Hey Jason, thank you for the thoughtful and inclusive response :)

"I have written fairly extensively on the issue throughout my short blogging career"

Awesome! I will check some out, and I'm following now, so I won't miss another. Curious you're so low on followers. Rarely do I meet someone with higher reputation but lower followers. Of all people I know that not having a lot of followers means little about quality of content, I'm just saying, it's interesting.

I got your Bitchute video playing now, thanks. Subscribed there too just in case.

Do you need a few LBC to get your LBRY / Odysee account started up? Let me know your username and I can send some over.

"it’s just how that technology is used"

Yes, that's a good way to put it.

"a traveling off-grid nomad"

Oooh! I've never done that, other than some long road trips, which really doesn't count. I like the idea of it, and have considered it, but I've always had commitments like elderly or infant family members to care for. I really love being at home, and making it my castle, and I'm not much of a traveler for vacation. But I'd travel as a lifestyle, I think. Especially if I could come home for a few months of the year, reset, maybe grow some plants, and get my fill of staying in one spot. Maybe in a super fixed up WV bus or something? Not sure. As a youth I did a lot of camping and hiking, I could survive anywhere pretty much, but I've been out of practice for a while.

"unless I’m mistaken, that’s still making me buy it"

Yeah, wow. Grown adults with the reasoning skills of a toddler!

Reminds me of the ridiculousness at Subway (where I no longer eat). I used to get their $5 ham footlong, but then I went vegan. So I started getting the veggie instead of the ham. Both are $5. The "veggie" is actually just a ham, without the ham. Zero difference other than the slice of ham. But the "artists" always put less veggies on the veggie subs. If you get ham, they load you up with veggies. But if you get the veggie, ie if you're paying the same price for less food, they give you even LESS. It's like they think veggie means diet, or something. No, it means I don't want animal products! One strategy would be to get the ham sub, let them load it up with the veggies, and then just throw the piece of ham away. But I'm not a dietary vegan, I come at it from an ethical slant. If it causes harm to produce, I don't want to use it, because that will cause more of it to be produced. If I don't use it, they won't produce it, which means they won't factory farm a sentient being.

And don't get me started on the cheese. If you want extra cheese, you pay for each slice. But if you want NO cheese, they don't take 25 cents off for each slice you "don't get". You can't even ask for something else in it's place, like avocado or something. No, if you don't eat cheese, you just don't get any cheese, and nothing in it's place. Subway is a place for people who eat animal products, basically. Or who don't, and enjoy being ripped off, hehe.

"If you have health issues, do curbside pickup."

Yeah, I've heard that one, too.

I'm unbanked, and I only have cash or crypto. They don't take crypto yet, and they don't take cash anymore.

Also, most curbside pickup programs use a smartphone app to coordinate it all. I have a landline only.

To top it off, I live in a 24/7/365 construction zone since Feb 2020 (yes, they began right as the pandemic was becoming world news). Not only do we never get peace, and almost never get any sleep, but deliveries and even mail service have been suspended. We have complained to no avail. My wife and I are both disabled and it has been a MASSIVE hardship. If we had friends or family in town that could visit or drop things off, it might not be so dire, but we're in pretty rough shape. Winter weather locked us in, even on top of all the other things, stopping us from being able to get food, diapers, etc. It has been a tough, well, 18 months or so. I say 18 and not 12, because we had a surprise conception a couple years ago (after 10 years together and being told she was infertile due to childhood cancer treatment). It was a troubled pregnancy and our team of doctors dumped us for political/financial reasons just before the birth, so we had to scramble to find a new team (which is tough when you're crippled, massively pregnant, on foot, and without any support). Nobody wanted to take us because of her complicated medical history. Finally the baby just came, a few weeks early, before we had a team or plan. A decent doctor stepped up and saved things, delivered the baby (emergency c section), and I was even allowed to be present (briefly masked, but very happy). He is healthy, but he's a toddler, and he keeps us very busy! We used to take care of each other, and just barely struggle through life. Now we've got Brett, and we're taking care of him on top of everything else, not to mention the pandemic and the 24/7 construction site RIGHT outside our little house. And a few years ago, when I got sick, insomnia was part of the package. Nowadays it takes me 10 hours to get 6 hours of sleep. We're all pretty frazzled.

My point is that we have trouble getting goods purchased and back to the house. I now suddenly know how my Grama used to feel when she said "oh thank you SO MUCH for getting those groceries, you don't know how much that means to me, that's so great, thank you thank you!" If somebody grabbed me a few things, that's how I'd feel today. The whole "just order online and have it delivered" thing doesn't work for us. I wish it were that simple!

"now just laugh at the insanity of it all."

Heh. That's a relatively-healthy coping strategy at this point, I think. As long as the laughter isn't too awkward and/or maniacal. Try to keep it to 20 seconds or less at a time.

