Survive the ascendancy of wokeness: Become 'anti-fragile'

In an interesting American Thinker piece entitled "How to Fight the Woke – and Win," the author included a piece of advice called "Become Anti-Fragile" as follows: "In war, you must always secure your supply lines. One of the Woke's most powerful weapons is economic pressure, so take that away from them as much as possible. … Being anti-fragile will allow you to stand firm when you need to speak the truth." [Emphasis added.]

One of the reasons we're seeing widespread capitulation of the anarchists wreaking havoc across the country is fear. As Tucker Carlson put it, "Suddenly your opinions qualify as crimes. Dare to say what you think at work, and you'll be fired in the middle of a recession. Write what you think online, and you'll be silenced immediately by the big tech companies. So you keep your views to yourself. You have no choice. A lot of Americans are doing that right now: staying quiet. That's the point of censorship: to keep people isolated and alone – to prevent a consensus from forming that challenges the people in charge. If you're forced to shut up, they can do what they want to you and your country."

"The internet is aflame with self-appointed sleuths," adds columnist Victor Davis Hanson. "They scour hours of video, and millions of words, searching for an indiscreet past remark – as fodder to take out a political opponent, a rival for a job or a personal enemy."

Surely you've seen examples such as these:

Google engineer claims he was bullied, fired for being a conservative.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says conservatives have no place in New York.
YouTube banned Stefan Molyneux, host of the largest philosophy channel on the platform. "Fourteen years of my life," Molyneux mourned. "Thousands of videos, billions of comments, hundreds of millions of views, and nearly a million subscribers have been destroyed, has been erased from YouTube."
High school and college students are being expelled or denied admission due to their political views.
A priest was suspended for condemning the Black Lives Matter organization.
Careers are being destroyed. "CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman spent 20 years building the fitness brand into a multi-billion dollar company," noted Harlan Hill on Real Clear Politics, "only to be thrown out of the empire he built for declining to go along with the 'racism is a public health crisis' dogma."
Anyone who is not sufficiently supportive of the Black Lives Matter movement – whether in entertainment, academia, or anywhere else – is being fired.
People are being fired for no reason at all, such as the San Diego Gas and Electric employee who lost his job for cracking his knuckles as he drove – a gesture some wokester interpreted as a "white supremacist hand gesture." (Really, people?)

In fact, examples of the merciless thought police are too numerous to list. Here are some further examples.

Even über-liberal progressives fear the mob. Award-winning climate activist Michael Shellenberger, one of Time magazine's "Heroes of the Environment" and author of the book "Break Through" ("the best thing to happen to environmentalism since Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring'"), wrote an apology for his part in climate alarmism … and was promptly canceled.

As this sobering piece on the anatomy of an internet witch hunt demonstrates, the gloves are off when anarchists have you in their cross-hairs. They won't hesitate to use the lowest, cruelest, vilest means possible to destroy you.

So the fear of losing everything is very, very real. For this reason, many people are shutting up and keeping their heads low. It's hard to fight back when doing so could destroy everything you've worked for – your job, your business, your career, your home, your family's security and your physical safety.

"My husband has been dealing with this at work for nearly 20 years, and yes, it has recently gotten noticeably worse," one of my readers said. "We are brainstorming ways to increase the number of income streams that are not dependent on him having the job he currently has, because the conditions are NOT going to improve."

That's why the advice to become more "anti-fragile" is sound. The less vulnerable we are, the more we can stand tall and fight back.

How can you become less "fragile"? Consider these options:

Can you cultivate multiple income sources? The fear of losing one's employment is a driving force behind many people's silence. If you can build up a number of different ways to earn money, then you're not left destitute if you lose your job.
Can you reduce your debt? Debt is one of the biggest reasons people cling to jobs in hostile work environments.
Can you reduce your expenses? Low-cost living is one of the most powerful tools in anyone's financial arsenal. The fewer expenses you have, the less vulnerable you are to an economic interruption.
Can you transition to working from home, either full-time or with multiple part-time occupations? The less you have to venture into a hostile society, the better.
Can you skip college (and its associated student loan debt and insane hostility to American values) and train in the trades or other fields where demand is high? I've spent years preaching about the evils of the college industrial complex. Many degrees are worthless in the marketplace.
Can you harden your social media position? It's no accident people are migrating to platforms such as Gab or Parler, which are not biased against conservatives.
Can you leave the city and move somewhere less chaotic and less expensive? Not only will this be safer, but it may lower your mortgage.
Can you back up your computer, your blog, your website? This may sound trivial when compared to the above list – until suddenly your computer crashes or is hacked and you lose immeasurable amounts of data. (Trust me on this.)
Can you reduce your dependency on your cursed smartphone? They're nothing but glorified tracking devices anyway.

Obviously these are difficult or even impossible steps for many people – which, sadly, means they'll have to continue what they're doing (shutting up and keeping their heads low). Nor can any of this be done overnight. It takes time to pay down debt or cultivate alternate income streams.

But folks, the sooner you do this, the sooner you'll be in a position to tell the anarchists to go to hell.

Patrice Lewis is pleased to announce the availability of the complete collection of 52 Country Living Series ebooklets, representing over 17 years of homesteading experience. Subjects include preparedness, frugality, rural skills, food preservation, and more. Click this link for details.