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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   3339 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 15, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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My past (albeit limited) research on the topic has indicated that there's probably no country on Earth that lets welfare-dependent schizophrenics immigrate. But (just to double check), if one were to have to flee America (say, come 2029), which countries would be the best shot?

Without savings, the ability to claim us benefits abroad, ancestry, or changing that disabled status, nobody. Ireland would take you if you were irish. Paraguay and portugal if you had even moderate savings. Plenty of places if you're self supporting. You're probably stuck in the US if you can't find any paying task you can do.

Without savings, the ability to claim us benefits abroad, ancestry, or changing that disabled status, nobody.

Just as I thought. And, no, I don't have any ancestry recent enough to count for another country. You have to go back, like, five generations to reach my most recent immigrant ancestors… and they were Silesian Germans, so no luck there.

You're probably stuck in the US if you can't find any paying task you can do.

So, how would I go about finding a "paying task I can do" in a foreign country?

Or, more likely, you're right, I'm stuck.

And with no hope of fleeing the slaughter to come, then I suppose that just leaves the sort of thing the mods have told me I can't talk about.

And with no hope of fleeing the slaughter to come

Well, if you are absolutely certain that "slaughter" is near, and there is nowhere to run, then the radical solution is to preemptively join the winning side.

If the year is 1913, this is the right time to join the bolshevik party, and when the boog comes, you are not class enemy, but distinguished comrade and old revolutionary veteran.

then the radical solution is to preemptively join the winning side.

Too much history of open wrongthink, autistic inability to fake sincere belief convincingly enough.

If the year is 1913, this is the right time to join the bolshevik party, and when the boog comes, you are not class enemy, but distinguished comrade and old revolutionary veteran.

Who then gets purged in 1933-38...

We've had this conversation before, like 20 months ago, and you detailed your many limitations, though their specifics escape me now. I still maintain that if you can write with this clarity and frequency on the motte you are theoretically capable of earning income through intellectual work, you just need to find a way to cross the gulf between it impacting your benefits and it being enough to live on. There are huge numbers of jobs that can be done entirely via interacting with a computer or phone these days. I personally have made money writing software, tutoring high schoolers, and accepting donations for fiction. LLMs are changing many of those niches, but at least for the moment near as many opportunities are being created as are being destroyed, though that may not hold forever. But for the moment, if you want freedom, you'll need to earn income. That's the way the world works. If this 'slaughter' you cannot speak of arrives, well, that might change as some nation begins accepting US asylum applications. But until then, not a single nation is interested in acquiring dependents with no ties to their citizenry.

If this 'slaughter' you cannot speak of arrives, well, that might change as some nation begins accepting US asylum applications.

Press D for doubt. We've had this conversation before, like 10 days ago. US is, like it or not, still the world's first super power, and when conditions in US get into "mass slaughter" stage, world's economy and international relation system is flushed down the toilet (collapse of US dollar alone would do it).

In this world, no one is welcoming any refugees. Lessons of collapse of world's three great powers in 1917-1920 do not apply here, the fallout would be far worse and will hit everyone.

There are huge numbers of jobs that can be done entirely via interacting with a computer or phone these days.

Such as? Beyond those you've listed, anyway. (Not a coder, did tutoring until the local market dried up, not sure anyone would want to pay for my fiction, given the negative feedback it gets.)

You just want a large list? Data entry, content moderation, sales, repackaging AI generated images into book covers, actually making book covers, teaching english via zoom, customer support, all the ancillary shit software companies need that isn't code like project management, basically 70% of finance and insurance, streaming, selling curated AI generated porn. I'm sure there's more but that's all I can think of immediately without googling.

Data entry

Applied to what local data entry jobs I could (most are with or through one or another of the Native corporations, and thus only hire members of the associated Tribe), and no luck.

content moderation

Who pays for that?

sales

Requires a level of charm my autistic ass lacks

repackaging AI generated images into book covers

Can you be specific what you mean by "repackaging" here, and is that something people actually pay for? Plus, it's my youngest brother who's the artistic one in the family.

actually making book covers

I'm not aware of any local printers/publishers, and aren't the covers made by machines as part of the printing and binding process?

teaching english via zoom

Wouldn't I at least need to know some of the native language of whomever I'm teaching, for communicating in areas where their English isn't enough (because they're still just learning)?

(Plus, my internet isn't fast enough for zoom.)

customer support

See under sales, with enormous quantities of handling-irate-Karens-related-stress added on top.

all the ancillary shit software companies need that isn't code like project management

And where do I get the skills and training needed to do that job? (Because I have no clue what any of that "ancillary shit" is, or how to do it.)

basically 70% of finance and insurance

I talked to the insurance company recruiters at the Job Fair a couple of times, discussing my math skills, and that stuff all gets done outside of Alaska. Plus, I lack actuarial training (and whatever degree/certification) and such.

streaming

See slow internet, and streaming what? Who would watch me?

