How to buy a gas mask, courtesy of The Verge
If it wasn't 2026, we'd chalk this one up to satire. But a consumer shopping guide for gas masks is as good an indicator as any of the bizarre world in which we're living.
The Chinese Proverb — “May you live in interesting times” — certainly checks that box when The Verge — a website that typically reviews headphones, laptops, and smart fridges — runs a consumer-focused article on how to buy a gas mask.
To be clear, what’s included (generally speaking) are the kinds of respirators you might wear when doing demo on a historic home. The guide links to products readily available on Amazon, Walmart, and Ace Hardware. So this isn’t a radical’s manual for how to survive the dystopia.
But, that’s why it’s so weird.
Tear gas, a chemical weapon banned in warfare, has become such a routine tool of domestic law enforcement that learning how to avoid choking on it is now considered an act of service journalism.
And that’s the part worth paying attention to. Collapse Life’s isn’t here to tell you what gas mask to buy — that’s well outside our lane. We’re just pointing out the degree of outlandishness of where we’re at as a society.
We now move about in a world where you can accidentally inhale crowd-control chemicals as you make your way home from work. Where you can very easily — even unsuspectingly — go from spectator to participant because things escalate that fast.
Whether you’re on the side of the protesters or the police, whether you support immigration enforcement or oppose it, doesn’t matter one iota. The real question worth asking is whether you’re a person who understands volatility, or a person who still believes stability is the default setting?
Tear gas used to signal something exceptional had happened: a riot, a breakdown, a last-resort measure. Nowadays, it could show up anywhere, and you are a potential target (intended or collateral) whether you’re carrying a sign or simply walking on by.
That’s why the Verge article feels so uncanny; the information is, at its core, useful. And, it makes us wonder whether it may not be worth investing a few hundred dollars in respirators, just to be on the safe side. What’s weird is treating militarized crowd control as a consumer problem to be solved by asking which mask fits best, which filters last longest, and which model balances comfort and durability when you’re being shoved, dragged by the hair, or thrown to the ground?
Pair that with the idea that adding a gas mask to your go-bag doesn’t even require a black-market hookup or membership in some underground network. Just add one to your next Amazon order, or swing by Ace Hardware next time you’re in town to grab a leaf blower or extension cord.
Gas masks are going mainstream!
Who knows how long that will last, since taking steps towards preparedness has a way of being reclassified as ‘suspicious activity’ in low-trust systems. Keeping cash on hand becomes hoarding; stocking up on food becomes extremism; and wearing PPE to a protest becomes intent.
“How did these people go out and get gas masks?” Attorney General Pam Bondi asked on Fox News, referring to protesters in Minneapolis. She asked the reporter: “Would you know how to walk out on the street and buy a gas mask?”
(We recommend Ms. Bondi stop running cover on the Epstein files and start doing a bit of shopping on Amazon!)
The same people that are normalizing the use of militarized force on civilians are blaming the civilians who are adapting competently to it. In a parallel universe, you might see shades of Iraq or Afghanistan — IEDs, or improvised explosive devices — are a similar parallel… a ‘David’ adaptation to a ‘Goliath’ problem.
How worrying is it, that the intricacies of protecting ourselves now feels ordinary — almost banal? It’s information to file alongside knowing where the emergency exits are, or which streets are prone to flooding, or even finding a good accountant.
A mainstream shopping guide to gas masks, at least from our perspective, signals the next step in a quiet adjustment to conditions that continue to flash RED (in massive letters). And so civil unrest, as part of ongoing collapse, is a space we’re watching and reporting on, so you can stay informed and stay prepared. From COVID masks to gas masks, we’ve got your back.
I don't find it surprising in the least. We have had teachers taking the children in their classes out to "protest." Give that a few minutes to percolate.
The media has been a large part of normalizing it for the better part of a decade. Look back to the "Fiery but mostly peaceful protests" during the "Summer of Love."
They are promoting civil strife to achieve what they couldn't get through the democratic process.
Interesting data point on the road to collapse. It made me ponder multiple angles as to why the Verge would publish such an article, and being the rock hard skeptic that I have become, I have a few theories.
1) "gas mask gaslighting": the number one thing a government needs to do inorder to conduct a war on another nation is to foment acceptance within it's own boarders for that action. The tension between the US and Iran is starting to escalate. Whether those indicators are authentic or a clever manipulation for a desired outcome down the road, is an aside. The fact remains that signs of tension are being published across media platforms. A well placed icon of war on that media would be a subconscious suggestion of a hot war. Be it irrational or not, it tips perception within the public psyche that the danger is real and perhaps eminent.
2) gas mask as misdirection and gas mask as provocation. Misdirection because gas as crowd control is very 'old school' and could create a false sense of bravado within the public eager to engage in civic violence only to be handled with far more effective (even lethal) techniques at the authorities disposal that a gas mask would be utterly useless as a defense. It could just be a way to weed out the less fervent paid Soros "activists" ("this is getting serious, I could get hurt! Or worse yet, I might be late to my neighbors wine and cheese party!"). But that would be unlikely, in my opinion. We all know the government wants us fighting with each other even if the fighting gets lethal. Social unrest is desired by the higher authorities and probably one of the reasons why it has become normalized.
I have more theories but I will spare you, lol.