This article was originally published Aden Tate at The Organic Prepper.
Image Source: Amazon.com
History has shown us that collectivism detests the individual. The man who can exist independent of the system, who thinks for himself, who is not easily swayed, and who has values rooted in absolute truth which he refuses to give up – this is the enemy of collectivism.
But if we take a closer look at one aspect of the individual – his ability to exist independent of the system – is it not clear this is an end goal of prepping?
Is that not what a prepper strives for – the ability to exist independent of the world around them so that disaster does not affect them in the way that it affects others?
It is, and this is why collectivism criminalizes preppers over and over again.
We’ve seen it before and we’re seeing it right now, most notably in Turkey.
For those who keep a fairly accurate pulse of world events, you know that the fiat currency of Turkey – the lira – is collapsing.
As of this year the lira has lost approximately 40% of its value, and from all appearances, it shows no signs of stopping its downward spiral anytime soon.
Inflation is rapidly leading to hyperinflation within Turkey and the Turkish citizens have recognized this. People began attempting to step away from the lira and delving into cryptocurrency in an attempt to protect themselves.
And then the Turkish government made crypto illegal as a form of payment on April 30, 2021. This was done to prevent “irreparable damage.” What’s ironic about this is that the Turks said this was because cryptocurrencies were “neither subject to any regulation and supervision mechanisms nor a central regulatory authority.” [source]
That’s a fun train of logic from the people that are in the process of destroying their own currency.
Crypto – long argued to be the libertarian response to centralized currency – is kind of scary to delve into if landing in a Turkish prison happens to those caught with it. And attempting to dump their personal lira savings into US dollars, euros, or any other fiat currency is practically impossible for Turks as well. Their hands are tied. What then is the natural response?
Your country is being rocked by hyperinflation. Your fiat money is worthless. Forex is regulated to the point of being impossible. Crypto is banned. The price of food has shot up 27.1%.
What do you do?
You don’t want to just watch your life savings be vaporized. You aren’t going to watch your family starve.
And so, you may think it’s a wise idea to put your money into something that will retain its value. This is the reason people invest in gold and silver after all, isn’t it? This is the reason James Wesley Rawles pushes guns, tools, and gear for investment, right?
And that’s exactly what people in Turkey started to do.
People there have started turning to tangibles. They saw what was coming – how things were taking a turn for the worse – and so they attempted to prepare for it.
Then, the ironically named Justice and Development Party (AKP) submitted a bill to the Turkish Parliament asking for fines of anywhere between what would be $7000 – $144,000 USD for those “hoarding….food and other goods”.
That was Step 1 in the criminalization of preppers.
Step 2 took place this past week as 51 various Turks were arrested by police for “panic hoarding” new cars. Turkish media widely reported people were investing in new vehicles as a means of inflation protection.
But this was deemed to be a threat.
These 51 individuals were accused of “lowering dealership inventories,” which allegedly led to higher prices. The AKP fiddling around with their centralized banking system most certainly couldn’t be the cause. It must be the citizens’ fault that inflation is rocking the country.
And so, anybody who attempts to protect themselves from totalitarians must be stopped.
Look at what we’ve witnessed in Venezuela – yet another collectivist society that has been rocked by hyperinflation. It was there, after communist policies caused a 20% shortage of basic goods, that Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz called for prosecutors to target those who were “hoarders” of staples of daily life.
In other words, if you had a supply of rice stowed away in your basement, you were no longer safe. Now, you were a target.
Consider that it was in early 2020 that the mainstream media criticized those they deemed to be “hoarders” in unison. Have too many cans of soup in your cart? According to the media, you are now worthy of public shame.
It was during this same time that we saw a Brooklyn man have his home raided by agents who confiscated his supply of N95 masks for “hoarding” them. Keep in mind he had purchased all of these masks. They were not stolen. They were legally his possessions.
“Something needs to be done about those people!” is what the TV indoctrinated were being led to say, in the hopes that public support could be used to “justify” whatever policies were going to come down the road in the near future.
Despite public opinion, building up our personal stockpiles is exactly what we need to be doing. And now, before it’s too late. Check out this FREE quickstart guide to help you create your own food supply quickly and affordably.
Is Turkey the canary in the coal mine? Is what is happening there – massive inflation bordering on hyperinflation (all caused by government policy), nobody producing anything, massive shortages of goods, and the criminalization of preppers to the point of outlawing any degree of independence from politicians whatsoever – simply the first case of this noxious policy?
Within the US we’re already seeing widespread shortages of goods. We’re already seeing massive inflation to the point that this is the highest level of it the US has ever seen.
Does the complete criminalization of preppers within America come next?
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“WHAT ARE WE GOING TO SEE NEXT?”
The end of my shotgun barrel. The last thing they will see.
Amen to that brother!
Good thought, also maybe consider a more guerrilla tactic?War of the flea, they are unable to defend against this and they know it….
Daniel Morgan, (war of the flea) spoken like a wise man!
On initial investigation, crypto appears to be legal in all the adjoining countries, and doing business with them is considered legitimate, in Turkey.
“Staples” Stadium in my region was changed to Crypto dot com Stadium. WO/2020/060606 pertains to crypto. Before Lindell’s photographic voter machine records, the USPS had a patent to vote via blockchain, creating a permanent data trail.
Though, it’s generally regarded as a stock, contract, or financial instrument for legal purposes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Use cash and buy often using different family members to fill the carts at a store who doesn’t know your family. The family members can’t rat on you if they are part of the hoarding.
Do this before the Nazis pass any bills to control your money like this last bill that failed the Senate. Before long it will happen and it will be like an old Sienfield episode, No Soup For You!
