prepper industry – noble or just marketing s~~~ to gullible fools?

[Anonymous 42]

I’m wide spread disaster proof with everything from generators to chainsaws, and stock piling rice and beans, have potassium iodide pills too in case of an atomic accident or not so accident. I have enough livestock meat to last a few months not including the dogs.

[X11Spectator 4520]

Peppers don’t realise they are doing all the logistics to ensure the survival of the worst predatory gang types. The true killers will eat the prepper’s carcass while raping his wife and kids.

That’s the irony of it.

IB4 – I got boom sticks and ammo to protectin mine.

[BeerParticipant 11832]

X11 wrote:

Peppers don’t realise they are doing all the logistics to ensure the survival of the worst predatory gang types. The true killers will eat the prepper’s carcass while raping his wife and kids.

That’s the irony of it.

IB4 – I got boom sticks and ammo to protectin mine.

Haha that is how I have always felt about it. I live in a condo building in too populated of an area. Even if I have a month worth of food in my cabinets and live right by a river so I could boil off all the water I needed for drinking, its not going to help much because when people get desperate I’m either going to get killed or its going to get taken/stolen, and even if I managed to use all the s~~~ for myself eventually I’d run out and if the s~~~ hits the fan scenario hadn’t blown over yet…then what? As s~~~ty as it sounds I’d have better luck just arming myself, staying mobile, and f~~~ing other people over than I would trying to prep and bunker down here.

I think The Walking Dead is actually a great example of why prepping is sort of pointless. I’m not expecting a zombie apocalypse anytime soon, but what happens in the show for those that don’t watch it is when society collapses people are 1000x more threatening to each other than the zombies are. I think those who would fair the best in a s~~~ hits the fan scenario wouldn’t be the ones with a decade worth of food and pallets of ammo…those guys would just be the best targets for others…it would be people in sparsely populated areas who knew how to grow food and live off the land. You can’t rip off a 10 years supply worth of food when most of it hasn’t been grown yet, and you probably aren’t going to kill the guy working the land because then you’d have to work it yourself.

[X11Spectator 4520]

I have seen docile farmers neighbours for generations point guns at each other when water got scarce for stock.

The only farmer that conserved pasture and water just had it robbed anyway.

[ironheartParticipant 948]

Live through a disaster, a real disaster, and you will see very quickly that not all of the Prepper stuff is nonsense. The problem is even in disasters someone is trying to make a buck, usually off the fear.

You find out what kind of community you really have, that much is for sure.

City dwellers who plan for anything other then bugging out are deluded. Large urban areas will be hell even for the cops and military to deal with for the months after a serious disaster. Just look at how bad the looting gets to be now with a simple hurricane.

There is nothing noble in the prepper industry. A neigbour who is willing to give you a beer on a hot day, already knows what the best prepping plan is. Have good friends and people who can stand together.

That being said — find a place in the country and get to know the people who live there. If you can trust them over time, you have some insurance that no amount of stockpiling will help you with.

I say that as someone who originates from a small town, where I had my life saved a few times by people who cared enough to look out for their next-door neighbours in some of the worse conditions imaginable.

"Women have become so full of hatred that they are blind to reason and humanity. That which they practice will be the end of humanity, long before any war that men may fight.." "Women are predators by nature. Why else do you think they are so quick to gang up and go after a man they hate for showing any sign of weakness?"

[Puffin StuffParticipant 24979]

City dweller here. Lived in LA for 30 years. Prepping for earthquakes was essential. When we had a really had one like around 1994 Northridge earthquake many people were injured because they didn’t have their prep’s ready. You need sneakers, a flashlight and water.

Most injuries I saw were severe lacerations from people trying to leave their house from their beds with bare feet and broken glass everywhere. Their feet got cut up pretty bad.

They recommend keeping the sneakers underneath the bed to keep them close.

#icethemout; Remember Thomas Ball. He died for your children.

[sidecarParticipant 35851]

Beer wrote:

I’d have better luck just arming myself, staying mobile,

So in other words, camping.

I’m serious about that. A SHTF scenario seems as good a time as any to get out and hike, for example, the Pacific Rim Trail. At least for a few weeks until the first few rounds of chaos have settled down. Then make plans from there depending on the situation.

[NomadicExpatParticipant 1785]

Everything in moderation.

The conspiracy/TEOTWAWKI stuff can drive you insane while getting you nowhere. Turn off the chatter and just focus on the basics.

