Reading the article it sounds like this woman unfortunately just spent too much time on social media reading all the doom and gloom of the media and people amplifying it in places like reddit, Twitter and Facebook.
wanted to live in a land disconnected from the world, which she viewed as chaotic and dangerous
she and her teenage son could be happy and safe away from the news, the viruses, the politics of modern-day America
had been “discouraged with the state of the world”
Rebecca Vance’s fears intensified during the pandemic
Consuming too much of this crap has really affected peoples mental health, from Trump, to BLM riots, racism, covid, it’s broken some people who spend too much time on social media.
So much so that they think the only way out is to hide away from society.
Reminder, friends, to take frequent and extensive breaks from social media for your own mental health.
she and her teenage son could be happy and safe away from the news, the viruses, the politics of modern-day America
Just close the apps. That’s literally all it takes to avoid like 90% of the crap that she’s talking about. But the viruses… did she think those don’t make it to the forest or something?
Please, I knew people who were exactly the same back in the 90s, there are always people who go down the paranoia rabbit hole and don’t come back out.
Lot of them were praying for the collapse because that’s when God would raise them above the wicked heathens and sodomites because they’re secretly special but everyone else is too evil to admit it.
The article said the poor kid was homeschooled, which is often a hallmark of religious fundamentalism. Not trusting the world and thinking it’s out to get you is also a hallmark of fundamentalism - but also of mental illness.
She’s from Colorado Springs (massive conservative area) and she became concerned about the world and wanted to live off the grid in 2022 (when Trump lost). The writer of this article sure does beat around the bush and struggles not to say whether she was a right wing nut.
100%. Some people exploited the riots to break into stores but they were the significant minority, and additionally some were outed as bad actors who actually didn’t support the movement.
And remember that despite some unique large scale issues we have today, there were much, MUCH worse times to be alive. “Majority of Americans live a peaceful life and die at 70-80” is not reportable news but still largely true.
Things are far from perfect, there are major issues, but I’d choose to live today than almost the entirety of human existence previously.
There were definitely way more violent times in the US: there were pandemics, there were revolts, there were wars. We live in an amazing time but it takes a bit of grand perspective to realize that all the bad news is easy to see in a matter of minutes. You can have death and destruction delivered right into your home in a matter of milliseconds. It’s much much harder to see all the wonderful things happening in the world
You can’t lump in blm riots in there, those were protests stoked to violence by police officers, so what you should be saying it’s, corrupt police forces resulting in blm protests
Maybe I’m being too generous, but I was reading it as this person consumed too much media, including lies and exaggerations, and it warped their world view. I guess I read it as a topic like and not calling them riots themselves. Kinda like the “race riot” in Tusla, but idk.
I feel like too many people do not respect nature. They romanticize it, and that’s a very dangerous thing. They forget that you need actual skills to survive in the wild. This didn’t have to happen.
That has gotten worse with all the “survivalist” shows acting like its easy to survive with just a knife and fig leaf in the wild.
They see a show grab some gear and off they go. Not realizing those shows are often fake and when not, the star has many years of actual experience and training.
I’m a huge fan of Alone, but would never in a million years think I could do it. Those people are literally survival teachers or Bushmen/women who have done this their entire lives and even then only make it 20 or so days before calling to gtfo.
“living off the grid” is a privileged, spoiled white person idea. The amount of physical space and resources it takes to pull off requires you to be rich – or having someone else pay for it (national forests etc).
We are communal, social beings. We band together for good reason. And going “out on your own” is literally impossible anyway – you’re taking the knowledge you gained living communally til now, plus books tools etc.
What nonsense. Preppers and survivalists are mostly right wing, it takes that level of self deceit to attempt.
Yeah there’s lefty/hippy ones too, and I know a bit about some, was around and took part in partial attempts.
Ah, actually there are places where many people live like that. I know such places (one, namely republic of Artsakh, has become worse in the last couple of years due to partially being occupied by savage racist apes thinking it’s inside their “territorial integrity”).
It’s just that this requires a set of skills most don’t possess, having grown in big cities or places not too different from big cities for this purpose.
