier prey" but that also won't trigger (b) "ah, that rich guy has supplies and gear and guns and luxuries, and all we have to do is shoot a few inhabitants to claim the outpost for ourselves."
The old thing about the guy with 51 guns who thinks they make him safe, until a guy with one gun shoots him and now has 52 guns.
posted by delfin at 9:10 AM on March 14 [9 favorites]
The old thing about the guy with 51 guns who thinks they make him safe, until a guy with one gun shoots him and now has 52 guns.
posted by delfin at 9:10 AM on March 14 [9 favorites]
That’s fine. You just need to set your clan up to be the warlords of the future bows and arrows world.
posted by star gentle uterus at 9:11 AM on March 14
posted by star gentle uterus at 9:11 AM on March 14
A person whose life has been built on precarity, suddenly finding themselves with a means to secure themselves does so in a way that highlights that their self preservation instinct...
The most interesting thing to me about this is that he chose Wyoming, a crucible of homophobic hatred, the place where Matthew Shepard was beaten to death, as his safe space.
The rich truly do live in a parallel universe.
posted by splitpeasoup at 9:12 AM on March 14 [36 favorites]
The most interesting thing to me about this is that he chose Wyoming, a crucible of homophobic hatred, the place where Matthew Shepard was beaten to death, as his safe space.
The rich truly do live in a parallel universe.
posted by splitpeasoup at 9:12 AM on March 14 [36 favorites]
only a short drive from that region's estimated nuclear sponge zone
and conveniently just East of Yellowstone!!! so they'll prob go up in the initial blast if there is a full caldera collapse.
posted by supermedusa at 9:21 AM on March 14 [7 favorites]
and conveniently just East of Yellowstone!!! so they'll prob go up in the initial blast if there is a full caldera collapse.
posted by supermedusa at 9:21 AM on March 14 [7 favorites]
RuPaul has been living in Wyoming with his husband for several years. He has a better idea of how safe it is to be gay in that state than any of us coming here to comment.
posted by riruro at 9:26 AM on March 14 [11 favorites]
posted by riruro at 9:26 AM on March 14 [11 favorites]
He has a better idea of how safe it is to be rich and gay in that state than any of us coming here to comment.
There is likely a big difference in lived experience there!
posted by thecaddy at 9:38 AM on March 14 [34 favorites]
There is likely a big difference in lived experience there!
posted by thecaddy at 9:38 AM on March 14 [34 favorites]
I believe that splitpeasoup was commenting on the "parallel universe" of safety that the rich live in, that makes Wyoming safe for them when it hasn't been for gay people of ordinary wealth.
posted by tavella at 9:39 AM on March 14 [7 favorites]
posted by tavella at 9:39 AM on March 14 [7 favorites]
A friend and I were, both old enough to have been traumatized by Cold War-era "Day After/ Threads"-style programming and thus baffled by the popularity of post-apocalyptic wasteland as setting for entertainment, spent a solid amount of time recently discussing how little interest we had in surviving whatever flavor of armageddon.
I for one always found it deeply and perhaps perversely reassuring to imagine that we’ll all go together when we go.
posted by non canadian guy at 9:47 AM on March 14 [10 favorites]
I for one always found it deeply and perhaps perversely reassuring to imagine that we’ll all go together when we go.
posted by non canadian guy at 9:47 AM on March 14 [10 favorites]
In theory, if you set up a relatively self-sustaining base, and welcome the support staff to living there, you can build loyalty pre-apocolypse.
Yeah I assume the answer is “be good to people and tell them they can bring their family and then build relationships with their family such that the instant the staff think of murdering you their wife is like ‘are you kidding don’t you remember when he paid for our daughters heart surgery’ but I am but a mutual aid aficionado so what do I know.
posted by corb at 9:48 AM on March 14 [27 favorites]
Yeah I assume the answer is “be good to people and tell them they can bring their family and then build relationships with their family such that the instant the staff think of murdering you their wife is like ‘are you kidding don’t you remember when he paid for our daughters heart surgery’ but I am but a mutual aid aficionado so what do I know.
posted by corb at 9:48 AM on March 14 [27 favorites]
How are any of these people going to survive without constant mass adulation and admiration? They'll be out kidnapping new audiences for their amazingness before a month has passed.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 9:52 AM on March 14 [7 favorites]
posted by lesbiassparrow at 9:52 AM on March 14 [7 favorites]
RuPaul's personality (from what little I've seen in interviews like the ones linked here) seems like it was born from a fascinating mix of queer liberation and ruthless capitalist acquisition.
posted by Saxon Kane at 9:54 AM on March 14 [12 favorites]
posted by Saxon Kane at 9:54 AM on March 14 [12 favorites]
Someday we'll realize that Earth is our bunker.
posted by chavenet at 10:07 AM on March 14 [39 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 10:07 AM on March 14 [39 favorites]
The novel, The Earth Abides is a great story for what happens a few years after some cataclysmic event.
This thread is about Atlas Shrugged, not Earth Abides. The former has ultra-rich characters building a redoubt somewhere out west like Wyoming, to ride out Civilization's collapse; the latter is a Last Man on Earth story about life in the Bay Area after a plague kills almost everyone.
posted by Rash at 10:18 AM on March 14 [3 favorites]
This thread is about Atlas Shrugged, not Earth Abides. The former has ultra-rich characters building a redoubt somewhere out west like Wyoming, to ride out Civilization's collapse; the latter is a Last Man on Earth story about life in the Bay Area after a plague kills almost everyone.
posted by Rash at 10:18 AM on March 14 [3 favorites]
I am a mutual aid aficionado too and hate living in a neighborhood that is like a distillation of the worst of all neighborhood apps. It is so hard to find community without having to swallow a whole ideology, and I’ve spent the latter half of my life trying to see and peel off the geological layers of ideology that filter my worldview. I don’t want to add more.
