Depending on what side of the internet algorithms you are on, you may or may not see videos like this. Regardless, this is a problem if you are seeing any sort of “lifestyle” videos.

On a first glance the video is quite nice. A quaint house sits on rolling hills covered in grass as a sleepy dog naps on the front porch. As the video progresses you see the cool breeze flow through the open windows across the rustic furnishings and decorations. You may even here a chicken in the background. How nice.

Or, it would be. If it wasn’t all fake. Now, I don’t think this video is fake as in “AI generated”, however it is fake in the sense of nobody lives here. Or, if they do they definitely don’t live like this. The quaint decorations make the home look more like a Hobby Lobby isle than a lived-in structure. Maintaining that level of consistent decoration combined with that level of cleanliness only exists in fake media like this piece.

Other traits we can infer from the video though we aren’t explicitly told or show, are;

• They are off-grid
• Live off the land
• Make their own food (this was shown in another video by them)
• All in all; they are “Trad”

But why does this video exist? Ostensibly to sell you on the idea of being trad. This way any old normie that lives in the city with their desk job can look at it and think: “What a nice life. When I finally have enough money I will buy some land like that out in the country. Then I’ll finally be trad and at peace.”

So the simplified thought sequence is:

I get land (like that) -> I will be trad (have peace)

or even more simplified:

When I own product -> I will change my behavior¹

It is a product (not unlike soma) - distributed to the “masses” to sell them on the idea of being trad. Giving them something to dream of, without having to provide any actual substance. In other words, it’s a psyop.

Ok, sure, it’s a psyop, but why is that a problem?

It’s a problem because you are now satiated with a dream (hope) that if you *consume product* you will *get better outcome*. That is a very dangerous train of thought. It is you relinquishing your agency to some other party. If you want the “trad life” then you need to start right now.

Not when you own some land.

Not once you’ve saved up some money.²

Not next year.

Not tomorrow.

Today.

If you don’t do it now you will never get to it. I’d be willing to bet that your “todo” list, whether physical or a note on your phone, has some very stale items on it. If you don’t start now it will just become another stale “todo” item. The whole “being trad” idea, if actually actualized, takes a lot of knowledge and skill. You need to start learning now.

Ok, How?

A good first step for getting anything done is get off social media. If you want to think more in depth about this I wrote about it back in 2022. Now that that’s done:

1. Start small.
2. If you fail, start again.

Start by

• making some real food every morning instead of eating pre-made foods like cereal.
• Make some simple bread to go with dinner.
• At your next oil change - do it yourself.
• Anything! You are just trying to build momentum.

(Also do please note: that there is nothing wrong with finding and following YouTube videos to do all this. You are trying to modify and better your life, not LARP after all.)

If you are tying to go 0-100 in one week you are basically guaranteed to fail. So if you ever want to arrive you need to start small, but you also need to start now.

Ok, but Why?

Why do I care, and why should you care?

I see a video like that and the life it depicts does look nice. Me and my wife are somewhat “trad” (we do our own maintenance, and she makes lots of homemade food) but we absolutely don’t own anything that made us that way. At best you could say a series of lifestyle choices which have influenced what we buy as now helped us maintain course. (Buying cars that are easy to work on, etc.) But the things you own don’t determine who or what we are.

Living sustainably like peacefully like this is something I want, and I’m guessing you want, and is something I want for you. So it makes me sad to see people being sold a fake dream without being told any of the personal responsibility to get there.

I would be willing to say that once you have decided that going in this direction is something you want to do, watching videos like this one, that are just pans of someone else’s trad props, is actually detrimental to your success. Obviously there are instructional videos that are good, but this is just edging you on a lifestyle. And it is taking the edge off. I don’t believe that you should be comfortable now. If it slightly angers you that simple lives like that have been stolen from you and your descendants, then good. You need to stay mad to drive yourself into improvement. If you are comfortable you won’t improve.

James 1:2-4 says:

Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Obviously this is talking about spiritual health, but is it not also true for your physical and mental health? If you are “in trials”, “angry”, “unhappy”, or “uncomfortable” shouldn’t you harness that feeling to become better? Consuming products - like this video, or any other product to “solve” any other problem - is just taking the easy way out. A quick solution to a long-term problem. The duct-tape fix won’t stay. But perhaps by the time it’s needs patching again it will be too late to fix it properly.