EDIT: About “level of decision” - nothing really prevents you from gaining the same. Just going to live “off the grid” with pretty much “on the grid” mindset is something leftists do more. Being prepared and having technical means to get to a doctor is important.
It’s just that this requires a set of skills most don’t possess
Thank you. I hate these comments implying that this is one hundred percent impossible or even that you need to be a rich person to accomplish it. I did it for a short time. But I went to town to get water and food, it’s not like you need to have every single thing be completely self sustaining (you can, but it’s not like it “doesn’t count” if you go get something). It was uncomfortable and hard, but that also contributed to what made it so rewarding. It was one of the best times in my life.
It is stupid to try to live in the wild without knowing what you’re doing though. The area I was in had good weather, close to a town etc. It wasn’t at the top of a mountain or anything.
Of course you couldn’t resist blaming white people for this. Actually sad because I agree with the rest, but what do race have to do with that? such an American thing.
Have you ever been to the US? Do you know anything about our history? Race and class are so deeply intertwined in this country, it’s going to take a lot more than some non-Americans mad on the internet, telling us to just quit bringing up race, to fix it.
And don’t mistake this as excusing our deeply ingrained racism, I just tire of people who have never spent a day in the US thinking that if we just “stop talking about race” then all of our race issues will magically go away, when it’s just not that simple.
I don’t think questioning racializing something as arbitrary as living off grid amounts to the same thing as “just stop talking about race.” That’s either really misunderstood or just a bad faith argument.
Poor people can’t “live off the grid”. Only people with money and privilege can do so, and in the US, such people are disproportionately white. I don’t think I misunderstood anything or am acting in bad faith.
I understand many people are frightened in this strange world, but this is outright murder-suicide by stupidity. The kid didn’t know what’s happening to him. Don’t run away, change the world. Or -at least- try to.
I feel bad the kid he had a privileged shit life. But going out into the middle of the Alaskan wilderness to survive with no formal training was punching way above his weight…
The thing that dawned on me when I watched it as an older adult was his sheer selfishness. Smug, cliched little prick. His father’s violence aside, what about the rest of his family?
The movie was not presented as a cautionary tale. The theme of the movie was his romance with the wild and his romance with being a bitter hermit. Blame the producers.
Except he dies alone at the end, so it was definitely a cautionary tale.
If the last recent years has taught us anything, it’s that how you present a thing matters a lot more than what the thing is that’s actually being presented. Unfortunately.
Pretty much, which is why I consider the Fight Club movie a complete flop, maybe not financially, but it fails at its own message so hard that only the dudebros it mocks like it.
or, hear me out, movies don’t need to be lectures and is ok to just do something for the entertainment/artistry/visuals/storytelling of it.
I can tell you that I’m the opposite of what the movie depicts, I’m fragile, never been in a fight, I sincerely hope that will never be in one, I cried like a baby in ET or the time traveles wife, the Schindler’s list broke my heart, I dislike the dudebro dynamics, and I adore that movie. I also like horror movies as a genre and I don’t go around killing people.
It’s fine that you use movies as lectures of life and ethics, or that you don’t enjoy them if they don’t have a message that you agree with, but some people like them for other reasons, so please try not to profile people for what they like to watch.
It’s not that I dislike Fight Club for “not having a message”, but for the fact that it’s meant to have a message according to the director and the writer of the book, but the movie doesn’t depict what that message is very well.
sorry I wasn’t clear, my criticism wasn’t towards you not liking the movie, anyone have their own taste and there is nothing wrong with it, we all just want to enjoy things :-)
My problem was about you profiling people that do like the movie as “dudebros”, that wasn’t very nice IMHO
There are many things in Fight Club that are enjoyable, snappy dialogue, clever moments (I wonder if beating the shit out of yourself in a CEO’s office just as security arrives to create an awkward situation has any chance of working irl)
However, the film has attracted a rather toxic cult following that seem to think Tyler Durden’s the good guy… and sadly the film’s most vocal fans are from this group.