Personally I have been learning basic first aid, what local plants have evidence backed medicinal properties, how to ferment and distill all kinds of stuff (for fun and for medicine), conflict resolution techniques, and other skills that could make me useful at some level of societal collapse.
I also keep a nice supply of entheogens and am always cultivating more. Spiritual/mental health is also important during collapses.
In terms of food I have healthy colonies of different species of edible insects. Some are more nutritionally balanced and harder to grow, some are machines that turn anything remotely organic in origin, no matter how rotted, into crispy fat and protein nuggets.
I have also worked on more selfish stuff. I have enough solar panels, batteries, radios and components to build an ad-hoc encrypted comms network to cover a 10 mile radius. Could go bigger if needed, I have the components for bigger antennas. I know how to source and make nasty chemicals. In case the cooperators vs assholes ratio gets violently skewed.
My knees and lungs are too messed up to entertain any fantasy of badassery based survival, I am going more for the Druid class.
Before I sound like a crazy prepper, I am just trying to make sure to be the kind of person that has skills and means to help other in a crisis, with the hope that the help will be mutual. It does not need to be complete collapse or nuclear war. Where I live earthquakes, fuel shortages, road blockades and occupations by armed cartels, loss of electrical power, and collapsed health systems are real risks. That is not even counting our unstable neighbors north of the border deciding to do something stupid.
This is not personally directed at anyone here. If you hate the billionaire bunkers and believe in people self organizing and pulling together, make sure you have useful skills and means to help others. Middle management skills may be useful, knowing how to get calories and safe water to small children and the sick is easy to learn and way more useful.
posted by Dr. Curare at 10:26 AM on March 14 [35 favorites]
Personally I have been learning basic first aid, what local plants have evidence backed medicinal properties, how to ferment and distill all kinds of stuff (for fun and for medicine), conflict resolution techniques, and other skills that could make me useful at some level of societal collapse.
I also keep a nice supply of entheogens and am always cultivating more. Spiritual/mental health is also important during collapses.
In terms of food I have healthy colonies of different species of edible insects. Some are more nutritionally balanced and harder to grow, some are machines that turn anything remotely organic in origin, no matter how rotted, into crispy fat and protein nuggets.
I have also worked on more selfish stuff. I have enough solar panels, batteries, radios and components to build an ad-hoc encrypted comms network to cover a 10 mile radius. Could go bigger if needed, I have the components for bigger antennas. I know how to source and make nasty chemicals. In case the cooperators vs assholes ratio gets violently skewed.
My knees and lungs are too messed up to entertain any fantasy of badassery based survival, I am going more for the Druid class.
Before I sound like a crazy prepper, I am just trying to make sure to be the kind of person that has skills and means to help other in a crisis, with the hope that the help will be mutual. It does not need to be complete collapse or nuclear war. Where I live earthquakes, fuel shortages, road blockades and occupations by armed cartels, loss of electrical power, and collapsed health systems are real risks. That is not even counting our unstable neighbors north of the border deciding to do something stupid.
This is not personally directed at anyone here. If you hate the billionaire bunkers and believe in people self organizing and pulling together, make sure you have useful skills and means to help others. Middle management skills may be useful, knowing how to get calories and safe water to small children and the sick is easy to learn and way more useful.
posted by Dr. Curare at 10:26 AM on March 14 [35 favorites]
Someday we'll realize that Earth is our bunker.
It's all part of a beautiful cycle. Earth insulated us from the vast wasteland of space. As they turn Earth into a hellhole, they're constructing bunkers to protect them from that. Once their incompetence and arrogance makes their bunker a Randian dystopia, they can just bolt the doors to the main bedroom suite to use it as a bunker-within-a-bunker. Then when the bedsheets start to smell they can hole up in the bathroom, and finally their walk-in shower is fitted with a rocket so they can begin their search for a new Earth.
Turns out the real reason they're investing in ChatGPT is so they'll have someone to talk to on the trip to Alpha Centauri.
posted by Riki tiki at 10:38 AM on March 14 [8 favorites]
It's all part of a beautiful cycle. Earth insulated us from the vast wasteland of space. As they turn Earth into a hellhole, they're constructing bunkers to protect them from that. Once their incompetence and arrogance makes their bunker a Randian dystopia, they can just bolt the doors to the main bedroom suite to use it as a bunker-within-a-bunker. Then when the bedsheets start to smell they can hole up in the bathroom, and finally their walk-in shower is fitted with a rocket so they can begin their search for a new Earth.
Turns out the real reason they're investing in ChatGPT is so they'll have someone to talk to on the trip to Alpha Centauri.
posted by Riki tiki at 10:38 AM on March 14 [8 favorites]
What would it take to fake a big enough global catastrophe to get the rich to lock themselves in bunkers for an extended period?
posted by biffa at 10:43 AM on March 14 [25 favorites]
posted by biffa at 10:43 AM on March 14 [25 favorites]
If civilization collapses, the aftermath won't be exactly like the past. I'm not sure how much will be left, but there will at least be a lot of metal. Just having good knives should be a big deal. Dumps will be significant resources. I'm expecting clever inventions (like the horse collar for the middle ages) that don't need big infrastructure.
It's going to be hard. A lot of people will die. It's just not going to be simple..
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 10:44 AM on March 14 [4 favorites]
It's going to be hard. A lot of people will die. It's just not going to be simple..
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 10:44 AM on March 14 [4 favorites]
Who is Ru Galt?
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:45 AM on March 14 [41 favorites]
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:45 AM on March 14 [41 favorites]
What would it take to fake a big enough global catastrophe to get the rich to lock themselves in bunkers for an extended period?
Legislation mandating a four-day work week?
