# It is wise to scoff at preppers? Are their fears really so outlandish? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 24, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769 "2015-01-24T17:24:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/21 "2015-01-25T02:47:15Z")
I freely admit that I snobbishly dismiss survivalists out of hand. There is no going back to an agrarian society or way of life. Modern Western civilization is so interconnected that there would be no hope of living any sort of decent life for any length of time before starving to death. Unless you’re very close to living that way now. I also admit that I would have little to no desire to even try to live with that kind of low quality of life anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/22 "2015-01-25T03:16:49Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Nothing wrong with being prepared for an emergency. Being prepared for armageddon, on the other hand, is pointless. For one thing, the world is unlikely to end any time soon. Even without a global apocalypse, the probability of civilization collapsing is also fairly small. And if the world _does_ end, do you really want to hang around? And if you would like to live in the remains of a world like that, and in fact succeed in doing so (for a while anyway), how long could you last anyway? What happens after you finish the last can of beans? What happens after the stored fuel runs out? Where will you get clean water from? Will all the fallout have settled by then so you can come topside safely? See the end-of-the-world scene at the end of Cat’s Cradle. They survived on canned food they salvaged from the deserted stores and then on frozen birds that they found. What happens when there are no more of those nearby? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e79b87/32.png) [@The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Joker_and_the_Thief)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/23 "2015-01-25T04:15:15Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > I regard my neighbours as my fail-safe when the End Times come. > > If they are preppers, all the more cool stuff. I hope you understand that preppers are prepared for people like you. Also, “I’m just going to steal whatever I need” is a pretty morally contemptible attitude to have, and I don’t know why you take pride in it. ---
**Author:** ![Bouncer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9d8465/32.png) [@Bouncer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bouncer)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/24 "2015-01-25T05:09:34Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > I freely admit that I snobbishly dismiss survivalists out of hand. There is no going back to an agrarian society or way of life. Modern Western civilization is so interconnected that there would be no hope of living any sort of decent life for any length of time before starving to death. Unless you’re very close to living that way now. > > I also admit that I would have little to no desire to even try to live with that kind of low quality of life anyway. I’m not quite as sure of that as you are: First, there are quite a few places (basically much of the third world) that are agrarian focused and would tend to survive just fine without a venti double mocha latte. They’ve done so up till today. Second, while I grant you many people might miss the annual pumpkin spice frenzy and UGG boots, there is something to be said for a more relaxing pace of life. And while there is work in farming, it’s more work if you’re in it for profitable farming for maximum trade value. If you’re trying to support yourself and a small family and have some barter options, you don’t really need a whole lot of equipment. If you have some chickens then you have eggs and meat. If you have a reasonably clean stream you have potable water and likely fish. Add a few sheep and goats and you have more meat, plus milk, plus wool, plus leather and the list goes on. Add in some canning, vegetables/fruit gardens and a mild climate, and life could be not that bad at all. It’s really only when you get into cows, horses and larger scale farming that things get progressively more serious. Look at this property: [http://www.countryrealestatebroker.com/Properties/Gatzke/detail.htm](http://www.countryrealestatebroker.com/Properties/Gatzke/detail.htm) 130 acres including hard and softwoods, arable farmland, grazing land, barn and outbuildings prebuilt… I grant you, your life expectancy would be somewhat less, but that doesn’t mean it’d be some medieval filth encrusted hell hole either. People were living into the sixties and seventies on a regular basis in the 1860s. Because that’s really what you’re talking about, in the end. Loss of electricity/communications, city supplied water/sewage, trash collection/disposal and modern medicine. Loss of transportation and oil based systems. Which is again, the way we lived in the 1860’s for much of the countryside and the way many people in the third world live right now. Regards, -Bouncer- ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/25 "2015-01-25T05:43:52Z")
> [@Bouncer](#): > > Which is the way we lived in the 1860’s for much of the countryside and the way many people in the third world live right now. > Look at this property: [http://www.countryrealestatebroker.c](http://www.countryrealestatebroker.c)…zke/detail.htm 130 acres including hard and softwoods, arable farmland, grazing land, barn and outbuildings prebuilt… Your 130 acres are gonna be a little crowded… There are 300 million of us today. In the 1860’s there were 30 million. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Holdsworth\_Effect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@The\_Holdsworth\_Effect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Holdsworth_Effect)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/26 "2015-01-25T05:47:59Z")
