Allyson

Charlie made Turning Point USA, and I love it. It flows off the tongue, and it speaks to so many people. But it is religious, and not all of us are. Nor should we be! We are not a hegemony, and I don’t want us to be. It’s antithetical to the founding documents of our country.

So I suggest… “Perspective Forge.” It holds the idea Charlie had, when he asked, “change my mind,” but it also brings to mind the birth of things. A forge is where metal is strengthened, shaped, molded, and made better, and perhaps we can make a place where our country and/or our people can forge their own opinions, shaped and made better and stronger by questioning themselves and others in polite debate.

I am not the person to run this. I have so little time… But if someone wants to work with me, I can throw ideas at your wall. Like this:

A secular version of Turning Point USA, accepting everyone, leaving the choice of religion (or lack thereof) to the members. “Turning Point USA is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk. The organization’s mission is to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government. (Union University)” Therefore, Perspective Forge’s mission would be to educate and organize people and enable them to debate while promoting the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government.

And when I go and look up those three things (freedom, free market, and limited government), I run into some very interesting things. They are considered the hallmark of “classical liberalism.” Our Founding Fathers considered a free market to be one of the main ways to maintain freedom from tyranny (though they differed in how they get there). Safeguarding the right to acquire and own property was considered vitally important, as it shielded individuals from government overreach. James Madison called for the protection of one’s “faculties” (skills, talents, and abilities), which give rise to property rights, “the first object of government.” Whew. What that boils down to is that Madison thought that the government’s main purpose, first purpose, was to protect the skills and abilities of its constituents, so that they could excel in whatever “faculty” they liked. When government does that, he feels it automatically protects We The People from a rogue or tyrannical government. I’m not sure I totally understand that one, but the idea is interesting.

I would love to see this exist. I would love to participate in it. If nothing else, perhaps on Charlie’s Day (Wednesdays), I will ask everyone to “challenge my view” (rather than change my mind). I’ll pick a topic, and state my viewpoint on it, and you can join in the debate. Feel free to toss topics my way, because I’m not always great at thinking of good ones.

Vaccines are a hot topic right now. A lot of states are removing mandates about vaccines. It’s a topic that’s come up often between Chris and myself, as I struggle to come to terms with damage. Chris has said, and I suppose this is true (though I still struggle with it), that I believe most people are too stupid to make good decisions about vaccines.

I believe childhood vaccines are important. I have friends (now passed away, sadly) who couldn’t have kids because, as children, they’d had chicken pox that scarred their ovaries so badly that they weren’t capable of bearing children. Their adopted children were vaccinated; they all have kids of their own. Yes, we treated “common childhood diseases” as no big deal, but I don’t believe that was correct. It WAS a big deal, but we didn’t have a good way to deal with them.

As an example, when Ed Jenner discovered milk maids who’d had cow pox as youngsters didn’t get infected with smallpox, he came up with the general idea of vaccination. He gave pus from someone with smallpox to an 8 year old child, James Phipps. The child didn’t die; instead, he had a mild case, recovered, and went on to live a normal life. That whole thing led to us finding the vaccine for smallpox. At the time when Jenner did it, there was nothing better, and infecting Phipps with the disease in a controlled manner was the best he could do. Many people did it. You got sick, yes, but you didn’t die of it. I think that a lot of the “measles parties” and such were an extension of that desperation that caused Jenner to infect a healthy child with a deadly disease.

But we DO have vaccines now for measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, and others. I don’t think we’ve had a tetanus death in the United States in years, because of the vaccine. Shingles, HepA and B, Yellow Fever, Diphtheria, and others are all well controlled (though not eradicated) by vaccines. All these vaccines are well tested, with 40+ years of use and reporting behind them. The handful of severe reactions to them are noted, and reflected in information given to people getting the vaccines. The chances of getting a disease and having a severe reaction to it is much higher than the chance of having a severe reaction to the vaccines.

When I was growing up, I was taught that vaccines don’t make you immune. They boost your immunity, meaning they make it much less likely that you’ll get a disease, and if you do get it, it will be much more mild. This is what I’ve always believed. That’s what my immunologist friend told me during COVID, too. It’s why I like to get a flu shot when I can, because when I do get influenza, I get it very badly and it puts me out for weeks. If I’m vaccinated, my likelihood of getting the flu goes down exponentially (in fact, the years I got shots, there’s only twice that I did get the flu, and both times it was relatively mild, if bothersome). Not everyone has that reaction to the flu, and there are enough people that get the jab that it’s neither here nor there whether anyone gets it or not.