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 10:47 AM on March 14 [26 favorites]
Legislation mandating a four-day work week?
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 10:47 AM on March 14 [26 favorites]
Personally I have been learning basic first aid, what local plants have evidence backed medicinal properties, how to ferment and distill all kinds of stuff (for fun and for medicine), conflict resolution techniques, and other skills that could make me useful at some level of societal collapse.
There are a couple reasons why I belong to a post-apocalyptic fiction book club; the main one is that the other members are my flavor of weird, but "brainstorming survival techniques and learning how systems fall" is a close second. Not that ALL the scenarios we read about are plausible (one book we read was kind of like HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY meets Eurovision), but...some.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:56 AM on March 14 [8 favorites]
There are a couple reasons why I belong to a post-apocalyptic fiction book club; the main one is that the other members are my flavor of weird, but "brainstorming survival techniques and learning how systems fall" is a close second. Not that ALL the scenarios we read about are plausible (one book we read was kind of like HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY meets Eurovision), but...some.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:56 AM on March 14 [8 favorites]
Can we fake an apocalypse to get all these billionaires to disappear?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:09 AM on March 14 [13 favorites]
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:09 AM on March 14 [13 favorites]
Can we fake an apocalypse to get all these billionaires to disappear?
[dashes off to start a screenplay]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:27 AM on March 14 [6 favorites]
[dashes off to start a screenplay]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:27 AM on March 14 [6 favorites]
HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY meets Eurovision
do tell...
posted by supermedusa at 11:30 AM on March 14 [7 favorites]
do tell...
posted by supermedusa at 11:30 AM on March 14 [7 favorites]
After/If the shit hits the fan, I suspect my python programming skills will not be all that useful. I might have to go back to architecture. Shudder.
posted by signal at 11:31 AM on March 14 [3 favorites]
posted by signal at 11:31 AM on March 14 [3 favorites]
(one book we read was kind of like HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY meets Eurovision),
Was is Cat Valente's Space Opera?
posted by signal at 11:32 AM on March 14 [9 favorites]
Was is Cat Valente's Space Opera?
posted by signal at 11:32 AM on March 14 [9 favorites]
This thread is about Atlas Shrugged, not Earth Abides.
The billionaires think they are living in "Atlas Shrugged" (although if they'd read the book they'd see a few problems with this belief).
They are actually living in "Earth Abides".
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 11:45 AM on March 14 [5 favorites]
The billionaires think they are living in "Atlas Shrugged" (although if they'd read the book they'd see a few problems with this belief).
They are actually living in "Earth Abides".
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 11:45 AM on March 14 [5 favorites]
HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY meets Eurovision
do tell...
It was indeed SPACE OPERA as linked above.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:47 AM on March 14 [4 favorites]
do tell...
It was indeed SPACE OPERA as linked above.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:47 AM on March 14 [4 favorites]
RuPaul's been talking about a supposedly extremely imminent civil war in the US since at least as far back as the beginning of his podcast with Michelle Visage in...2014? He's not wrong in the sense that we've pretty much spent 80% of the nation's existence on the brink of massive civil strife, but I gotta say this sounds more like a longtime personal preoccupation that just happens to have finally lined up with external events, than any sort of trenchant analysis.
At least his bunker sounds like it would be more fun than the average billionaire bunker?
posted by peakes at 11:49 AM on March 14 [9 favorites]
At least his bunker sounds like it would be more fun than the average billionaire bunker?
posted by peakes at 11:49 AM on March 14 [9 favorites]
Can we fake an apocalypse to get all these billionaires to disappear?
[dashes off to start a screenplay]
Uhhh, spoilers for the
posted by lizjohn at 11:57 AM on March 14 [4 favorites]
[dashes off to start a screenplay]
Uhhh, spoilers for the
book
The Future by Naomi Aldermanposted by lizjohn at 11:57 AM on March 14 [4 favorites]
Eh, I've seen some videos on YouTube of these rural western "fortified" complexes, and they're usually built with an outward-facing wall, interior courtyard, wells, generators.
They're all at the foot of a mountain from which bombardment would be trivial. Just sayin'.
posted by McBearclaw at 11:58 AM on March 14 [7 favorites]
They're all at the foot of a mountain from which bombardment would be trivial. Just sayin'.
posted by McBearclaw at 11:58 AM on March 14 [7 favorites]
I don’t think there will be a dramatic apocalypse but rather a fading to 3rd world level living for most people, based on many models currently at that point. The poorest will still be working to survive, not rebelling. The wealthy will still get plenty of cheap loyal help, and the military police presence will keep most in line. Do I need to give examples of where exacthis is happening right now?
posted by waving at 12:06 PM on March 14 [16 favorites]
posted by waving at 12:06 PM on March 14 [16 favorites]
make sure you have useful skills and means to help others.
Yeah if civilization collapses zero fucks will be given about a law degree but my beekeeping and knitting/quilting skills will at last come in handy.
posted by corb at 12:06 PM on March 14 [11 favorites]
Yeah if civilization collapses zero fucks will be given about a law degree but my beekeeping and knitting/quilting skills will at last come in handy.
posted by corb at 12:06 PM on March 14 [11 favorites]
so glad I've learned how to darn socks!!!
/web developer
posted by supermedusa at 12:11 PM on March 14 [4 favorites]
/web developer
posted by supermedusa at 12:11 PM on March 14 [4 favorites]
Big dumb dummy rich folk don't realize that if society collapses, then there's nothing to make all that money worth something and, consequently, they're no longer rich. If they had any actual smarts, they'd be hustling to make sure society doesn't collapse.
posted by grubi at 12:17 PM on March 14 [28 favorites]
posted by grubi at 12:17 PM on March 14 [28 favorites]
I can't tell how many of the comments about societal collapse are serious, and of those, how many are about climate change rather than political collapse, but I'm putting in a vote for, as a new book explains, it's "Not the End of the World".