Bouncer, my Vermont ancestors in the 1700s-1900s regularly lived well into their 80s and 90s with the occasional centenarian, and both my maternal ggm lived to 97. They were “poor”, peasant stock, and worked very very hard. For whatever reason, I have spent much of my life living like a prepper, without the years of stores. Just pretty self sufficient. If TSHTF, we’d likely survive just as they did- because while we enjoy technology very much, we can get along without it. I/we don’t have a prepper mentality, because I can’t live like that. That said, I am aware of my surroundings, have skills, can do a psyops if I have to, and if you try and steal my stuff or hurt my family I will go Rambo on you. I’d much rather be your granny, which is what I look like. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/27 "2015-01-25T06:30:38Z")
One should always have backup plans for emergency. Loss of job? Tornado? Losing ones electricity for more than a few days? Live in a hurricane zone? Civil unrest where you cant leave your home for a few days? ---
**Author:** ![vomit\_comet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/73ab20/32.png) [@vomit\_comet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vomit_comet)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/28 "2015-01-25T06:35:02Z")
You don’t need to be a prepper, just have more guns and ammo than the best prepper you know. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/29 "2015-01-25T08:24:32Z")
I can’t afford more guns & ammo than the best prepper I know. Therefore, I remain friends with him! In all seriousness, beyond a basic amount of “oh crap” gear - food and water and fuel in case of a couple of days or a couple of weeks worth of disruption, I think that preppers are rather silly. When the Big One hits the fan, I sincerely doubt that more stuff will save me. My knowledge of how to find/get/manufacture/repair stuff might, but just stockpiling ridiculous amounts of stuff is futile, IMHO. And, if the SHTF in a major, civilization-collapsing way, I’m not so sure I’d want to be part of the rebuilding effort anyway. ---
**Author:** ![vomit\_comet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/73ab20/32.png) [@vomit\_comet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vomit_comet)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/30 "2015-01-25T08:37:05Z")
The preppers they have on the (un)reality TV shows are mostly silly but I see nothing wrong with being self sufficient and being able to sustain yourself for a few weeks or months or longer if you are in a position to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/31 "2015-01-25T10:33:47Z")
If you read the Zombie Squad forums, you’ll realise that most preppers are not loons. They analyse the threats and possible disasters that may affect them and make appropriate plans. These range from the mundane - snowed in and utility lines down (no water, electricity, or gas) - to the serious - forced evacuation, forest fires, and the like. If you’ve ever given consideration to what you’d do if a police officer ordered you to evacuate, you’re a prepper. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/32 "2015-01-25T11:47:31Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > most preppers are not loons. They analyse …and make appropriate plans. > If you’ve ever given consideration to what you’d do if a police officer ordered you to evacuate, you’re a prepper. Yeah, but where’s the fun in that? 🙂 Who wants to be labelled “an analyser with appropriate plans”? “Prepper” is a neat word: it’s an easy label, and a smug way to look down on other people. Plus, it’s fun to say out loud. 🙂 To me, if you call yourself a prepper, you’re loony. Normal people don’t need to give themselves a label, and don’t put any huge effort into their preperations. They just, in the course of regular life, buy a few extra supplies\* from time to time, to keep the house stocked for an emergency. \*“supplies” does not include military style rifles. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/33 "2015-01-25T13:41:53Z")
I’m a city boy from a long line of city boys, and I don’t ever intend to be anything else. There’s no way I’d survive the collapse of civilization, so I guess the only thing I have to do is try my hardest to make sure it doesn’t collapse, and if it does collapse, I’ll immediately start working with my fellow citizens to build a new one. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/34 "2015-01-25T14:21:01Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Yeah, but where’s the fun in that? 🙂 > Who wants to be labelled “an analyser with appropriate plans”? > > “Prepper” is a neat word: it’s an easy label, and a smug way to look down on other people. Plus, it’s fun to say out loud. 🙂 > > To me, if you call yourself a prepper, you’re loony. > Normal people don’t need to give themselves a label, and don’t put any huge effort into their preperations. They just, in the course of regular life, buy a few extra supplies\* from time to time, to keep the house stocked for an emergency. > \*“supplies” does not include military style rifles. There are words for people who don’t prepare but rely instead on wishful thinking. Those words, alas aren’t fun to say nor do they engender an enjoyable feeling of smugness. You probably know a couple of these words. Refugee…casualty…victim…no, definitely not fun words. But hey, you’re you. Nothing bad has ever happened to you, so nothing bad is ever going to happen. Bad stuff happens to other people, elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/35 "2015-01-25T16:01:07Z")