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I don’t know how much I can speak “from behind enemy lines” at this point. I’m no longer there. As of this week, I’ve pretty much slammed the door shut on the faces of those who would like to see me dead or silenced or have my rights ripped from me at gunpoint. The scales have fallen from my eyes, and all that crap. I’ve also stood up, and for those who ask, I’m no longer hedging about my political stance.

I am not “announcing” that I’m conservative. That’s for a few reasons. First and foremost, politics is not my main pursuit in life. In that, I am definitely NOT Charlie. I write cookbooks, vampire novels, and fantasy stuff. I don’t want to make a career out of political writing or talk. That’s not where I’m called, and I know Charlie would understand that you have to follow your own calling, not someone else’s. On the other hand, I write here, and it’s very important to me, and so I also have to follow Charlie’s lead in my style of communication. Second, I’ve never liked people who led conversations with, “I’m a liberal” or “I’m gay.” Good for you Karen, whatever. I want to know WHO you are, not what you are. Therefore, it would be disingenuous for me to lead in a similar way.

However, I am also not hiding anymore. I posted stuff about Charlie. I have made it clear that if people think bullets are a good answer to words, I will both report them to the authorities, and block them. I don’t need that kind of crap in my life. So it’s becoming obvious, at least from a leftist viewpoint, that I am indeed conservative.

I maintain… only in a crazy world would I be considered conservative. I’m polyamorous, pansexual, kinky, pagan… these are not hallmarks of conservatism. I do believe in being fiscally conservative, though, along with smaller government (possibly moreso than many of you reading this), traditional values (to a point… I don’t care who makes up a family, so long as there are at least two adults involved in every child’s life, and if they’re same sex, no biggie, and if there’s 3 or more, no biggie, etc), and individual liberty (your right to freedom ends at my nose, and vice versa). There are some points I’ve always been conservative about, at least since I became a functioning adult (which didn’t happen until I was in my 30s, but there you go). Other things I cling to, because they feel right to me, and they meet my spiritual and religious morals and ethics.

Still, I find myself asking all the time now, what would Charlie say?

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Narcan Weaponized: Homeless San Francisco Residents Turning Lifesaver Into Tool of Harm – by Tyler Durden, 14Sep2025
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/narcan-weaponized-homeless-san-francisco-residents-turning-lifesaver-tool-harm

Alleged bomb plot near Charlie Kirk assassination lands Pakistani native and son with terrorism charges – by Joseph MacKinnon, 15Sep2025
https://www.theblaze.com/news/pakistani-native-and-son-face-terrorism-charges-after-explosive-device-found-under-news-van-in-utah

Patel Reveals Shocking Note Left by Kirk’s Assassin, Debunks Claims He Wasn’t Driven by Leftist Ideology – By Rusty Weiss, 15Sep2025
https://redstate.com/rusty-weiss/2025/09/15/patel-reveals-eerie-note-left-by-kirks-assassin-debunks-claims-he-wasnt-driven-by-left-wing-ideology-n2193956

Democrats Get Amnesia on Party’s History of Political Violence – by David Catron, 15Sept2025
https://amac.us/newsline/politics/democrats-get-amnesia-on-partys-history-of-political-violence/

This Kind of Rhetoric Is the Problem: Crockett Compares ICE to ‘Slave Patrols’ as Violence Escalates – by Jason Cohen, 12Sep2025
https://www.westernjournal.com/kind-rhetoric-problem-crockett-compares-ice-slave-patrols-violence-escalates/
(Apparently, she is desperately trying for a seat at the DNC table, since she would have to run in a competitive district now – jlr)

Trump Threatens to Declare National Emergency After DC Mayor Caves to ‘Pressure from the Radical Left’ – By V. Saxena, 15Sept2025
https://www.westernjournal.com/trump-threatens-declare-national-emergency-dc-mayor-caves-pressure-radical-left/
… D.C. Mayor Bowser suddenly changed her tune and announced last week that the city’s police would no longer work with federal immigration authorities…