This is not climate-science denialism, but an acknowledgement of the many dimensions of progress and a call for action on climate. "you're just bombarded with negative trend after negative trend...I was very despondent and almost kind of paralyzed by the future that we might inherit. ... I kind of wanted to give a slightly different message ... yes, these are big problems, but ... actually, we are starting to see progress. We just need much, much more of it. So I kind of make the case for what I call urgent optimism..."
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 12:18 PM on March 14 [6 favorites]
This is not climate-science denialism, but an acknowledgement of the many dimensions of progress and a call for action on climate. "you're just bombarded with negative trend after negative trend...I was very despondent and almost kind of paralyzed by the future that we might inherit. ... I kind of wanted to give a slightly different message ... yes, these are big problems, but ... actually, we are starting to see progress. We just need much, much more of it. So I kind of make the case for what I call urgent optimism..."
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 12:18 PM on March 14 [6 favorites]
This is a millionaire bunker. They’ve got them, too.
posted by Selena777 at 12:19 PM on March 14 [1 favorite]
posted by Selena777 at 12:19 PM on March 14 [1 favorite]
Eight years ago, I developed stage four cancer that required treatment that killed my thyroid. Hence, to simulate the function of a thyroid, I need daily medication, and will for the rest of my life. When I was diagnosed with cancer, I was also discovered to have catastrophically high blood pressure, and I have to take medication for that every day, or I die.
I don't know RuPaul's health situation -- RuPaul is certainly in better shape than I am, but I think we're about the same age -- but to be honest, anyone much over 40 is probably not going to last very deep into any season of The Walking Dead, lol. Hopefully that civil war will blow over pretty quickly.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 12:22 PM on March 14 [14 favorites]
I don't know RuPaul's health situation -- RuPaul is certainly in better shape than I am, but I think we're about the same age -- but to be honest, anyone much over 40 is probably not going to last very deep into any season of The Walking Dead, lol. Hopefully that civil war will blow over pretty quickly.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 12:22 PM on March 14 [14 favorites]
I'm not in a position to build a bunker, have only a few useful post-apocalyptic skills, and can no longer reproduce. I'd be happy to sacrifice myself so that others may survive.
posted by tommasz at 12:40 PM on March 14
posted by tommasz at 12:40 PM on March 14
Oh Ru. Not you too? I don’t get where people get off on the societal collapse is imminent storyline.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:42 PM on March 14 [3 favorites]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:42 PM on March 14 [3 favorites]
Maybe you're gonna stockpile everything you need until you die, but your kids are going back to stone knives and bear skins and there's nothing you can do about it without like a million people to create and operate all the technologies and machines and factories needed for what we had even in the mid 80s.
Earth Abides, man.
The novel, The Earth Abides is a great story for what happens a few years after some cataclysmic event. In so much that you can't keep things running with a small number of humans. A generation later will go back to arrows and hunting/gathering.
This is not meant as a an attack or criticism, and this kind of thing is actually my default way of looking at post apocalypse life too, but it is in fact wildly over-optimistic.
Right now the biomass of humans is greater than the biomass of all wild non-human mammals put together by a factor of ten.
If even a few percent of humans were to survive an apocalypse which also destroyed our food systems, and all non-human wild animals were more or less unaffected, virtually all of them would be driven to extinction in short order because there would be no stopping us from eating them down to the last survivor.
posted by jamjam at 12:49 PM on March 14 [6 favorites]
Earth Abides, man.
The novel, The Earth Abides is a great story for what happens a few years after some cataclysmic event. In so much that you can't keep things running with a small number of humans. A generation later will go back to arrows and hunting/gathering.
This is not meant as a an attack or criticism, and this kind of thing is actually my default way of looking at post apocalypse life too, but it is in fact wildly over-optimistic.
Right now the biomass of humans is greater than the biomass of all wild non-human mammals put together by a factor of ten.
If even a few percent of humans were to survive an apocalypse which also destroyed our food systems, and all non-human wild animals were more or less unaffected, virtually all of them would be driven to extinction in short order because there would be no stopping us from eating them down to the last survivor.
posted by jamjam at 12:49 PM on March 14 [6 favorites]
virtually all of them would be driven to extinction in short order because there would be no stopping us from eating them down to the last survivor.
Yes, this is probably true, because who is going to perform the regulatory state functions when human society has collapsed?
It'll look like this giant pile of bison skulls.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:59 PM on March 14
Yes, this is probably true, because who is going to perform the regulatory state functions when human society has collapsed?
It'll look like this giant pile of bison skulls.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:59 PM on March 14
If even a few percent of humans were to survive an apocalypse which also destroyed our food systems, and all non-human wild animals were more or less unaffected, virtually all of them would be driven to extinction in short order because there would be no stopping us from eating them down to the last survivor.
Soylent Green is, I'm told, quite good in an Instant Pot.
posted by delfin at 1:00 PM on March 14 [1 favorite]
Soylent Green is, I'm told, quite good in an Instant Pot.
posted by delfin at 1:00 PM on March 14 [1 favorite]
If even a few percent of humans were to survive an apocalypse which also destroyed our food systems, and all non-human wild animals were more or less unaffected, virtually all of them would be driven to extinction in short order because there would be no stopping us from eating them down to the last survivor.
That presumes that all of the people are where all of the animals are. In reality our ability to move around the globe would be near-zero, and even things like cars would become quickly useless. So animals would move away from humans and prosper. We are not omnipotent, teleporting beings.
posted by grumpybear69 at 1:06 PM on March 14 [11 favorites]
That presumes that all of the people are where all of the animals are. In reality our ability to move around the globe would be near-zero, and even things like cars would become quickly useless. So animals would move away from humans and prosper. We are not omnipotent, teleporting beings.
posted by grumpybear69 at 1:06 PM on March 14 [11 favorites]
"Enjoy your life in Wayward Pines."
posted by clavdivs at 1:07 PM on March 14 [4 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 1:07 PM on March 14 [4 favorites]
We are not omnipotent, teleporting beings.
