Are you preparing for WW3? If so, how? If not, why not?

I live and work within a nuclear blast radius[0] of both China and Russia's current weapon of choice, therefore I am doing nothing to prepare for a hypothetical WW3. To be honest, "prepping" sounds like a pretty unhealthy way to live, and I see no specific basis for believing WW3 is particularly likely in the short term. Seems like it is anxiety from watching too much news.

My biggest fears in my lifetime and water-wars and China's gender imbalance (i.e., too many men who won't find a +1 and will get angry). Historically energy was also a big motivator for war, but with renewables if countries get their act together, it could genuinely smooth that out quite a lot.

Do I think these will lead to "World Wars?" Actually, no, because nuclear war is bad for everyone. But we will see more Ukraine-like invasions into neighboring countries. If I was in China's backyard, I'd be particularly nervous.

[0] https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

I bought a radiation dosimeter (GQ GMC-500Plus) as well as some iodine tablets. I also have several jugs of water, large bags of rice and beans, a few paper books and basic first aid supplies.

Last April I made a sign that says "WE ARE SLEEPWALKING INTO NUCLEAR WAR" and I spent some time holding it up on a busy intersection near my home in Chattanooga, TN. I decided to do this after seeing the way I was shadowbanned on social media for occasional posts in protest of clearly harmful media narratives. I don't think that I am likely to change the course of events at all, but it beats just sitting on your hands and sulking about it:

https://twitter.com/realTaraHarris/status/152157741487430451...

https://twitter.com/realTaraHarris/status/161793964289205862...

I am saddened that a larger anti-war movement has not materialized by this point. Something foul happened to American media after the second Iraq war.

Edit: go head and downvote me. I'm just honestly answering the OP's question. I'll protest the American empire, in real life on the street, for an additional hour for each downvote I get.

Putting aside the small, but non-zero possibility of WWIII, I think having some emergency supplies on hand is always a wise thing.

There's always floods and other local emergencies.

Or a drunk driver hits a local power line that makes a mess of a lot of your life until it gets fixed, which doesn't necessarily happen right away. Having some extra supplies on hand (say candles and cooking fuel and some meals you can make) might make your life a lot more pleasant while you wait for a few days for that to be fixed.

You don't need to dig out a doomsday bunker and max out your credit cards today to fill it with rice and beans and canned goods, but buying a reasonable amount of extra supplies for an emergency is always a good idea.

And you should be prepping with food and other goods you'll eventually eat anyway, making it a very low-cost activity. Just rotate through older cans to ensure freshness.

> I get the feeling from the news that the ruling class is driving us to war.

Fear sells, means nothing.

> Other than that, I don't know. What would folks who had to go through WW2 have told themselves if they could have sent a message back in time?

"ah shid..."

Yes. Old troglodyte prepper here. I don't prep for WWIII specifically, just anything from natural disasters to economic collapse to civil war. It's more of a hobby for me at this point and has already paid off a few times. Covid was the most recent event. I always find it interesting to see what comes next. A train carrying some surprise payload? A balloon with an EMP? Avian flu gain of function? A new fake activist group? A giant stay-puft marshmallow man? I can't mitigate all of them but I am stubborn enough to try.

I listen to this guy https://marfooglenews.com/ on youtube and twitter and read his "show notes" each time he posts them. Sometimes they are very interesting like:

https://www.audacy.com/1010wins/news/local/video-nyc-launche...

but sometimes they seem like he's grasping for content.

I'm not prepping at all. If a real "world war" breaks out with china I assume it will use bioweapons and other new shit and we'll all be done for fast (both sides).

WW3 with China? I think the most likely worst case is the USA blockading China with its control of the oceans if they invade Taiwan. I don't see a land invasion in either direction. USA is not going to invade china and vice versa. I don't see it escalating to nuclear.

We should be OK on food, if not having opposite problem with a surplus of grain with no one to sell it to. It may be good to stock up on consumer goods like shoes, a few cheap android phones, etc.

I'm not, but if I wanted to prepare for any kind of a disaster, I'd learn the basics of medical profession, especially things they do in an emergency room, and most common types of surgery. I'd at least read about it.

Just relax and and enjoy the spectacle.

You/we can't do anything to change minds that think they're 'exceptional', and there are just too many of those to get rid of all of them. We'll merely all go down together.

Gaia needs to get rid of the last unsuccessful experiment called humanity. Here's hoping her next experiment turns out better than this one.

realistically, if you are not part of the elite, you cant do much other than moving to somewhere remote or neutral like NZ or Switzerland

My plan is to leave. Pack the bike in the van and drive off.

I don't actually plan beyond that. If previous events taught us one thing, it's that people get stuck within borders with their money frozen, and stockpiling food won't fix that.

I’m Taiwanese American, so yes.

I am gathering as much knowledge and skills as I can that I feel might be useful. The folks who had to go through WW2 probably would have appreciated a message along the lines of: “don’t trust your government’s paper money.”

It must be so nice to be American - "preparing to WW3" means downloading stuff off the Internet for them and not having cash and passports ready to leave your home immediately when the enemy comes.

Sure, have a few days of supplies for any given emergency, but you are fooling yourself if you think you are going to develop any tenable plan to ride out the apocalypse. Adapt, improvise, pray. That's it.

Some people say all wars start after the debt bubbles especially in the financial sectors, If you see around the major countries the debt bubble is increasing and that was also the case before ww1 and ww2

What is important to know that the war is already out there. Its basically hybrid war. The country or group controlling the information is winning. Controlling information is a powerful tool because you can reach million of users and change narratives and people start talking creating hashtags and asking for protection. Budget kicks in money is spend weapons are bought etc etc. The country or group controlling information can suppress any rebels.