(That said, there was a recent discussion on one of the videos I watched about the latest list of supposed "far-right/Nazi vtubers" going around, pointing out that basically all but one of them were actually centrist to center-left, and that the only one who can actually be considered even just right-wing is Nux Taku — the Jewish New Yorker. The closest thing to an actually far-right vtuber I've ever seen is the Aristocratic Utensil, so maybe there's a market opening…)

selling curated AI generated porn.

Who pays for that? And through what platform? Don't all the payment processors and crowdfunding/donation platforms/Patreon clones pretty much forbid NSFW? And I'd need to somehow obtain skill with AI art generation, enough to be competitive with all the other people out there with far more skill and experience. (Plus, I'm hardly the person to know what constitutes desirability or quality in pornographic output, given my own unfamiliarity with and lack of consumption of porn.)

Yes, I know, people hate it when I respond to advice like this. But it's part of how I was raised — to automatically find flaws in and try my best to shoot down any proposed plan, because anything that can go wrong will go wrong, so you must spend every waking moment considering every possible point of failure and taking measures to address it, always have a Plan B for when Plan A fails, and a Plan C for when Plan B fails, and a Plan D…. My first instinct whenever anyone suggests anything is to poke holes in it, find every possible point of failure, and respond with every reason why it won't work.

Naysaying, "catastrophizing," doomcasting, blackpilling, playing Devil's advocate for any and all proposals… these are the skills I've spent a lifetime honing.

Edit: I guess you might say my "dream job" is "prophet of doom," but nobody pays for that.

And through what platform? Don't all the payment processors and crowdfunding/donation platforms/Patreon clones pretty much forbid NSFW?

No. Patreon forbids porn that SJ objects to (and anything else SJ objects to, for that matter). SubscribeStar is essentially "Patreon without the SJ fun police" (which is why Wikipedia insistently refuses to make an article about it, as damnatio memoriae) - I think they'd forbid RLCP but I'm not even 100% sure about that and hopefully you're not going to be curating that. I'm a member of the porn forum Questionable Questing, and most of the good authors there have SubscribeStar accounts (even the fanfic writers) - Patreon was a thing but like 95%+ have abandoned it due to the aforementioned fun police.

EDIT: Stuff may be happening to SubscribeStar. Don't know details at this time.

In no particular order:

Yes, I know, people hate it when I respond to advice like this. But it's part of how I was raised — to automatically find flaws in and try my best to shoot down any proposed plan, because anything that can go wrong will go wrong, so you must spend every waking moment considering every possible point of failure and taking measures to address it, always have a Plan B for when Plan A fails, and a Plan C for when Plan B fails, and a Plan D…. My first instinct whenever anyone suggests anything is to poke holes in it, find every possible point of failure, and respond with every reason why it won't work.

Man, you can respond to things however you want. But I do think you should try some. If you're already so worried about doom, what could failing really cost you?

Who pays for that? And through what platform? Don't all the payment processors and crowdfunding/donation platforms/Patreon clones pretty much forbid NSFW? And I'd need to somehow obtain skill with AI art generation, enough to be competitive with all the other people out there with far more skill and experience. (Plus, I'm hardly the person to know what constitutes desirability or quality in pornographic output, given my own unfamiliarity with and lack of consumption of porn.)

Subscribestar and Patreon. Patreon's rules are actually pretty lax, basically no underage, no rape, and no real people. Not sure the other platforms even go that far. There are people clearing tens of thousands a month just reselling curated image sets. Probably won't be a thing for more than a year or two, but they're making money now. This is a 'skill' that didn't even exist two years ago, you're not competing with ML engineers, you're competing with random degenerates who asked someone on discord what model they used and how to set it up.

Can you be specific what you mean by "repackaging" here, and is that something people actually pay for? Plus, it's my youngest brother who's the artistic one in the family.

You say you sell images suitable to be book covers. You don't say those images are largely AI. A lot of books come out every year. The same people who were previously willing to pay 200 bucks for some stock images photoshoped on top of each other (Go browse some romantasy covers on Amazon) are now perfectly happy to pay for AI ones. Fiverr is the starting marketplace, but anyone who gets real business just makes their own portfolio site eventually.

I talked to the insurance company recruiters at the Job Fair a couple of times, discussing my math skills, and that stuff all gets done outside of Alaska. Plus, I lack actuarial training (and whatever degree/certification) and such.

