Hey, I didn’t say a shrug. It’s also a bad option, just in a world with no really great ones left.

Erm because Nukes wipe out whole cities? We are talking literal WMDs here, what of that screams “yeah we totally are willing to be the first to launch a strike.”

That’s also how it works for the US, though. MAD has still held for decades, because nobody really wants whatever thing bad enough to risk escalation.

If it’s Venezuala-ish economic collapse, fertiliser will probably still be available. Heck, with thorough composting need for that is pretty reduced, even. My buying advice leans towards unusual or higher-tech things as opposed to bulk products.

If it’s war/apocalypse/disaster, a few acres will help or could even feed a whole person, depending on where in the US. A mix of things is advisable, maybe including animals, since it’s less likely everything fails at once. Medicine, fuel, water treatment supplies, batteries and ammunition are also recommended bulk items. Water itself if you’re in an arid place, and nonperishable food including cooking oil in case your minifarm has problems.

If it’s a recession like 2008, just get your finances in order and an emergency fund. Life will go on.

How big does that perimeter have to be for the lesson to apply? In ZA I know they do whole gated communities, but we’re talking about a single house.

See, this is what the real targets do. Bin Laden lasted a whole decade with most of the population of the world’s hyperpower personally wanting to kill him, because it wasn’t clear where to break into.

Given unlimited time for whoever to break in undisturbed, nothing is secure.

The relevant measure is how quickly someone could break in, without preparation and then with. That’s kind of how they rate safes.

If you’re not Maduro and the goal is just to get away before they’re in, people have mentioned some good options to slow whoever down (alongside the silly suggestions). I’d also add trying to look unprepared, so they don’t come prepared for more than a door or window themselves, and having a non-obvious escape route to use in those critical seconds.

Of course, if it’s an authority, after you’ve run away you’re down a small-ish house.

Russia is having trouble fighting just Ukraine + Western weapons. Europe would not have trouble winning (at whatever cost) if it came to it in the near term, NATO or no.

I feel like it should go without saying that the US would not be supporting NATO, if NATO was fighting the US. So, zero days to build back up without them, and they probably blow things up on their way out.

And I doubt France or the UK is willing.

Why? Unless you think none of the nuclear powers are willing. France in particular does not have a reputation for passivity.

Yeah, so much good information is there it’s unavoidable to just browse on in, from time to time.

I’m guessing most people here came from Reddit. It was a ghost town before the APIocalypse.

How much of NATO is actually needed in the short term? The last bit there was kind of going in that direction. Just being a nuclear power that would credibly respond to actions against any member seems like it would provide safety for a few years.

Over the longer term, a coordinated structure to respond to novel threats starts to matter.

Even worse, you’re usually seeing the Venezuelans in exile who showed up to whatever rally. It doesn’t matter what the rally is for, only weird people spend their free time that way, and a random sample of the population will tell a very different story.

Except Cuba also has massive brain drain…

when the reality is that, although they are autocratic, their country is far better off today than it was under Batista.

That was the better part of a century ago, though. People who set that as the bar for success are hoping for a certain conclusion.

You can find Venezuelans that are happy, and most Venezuelans don’t like Chavismo and Maduro (at least anymore). Whether most are positive about the situation is another question, though.

My random guess, based on how much people enjoy foreign meddling and how ominous this actually is, is that most don’t, but I have no hard data and I’m not sure how much even exists.

Yes.

Why not? We’ve survived pretty crazy things using sticks and stones. Now we have so much more, and there’s so many more of us to act as redundancy.

they are probably not Americans

No, it’s worse. They’re Americans that think this is a football game, and who have chosen the edgier team. They shitpost about Deng and Marx, so that makes them honourary Chinese, right? /s

Lemmy likes to push a certain conspiratorial worldview about these things. That’s the point.

Mmm, no. This isn’t a disarmed nation building up like Germany, this is an existing hyperpower that’s weakening. Going early won’t help. And, then there’s the whole nuclear thing.

If we weren’t already.

I worry replacing oilsands oil is part of the goal. It’s the exact same stuff down there.

Except there’s a lot of other, very independent nuclear powers that have also propped it up. Not all of them are even US friends.

Yep, that’s the big question for sure.

They could have a plan, or it could just be Trump’s internal fantasy world.