Hoarders...I mean, preppers are currently hoarding...I mean, preparing for the next...I mean, last...I mean, first second coming environmental disaster destruction of the universe starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and that old guy from Rocky. No, seriously, preppers are idiots. This is an episode about the kind of idiocy that matures like a five dollar bottle of wine. Prepping will never make sense, ever. But to these idiots, it makes perfect sense to stalk up on batteries and mac and cheese for doomsday. I guess this end of the world is brought to you by the creamy goodness of Kraft or the stale ass armpit taste of spam, whatever your little heart desires...as long as it is canned and resembles something out of a third grade cooking contest. "Wow Timmy, that chunky beef play dough souffle looks exceptionally disgusting. Give him a medal folks!" How are these people being taken seriously? Why do they believe the world will end? And why do they think that buying junk food in advance will save them? I suppose it was inevitable. Americans do love their junk food after all. I wonder if the fast food industry will get on the action. Canned big macs anyone? How about a taco wrapped in tinfoil to hold you over? And don't forget the special sauce! That is in a different set of tin foil. I have explained in prior episodes how the end of the world hustle works. I told you that scaring people leads to impulse purchases, which help temporarily alleviate that fear, the fear that was created by unscrupulous marketers in the first place. Without extensive and costly marketing campaigns about the world's end, it would have never crossed your mind. I do not doubt climate change one bit. However, the end of the world narrative is far too common in American history for me to simply accept that "A" leads to "B". Temperature changes do not mean the end for humanity; it certainly could mean that, but is not a foregone conclusion. And I cannot but help to start to notice that major corporations are profiting from this end of the world narrative. Did you know that there are actually entire companies dedicated to prepping? I am not talking about your average bargain bulk market either. I mean there are entire forums, social groups and advertising campaigns designed to stoke fear in your heart so you buy a tin of canned banana baby food. People are wasting their money if they think this is going to help them when a crisis comes. Do you remember hurricane Katrina? Those people were standing on top of their roofs waiting for help. Any possessions they did not bring up on the roof with them were lost. That happened down in the south, where prepping has been popular for decades. Yet anything those people prepared was undoubtedly lost in the floods. In other words, they wasted money that they could have used to, you know, get the hell out of the south. Many people were simply stuck; they had nowhere to go. Why do you think it will be so different for you? Are you planning on storing your fallout shelter full of goodies on the roof of your house? Are you starting to see how ridiculous this all is yet? I hope so because if you do not you are going to waste your money on a fruitless exercise in insanity. I tried to be a prepper before. It is expensive. There are literally an endless amount of tools and food to buy, not to mention the guns and gold that they will inevitably try to sell you after all those initial purchases. Speculators are making big bucks selling disaster wares and scam artists abound. This is not about safety; it is about massive profits, the kind that god has nothing to do with. You get a little placebo effect every time you make an impulse purchase; such things are meant to make you feel safe. But feeling safe solves nothing in the long run and that feeling always seems to taper off, no matter how much canned food you buy. Never forget that you live in a fear based economy, a sitting duck for exploitation. Hold on to your wallet.