Actuaries are a very small percentage of finance. Remote is also very available these days. That being said, a 4 year degree (Literally any major) is very important for these jobs, and if you don't have one, it's probably not a good path.

actually making book covers

(Doing art. Print shops are a dying breed, but people still commission covers)

Edit: I guess you might say my "dream job" is "prophet of doom," but nobody pays for that.

PEOPLE LITERALLY PAY FOR THIS. Seriously. People love the evening news, they love their various youtuber naysayers, and all those AI Doomer substacks. If you actually think you're good at it, go put your money where your mouth is and start seriously seeking a broader platform instead of contenting yourself to be a replyguy on niche reddit offshoots. It doesn't matter how good your content is, if it isn't top-level on a large site, it will never gather an audience.

Naysaying, "catastrophizing," doomcasting, blackpilling, playing Devil's advocate for any and all proposals… these are the skills I've spent a lifetime honing.

Perhaps consider security work.

Ireland would take you if you were irish.

Where "Irish" means at least one grandparent born on the island of Ireland (including Northern Ireland), or a parent who was an Irish citizen at the time of your birth. The system is deliberately set up to exclude Irish-Americans whose ancestors emigrated during the Ellis Island era. You can now maintain diaspora Irish citizenship indefinitely if each generation registers as foreign-born citizens before having kids, but if you have lost it you can't get it back.

Yep. I think it's possible to go further back if the relevant relatives are still alive, because actually claiming citizenship resets the generation gap (I don't have the rules open, but I'm pretty sure if your great grand-parent was born in Ireland, and you got your grandparent to claim Foreign Birth Registry citizenship, the grandchild would then be eligible despite the grandparent not being a citizen at the time of the parent's birth, let alone yours. I might be wrong on that though). But overall it's a very generous amount of diaspora citizenship, and really worth claiming for those eligible.

No - if your parent registers after your birth, you are SOL. My eldest is in this position - my wife was already pregnant when I started the foreign birth registration process after the Brexit referendum, and I didn't realise that there was a 10-month backlog. The only way I can pass on Irish citizenship to my eldest son is by living in Ireland (or Northern Ireland) with him and applying for naturalisation.

You're probably not going to find one without tracing ancestral roots and learning the relevant language. You're not really looking for someone that wants you, nobody does assuming you aren't working and have no assets. You're looking for someone who can't turn you away.

If you have any Jewish ancestors, you might be able to gin up Aliyah to Israel. In some cases I've heard stories of people pulling it off despite not being halachically Jewish, just having a Jewish grandfather or something like that. I'm not sure you have enough runway to convert convincingly in that time.

If you have any Jewish ancestors

Nope.

You're looking for someone who can't turn you away.

And that's nobody, just like I expected.

Whelp, guess you'll just have to work on yourself, if you plan to migrate.

In some cases I've heard stories of people pulling it off despite not being halachically Jewish, just having a Jewish grandfather or something like that.

Under current laws, Jewish grandparents are enough if you don't belong to another religion (or shut up about it if you do, they have no real way to check if you're not a church official). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Return If you do, you probably still qualify to live in Israel, but getting citizenship would be more complicated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_Rufeisen

Proper Orthodox conversion would work too, but a sham one probably won't - they are not born yesterday and all the tricks that can be tried had been already tried.

Proper Orthodox conversion would work too, but a sham one probably won't - they are not born yesterday and all the tricks that can be tried had been already tried.

Maybe I'm overly confident, but I assume any Mottizen would have the verbal skill to appear sincere and comprehend the necessary information, if sufficiently determined. Leaving aside that a lot of us might be so wildly personally unpleasant that we would be rejected on other grounds.

Proper Orthodox conversion involves living a frum life under supervision and getting a Beth Din to certify it. In the UK and the Commonwealth that means living as part of a frum Jewish family for several months, and they send reports on your performance to the Beth Din, as does the Rabbi at the local synagogue and your Torah teacher. The London Beth Din is stricter than average - I don't know if there are any lax Beth Dins whose conversions the Israeli Rabbinate recognises for Law of Return purposes.

So I don't think a talented wordcel could fake an Orthodox Jewish conversion with ordinary effort.

Note that the Israeli authorities do not recognise Conservative and Reform conversions. (They don't really recognise Conservative and Reform Judaism as valid forms of Jewish religious practice at all, and most Conservative or Reform Jews who make aliyah end up living as secular Jews or "Masortim" - i.e. religious-but-not-synagogue-going Jews - in Israel).

So I don't think a talented wordcel could fake an Orthodox Jewish conversion with ordinary effort.