I personally have seen the flick twice and did not much care for it myself, just for the record (So you don’t get the impression I judge the film’s quality solely on this subgroup)
thanks for the clarification, I appreciate it :-) . I have quite the opposite experience, as people I know like it are mostly cinema enthusiast and like it mostly for its cinematic features, definitely not a teaching film.
Maybe is a geographical thing, although to be fair I would never have a friend so full of himself as Tyler, so I may have a selection bias.
For me was the presentation of Marla that I remember the most, such interesting way of introducing a character.
During winter, in bad weather it might take a while to get back to civilization if you are somewhere out there. I mean sure you should always plan for stuff like that and be prepared (and look for help well before running out), but this really wasn’t a well planned thing from the start.
I wish people would realize that humans only got to where we are because we are a COMMUNAL species. We developed complex language and tool usage BECAUSE we work together. Being “off the grid” is usually isolationist and therefore extremely dangerous. We need community in order to develop and manage the resources we need to survive.
The current infant-clothes to steak exchange rate is unfavorable. It would be wiser to hold off till the late autumn, when steak futures usually fall and clothing values skyrocket.
Yeah let’s all go back to subsistence agriculture! Every time my mind wanders and I find myself romanticizing an age of simpler times and communal living I remind myself of the realities of that sort of lifestyle.
Well, why aren’t we practicing that communal specialty into you know, bettering society from it’s current dumpster fire state? Or is that just too tall of a task?
I’m a world of growing instability where the inputs for modern lifehave their supply consistency threatened, learning some basic survival skills is not a bad thing. Many countries will likely have huge energy, food, and water shortfalls in the coming years. Germany is burning what amounts to wet coal to make up for losing Russian oil. Ukraine was one of the world’s biggest wheat producers. Russia produced a lot of the world’s fertilizer. There are reasons to learn how to live without the entire support network most of us take for granted.
Though you should be pretty decent at living off grid before commiting to it.
Don’t assume that you’re cougar-proof or that 40°F and below weather with no real insulation is something you can save yourself from with enough bootstraps.
It’s dangerous to go full off the grid, but in reality it’s never complete isolation. In Leave No Trace/My Abandonment (based on a true story) the father relied on disability checks to buy goods and educated his daughter using encyclopedias… In Walden Thorough is living alone in a remote area, but it’s not like he’s completely cut off from the benefits of society and has visitors somewhat regularly. I think there’s a difference between trying to minimize the brunt of society 24/7 vs going full isolation.
Also, we’re living in kind of an unprecedented part of history that enables is to be independent of other people in ways never before possible. So that gives people a very distorted sense of that, a lack of any notion of the importance of community. And of course this “independence” is achieved by a complete dependence on this huge ubiquitous economic machine.
I think sometimes it’s the extreme dependence that makes the attempt at off the grid freedom seem more attractive; it’s weird how the technology seems to both take away so much freedom and yet make people feel independent at the same time
You also need someone who isn’t with you to know where you are and arrange check-ins of some sort, or at least give them a time frame of when they can expect to hear from you again if all is well.
If you can’t at the very least identify what mushrooms you can or can not eat in the forest, you should not go out there to live. I 100% can not, so my dumb ass will never try to go live off grid out in the woods. I can’t find food and I acknowledge that. More folks need to realize their limitations.
For most of us, going to live in “the wild” is as preposterous as us returning to the oceans we crawled out of eons ago. We’ve evolved past that, and are no longer suited for that environment, at least not naturally anyway.
I don’t know, man. There are Amazon tribes who do perfectly well without iPhones. I think what you mean is, we, that is, you and me didn’t get to learn how to survive in those environments naturally and organically, simply because our societies don’t need those skills. But of course we are suited for that environment. We have opposable thumbs!
Can you expand on why fats are harder to acquire? The most immediate method I can think of is from hunting and trapping. Is this very difficult to do from a practical point of view?
Do you know how to hunt or set traps? Do you know how to butcher an animal without nicking a bowel and tainting the meat? Most folks don’t. I know I don’t. I would die if left out in the woods and having to fend for myself.