> [@Bouncer](#): > > I’m not quite as sure of that as you are: > > First, there are quite a few places (basically much of the third world) that are agrarian focused and would tend to survive just fine without a venti double mocha latte. They’ve done so up till today. > > Second, while I grant you many people might miss the annual pumpkin spice frenzy and UGG boots, there is something to be said for a more relaxing pace of life. And while there is work in farming, it’s more work if you’re in it for profitable farming for maximum trade value. If you’re trying to support yourself and a small family and have some barter options, you don’t really need a whole lot of equipment. > > If you have some chickens then you have eggs and meat. If you have a reasonably clean stream you have potable water and likely fish. Add a few sheep and goats and you have more meat, plus milk, plus wool, plus leather and the list goes on. Add in some canning, vegetables/fruit gardens and a mild climate, and life could be not that bad at all. It’s really only when you get into cows, horses and larger scale farming that things get progressively more serious. > > Look at this property: [http://www.countryrealestatebroker.com/Properties/Gatzke/detail.htm](http://www.countryrealestatebroker.com/Properties/Gatzke/detail.htm) 130 acres including hard and softwoods, arable farmland, grazing land, barn and outbuildings prebuilt… > > I grant you, your life expectancy would be somewhat less, but that doesn’t mean it’d be some medieval filth encrusted hell hole either. People were living into the sixties and seventies on a regular basis in the 1860s. > > Because that’s really what you’re talking about, in the end. Loss of electricity/communications, city supplied water/sewage, trash collection/disposal and modern medicine. Loss of transportation and oil based systems. Which is again, the way we lived in the 1860’s for much of the countryside and the way many people in the third world live right now. > > Regards, > -Bouncer- I agree with this in every regard. Some of us actually enjoy living this way. I don’t call myself a prepper, I think it’s a dumb term. But I imagine I’d do ok in most circumstances. ‘Prepping’ is not why I do what I do, however. I really take enormous pleasure in growing my own food, doing the canning and preserving, looking after livestock and living in the country. I live in a beautiful forest, get to laugh at chickens, piglets or goats frolicking. Go fishing when I like. Sometimes wildlife puts on a show. What’s not to love? If the power goes out for two weeks, I yawn and poke up the fire in the wood burner. It’s really quite pleasant. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/36 "2015-01-25T18:25:10Z")
Having been around boats, single handed sailing, off shore boating, if you were not a prepper, you are not likely reading this. Their are all kinds of reasons to and degrees of prepping. \*\*chappachula \*\*, a light weight hunting rifle should be replaced with a heavy wooden stock hunting rifle because why? Oh, never mind, you must not be able to find any gun related threads. That’s cool. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/37 "2015-01-25T19:35:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Nothing bad has ever happened to you, so nothing bad is ever going to happen. > [@GusNSpot](#): > > \*\*chappachula \*\*, a light weight hunting rifle should be replaced with a heavy wooden stock hunting rifle because why? Gee whiz, guys…lighten up a bit, okay? Look at what I wrote: I didn’t say that being prepared is bad…I said that calling yourself a “prepper” is overkill. I agree that everybody should, as I said before, be an “analyzer with appropriate plans”, and _in the course of regular day-to-day life_ stock up on extra supplies—based on reasonable dangers that may affect your neighborhood-snowstorms, tornadoes, etc. And my comment about guns was also in the same vein. A hunting rifle makes sense,and is appropriate for some people. An armory of millitary-style rifles is macho dick-waving… ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/38 "2015-01-25T19:45:11Z")
> [@The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](#): > > Well, there’s a very big difference between having a BOB and having a bunker filled with thousands of cans of beans. What’s a ‘BOB’? A Big Ol’ Bat? Nevermind. I’m thinking it’s a ‘bug out bag’. . ---
**Author:** ![The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e79b87/32.png) [@The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Joker_and_the_Thief)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/39 "2015-01-25T20:17:41Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > What’s a ‘BOB’? A Big Ol’ Bat? > > Nevermind. I’m thinking it’s a ‘bug out bag’. > . Yup. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2015, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769/40 "2015-01-25T21:10:52Z")
IMHO, history has shown that the most valuable thing to have on hand when the shit really hits the fan is citizenship overseas and enough money in your bank account to get there if your country goes to hell. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-wise-to-scoff-at-preppers-are-their-fears-really-so-outlandish/710769.md?page=3)