title: Every Python-related executable broken: "Fatal Python error: init_import_size: Failed to import the site module"
body: <p>I'm very new to python and especially to its ecosystem. Today, I was trying to invoke a python command from my command line that worked perfectly yesterday, but today I got the following fatal error:</p>
  <pre><code>Fatal Python error: init_import_size: Failed to import the site module
  Python runtime state: initialized
  ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'site'
  
  Current thread 0x00000cac (most recent call first):
  &lt;no Python frame&gt;
  </code></pre>
  <p>While trying to find the problem, I soon realized that it was not special to my command. In fact, all python-related executables produce the same error when invoked from any command prompt, no matter where I am in my filesystem. <code>python</code>, <code>python3</code>, <code>anaconda</code> (and its prompt), <code>conda</code>, <code>pip</code>, <code>pip3</code>, ... All of these suddenly don't work anymore. They all fail with the same error message, only the thread is altering.</p>
  <p>In my research I found a very similar error very often, but it was about the <code>encodings</code> module. Also I haven't read about issues where the entire python ecosystem just broke.</p>
  <p>Solutions to said similar error seem to include doing something with the <code>PYTHONPATH</code> and <code>PYTHONHOME</code> envs <strong>if they exist</strong>. But I don't have them, neither as user variable nor as system var.</p>
  <p>I installed python by installing anaconda3 via scoop. It should be the latest version (2020.11). I've been using the installation inside of <code>PyCharm</code> as well as via the command line.</p>
  <p>Does anyone know what the problem here could be? I'm kinda stuck here because I can't even use conda or pip for diagnostics, like calling <code>conda list</code> to find out more about the <code>site</code> packages' status. So, if anyone could help me with this, I'd be very thankful!</p>