DNA Evidence Links Tyler Robinson to Charlie Kirk Assassination, Confirming Political Motive – By Noah Stanton, 15Sep2025
https://istandforfreedom.com/dna-evidence-kirk-robinson
…I can report today that the DNA hits from the towel that was wrapped around the firearm and the DNA on the screwdriver are positively processed for the suspect in custody…

Where do we go from here? We go smart. – by Ian, 15Sep2025
https://thelawdogfiles.substack.com/p/where-do-we-go-from-here
…Your public persona needs to become “Polite, but prepared”…Do not go looking for trouble — trouble may come looking for you, and by all means deal with it, but do not go looking for it…Seek training. Training in fighting, in weapons, in first aid, in preparedness…If you’re physically fit, get fitter…Stop supporting the idiots…If your local school has a teacher being stupid — write the school an open letter — be cold, courteous, calm, and come correct with your facts — and pull your children and your funding…Legacy Media is not your friend…Stop tolerating idiot politicians…You want to see things change? Get them in the wallet. Take away their prestige. Send them into the obscurity of retirement…

Stephen Miller’s Wife Responds After Leftists Try to Intimidate Them in Their Own Neighborhood – by Nick Givas, 15Sep2025
https://www.westernjournal.com/stephen-millers-wife-responds-leftists-try-intimidate-neighborhood
Katie Miller responded with a video of her washing the messages away, and a post that read: “To the ‘Tolerant Left’ who spent their day trying to intimidate us in the house where we have three young children: We will not back down. We will not cower in fear. We will double down. Always, For Charlie.”

College Cancels Charlie Kirk Vigil Over ‘Credible’ Threat – by Jack Davis, 15Sep2025
https://www.westernjournal.com/college-cancels-charlie-kirk-vigil-credible-threat/
A post from one Bowdoin student suggested he did not buy the official college explanation

This Is The Most Evil Reaction To Charlie Kirk’s Assassination That I Have Seen – by Michael Snyder, 15Sep2025
https://michaeltsnyder.substack.com/p/this-is-the-most-evil-reaction-to
video – 00:01:23 – https://youtu.be/KV3mSyetVdc

You People Need to Watch Your Tone When We Shoot You – ny Chris Bray, 15Sep2025
https://chrisbray.substack.com/p/you-people-need-to-watch-your-tone

Man Arrested for Vandalizing Charlie Kirk Memorial While Wearing Same Shirt as Alleged Assassin – By Noah Stanton, 15Sep2025
https://istandforfreedom.com/man-vandalizing-memorial-shirt/

Suicide Pacts forming in Youth Social Media Groups – Discord, Reddit, TikTok – by Sarah Westall, 15Sep2025
https://sarahwestall.substack.com/p/suicide-pacts-forming-in-youth-social

“Friends” are falling away like dead leaves. I’m trying to take my cue from the falling autumn leaves… it’s okay to let go of the past, and sometimes it can be beautiful.

One of the rough ones happened this morning. Opening up FaceBook to do some author stuff, and I run into someone I thought was a friend, posting up the entire of the “ciao bella” song that Kirk’s shooter had on one of his bullets. Just that, just the words of the song and nothing more. I realized that’s basically a threat right now. I didn’t hesitate to delete and then block him, but it hurt.

Another wasn’t Charlie specific. A very old friend (r/l tho we don’t get to see each other very often and interact more online) posted about “why can’t they learn that their stupid 2A stuff isn’t as important as the kids that were just killed?!” I admit… I hesitated. I thought long and hard. She didn’t threaten anyone directly. But then again, she IS threatening. When someone is telling me that my protected Constitutional rights are “not as important,” you’re giving someone tacit permission to use weapons to take my rights away. And that’s not directly violence, but it’s definitely the precursor to it. And so I deleted and blocked her, too.

When Charlie got shot, I ran out of fucks to give. There are no more chances. I don’t care if you’re liberal, but if you glorify the death of someone (and that includes schoolkids) then I don’t need you as my friend. If you want to have the government take away my personal rights, then you obviously don’t want to be my friend.

On the other side of that line, though, other things are happening. A friend’s wife, who I’ve known online for a while but never really met, introduced herself at a wedding I attended on Sunday. She took me aside and said she wanted to make sure I was okay, because she knew so many people who were hurting over Charlie. She calls herself a liberal, but said she’s been desperate for a conservative friend who is willing to talk and listen and debate (gently). We’re going to get together and have some chats, and go over some ideas and such. There are some parts of conservatism that I consider myself qualified to speak on (1A and 2A, for instance), and others where I will likely reach out to friends for help. I explained that I’m squeaky brand new… and that I’m also only conservative right now (imo) because the mid-line has moved so far left because of leftist stupidity, and that in any sane world, I’d be considered slightly left of center, a moderate. It was a good conversation.