I mean, given that the supposed stakes are facing down genocide, I think "ordinary effort" in that case is actually pretty high, and could be executed if necessary. The major impediment to most of us being personal attractiveness as candidates, rather than ability to mouth the necessary platitudes and complete the necessary behavioral modifications. I don't know that I would be able to do it, primarily because I believe in Jesus and secondarily because of the circumcision, but for most that probably isn't an insurmountable set of barriers, and I could certainly imagine being forced to do so in a fantasy universe to go undercover or something. It's not rocket surgery.

Note that the Israeli authorities do not recognize Conservative and Reform conversions.

I'm not talmudic scholar enough to dig into what exactly that means but this article states that:

Israel’s “Law of Return” gives foreign-born Jews, or anyone with a Jewish parent, grandparent or spouse, the automatic right to claim Israeli citizenship. Those who convert to non-Orthodox Judaism in another country have been able to gain Israeli citizenship for decades.

But it does appear that Orthodox is a better bet to guarantee recognition.

Let us engage with this low (but not zero) probability scenario realistically.

If these fears come true, if big boog comes for real and US of A turn into some combination of Syria, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Zimbabwe and Chernobyl exclusion zone, then whole world's economy and international order (with its arcane system of passports, visas and residency permits) goes straight to the toilet. US passport and US dollar would be as useful as Tsarist passport and rouble was about 1920. No one in this world is going to welcome any refugees or send any humanitarian aid.

If you see this future as highly probable and want to escape it, you need to act now, you need to leave ASAP and gain some sort of legal existence elsewhere far from North American continent (and any current or potential war zone) before the hammer falls and all doors shut.

I mean, if the US government is cleansing red tribers in Alaska of all places, then it's not a civil war anymore- the blue have already won so convincingly that there's no real civil disturbance.

Yea, it is about year 1923.

If you have truly passive income, then Costa Rica and Paraguay welcome you and your social security check.

If the Big Woke Cleanse comes, first thing they'd do is debank you. So no SSI check for deplorables. The Party will find a better use for that money.

you and your social security check.

Assumes the SSI checks still keep coming, despite living in a foreign country after having fled a Democrat "de-Nazification" program gone democidal. (Especially if I still need a representative payee then.)

And SSI pays less than the minimum pension amount ($1000 US/mo) for the Costa Rican "Pensionado Program" (let alone the $2500 US/mo for the Rentista Program).

Wait how do you live off of that? IIRC you live on your own, right?

No country particularly wants somebody it’s paying pensions for itself, although Russia is very happy to take you into the army(hope you like дедовсчина) and plenty of third world countries don't have the capacity to exclude you if you just fly in and hang around(do you speak Swahili?), they’re not cutting you a check.

Wait how do you live off of that? IIRC you live on your own, right?

A few hundred a month from the state of Alaska on top of the SSI (only while in AK), plus a rent subsidy (via Alaska Housing — which is basically a quango — which is, in turn, ultimately funded by HUD). That said, I still pay over $600 in rent after that subsidy, and when you add on utilities, phone, internet, etc., I'm left with about $500/mo. for food, hygiene, laundry, clothing, transportation, etc., in a place where the cost of living is something like 23% higher than the national average.

So, basically, by barely scraping by. (Hence why I've asked in the past for ideas of ways to make a few extra bucks, to ease things slightly without sending me over the "welfare cliff.")

hope you like дедовсчина

It's дедовщина and that's for young recruits in the peacetime army. What you'd get in the current army is way, way, way worse (but probably won't last long - people who don't know anybody and can't contribute much to their unit materially or otherwise are the first to be used in the infamous "meat assaults").

although Russia is very happy to take you into the army(hope you like дедовсчина)

Not when you are a diagnosed schizophrenic.

Paraguay would welcome you, and if you have $1k in rents or jobs from somewhere you could live quite well.

Paraguay would welcome you,

According to a cursory search, part of the process for getting even two-year temporary residency (apparently, permanent residency requires a minimum investment of $70,000?) is a "Paraguayan medical certificate," a document confirming one is in good physical and mental health. Wouldn't schizophrenia be an issue for that?

  1. This would not be a problem in practice unless you are a visible leper, and perhaps not even then.
  2. 70K was the requirement to get it fast, but you can just get the permanent one 2y after the temporary one if you decide to stay.

You could probably come to Argentina, but the welfare you get here, if any, would probably be significantly less than what you get in Alaska.

You could probably come to Argentina

Hasn't Milei tightened up residency requirements?

Plus, with a quick cursory search, I'm not seeing for which of these visas I'd qualify.

I mean, if we are serious about the idea of de-Nazification actually happening, Argentina does have historical precedent...

Hasn't Milei tightened up residency requirements?

Yeah, but in practice it's just for the browns (and occasionally the Russians).

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