This may tie you over until the end of the world as we know it.
Been doing that for years. With no name loyalty cards lol.
The family members can’t rat on you if they are part of the hoarding”
Don’t bet on it.
Ever heard of turning States evidence?
Baruch Feldheim, 43, is facing charges of assault and making false statements to the feds on Sunday outside his Borough Park home where he allegedly peddled and stored massive amounts of N95 respirator masks, federal officials said.
Feldheim is also accused of price-gouging. On March 18, he’s suspected of selling a New Jersey doctor about 1,000 of the masks for $12,000, a markup of roughly 700 percent, authorities said.
Look at the bright side. If we’re not allowed to store food at some point we won’t need to store toilet paper!
Meh. Preppers are a natural target in any real emergency.
And I still remember being tossed from OP challenging early COVID-1984 hype including abetting mask panic hoarding.
Turkey is being economically punished for looking out for themselves and buying Russian S-400s.
All Erdogan has to do is threaten to pull out of North Syria – for real, citing costs – and any inflation problems stemming from loans in U.S. dollars will magically disappear.
If Turkey goes down, that’s also one less support for U.S. dollars. This hurts the average person, not the government.
It helps to be aware of such things.
Governments, do not fall easily. More often, they break up into smaller governments as the centre fails.
The prepper movement isn’t two critical things.
First, prepping ain’t rebelling anymore more. FEMA even tells you how to prepare a bug-out bag. Prepping became mainstream a while ago and become about running away.
Mainstreaming prepping wouldn’t happen unless the powers that should not be figured prepping kept people busy not being politically inconvenient.
Meanwhile, private stashes of food and gear all over the country would be very convenient for the government in an emergency.
Second, preppers aren’t survivalists. The survivalist generation planned to rebuild civilization after a nuclear holocaust. Even if the free world were nuked out from under them, they would never surrender their civil liberties.
Preppers can’t wait to abandon their economic posts and run away and let civilization collapse. Preppers may yet enable the Reset.
That’s a critical deficit in wisdom.
Greatest Gen and Boomer survivalists helped end Cold War I and save the world. Imperfect as that was. One has to be alive and free to enjoy freedom.
Chaos is tyranny. Absent long-term law and order, most preppers would be wiped out by hungry migrants. The remaining refugees would seek government shelter.
During peak scamdemic, government did not fall and easily banned heading for the hills by closing Federal parklands, rendering most popular prepper survival plans moot.
Such plans are obsolete from the get go anyway. A gazillion wannabe preppers living off the land… nope. Regular camping season already turns wilderness into human zoos.
Preppers like OP advocate prepping with no long-term stand-your-ground life planning.
A lot of preppers have simply lost touch with reality.
Blame the websites and Hollywood for that.
Look, they can make anything they want “illegal”. But, many own their own land. Within it’s borders, they need a warrant. If they come in without POLITELY presenting one and don’t give time to examine it, people will die and equipment will burn. The Constitution gives American Nationals a degree of sovereignty. Don’t screw with them. The price is high.
Making Americans criminals for stockpiling food that they need because a feckless and incompetent government destroys an economy and supply chain is the perfect example of why The Founders drafted the 2A.
So, firstly, this article is mainly about people with lots of free cash attempting to put it somewhere safe. These are really “hoarders” but investors. Obviously they are trying to avoid the government theft. They need to do it slowly and covertly. They kind of remind me of the toilet paper hoarders of 2020. Dumb. I’ve got enough toilet paper for 10 households for a year. Did I get it all during one weekend in 2020? No. I picked it up a 12 pack at a time over the last 10 years. But more than I need and store the excess. When I use a roll (or 12 pack) go back and buy 2 until you fill up the allocated space. These people in turkey are not trying to do that. They’re trying to hide their money from government theft (inflation/taxes). …and they’re getting caught. They’re not being smart about it. Gold/Silver/Guns/Ammo, etc, etc. Not a bunch at a time but some per week or month. Be smart. Don’t go buy a pickup load of TP from one store. But two 12packs from one store. 2 from another. 2 from another. Be smart. Even Smarter: but an extra 12 pack a week over time (me) and don’t let your neighbors know.
Mac and I have been doing this for a long time. Thank you Mac for the advice over the years. (…and a couple promotional books…) You’ve been a great prepper resource. The Organic Prepper, too. Great resource!
I have seen some libertarians, in moral crisis, when someone buys up all the toilet paper, face diapers, or hand sanitizers and scalps those items at egregious prices. It’s stereo typically some replacement demographic, acting in the spirit of competition.
That’s definitely a speculator, causing a shortage. Why the conundrum.
They have co-opted the public utility of the too-big-to-fail storefront. Enough goods were provided for everyone participating in good faith. Communism would have met it’s end of the social bargain, in that one case.
If you are not smart enough to stockpile toilet paper, then you are not smart enough to vote on my life.
Hmm, some years ago, my wife and I were accused of being hoarders and preppers because we had a large garden and we canned, froze or dried everything from the garden and when different people found out about our garden and the the size of it, the question always came up ” what do you do with all of that garden produce ? ” And when they find what we do with it they would then say, why don’t give that garden produce away to people who need it instead of ” hoarding it “. One woman comes to mind, “if we started giving it away, would you want some and her answer was, yes we take some if you were giving it away. ” I then made the suggestion that maybe she could or should come out and help with the gardening and she could have all she wanted. We haven’t heard from her since. Now that my wife of 48 ( 50 yrs if you count two yrs of dating ) yrs is gone, I’ve lost interest in gardening and both garden are nothing more than a big mess of weeds. I have been buying some freeze dried food here and there, but that is only a half a– effort. With my wife gone, what is the purpose?