WW3 could be the last one as per various revelations The Battle of Armageddon

>trying to archive as much as I can

Yes, I've built a vast digital archive of movies and shows.

Absolutely and only because of my anticipation of a post-Internet apocalypse. *cough*

Useful resource https://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/prep/

Beans, bullets, and bandaids.

Naw, I'm in a big city. I'm toast.

I guess you haven't gone down the whole prepper's Rabbit hole? Well it's "year of the Rabbit" so maybe now is a good time, haha. Neither have I, tho. But I'm dimly aware of it as something out of the corner of my eye that I maybe/probably should get into looking at (at least) at some point in the future.

However, even tho I live in one of the most "geopolitically contested" corners of the planet (you know that place that the Chinese Nationalists retreated to after they lost the Chinese civil war around 70 years ago? That place that was occupied by the Qing dynasty, also partially a Dutch colony sometime in the past, also owned by the Japanese Empire at some point), I don't think I need to worry about that situation^0. Sometimes, the most obvious things are the most stable. It's the Black Swans -- the unknown unknowns -- that we need to worry about. Or at least, not worry about (because what's the point? That never got anyone anywhere...) but maybe we aware of...and try to prep for? Somehow anyway.

I definitely plan to do my "earth pole reversal epic 12,500-year cycle flood" safety zone map, and purchase some land so I can build my survival bunker deep into the side of a mountain. I heard the Rockies is good. Plus, snowboarding. So there's that.

But honestly, I think these things are like real estate: location, location, location. So probably...it really matters where you base yourself. And if you can diversify, or base yourself wisely...you'll be one of the small number of survivors to inherit the Earth. Haha. Kidding...almost.

0^ about that...Everyone seems to think Xi Jinping needs to do that for his "legacy" or "personal vision" or something (equating him with Putin in his zeal for territorial spiritual integrity or something), but I think...Xi Jinping is an epic practical/pragmatic/humorous/patient strategist...why give up a good thing? If it ain't broke...don't fix it: the current status quo seems to be working (because of, not in spite of, the current contested nature ~~ in a similar way that NI/ROI profit from the division) on multiple levels to play into the interests of multiple super powers (US/China) and multiple satellite powers (Shanghai/Taipei/Western countries that deal with Taiwan on some level). Xi Jinping went from dust-herder son-of-Party-exile, through forget-him-if-you-met-him regional non-controversial/non-threatening Party kahuna, to leader of resurgent China. He's the master of conceal your strength, move in darkness, strike like thunder. If he was really going to be invading Taiwan at any point militarily, you think he'd be telegraphing that shit like the mainstream narrative discourse has it about the situation? No way, I say. But that's just me. What do I know? :)

Move to a BS-free, safe country like Switzerland.

WW3 is not going to happen. Proxy wars like Ukraine, yes. But not all out WW3 for the following reasons:

0. If some European countries were not tied to NATO, they would not have supplied arms to Ukraine. Look how much time it took for Germany to agree to send tanks to Ukraine. France was also not keen on the war and Macron was involved in early negotiations.

1. The EU is already thinking of having its own army so that it is not reliant on the USA. This is being spearhead by France.

2. The so called powerful countries were not able to defeat a rag-tag group of ill armed terrorists after 20 years and spending trillions of dollars on bribes and modern weapons. Most of them have learnt that in this day and age wars are not viable. It just increases immigration.

3. Look at some of the countries that are not siding with the countries against Russia: India, China, Israel, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. Out of these, Israel and Saudi Arabia are US allies; India is a QUAD member, and South Africa is a major African economy and part of BRICS. Watch a recent podcast interview of ex-Israel prime minister Naftali Bennette on who really was responsible for escalating the Ukraine war. He, like French President Macron, was involved in early attempts to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

4. India, which this year will be hosting G20 summit, has started talking about the "Global South", the countries that are already struggling financially and due to climate change. This group will be given a voice for the first time in this "exclusive club of the 'rich'". Most of the world have different priorities and want to move away from the cold-war like situation, let alone a world war. They have their citizens to look after and fight poverty and climate disasters.

5. A full-scale war between India and China is unlikely because both have an agreement that they will not use lethal weapons on the border. The last time they fought war, that was in 2020, and both sides used sticks and stones. I am not kidding, two nuclear powers fought a war with sticks and stones! The only lethal weapon used was batons wrapped with barbed wires to kill Indian soldiers.

6. India is not going to attack Pakistan because Pakistan has openly declared that it will use tactical nuclear weapons against India if there is an attack.

7. China will not attack Taiwan because it already did a trial run in Hong Kong of its strategy and to test to what level the rest of the world will intervene. China will not take control of Taiwan by force. It will take indirect control of its parliament, and then overtime it will take complete control. It knows the risk of direct war.

The template for wars in this age is what is happening in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Ukraine. It will be proxy wars, and the losers will be the "pawn countries". These pawn countries ultimately get divided on sectarian, ideological or religious lines.

The news channels earn their bread and butter by scare mongering. So don't always believe in what they say. The most who benefit from wars is defense industries, finance industry (due to money laundering), news media and politicians, in that order. Everyone else loses.

It's a matter of perspective. No-one knew they were in a 'world' war at the time. 50 years from now historians will probably look back at this as 'world war 3' and we're just living through it oblivious.