Speak for yourself. You don't know what I'm capable of! I might be omnipotent.
posted by grubi at 1:12 PM on March 14 [8 favorites]
Speak for yourself. You don't know what I'm capable of! I might be omnipotent.
posted by grubi at 1:12 PM on March 14 [8 favorites]
Yeah if civilization collapses zero fucks will be given about a law degree but my beekeeping and knitting/quilting skills will at last come in handy.
I have a background in playwriting if anyone is planning for a Station Eleven timeline
posted by thivaia at 1:13 PM on March 14 [24 favorites]
I have a background in playwriting if anyone is planning for a Station Eleven timeline
posted by thivaia at 1:13 PM on March 14 [24 favorites]
Have any of these doomsday billionaires figured out how to keep their staff working for them after the apocalypse?
There’s one particular “solution” to this conundrum that’s been quite popular with the rich and powerful for over 10,000 years (hint: it starts with ‘s’ and it was the cause of the first American civil war.)
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:19 PM on March 14 [4 favorites]
There’s one particular “solution” to this conundrum that’s been quite popular with the rich and powerful for over 10,000 years (hint: it starts with ‘s’ and it was the cause of the first American civil war.)
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:19 PM on March 14 [4 favorites]
So animals would move away from humans and prosper.
If only a "few percent"of humans survived, we'd be roughly at ~1000 AD population levels. A lot of non-human animal species would suffer greatly (lots of domestic farm animals rely on massive amounts of worldwide infrastructure to eat and reproduce), but there would be a great many areas emptied out of humanty that would thrive (check out the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone for a present-day example).
It might be possible for survivors to hunt down and kill a vast swath of animal life, but would they want to? Refrigiration would be a thing of the past, and folks would have to rely on different means of food preservation. The current state of climate change wouldn't be undone overnight, so maybe civilization would move further towards the poles for more temprate climages, leaving zones near the equator as "safe havens" where non-domesticated species would rebound in a big way.
Getting off topic, but sometimes it's fun to think about the end of the world as we know it.
posted by Rudy_Wiser at 1:27 PM on March 14 [4 favorites]
If only a "few percent"of humans survived, we'd be roughly at ~1000 AD population levels. A lot of non-human animal species would suffer greatly (lots of domestic farm animals rely on massive amounts of worldwide infrastructure to eat and reproduce), but there would be a great many areas emptied out of humanty that would thrive (check out the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone for a present-day example).
It might be possible for survivors to hunt down and kill a vast swath of animal life, but would they want to? Refrigiration would be a thing of the past, and folks would have to rely on different means of food preservation. The current state of climate change wouldn't be undone overnight, so maybe civilization would move further towards the poles for more temprate climages, leaving zones near the equator as "safe havens" where non-domesticated species would rebound in a big way.
Getting off topic, but sometimes it's fun to think about the end of the world as we know it.
posted by Rudy_Wiser at 1:27 PM on March 14 [4 favorites]
(hint: it starts with ‘s’ and it was the cause of the first American civil war.)
S...s...state's rights?
KIDDING! KIDDING! Stop throwing the tomatos!
posted by Rudy_Wiser at 1:28 PM on March 14 [10 favorites]
S...s...state's rights?
KIDDING! KIDDING! Stop throwing the tomatos!
posted by Rudy_Wiser at 1:28 PM on March 14 [10 favorites]
Eh. I'm not the biggest fan of Ru, but he's spent the last.. 9 (?) seasons of his show specifically giving queer people a platform to tell their stories about living in post-Trump America, and telling everyone who will listen how important it is to vote. He has the queens hold up signs to direct people to vote.gov at the end of each episode. A recent episode of the latest season was literally all about how important it is to register and show up on voting day. It's a strong message to an important demographic. He doesn't have to do that, RPDR fans would be watching anyway, but he's willing to start the fight.
He might be a weird and somewhat out of touch old queen with some questionable interior design choices, but he's making a pretty decent effort when it comes to putting his money where his mouth is. Can't say that for a lot of other millionaires.
posted by fight or flight at 1:33 PM on March 14 [27 favorites]
He might be a weird and somewhat out of touch old queen with some questionable interior design choices, but he's making a pretty decent effort when it comes to putting his money where his mouth is. Can't say that for a lot of other millionaires.
posted by fight or flight at 1:33 PM on March 14 [27 favorites]
omnimpotent
posted by elkevelvet at 1:34 PM on March 14 [1 favorite]
posted by elkevelvet at 1:34 PM on March 14 [1 favorite]
omnompotent
posted by signal at 1:41 PM on March 14 [7 favorites]
posted by signal at 1:41 PM on March 14 [7 favorites]
There’s one particular “solution” to this conundrum that’s been quite popular with the rich and powerful for over 10,000 years (hint: it starts with ‘s’ and it was the cause of the first American civil war.)
And if you want to read the mid-century dystopian sci-fi classic about that let me recommend A for Anything by Damon Knight.
posted by Rash at 1:41 PM on March 14 [2 favorites]
And if you want to read the mid-century dystopian sci-fi classic about that let me recommend A for Anything by Damon Knight.
posted by Rash at 1:41 PM on March 14 [2 favorites]
Have any of these doomsday billionaires figured out how to keep their staff working for them after the apocalypse?
