Notes from the edge of civilization: Jan. 21, 2024
Climate lockdowns become reality. EV owners face cold hard reality. Young people are spending like drunken, childless, dog-loving sailors. And, our interview with Mattias Desmet.
Nothing brings America together like a nationwide weather event and this week’s cold snap certainly provided that unifying experience. On Monday, January 15, no part of the country got above 77º F and temperatures dipped as low as -38º F for some poor souls.
In the Twin Cities, community service officers handed out gloves, hats, and meat sticks to people in homeless encampments. Connecticut’s governor activated his state’s “Severe Cold Weather Protocol.”
Meanwhile in Erie County, New York, residents were put on lockdown when Governor Kathy Hochul issued a full travel ban even if no snow was falling.
That’s right, conspiracy theorists! Climate lockdowns are a reality. Chalk up another win. (The chalk lines are getting so plentiful, we’ve lost count!)
To put this in context, Erie County is located on the shores of Lake Erie in western New York. The nearly one million inhabitants generally experience average winter highs in the mid 30s. Snowfall accumulates to an average of nearly 95 inches (almost 8 feet) throughout the winter months. These are people who are accustomed to snow and are not motivated enough by either its quantity or the accompanying cold to move elsewhere.
We agree with the governor that it is important to keep people safe during extreme weather conditions. We don’t agree that the government should lock them down regardless of whether the snow is falling.
“We don’t like you,” said one Twitter user in reply to the governor’s announcement, using simple language even a politician can understand.
“WE DO NOT NEED ANY ADVICE FROM YOU WHATSOEVER,” said another using all caps to be sure to be heard.
Drivers in Chicago, another part of the country used to being cold, are learning the hard way that electric vehicles are not all they’re cracked up to be in frigid weather.
“We got a bunch of dead robots out here,” laughed one man at a Tesla super-charging station, where cars were lined up for hours waiting to be charged.
The charging ports were running slowly, if at all, and owners found their battery life and range severely reduced in the cold weather.
“You have to come up here, wait two hours to get into the charger. They tell you it’s fast, but then it takes two hours to charge your car,” EV owner Marcus Campbell told a local TV reporter.
Many people gave up and had their cars towed away from the line after they were unable to get any charge on their vehicles. Some even said they were ready to give up on the idea of driving an EV completely.
Collapse Life has long thought that the swift, subsidized, and relentless push to putting people in EVs was part of building out the control grid. Real or perceived benefit to the environment aside (we have clear thoughts on that, too), these folks who were expecting EVs to be a “like-for-like” replacement for their traditional cars were duped on many fronts — take it from an engineer. So, lives were constrained by weather as it interacted with technology. But imagine the technology constraining people by virtue of government whim — given the chance, Governor Hochul wouldn’t have even bothered to tweet out her diktat for people to stay home, she would have simply shut off their cars.
This week on Collapse Life, we reported on a survey that showed 35% of Gen Z and 43% of millennials are engaging in ‘doom spending’ — mindless shopping as a way to soothe woes outside their control. Many young people say with the cost of living being what it is, home ownership or starting a family is so out of reach they are just spending on travel or luxury items.
It turns out the dejection extends to their desire to procreate as well. In a study of 7,000 people conducted by the University of Southampton, less than one-fifth of millennials, specifically those between ages 26 and 35, were sure they wanted to become parents. Can we add to the lexicon — doom contraception?
Don’t miss the latest episode of the Collapse Life podcast, one of our most impactful yet. This week we spoke with Dr. Mattias Desmet, who helped many questioning minds make sense of what they experienced during the pandemic. His explanation of mass formation helped people understand why so many complied with rules and mandates that went against their own interests. In our conversation, he talks about how truth and sincere speech can break the spell.