It was also good to show up at a wedding, escorted by my boyfriend (who was packing), only to find myself surrounded by a handful of people who were also packing, and one who was very much open carrying a beautiful 9mm. I complimented him on both his sidearm and his holster (which was very nice), and he smiled and said in times like these, it doesn’t pay to be unarmed. It felt good.

With the arrival of cooler weather, soups are definitely back on my go-to list of meals. I love soup, because I can have All The Flavors without all the damn calories. When it comes to soups and stews, a little goes a long way. Roast veggie soup is one of those “make it with what you have” recipes. There’s no one right way to make it, and pretty much anything you put in will make it yummy! This is my version of Roast Vegetable Soup.

Ingredients:

• 1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• peppers (mix of whatever colors/heats you like), large diced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and coined
• 1 red onion, large diced
• 2 large or several smaller tomatoes, whole
• 1 head garlic, most of the paper peeled away and the top cut off
• 1 to 2 cups of any combination of the following: cauliflower, kale, leeks, red skinned potato, celery, parsnips, turnip, chard, or whatever else you like
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 tsp to 2 tsp each: cumin, thyme, oregano, paprika, marjoram, and rubbed sage
• 4 to 6 cups vegetable, chicken, or beef stock
• 1 can white beans, well rinsed

Preheat your oven to 400°F. Cover a large baking tray (lipped) with some parchment paper, then add in the potato, peppers, carrot, tomatoes, garlic, and other vegetables. Drizzle it all with olive oil, and sprinkle the vegetables with the spices. Toss it all together using your hands. Roast in the oven for 10 minutes, then flip all the vegetables over and roast for another 10 minutes. Add in any onions and/or leeks, stir well to cover them with the oil and spices, and continue to roast for a further 10 to 15 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and slightly caramelized. Remove them from the oven.

Set aside a small selection of the vegetables to add whole to the soup. Remove the tomato skins (they should simply slip off) and squeeze the garlic out of its skin. Add the tomatoes, garlic, and any vegetables you don’t want whole to a large soup pot and add in the stock. Bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for about five minutes. Turn off the heat, and blend the soup with an immersion blender. If you don’t have one, you can add it a bit at a time to a regular blender or food processor, but be careful because it will be hot.

Add in the reserved vegetables and the white beans, and bring to a simmer for 15 minutes to a half hour, to allow the flavors to meld. If you like dairy items, adding in a few pieces of parmesan rind at this point will make this a much more earthy, rich soup.

Serve in warm bowls topped with a drizzle of good olive oil, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, and a sprig of fresh thyme or some croutons.

I was scanning TikTok when Charlie Kirk was shot. One of my conservative ladies gave out the news on an unexpected “live” thingie, and I went looking, panicking. Yep, it’s real. Damn. God damn. God FUCKING damn!

My lizard brain is currently doing shots of imaginary coke right now, hopping itself up to keep me aware of everything going on around me. I keep seeing things out of the corner of my eye and it turns out to be dust motes. I’m trying not to shut myself down right now, but also not to get so caught up that I lose track of life.

Why’s this under “prepping” today? Well, we need to be aware that when violence happens, we tend to REact. And frankly, I don’t believe we (and when I say “we” right now, I mean everyone who isn’t an absolute nut job, regardless of political stance) can afford to react. Act, yes. React, no. Reaction is instant. It’s brought about by the aforementioned lizard brain. It engages our “fight or flight” mode, and if we are reacting, we are not thinking.

When we’re in a personal emergency, that’s a good thing. It gets the adrenaline going, gets you up and moving, and might save your life. But with something like this, it’s just not useful. It hypes us up with nowhere to go. And while I trust the people I generally hang out with to be “head on a swivel” without being nut jobs, I don’t trust everyone else. I know too many on the Left who are excited and happy over this, and too many on the Right who have been itching for an excuse and who are using Kirk’s shooting as that excuse and damn the realities. NONE of it is good. Not one damn motherfucking bit of it.