Obligatory Bob the Angry Flower.
posted by mr_roboto at 1:43 PM on March 14 [13 favorites]
Obligatory Bob the Angry Flower.
posted by mr_roboto at 1:43 PM on March 14 [13 favorites]
I might be omnipotent.
well that proves you're not omniscient
posted by AzraelBrown at 1:44 PM on March 14 [5 favorites]
well that proves you're not omniscient
posted by AzraelBrown at 1:44 PM on March 14 [5 favorites]
Oomoiportent
going to build a big old bunker and by season 2 we're all going to escape with nitrogen propelled gliders.
we need a doctor
posted by clavdivs at 1:45 PM on March 14
going to build a big old bunker and by season 2 we're all going to escape with nitrogen propelled gliders.
we need a doctor
posted by clavdivs at 1:45 PM on March 14
I prefer to think of the future as more like Neal Stephenson's Anathem, where the scientific minded are the people that cloister themselves away from feral society to maintain knowledge continuity.
posted by schyler523 at 1:47 PM on March 14 [3 favorites]
posted by schyler523 at 1:47 PM on March 14 [3 favorites]
if the world ended and Dolly Parton showed up anywhere in her entire state, she'd probably be welcome.
True. But she also probably show up with people and resources to help whatever needs helping.
No bunker or compound is impenetrable and if you're hoarding resources for yourself people will be coming for your resources and they will, inevitably, succeed.
At the very least you live our your days under constant attack and isolation.
It's been said by others on here but if you want to prepare for societal collapse or the apocalypses, get to know your neighbors, form a community. When the shit hits the fan, the folks that build communities and join forces are the folks that survive. They'll even build a big and strong enough community that they'll be able to empty all the bunkers.
That's what makes Dolly Parton different. She does the human thing.
posted by VTX at 1:47 PM on March 14 [15 favorites]
True. But she also probably show up with people and resources to help whatever needs helping.
No bunker or compound is impenetrable and if you're hoarding resources for yourself people will be coming for your resources and they will, inevitably, succeed.
At the very least you live our your days under constant attack and isolation.
It's been said by others on here but if you want to prepare for societal collapse or the apocalypses, get to know your neighbors, form a community. When the shit hits the fan, the folks that build communities and join forces are the folks that survive. They'll even build a big and strong enough community that they'll be able to empty all the bunkers.
That's what makes Dolly Parton different. She does the human thing.
posted by VTX at 1:47 PM on March 14 [15 favorites]
Oh Ru. Not you too? I don’t get where people get off on the societal collapse is imminent storyline.
Look. I haven’t read the book or even the fpp link, but it does say “civil war”, not “societal collapse” or “apocalyptic event”. Civil wars absolutely suck, and any sane person would try to put as much as possible into avoiding them in the first place. But I can see why a Black, gay, drag queen who is old enough to have lived through the AIDS epidemic as well as having come up in even more homophobic times before that might be worried about present trends in US politics and be making some fallback preparations if they have the money for it. It’s not what I would do if I had RuPaul’s money (especially the Wyoming part), and he does have a capitalist streak - we’re still talking about an inequitable accumulation of wealth buying personal safety in a rather individualistic way. But it does feel like perhaps there is a difference in kind as well as in degree between this and the other examples of billionaire bunkers that we’ve discussed.
posted by eviemath at 1:49 PM on March 14 [16 favorites]
Look. I haven’t read the book or even the fpp link, but it does say “civil war”, not “societal collapse” or “apocalyptic event”. Civil wars absolutely suck, and any sane person would try to put as much as possible into avoiding them in the first place. But I can see why a Black, gay, drag queen who is old enough to have lived through the AIDS epidemic as well as having come up in even more homophobic times before that might be worried about present trends in US politics and be making some fallback preparations if they have the money for it. It’s not what I would do if I had RuPaul’s money (especially the Wyoming part), and he does have a capitalist streak - we’re still talking about an inequitable accumulation of wealth buying personal safety in a rather individualistic way. But it does feel like perhaps there is a difference in kind as well as in degree between this and the other examples of billionaire bunkers that we’ve discussed.
posted by eviemath at 1:49 PM on March 14 [16 favorites]
A song: When the bombs drop I will fucking run into them.
posted by zenon at 1:54 PM on March 14 [2 favorites]
posted by zenon at 1:54 PM on March 14 [2 favorites]
Dollywood has a working forge, glass making facilities, food preparations, eagles, water source nearby.
grace under pressure.
(mastadon. mefi, LLM, dolly)
posted by clavdivs at 2:09 PM on March 14 [4 favorites]
grace under pressure.
(mastadon. mefi, LLM, dolly)
posted by clavdivs at 2:09 PM on March 14 [4 favorites]
I have a background in playwriting if anyone is planning for a Station Eleven timeline
I have two theatre degrees. Look me up after the apocalypse.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 2:11 PM on March 14 [5 favorites]
I have two theatre degrees. Look me up after the apocalypse.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 2:11 PM on March 14 [5 favorites]
omnidempotent
posted by clew at 2:12 PM on March 14 [2 favorites]
posted by clew at 2:12 PM on March 14 [2 favorites]
I could do lights with
OMNIDIRECTIONALDISCO BALL
posted by clavdivs at 2:17 PM on March 14 [1 favorite]
OMNIDIRECTIONALDISCO BALL
posted by clavdivs at 2:17 PM on March 14 [1 favorite]
Can we fake an apocalypse to get all these billionaires to disappear?
