You are far from alone in your assessment.

It reaches far beyond the homesteading community though, even if that one is the most 'in your face' about it because these are the folks supposed to be helping other folks learn how to be more self-sufficient.

I guess what they really teach could be called: How to be selfishly-sufficient.

The thing is that those folks always have been and always will be the minority regardless of how much noise they make.

For every one of them there are a multitude of others (like yourself) that behave both honorably, truthfully, genuinely and authentically so in the not-so-grand scheme of things you are light years ahead and doing well at staying the course and keeping your hand firmly upon the tiller.

By the way: Nice rant!

Cheers!