I have enough EMT training to know that he wasn’t going to survive that shot. He lost so much blood in that initial burst that there was simply no way. The second hint was that his team picked him up and moved him. They don’t do that if there’s a chance he’ll survive; instead they form a shield wall and let the EMT do their work. There are lots of rumors out there (see my previous post on rumors) regarding what happened, who did it, and the reasoning behind the assassination. Like Chris, I’m waiting. I need to hear good, quality information from reliable sources, as difficult as that may be.

I will tell you what I think happened. I think a nutjob (very possibly with a septum ring and ties to the Left, but no guarantees) decided that the First Amendment was not worth protecting, and decided to make Charlie a signpost about what happens to people who don’t lap up the narrative from the Left’s breast. I think it was meant to do a few things. First and foremost, I believe it was meant to enrage the Right and hopefully spur people into doing stupid things (those REactions). Second, it took out someone who was effectively teaching young adults to think for themselves (because Charlie always listened to people and encouraged them to support their points). Third, it has been done in a way that makes it a chilling effect.

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So everyone occasionally shares a rumor. Most of us catch onto a good one and speculate among ourselves, making sure everyone we talk to understands IT IS A RUMOR. Rumors are not truth, and I suspect that everyone on Vine of Liberty and most conservatives are quite aware of that fact. Liberals in general and Democrats in particular are less sure of this distinction.

Rumors I have heard this week on social media:

• Trump is dead.
• Trump is being defeated in the courts.
• Trump is giving massive tax cuts to the rich and forcing the poor to pay for everything.
• Able bodied people dumped off of food stamps and other gov’t funded charities will die.
• Republicans are racist, homophobic (and/or hate gay people), misogynistic, etc.
• JK Rawlings is a racist, homophobe, etc.
• Trans people are dying because of Trump’s rules and laws.
• Gay people are losing their rights.
• Trans people are losing their rights.
• People of any ancestry other than “white” are losing their rights.
• Women are losing their rights.
• We’re on track to be in an episode of The Handmaid’s Tale.

I could go on, but I know you’ve heard it all before, too. And I could sit here and refute most of the above without even having to look stuff up, but why bother? Even when I present factual, irrefutable proof that their rumors are actually untrue, they continue to believe.

Most of the rumors I hear are bullshit, and I treat them as such. I just skim onward, ignoring them. There’s simply no point in giving them any traction, and there’s no way to weed them out. They’re teflon, because people on the Left have such strong belief that it’s … well, unbelievable.

And then there’s the recent set of rumors (I refuse to call them facts, but I have no other word to use, so we’re going with “rumors”) that Pew has put out. I’m disappointed in them, by the by. I normally consider their stuff to be not too bad, but this really got me.

They did a survey of Americans, asking what their opinions were on the economy, and a variety of economic factors. Now, even red states have a low view of the current economy in certain areas, because we’re recovering from four years of Liberal spending and waste. That’s to be expected. But the headlines that came out of it was stuff like “Economic failure in sight!” and “Trump’s Economy Problem is Threatening his Entire Agenda.”

The Left is all excited that Trump is apparently disliked by most people. They miss that the polls only polled people who would answer a certain way. The outcome is one of opinion, not fact. Someone a few weeks ago was explaining (mansplaining) to me that the economy was shite, that everything was becoming so expensive that it wasn’t affordable to eat, businesses were failing, and the world was going to sink under massive debt. I looked over at the lowest gas prices I’ve seen in years, and the cost (expensive but affordable) of the sushi dinner I had with my partner last week, and how the price of my groceries has dipped by about a third since Trump came into office. I tried to explain that to the person, but was rebuffed. I don’t understand economics, they said. They’re correct that I’m not great with economics, but I know how to make a budget and I know I’m coming in UNDER budget for most things for the first time in years. So… I guess they don’t understand economics either.

Everything presented by the Left lately is based on opinion. Now the Right does that sometimes too, but most of the time the Right manages to rightly label something as opinion. They don’t put opinion out as if it’s fact. They don’t say the economy is bad because people think it’s bad. That is literally what’s happening right now on the Left. They can’t point to facts to show how bad things are going, so they’re polling people who are “proving septum ring theory” and presenting it as fact. By that, I mean that they’re proving that septum ring theory is correct.