[dashes off to start a screenplay]
I think The Future by Naomi Alderman might have this angle covered...
posted by ovvl at 2:19 PM on March 14
[dashes off to start a screenplay]
I think The Future by Naomi Alderman might have this angle covered...
posted by ovvl at 2:19 PM on March 14
adhominempotent
posted by elkevelvet at 2:20 PM on March 14 [3 favorites]
posted by elkevelvet at 2:20 PM on March 14 [3 favorites]
I am sincerely wondering if it's just an insane amount of Hollywood drilling dumb apocalypses in our head, a cold war hangover, the Eurocentric view of history that counts the end of Rome as "the end of the civilization", or just old fashion American centric worldviews that leads these people to believe that just because the US balkanizes and becomes unstable that the whole world will just come to an end. If you're in Ukraine, Taiwan, or other territories dependent on the US sure, but as pointed out above why wait out the Fundies' shooting sprees when you can just go somewhere not full of people so desperate for the end of the world they're ready to try and bring it on.
posted by finalbroadcast at 2:37 PM on March 14 [7 favorites]
posted by finalbroadcast at 2:37 PM on March 14 [7 favorites]
As that collapsing half-million-dollar sand dune just illustrated, you can’t just rich yourself out of climate change. But they keep trying! It's easier to think of the end of the world than the end of capitalism, as LeGuin said.
Can we fake an apocalypse to get all these billionaires to disappear?
Billionaires are totally B-Ark material. Forget telephone sanitzers, it's people who were born on third and think they hit a triple.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 3:08 PM on March 14 [8 favorites]
Can we fake an apocalypse to get all these billionaires to disappear?
Billionaires are totally B-Ark material. Forget telephone sanitzers, it's people who were born on third and think they hit a triple.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 3:08 PM on March 14 [8 favorites]
If you're in Ukraine, Taiwan, or other territories dependent on the US sure
A derail, but-- what? Taiwan hasn't received financial aid from the US for decades, and the US is certainly not the only thing keeping China from interfering more with Taiwan. Lumping Taiwan with Ukraine in this statement is itself reflective of an American-centric worldview.
posted by Pitachu at 4:01 PM on March 14 [1 favorite]
A derail, but-- what? Taiwan hasn't received financial aid from the US for decades, and the US is certainly not the only thing keeping China from interfering more with Taiwan. Lumping Taiwan with Ukraine in this statement is itself reflective of an American-centric worldview.
posted by Pitachu at 4:01 PM on March 14 [1 favorite]
Insanity! I fucking hate it. This thread. The world! Fucking insane people and I fucking hate it. Shut the fuck up everyone if your only contribution is to lean into the end of the world. It's not a fucking joke and making it one to cope is fucking insane. If that's you, then *leave* because we don't need you. Go chuckle at the apocalypse with all the people you'll see afterwards. Insanity!
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 4:12 PM on March 14 [2 favorites]
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 4:12 PM on March 14 [2 favorites]
METAFILTER: seems like it was born from a fascinating mix of queer liberation and ruthless capitalist acquisition.
posted by philip-random at 4:39 PM on March 14 [9 favorites]
posted by philip-random at 4:39 PM on March 14 [9 favorites]
star gentle uterus, may i present: Neuralink.
i spent my formative years in a survivalist camp in the early '70s. you absolutely need community, not servants, but ya damn well better have skillz of your own.
i appreciate your perspective, Dr. Curare, truly.
build up knowledge and capabilities that can assist the many. i'm no prepper, but learning basic care for oneself and others is valid. earthquakes, climate disasters, and human-caused catastrophes all create a great need for those able to assist. who knows - civil war may be ahead, but we are already experiencing collapse/catastrophe. and unlike the narratives in entertainment, it won't be a sudden or quick event: it will be a long, slow decline of resources and stability. it is said that a rising tide lifts all boats, but you need to know how to source and build those boats.
also? Ru doesn't really deserve to be the sole focus of disdain, here. i am disappointed with the fracking, but there are so many other terrible, wealthy devils who should be torn down first!
posted by lapolla at 4:45 PM on March 14 [1 favorite]
i spent my formative years in a survivalist camp in the early '70s. you absolutely need community, not servants, but ya damn well better have skillz of your own.
i appreciate your perspective, Dr. Curare, truly.
build up knowledge and capabilities that can assist the many. i'm no prepper, but learning basic care for oneself and others is valid. earthquakes, climate disasters, and human-caused catastrophes all create a great need for those able to assist. who knows - civil war may be ahead, but we are already experiencing collapse/catastrophe. and unlike the narratives in entertainment, it won't be a sudden or quick event: it will be a long, slow decline of resources and stability. it is said that a rising tide lifts all boats, but you need to know how to source and build those boats.
also? Ru doesn't really deserve to be the sole focus of disdain, here. i am disappointed with the fracking, but there are so many other terrible, wealthy devils who should be torn down first!
posted by lapolla at 4:45 PM on March 14 [1 favorite]
There are plenty people on Metafilter who seem to live in fear of the worst. If RuPaul feels safest hunkering down in Wyoming, well, good for him. Maybe he'll have a positive influence on the state.
posted by 2N2222 at 5:10 PM on March 14 [1 favorite]
posted by 2N2222 at 5:10 PM on March 14 [1 favorite]
It's not a fucking joke and making it one to cope is fucking insane.
It is a joke though. Some randoms on the internet shouldn't be taken any more seriously than a guy with a sandwich board saying "The end is nigh".
posted by biffa at 5:14 PM on March 14 [5 favorites]
It is a joke though. Some randoms on the internet shouldn't be taken any more seriously than a guy with a sandwich board saying "The end is nigh".
posted by biffa at 5:14 PM on March 14 [5 favorites]
This might be sand dune story referenced by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit.
posted by zenon at 5:35 PM on March 14 [1 favorite]
posted by zenon at 5:35 PM on March 14 [1 favorite]
Maybe he'll have a positive influence on the state.