"all that metaphysical stuff I thought was total nonsense just a few years ago"

Oh yeah? As for myself, I was just saying that I'm ignorant to it (by the dictionary definition of ignorance, not the layperson's definition). So I just don't know anything about it. I don't judge it. That said, any time I have tried to look at anything that seems to fall under such a category, I've not been able to sit through more than a few minutes. It's like it is literally another language. Some of the words are recognizable, but the person is usually using them in very unfamiliar ways, so sentences don't seem to make any sense. And concepts don't string together. I'm left with zero understanding, time wasted, and usually frustration. I have 2 frames of reference to come at it. One is my own personal perceptions and experiences. And the other is the scientific method, a tool I've gradually learned and improved on. I don't think it's perfect but it's the best way of interrogating the universe that we've got (or so says Sagan, who I trust on such matters). So if something doesn't speak the language of science, and it also doesn't jive with my perceptions or experiences, it's like gibberish to me. No offense to anyone who does grasp and understand those topics. It definitely could make total sense to someone else, and it could be true/real/correct/factual. I'm just ignorant, I don't know. If I can find someone who can explain it to me in a way I can understand, I'll listen to them! I'm not closed to learning new things. That wouldn't be scientific! Or logical. Or smart.

"I see signs of hope."

Well sure, a boxer could get his face punched in 20 times, and be bleeding on the ropes with teeth falling out, eyes swelled shut, but as long as he's still semi-conscious, he might win! And yeah, we have to look on the bright side, as long as it isn't preventing us from also looking at the reality of the situation, which might be different than the bright side.

We (the people) are like livestock to those with power, and most of us are already up the ramp and into the one-way conveyor belts of death. There's no turning back, literally. It's designed that way. And most don't know they're livestock until the knife appears. They think they're free, even as the passage gets narrower, and they smell blood up ahead. Most people have no idea they're ready to be slaughtered. They have no defenses, they don't know where they are, they don't know who they are, they don't know any real history, nothing. Up for grabs. And they're calling to us, the last few still out in the paddock, "come on up the ramp, everything's great in here!" Things have literally never been worse. But yes, there is always a chance, and we should never give up. There will always be signs of hope, even if we eventually lose, and the elites kill everybody else off, or perhaps AI kills EVERYBODY off. Until it's over, there will be signs of hope. I'm just saying, signs of hope don't necessarily mean anything.

"you can’t even legally just buy a 5 or 10 acre lot for dirt cheap and them move in with your camper or a wall tent"

Doh, I didn't realize it was that bad. And they say "this is a free country/world"? Hah, right. If you can't live somewhere unless you're paying the government to do so, you're not free, you're a serf at best.

"I feel half way in between in my current situation"

I hope it works out.

I'm nowhere, heh. I mean, I'm happy Katie and I moved out of Vancouver in mid 2019. I sensed something nasty was coming, and we uprooted our activism and social life and history, and went inland to a smaller town.

So I'm happy we did that, but now we're really isolated. The baby came, and before we could get out and meet anyone, the lockdown. So we've been here nearly 2 years and don't know anyone, not a soul. We feel vulnerable and isolated.

I too have been studying sustainability, and small community living, and all those related topics for years. There's always so much more to learn. Known some people who did it, watched documentaries, read blogs, but never done it. I can grow a garden, and I'm happy in nature, but I've just never had the chance to do something as a lifestyle. Guess I've never found the right people. I know about 10000 or so via my online activities, and a lot have a similar mindset, but still none have ever come forward and said "let's be friends!" I assume everybody's just too far away.

Thanks for tipping me off about Sam, following now. Is Derick on Hive? Your link lead nowhere. If he's here, that's pretty cool. I've seen his stuff elsewhere, he's prolific. I very often agree with him. He's a lot more well-read and experienced than I am, though. He's been on his game for a while, right on.

"There must be a way, though, as people are doing it."

I've challenged my 10000 contacts to help me find a way, and so far we have failed, other than "make personal connections with people who will be the other end of a trade you need to make". And that's fine. But that "solution" has been available to humans since humans existed. Crypto didn't come along and make it so we could barter on a personal level, obviously.

Crypto, supposedly, was going to be a private and decentralized digital way to hold and transfer funds. But so far, it's neither private nor decentralized in use. In theory, maybe, but not in use. I would know. I was hungry and homeless, with crypto sitting waiting to be spent. I was (and am) unbanked, and had just lost my PayPal account (and associated credit card) at the time. So I was fully just on cash and crypto. But I have no smart device, and never will, and won't involve the government or big corporations in my finances. I tried, and tried, and there just wasn't a way for me. Some people have had local success, out of sheer luck, in a few pinpoint locations. But no real widespread solution seems to exist, unless you're willing to use a smart device, or give your ID, and/or bank account, and/or deal with Walmart, etc etc etc.

I'm not stupid, and in general known to be very resourceful, so for me to be hungry with crypto available to be spent was odd. I even had access to one of those Bitcoin ATMs, but it required all sorts of govt ID, retinal scan, etc. What's crypto about that? More like statistcurrency.

I don't even know what I'm hoping for. I can't bring my PC with me to the shop, and I'm not willing to use a smart device, so.... where does that leave me? I suppose shops could install terminals (like those you punch your PIN into for debit/interac) that allowed the customer to make a crypto payment, from one of several options. Kinda like how shops display they take visa, mastercard, amex, and discover... they will say they take bitcoin, litcoin, hive, etc. Because it's not like a crypto can just issue member cards that work like credit/bank cards. There's nobody to issue them, in most cases. And they'd have their own privacy issues as well. So I don't really know what the solution is. I just know it's not here yet, at least not for me.

I'd love to find a way to buy food with crypto, or buy fiat cash with crypto. Without a bank, smart device, etc. It's tougher than it sounds! But once I can do that, I've got so many more options. And options are power :)

Thanks for the chat, and the information! Much appreciated. Have a great weekend.