I’m tired, folks. I’m worried about a lot of things. I’m worried about vaccines (because I know most vaccines work and I don’t want to see the baby thrown out with the bath water). I’m worried about the economy (because if Vance doesn’t get in for 2028, the economy is going to circle the drain). I’m worried about books in schools (while I don’t see anyone banning any books, I do wish some books were more readily available in schools and I worry that the Karens of the world will spoil school libraries for everyone). I’m worried about the posting of Christian-only religious materials in public schools (because I’ve long held the opinion that either it’s “everyone gets to” or “NO ONE gets to”). I’m worried about the next generation being able to manage the world (because other than the few successful kids I personally know, all I see out there are slackers who think that working more than 7 hours in a day is some kind of abuse, and they’re damn vocal about it). I’m worried that the ideal of personal success is gone. I’m tired, and I’m worried. The rumors don’t help; they make it worse.

When I was younger and still living at home, my father would take me out once in a while for dinner. Mom didn’t really cook, and we often had take-out, but dad and I had a special bond at that time. We always went for something mom didn’t like. Something garlicky, or with big sausages, or meat that wasn’t “standard” (ie mom ate beef, chicken, pork, and turkey, and not much else). There was a Greek place he’d take me to once in a long while, and there, I learned to love souvlaki. It’s easy to make, delicious, and relatively healthy (depending on how you make it).

Ingredients for lamb souvlaki:

• 1.5 to 2 lbs lamb shoulder, boneless, cubed
• 1 medium red onion, cut in half circles
• olive oil (for drizzling)
• juice of one lemon
• souvlaki seasoning: oregano, thyme, and rosemary, garlic, paprika, cumin
• salt and pepper to taste

Your lamb should be boneless, though technically you could rub a whole shoulder with the bone in and cook it that way. Trust me and get boneless butterflied leg of lamb. It’s expensive, and entirely worth it. Aldi has it for a reasonable amount. Your cubes should be about an inch across, and all close to the same size so they cook right.

You can buy Aldi brand or other brand souvlaki seasoning, and just sub it in for the dried herbs mentioned above. You want to be heavy handed, which is why I didn’t put amounts in. For 1.5 lbs of lamb, I use about a quarter cup of spice, and I mix all of the souvlaki seasonings mentioned above “about equally.” Salt and pepper I add at the end, and I tend to go lighter (the mixes may have salt and pepper in them, so check before adding those). You want to dump the seasoning on the cubed lamb and slivered half circles of red onion, add in a drizzle of the olive oil and the lemon juice, then get in with both hands and squish it around. Coat everything fairly evenly, but not so thickly that it’s like sawdust. Cover with plastic wrap and stick your meat in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour, and a maximum of 8.

Make yourself some tzatziki while the meat is marinating.

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We can talk about stocking up on mashed potatoes, learning how to make fires with a flint and steel, or being practiced at sewing our own clothes. They’re all really useful skills. But the one that’s going to get us, every single one of us (and sorry, but those of you who are loud and insistent about how it won’t be you, you’re the first to fall), is the lack of practice with the word “NO.”

But what do you mean, Allyson? We say no all the damn time. We’re great at telling the in-laws to fuck off, and the kids to get out of our hair. Each one of us has told a spouse no about a big household buy. We know how to say no!

The thing is, you don’t. I don’t. None of us do. And we need to get that through our thick, numskull brains. Like… right now.

If the shit ever really and truly hits the fan, “no” is going to be an important word. You’re going to have to say it. More importantly, you’re going to have to know WHEN to say it. And therein lies the problem. How do you determine who is good at what they do, and who is lying? How do you know a raider from a person who might benefit your survival?

There are people who I thought would “for sure” be in my survival group. Then the pandemic hit. Guess what? They’re out. I watched them do risky, stupid things, and in some cases, follow ridiculous orders that had no rhyme or reason. So they’re out. The pandemic changed the landscape of my apocalypse team in huge ways.

Over the last few years, I’ve learned how to say no in a lot of different situations. I’ve always been able to say no to the kids or my life partners, when it’s necessary. No, we don’t have money to buy junk food. No we don’t have any junk food. No, we’re not getting any junk food. No, you may not borrow the car. No, you can’t buy that motorcycle. No. That’s easy.

I’ve also learned how to say no to people on the internet. That one was surprisingly difficult. No, I don’t want to listen to your brand of religion. No, I don’t want to listen to your brand of politics. No, I don’t want to listen to your excuse for not doing any research before reposting that bullshit meme. No, I will not be treated that way by anyone.

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