It’s weird to me people who think they could or want to attempt to survive doing those things every. single. day. by themselves. I’ve done everything you’ve mentioned, as well as foraged for whatever couldn’t kill me or eat me first, bugs included. It’s not fun, it’s fucking brutal work and you spend most of your day hungry unless you find a good, consistent source of calories and clean water. You’re still fucked though if you live anywhere that gets a real winter, break a bone, get an infection, run into an animal that’s just as hungry as you are. Humans aren’t equipped to survive alone for very long.
Unless you are a skilled and experienced hunter and trapper, game is quite difficult to acquire. Especially if modern hunting and trapping equipment is not available.
In the show Alone the take away is that fat beats skills. All of the super fit “survival experts” with 5% body fat are being carried out on stretchers in a couple of weeks. The 300lb dude with minimal skills out lasts all of the experts.
The environment just doesn’t have enough fat calories available. Skill won’t change this.
I completely understand your point and will agree that many people take our day to day luxuries for granted, but society is just as capable of constantly beating you down and taking from you as much as it provides.
I can’t blame anyone for trying to “disappear”, but at least do some extensive planning.
I think running away as a child can be a very different situation than you imagine. “Running away” to the local park or your friend’s house after a disagreement with your parents, sure. But a lot of kids run away because their basic needs aren’t being met or they are being abused. Kids shouldn’t be expected to be able to weigh the consequences of leaving a home with resources to avoid abuse, but adults should absolutely be expected to weigh the consequences of leaving society.
Are you trying to “well, actually” me? There were a myriad of choices made here, all under the guise of “living off the grid.” I very specifically used a plural word, not a singular one. Choices. All of them stupid, including the one you protest as not stupid. It is made stupid by way of their sheer incompetence, unpreparedness, lack of education and training in the matter, and their sheer stubbornness to not call it quits when reality descended upon them.
Your reply is coming across as needlessly aggressive, but I’m not sure if I’m just projecting my years of Reddit interaction onto you. I had no ill intentions when I replied to your initial post, only wanted to offer my two cents on a public forum, which in this case was making a distinction as to what is considered stupid in this context. To further clarify, what I posted was not a protest and was an opinion meant to further the discussion.
“Living off the grid” can also be referred to as self-sustainable living and it seems to be growing in popularity as modern society becomes more exclusive, artificial, and unhealthy. Taking the knowledge you’ve gained and skills you’ve learned in order to live sustainably by yourself in nature, away from the bullshit of modern life is, personally, not stupid, which was the original point I was trying to make. But, as you mentioned, it is when people decide to just quit everything because they had a bad day, but have no tools or skills to survive that is very ill-informed to say the least.
I’d say they increased their distress, they were naive too. Living off the land is a major commitment and requires skill and knowledge. People in the past still used trade and tribes to survive that way. Even back then they didn’t try to live in something as flimsy as a tent. Also, going 100% solo was a death sentence. Reminds me of Chris McCandless (“Into the Wild”).
Sounds like this wasn’t thought through and was perhaps an emotional decision. True off-grid living takes lots of knowledge and prep. Surviving 100 days is basically conservation of resources to last till the e d. Off grid still requires shelter and resources.
For once though, their motives seem more noble/less crazy than most of the headlines. Heck, a bunch of us are here on Lemmy cause we got fed up with a system and want something better. At least they wanted something better.
I knew a guy who went to Montana to try the “cabin off the grid” life. He said we was drinking before noon after a few weeks and was in danger of becoming an alcoholic out of boredom so he moved back.
I could see that. I think the off the grid thing has been glorified by people who haven’t actually done it.
I mean, Id like to run off into the hills sometimes, but I’d probably run right back due to some combination of boredom, weather, starvation, and running out of alcohol.
Can confirm, live in Montana. Cabins are great…during the summer months. Winter rolls around and you better be prepared to be cut off from everything for a few months. Plus it’s cold as fuck. Last year where I live, we consistently saw -20F and stayed below 0F for weeks at a time. Winter here sucks, but it keeps out the riff raff for the most part ;)
Another article I read stated that the incomplete beginnings of a lean-to or similar shelter were present at the camp, seems like they tried to build something more permanent but ran out of energy to finish it. Which is why you build your shelter first.
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