Modern Western Civilization is completely, utterly reliant on “the grid”. As others have noted, should ANY big disaster hit, every store will be out of goods within a matter of hours.

Moderation, IMHO is 30 days worth of necessities.

[OldBillParticipant]

sidecar wrote:

So in other words, camping.

Your SHTF plans sounds much like mine.

I’ve a bug-out bag in the car, something old artillerymen always have. I can put my hands on a tent, a sleeping bag, about a week’s (eat 3x a day, longer if less) worth of freeze dried food, a “wind-up” radio, and other things within minutes because I regularly hike, camp, kayak, etc. By first car and then foot/water, I can be in some pretty remote places in under 90 minutes despite living in coastal New England.

I also have guns, the details of which I won’t discuss here. More importantly and unlike a majority of “preppers”, I have used guns in the past to kill other human beings.

That’s the $64,000 Question. Are you going to pull the trigger the instant you need to? Or are you going to hesitate until it’s too late?

All that presupposes a hardcore SHTF scenario. A far more likely one is a “soft” or economic SHTF akin to the 1998-2002 Argentine depression. In that episode, the government and economy functioned just well enough to keep the country from actually falling apart while currency and other banks control meant the population fell back onto a barter system of goods and labor to meet their most pressing needs.

A similar episode in the US would be far worse thanks to the huge number of parasites wholly dependent on government assistance programs.

Do not date. Do not impregnate. Do not co-habitate. Above all, do not marry. Reclaim and never again surrender your personal sovereignty.

[X11Spectator 4520]

What scares me is the lowest forms of life now eg drug dealers, thugs, violent criminals etc won’t even notice hardly the world has gone to s~~~, in fact they will rise to the top of the food chain and truly be able to express themselves……and rule.

[OldBillParticipant]

X11 wrote:

What scares me is the lowest forms of life now eg drug dealers, thugs, violent criminals etc won’t even notice hardly the world has gone to s~~~…

When the government checks stop being mailed, they most certainly will and for two reasons: First, crime doesn’t pay as well or as regular as you’d think and, second, their “customers” use government handouts to pay for the goods and services they provide.

As Freakonomics explained, nearly all drug dealers and other similar types still live with their mothers because the vast majority of them don’t actually earn enough support themselves through crime. They live in Section 8 housing, are fed with EBT, WIC, and food stamps, get Oboingo phones, subsidized cable and internet, and lots of other handouts. Stop the handouts and those filth will notice.

Taxpayers provide these scum with what they need, so they can then commit crimes to “earn” what they want.

Do not date. Do not impregnate. Do not co-habitate. Above all, do not marry. Reclaim and never again surrender your personal sovereignty.

[X11Spectator 4520]

I agree for low level street scum. I was referring to the guys that run the street scum.

Back to gear, the knife fanatics I know have these f~~~ing stupid IMO tests for their survival knives.

For example battoning timber, they hold it up as the holy grail of survival knife tests. Also other s~~~ like cutting trees down with knives etc.

One word you goofy f~~~s, starts with tomo ends with hawk.

Actually same weight as a typical survival knife and 10x better at nearly every task including self defence.

I now wait the rage.

[OldBillParticipant]

X11 wrote:

I agree for low level street scum. I was referring to the guys that run the street scum.

Their numbers are relatively low and they’re rather high up on the distribution chain. Freakonomics has an entire chapter devoted to this. The number of “high level” drug dealers is no where near the number you’re assuming and the amount of money the vast majority of drug dealers make isn’t enough to pay the rent.

Most dealers deal to support their own habit and Breaking Bad was a fictional TV show.

Do not date. Do not impregnate. Do not co-habitate. Above all, do not marry. Reclaim and never again surrender your personal sovereignty.

[sidecarParticipant 35851]

OldBill wrote:

A similar episode in the US would be far worse thanks to the huge number of parasites wholly dependent on government assistance programs.

Who tend to be concentrated in just a few densely packed regions. So long as you, yourself, remain well outside of those regions, they don’t pose nearly as much of a threat to general survivability as Hollywood would have everyone believe.

Most people don’t realize just how sparsely populated this continent is away from the cities and major highways.

[MonkParticipant 17049]

As long as you survive the first 30 days of a total SHTF scenario, you will probably make it. Most will starve to death or be killed in that time.

The biggest danger will be armed street gangs looking to survive by looting.

Once the cities are depleted (which will take only about 7 days), they will start coming out into the countryside.

[OldBillParticipant]

sidecar wrote:

Who tend to be concentrated in just a few densely packed regions.

Thankfully.

