this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2026
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Privacy
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You can't consume your way out of this
Nobody can, dw, I'm aware. I certainly don't like spending money personally. Just making sure I can obtain things that'll be a PITA to get later on, y'know?
like water, air, and freedom?
I know your hearts in the right place but this thread is worthless.
What will be useful or necessary to one person will be a waste to another. Without understanding what each persons needs are nothing even approaching good advice can come out of the question.
The availability of stuff and the regulatory frameworks that stuff and its users exist under are super variable. The thread staying up for longer than a week means it’s gonna be outdated advice that amounts to consumption churn.
Plus it’s a really bad format to be asking in because the upvote/downvote system means that old outdated input will have the most votes and therefore rise to the top and be what people see and act on.
Even if all that weren’t true, the general quality of the responses on lemmy as judged by a combination of replies and downvotes is dogshit. There’s a front page thread where someone says we should just get rid of blackrock and the reply explaining that their etfs are widely held by retirement funds and getting rid of that company would have serious knock on effects for the average person has a 1:30 ratio and someone directly replying saying “you have lots of downvotes so you’re wrong”.
You would be literally better off making purchasing decisions by flipping a coin.
I actually respectfully disagree! I think that if someone is to make any significant purchase in their life, they should take the time and do some research about what's viable in the current moment. Having a thread like this already indexed and everything is important for people to start looking for things they might want to own sooner than later; hell that's literally why Reddit is so popular.
I do agree, though, that some replies on Lemmy are simply complete ass. However, if you take everyone's words as the absolute truth, you may not be ready to participate in forums, so I don't think this is a big issue.
I agree with you that some understanding can be helpful (I actually 100% disagree and at the moment people should just rely on the input of others they physically pay for their experience and expertise to give them purchasing advice but that’s neither here nor there. The thread is predicated on the assumption that a person can become informed enough to make a good decision so me undermining the premise isnt helpful to people who already accept it. I’m basically in future perfect tense damage control.), but the thread can’t meet that need.
Like I said and you agreed, the replies are ass. If a person knows so little they will buy something on the input of a public Internet forum with awful reply quality then how can you reasonably expect them to sus out the wheat from the chaff?
There’s a person in this thread suggesting people buy voron 3d printers. Those are good printers but you need a 123 block and a surface plate to put one together right and it’s ~$700 for the kit. To what end? That’s an absurd suggestion for even a person who’s interested in 3d printing or who has dipped their toes in already.
Someone said guns and ammunition. Which guns and what ammunition? There’s a wild variation in laws, availability and best buying practices from county to county and that doesn’t even touch on accessories and use cases.
I could probably rip into every reply making an actual suggestion itt because without useful background information they are all just no context suggestions to panic buy.
The point isn’t to make you feel bad but to make it clear that this is really just an undirected consumptive message akin to what the bush administration said explicitly to the American people after 9/11.
Where you're coming from actually makes a ton of sense. My intention with posting this was to get a starting point to see what would be wise to buy now that would actually apply to my personal life, with which I would actually be sensible about purchases for. I have hobbies that benefit greatly from tools like 3D printers and mechanical tools, as well as a sizeable interest in self-sufficiency (with the physical space to practice this!), so I figured mass opinions might point out something I'm missing.
I did some research into what Voron sells, and yeah, that's not a committment I can dip my toes into right now even if I have the means (couple 123 blocks and don't mind getting other things) nor is it something I'd ever recommend to someone dissimilar. I really shouldn't assume people will behave the same as I, 'specially on the internet. Sorry if anyone saw this and thought I was encouraging panic buying! I'm just future conscious and like to be prepared when it comes to what I find pleasure in doing.