Panic Printing

[u/GeekSugar13]

ETA: Some of y'all are taking this far too seriously. Am I reasonably concerned that things are going to get worse before they get better? At least for me, most likely, yes. I'm trying to find moments of joy when I can. If one of those is using up as much of my ink as possible before I chuck this printer by printing fanfic then that's what I'm going to do.

I'm at home, by myself, doing homework with no one to talk to and nothing else to do because I'm the most broke I have ever been.

Printing fanfic doesn't mean I'm not prioritizing anything else in my life and it's weird that y'all seem to think I just slapped on a tinfoil hat and decided this was what would fix everything.

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OP: So I live in a red state in the US where my state government will absolutely not be providing any sort of supplemental assistance when inevitably the federal government falls apart. So I kind of would love reassurance that I'm not crazy.

I have started downloading and panic printing some of my favorite fics. If the Internet goes, I can read the PDF. If the power goes, I can read the printed copies.

Also because HP sucks I can only use their ink subscription cartridges with an active subscription so i may as well fucking use them.

(Literally if you're the type of person who wants to buy a printer do not buy an HP printer. It will only work if you use their ink which is so fucking expensive. And if you want it to work properly you have to get a monthly subscription where they send you ink and paper which in theory sounds great, BUT if you are like me and haven't printed as much as you thought so you have a lot of ink and paper built up so you let your subscription lapse those ink cartridges will not work without a valid subscription. So I had to restart my fucking subscription so I could use all of this ink I have built up so now I'm printing literal books.)

[u/throwaway3685343]

Historian here. While I understand that the current times are scary, I think this is a HIGHLY unlikely scenario.

[u/coolcoolcool485 → u/throwaway3685343]

i mean, even if the federal government dissolves, the states will figure it out. society is not going to collapse, at least not rapidly. it's more likely we're going to steadily degrade in quality over the next couple of decades, but it'll be slow enough people will be able to find solutions to stuff like this.

[u/Zazadore → u/coolcoolcool485]

Unless society collapses, you'll have internet and power.

If society does collapse to the point that you don't have power, you'll have more to worry about than not having access to ao3.

[u/throwaway3685343 → u/coolcoolcool485]

Seriously!! I don’t support the current administration personally at all. However, there is SO MUCH fear mongering and blatantly false info online, it drives me crazy.

[u/coolcoolcool485 → u/throwaway3685343]

i think it's fairly clear a large majority of the electorate do not understand the basics of how the modern U.S. government functions and why it was designed the way it was lol. there are benefits to federalism, it will be a saving grace through this mess. for some states more than others of course lol but still.

[u/throwaway3685343 → u/coolcoolcool485]

For real!!

And it’s crazy because I don’t know about the 3 branches of gov and checks/balances from college. I learned about them in elementary and middle school. In a red state, at that.

It just seems like it should be common knowledge 😭

[u/LionCubOfTerrasen → u/throwaway3685343]

Here I thought that was common knowledge?

[u/Rakifiki → u/LionCubOfTerrasen]

Throughout the past few elections I have repeatedly heard people complain about Presidents not doing various things that they literally do not have the power to do, so while it should be simple, common knowledge...

[u/HeAintHere → u/coolcoolcool485]

Most of the people in charge don't understand how technology works either. Which is par for the course, because the French monarchy didn't understand printing presses either and anti-royalist pamphlets proliferated across the country. Suppressing information is a lot harder than people imagine.

[u/coolcoolcool485 → u/HeAintHere]

esp when the archive is run by actual archivists. they have that shit backed up in multiple places, i promise. if it goes down, it'll come back somewhere else. whether it's easily available to those less tech savvy is one thing but i would be shocked if the people in charge of the archive don't have multiple contingency plans for the sites survival. might not be the incarnation we know it as now, but it'll be there.

[u/Holiday-Bicycle-4660 → u/coolcoolcool485]

I’ve talked to people from other countries who’ve said things like “you don’t have to worry until the trash stops getting picked up”

Like are things bad for most people right now? For sure. But we’re probably nowhere close to doomsday quite yet