So long as you, yourself, remain well outside of those regions, they don’t pose nearly as much of a threat to general survivability as Hollywood would have everyone believe.

They have cars too or, more accurately, will appropriate cars. I’m just over 90 minutes from Boston and don’t relish the thought of a caravan of Dorchester residents driving north looking for farms because that’s where the TV always told them the food was made. While there will be plenty of attrition along the way, that only means the real hard cases will get to my neck of the woods.

Most people don’t realize just how sparsely populated this continent is away from the cities and major highways.

Tell me about it. I’ve been in extremely empty places in the Lower 48. I drove from Miles City, Montana to Estevan, Saskatchewan once because flying would have taken longer. I passed through the northwest “corner” of North Dakota and didn’t see anyone for hours. I couldn’t even get a signal on the radio. Every time I saw a gas pump, I pulled over and topped off.

Do not date. Do not impregnate. Do not co-habitate. Above all, do not marry. Reclaim and never again surrender your personal sovereignty.

[Anonymous 11]

The Korean store owners wielding AKs that held off an entire mob during the Rodney King LA riots(early 90s) are a perfect example of surviving in an urban scenario. Their stores were not looted.

This crowd was pretty large and held at bay. A basic infantry squad alone would have easily taken out those Koreans.

Mobs of people are quite stupid so you use it against them. They can be dangerous, and I’d fight like a cornered rat.

[Puffin StuffParticipant 24979]

I remember those Koreans. They parked their cars next to one another and facing out from the front of the store to blind attackers and had gun men on the roof acting as snipers. Nobody f~~~ed with them.

#icethemout; Remember Thomas Ball. He died for your children.

[ironheartParticipant 948]

If you do live in an urban area, the idea of long-term camping is not a bad one.

If you cannot afford to have a full faraway bug out location, then at least scout out and pre-camp in areas you know are largely people free. Knowing the terrain you are hiding in is important. Both for defense if you have to flee and hide from others, as well as where the potential for save water, food, forage and alternative storm shelter can be found. Camping in multiple different regions is advised, as well as winter camping if you can manage it.

One advantage of living in Canada and in some US states is that there is a lot of crown public land where you can bury small caches of canned and dry food, along with maybe back up medical supplies or clothing. You can rotate each cache every few years. Longer if packed well and buried deep enough.

It may be something you never need, but if you do……..

Most disasters are localized, and so the crisis will pass after a couple weeks and when FEMA/EMO gets mobilized. But long-term stuff will likely take you away from your city location for good. Cities will be horrible to try and exist in. Still if you have a home or apartment, look at stashing some stuff now if you can find hideyholes for it in your building. Basic looters are rarely determined enough to spend the time to look in detail for basic necessities. Disguise is your friend when it comes to that.

If you have to move back to the urban location afterwards, at least you should have some basic supplies to fall back on there too. That way you can hide your country supplies outside the urban location, and act like you have nothing but the clothes on your back. It will make you less a target while traveling between locations.

Again all basic common sense, that does not require large monetary outputs. It just requires some fore-thought.

You really do not need the extreme stuff like a storm shelter/bunker unless you are out in the country areas. There is so much stuff in your house that you can improvise to help save your life, that does not require the merchandise you see in Prepper magazines.

The armed madness in the US cities is something I would not like to face after the first week. I saw enough of it when on location there after hurricane work. Living there without a firearm as backup is madness. Salvaging one off a dead or wounded person should be a consideration. If it gets THAT bad that people are actively hunting and killing each other, the key will be effective hiding.

Brains and knowledge are the best survival tool above all else. That never changes.

"Women have become so full of hatred that they are blind to reason and humanity. That which they practice will be the end of humanity, long before any war that men may fight.." "Women are predators by nature. Why else do you think they are so quick to gang up and go after a man they hate for showing any sign of weakness?"

[chirParticipant]

Problem with bugging out to the forest is that a s~~~-ton of other people will also do this. Forests will become a killing field of people who have bugged out and think they can survive in the forest armed to the teeth. I took some primitive survival classes just for knowledge and I can say. IT SUCKS DEAD DONKEY B~~~~. There is a lot of food available but a lot of it can KILL YOU DEAD, if you misidentify a plant or mushroom.
In a SHTF scenario, you shoot a gun taking game you identify your location. You start a fire you locate yourself, you cook and people will show up looking for your food.
If you are in the city or suburbs and think about bugging out make sure you have somewhere to go.

It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion, it is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning; it is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.

[Author]

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