Well, who’s us, and who’s them, in that paragraph? Does a congressman count as them? What about a senator, or an ordinary local Republican? There isn’t actually any distinction.

The truth is evil is banal, and like always in these parts of history, it’s a movement through all stratums of society. The big ones would never have captured that government power without help from the little ones. Not everyone is onboard, so yes, it’s probably not your fault, but it’s not really just Trump’s fault, either.

No. I’d guess a lot of people, who don’t work with it, think diesel blows up, even.

What the basic kinds of petroleum are, and which vehicles they go in, is one of those things any reasonably educated person should know, but the majority of the population actually won’t.

Mandatory “sounds like they’re just feeding dogs to the local snakes” meme.

See, where I live, you can pretty well ignore small creatures, walk barefoot anywhere and stick your bits into whatever you want. The worst thing you can get is a wasp or bee sting. But, yes, in exchange there are things that could rip you to shreds and just choose not to. Edit: I guess there are skunks, still.

Having worked with birds a bit, one that’s big enough to mess you up does scare me pretty good. Mammals have some kind of common sense of fair play, birds are just ruthless.

Australians themselves don’t seemed bothered by any of it, except the bush flies, though.

I’ve run into coyotes many times, if that counts. You hear them constantly, but they’re shy, so when you do see them up close it’s kinda cool. When it’s happened with other people they’ve been freaked out, but coyotes just don’t attack adult humans. They’re really wired to eat ground squirrels (aka “gophers”) and rabbits; small things.

I’ve been through grizzly bear habitat, but not enough to have one show itself. If it did, I’d probably just mind my business and give it a wide berth. I did know a guy who got eaten, but that’s so rare it doesn’t really change my mind. They’re alright.

Honourable mention for moose, which are pretty aggressive, are fucking huge and do scare me. Like, I’m still fine with them as a concept, and seeing a wild animal that big is amazing if you’re in a safe place, but if something’s going to happen to me, it’s either a human or a moose.

Always complain about the weather (if it’s perfect make something up), and be snooty to anyone who’s not a farmer. /s

TBH I’m still more Lemmy than farmer. I’m exposed to it, while I wonder if some of the people on here have even driven between cities, but my immediate branch of the family moved in another direction.

I’m still farmer enough to know keeping horses is a thing. Doable, but a thing. (Keeping chickens is easy, though)

Nice mansplaining, city person. I’m from a farming family, and live in a rural area that has all these things.

You need a certain amount of pasture land (and fodder during the winter). If you don’t have enough, the grass runs out - that’s called overgrazing.

(And because I’ve had this kind of argument on Lemmy before, imma point out that the animals you eat probably ate staple crops. On this continent, at least, we grain-finish everything)

We can’t just eat it raw in the field. This is nowhere near the same. I can’t even.

No, you gather it, pull off the seeds, and if you want to avoid a lot of chewing, grind it a bit. I’m sure all ready from your local bakery it seems like magic, but it’s not.

Which isn’t anywhere near infinite. Humans also run off of grass (wheat, oats, barely, rice…), in most traditional societies.

You’re not even saved the trouble of gathering it if there’s a snowy winter to get through. Plus, there’s shoeing and various kinds of other care to factor in.

Anecdotally, diesels can sit for a long time and be just fine. I suspect there’s something a mechanic could do with an abandoned gasoline car as well. The limiting factor, if we’re talking full collapse of civilisation, is refined petroleum.

During the world wars, there were people converting IC engines to run off of wood gasifiers. For that, you either need the skills and tools to reprogram engine timings, or a carburator, though. Diesels can run on vegetable oil, and EVs can run off a solar panel, or, if still running, a wind turbine.

Horses aren’t cheap or free to run, either. No matter what, there will be less vehicles, the ones that do exists will tend to be heavily loaded to save money (like you sometimes see in the third world) and they’re going to take longer to get where they’re going.