Eh. Maybe, but probably not. Wyoming is where Matthew Shepard was strung up, beaten and left to die. Their legislature recently passed anti-trans legislation and the governor will do the will of the people of Wyoming and sign it into law. This is a place where people of our community are murdered, soon to be sanctioned in practical and legal senses, as recently shown in Oklahoma.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 5:43 PM on March 14 [3 favorites]
Eh. Maybe, but probably not. Wyoming is where Matthew Shepard was strung up, beaten and left to die. Their legislature recently passed anti-trans legislation and the governor will do the will of the people of Wyoming and sign it into law. This is a place where people of our community are murdered, soon to be sanctioned in practical and legal senses, as recently shown in Oklahoma.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 5:43 PM on March 14 [3 favorites]
It's easier to think of the end of the world than the end of capitalism, as LeGuin said.
Sorry too well actually you, but it was either Jameson or Žižek.
LeGuin said:
“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.”
posted by signal at 7:25 PM on March 14 [6 favorites]
Sorry too well actually you, but it was either Jameson or Žižek.
LeGuin said:
“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.”
posted by signal at 7:25 PM on March 14 [6 favorites]
RuPaul has been living in Wyoming with his husband for several years. He has a better idea of how safe it is to be gay in that state than any of us coming here to comment.
There's a lot of stuff happening in this thread and I'm not sure what to talk about but I'll mention this point just to talk about all the stuff around this particular subject: there are literally thousands of queer people in this corner of the world. Myself and my peer group are only a small part of it but we are part of it and have to stand up for our people. Outsiders underestimate us, no doubt a part of Mr. Paul's perspective toward the world. Nevertheless if things go very bad we'll take care of our own; locals and queers are all eligible for that category but New Yorker authors will get the side eye. They know why.
posted by traveler_ at 9:22 PM on March 14 [4 favorites]
There's a lot of stuff happening in this thread and I'm not sure what to talk about but I'll mention this point just to talk about all the stuff around this particular subject: there are literally thousands of queer people in this corner of the world. Myself and my peer group are only a small part of it but we are part of it and have to stand up for our people. Outsiders underestimate us, no doubt a part of Mr. Paul's perspective toward the world. Nevertheless if things go very bad we'll take care of our own; locals and queers are all eligible for that category but New Yorker authors will get the side eye. They know why.
posted by traveler_ at 9:22 PM on March 14 [4 favorites]
So many have this all backwards.
Civilization's collapse began with the advent of settled agriculture. Once the ensuing exuberant colonialist global barbarism phase has overshot enough to burn itself out, as it was always fated to do, civilizations will reassert themselves.
Dr. Curare has it absolutely right: the skilled shall inherit the Earth.
posted by flabdablet at 2:23 AM on March 15 [4 favorites]
Civilization's collapse began with the advent of settled agriculture. Once the ensuing exuberant colonialist global barbarism phase has overshot enough to burn itself out, as it was always fated to do, civilizations will reassert themselves.
Dr. Curare has it absolutely right: the skilled shall inherit the Earth.
posted by flabdablet at 2:23 AM on March 15 [4 favorites]
Eh. Maybe, but probably not. Wyoming is where Matthew Shepard was strung up, beaten and left to die. Their legislature recently passed anti-trans legislation and the governor will do the will of the people of Wyoming and sign it into law. This is a place where people of our community are murdered, soon to be sanctioned in practical and legal senses, as recently shown in Oklahoma.
Thanks for explaining that. You're right. RuPaul should stay with his own.
posted by 2N2222 at 5:19 AM on March 15
Thanks for explaining that. You're right. RuPaul should stay with his own.
posted by 2N2222 at 5:19 AM on March 15
You're right. RuPaul should stay with his own.
Please do try to get into the habit of putting your own words in your own mouth. It's rather tedious.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 7:03 AM on March 15 [6 favorites]
Please do try to get into the habit of putting your own words in your own mouth. It's rather tedious.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 7:03 AM on March 15 [6 favorites]
Pray tell, what would we all do without RuPaul?
obsess about Kate Middleton?
posted by elkevelvet at 7:22 AM on March 15 [2 favorites]
obsess about Kate Middleton?
posted by elkevelvet at 7:22 AM on March 15 [2 favorites]
Imhotepotent?
posted by E.C.Snapper at 7:45 AM on March 15 [2 favorites]
posted by E.C.Snapper at 7:45 AM on March 15 [2 favorites]
My name is RuPaul, Queen of Queens:
Look on my twerks, ye Mighty, and despair!
posted by flabdablet at 11:25 AM on March 15 [3 favorites]
Look on my twerks, ye Mighty, and despair!
posted by flabdablet at 11:25 AM on March 15 [3 favorites]
Apropos of nothing: I just did a google image search for RuPaul. For the first 3 pages of results at least, he was not once smiling while in drag.
posted by Melismata at 2:52 PM on March 15
posted by Melismata at 2:52 PM on March 15
Does it seem to anyone else like this story of impending societal collapse is less about fear than fantasy?
posted by eirias at 3:45 AM on March 16
posted by eirias at 3:45 AM on March 16
@elekevelvet As for Kate Middleton: I know more about the Moon than about the royal family. I do not have nor will I ever have a fascination with the royal family of England. They are a boring lot and have never made me laugh or wonder.
posted by DJZouke at 5:15 AM on March 16
posted by DJZouke at 5:15 AM on March 16
If that's you, then *leave* because we don't need you.
Nah...I'd rather stay right where I am and laugh to cope with the utter absurdity of it all than be 24/7 fucking miserable doom-and-gloom, you know?
Lord Byron said it best, though:
"And if I laugh at any mortal thing,
'Tis that I may not weep."
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 8:29 AM on March 16 [3 favorites]
Nah...I'd rather stay right where I am and laugh to cope with the utter absurdity of it all than be 24/7 fucking miserable doom-and-gloom, you know?
Lord Byron said it best, though:
"And if I laugh at any mortal thing,
'Tis that I may not weep."
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 8:29 AM on March 16 [3 favorites]
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