Yeah, our civilization deserves to fall.

I assume soda and other bottled drinks are included in this warning, as well as any other container lined with plastic, and I think some canned drinks and food are….which, uh, sucks.

I used the tool where I could import my Reddit subs to find similar communities here, and it surprised me how many communities I was a part of that the Reddit algorithm never let me see posts from. Also, it highlighted how much more infrastructure there is to build here. It’s exciting! Like the creative energy of expanding the Wild West but without the decimation of entire indigenous communities and the murder of innocent people and animal species.

I’m in the process of switching to Proton too. I just opened the account; haven’t taken additional steps of switching login emails associated with all of my other accounts, yet. I’ll probably start with giving the new account to local grassroots organizations, first.

I’d like to learn more about what people have to say too!

I haven’t heard of those! Do you recommend?

I’ve basically abandoned Reddit as well. I’ve been on for so long, but this bullshit makes me feel unsafe. If the platform is going to so blatantly side with those who would happily let me die for a few dollars (health insurance companies), then I don’t need to give them my attention or data anymore.

I’m so glad you asked! It feels good to find kinship and community in this way!

Honestly—this is going to sound really woo-woo, but I’m not trying to—I encourage you to take the journey to find the resources yourself. Trust that your own curiosity will lead you to the right entry point and the right format for your mindset and life experiences, whether it’s book, movie, YouTube short, poem, or audiobook. The right teacher will appear when you ask the right questions. I can recommend the book that started me on this journey, but it may not resonate with you and you could lose interest.

But if you really don’t know where to start, I started with the audiobook version of Braiding Sweetgrass, and paid attention to her lessons on reciprocity and living life directed by the lessons of plants. I then moved on to Restoring the Kinship Worldview, and now I’m listening to Sand Talk. I’m also looking for documentaries.

Good luck on your journey! Let’s see how many others we can invite along with us!

College adjunct instructor checking in:

Your teacher is human. They are there because they want to help you get the information that you need to be a successful person as an individual and in society. They see the class packing up early and it really stings because they care about you and their subject’s impact on the world.

If you don’t want to be an educated member of a democracy, just save yourself the student loan bills and don’t come in the first place.

This isn’t directed at you specifically but at anyone who comes across these comments, and I’m including this information here because it directly influenced my initial comment above:

I’ve been doing a lot of listening to indigenous worldview and learning of indigenous values. It has really helped me identify where western civilization and culture has been lacking for millennia, but especially over the last few centuries.

I’ve come to understand that the damage starts when we are young when we learn that nature is an “it” without needs and that we cannot rely on or trust other people. We learn to either dominate or make ourselves small in our daily relationships in order to feel safe when we should be seeing the world and one another as gifts to be explored and shared.

It takes some listening and reflecting to figure out that what you’ve been taught is dangerous. I’m currently trying to figure out how I can learn more of these perspectives and also build a stable and trusting community around me.

I think that’s where we need to do the work to try and undo what’s happening both at the national level and in those who are supporting authoritarianism.

I’ll get off my soapbox now, but I wanted to share in case it resonated with anyone else.

That’s my hope: Americans get fed up with this and fight for our rights and needs.

But I’m worried that propaganda will continue to placate the masses.

I noticed this phrasing as well. Our government is taking this money from the poorest half of its citizens, and Trump either doesn’t know that or is intentionally clouding the waters for those who still dont know what tariffs are.

Good. We Americans need to learn the lesson that, in fact, we are not, have never been, and cannot be individualists. We are dependent on our neighbors: personally, nationally, and internationally.

We also need to learn that we cannot sustain ourselves by constantly taking: taking from each other, taking from nature, and taking from the future generations. We have become a nation of consumers, not citizens, and that is morally wrong. We expect to take with no consequences, and that’s just not how Earth works.

Thank you!!

Ha, I got really self-conscious and self-aware about how boring I am being, just staring at my screen.

This was a fascinating read! I am obsessed with both history and perfume. Thank you!