It's not really about stupid. Yeah Joe's a complete idiot and always has been but the rest of the liberal elites are calling out the plays precisely according to their playbook. They fully intend to keep all of us normal folks in pain as much as possible. After all, energy prices doubling doesn't affect them in the least. The rest of us have to limit going out to eat, maybe our travel and vacations and anything else that we would typically do with disposable income. Oh well, that's just what "they" want.
As for dealing with it all? I'm working a 3rd job now. And it's not like I'm working day and night, I just started doing a little mechanic work a day or two a week since I'm only working 3-4 days a week for my primary paycheck. And my farming sideline only takes up a few weeks from June to October.
Also, put a brake caliper on my old LeSabre that it's been needing for a while. It's an '03 and it'll still get 30mpg highway. Anytime I don't need a HD truck, I drive the old turd wherever I need to go. It rides nicer than anything else I own and it's pretty comfy.
On your HD trucks, keeping the tires pumped up makes a difference. Even if you like running them at 50-60 psi, if you can stand 80 that's where they'll get the best mileage, especially towing.
I don't have my Ram yet but I used to run an S&B CAI on my Dmax's. The oiled cotton filter was worth a little mileage. I know they're a hot topic, guys either love them or hate them with the dissenters claiming you'd just as well dump dirt in your engine. But running on the highway, they're fine, just don't over oil them. I ran a 2012 Dmax up to 333k miles with one and it not only still didn't burn any oil, Blackstone Labs oil analysis showed that I was running every bit as clean an oil sample as those who ran paper filters. So take that for what it's worth and do what you will.
I really can't complain about 2020 and 2021. My wife has a good job and we've been busy and doing well. But I know it hasn't been that easy for everyone. Hopefully we'll get this all behind us and back to "normal" soon.