Well, actually, I never much paid attention to the preppers*.
I know that National Geographic did a series of TV shows about them, but other than seeing the 30-second promos, I never watched it.
And occasionally here at the SDope, somebody would mention those crazy preppers, and I’d usually agree, but I don’t think I every posted anything on the subject.
But nowadays, I’m guessing that they are blasting their forums and websites with “I told you so” snark.
Has anybody here been following them during the past week or so?
Are they saying anything interesting?
Or are they afraid of giving away their secrets?
*by “prepper” I don’t mean folks who have a week or two of food , or keep a bug-out bag ready, because they live in areas prone to earthquakes or hurricanes. I’m talking about the hard-core guys with secret cabins up in the hills.
Pretty much there are. I browse Prepper forums online(mostly at Reddit) and at least one of the the Prepper Reddits is considering banning posts that are just bragging about prepared they are and everyone else are idiots.
This is a good learning experience for them as well as everyone else about what needs to be done in crisis. And I hope the government comes up with a plan about what to do if this happens again.
Incidentally I have followed the Prepper Movement since the 80s when it was The Survivalist Movement.
Survivalists were surfacing at the end of the Seventies! That movement sparked my hoarder genetics!
Mr VOW heard, from the electrician, that “somebody” has an entire underground Prepper-type dwelling in the subdivision where we have our AZ off-grid abode. Mr VOW said, “Oh, tell me more!”
The electrician shook his head. “I don’t think I should talk about this any more!”
Well for one thing everyone should have learn to have at least a week’s worth of food on hand. And I don’t mean maniacally buying everything at once when a crisis hits. The best way is to buy canned foods with a good shelf life. Buy 2 cans at a time and slowly build a food cache.
And hopefully the government is learning how to manage an epidemic outbreak and prepares plans for when this happens again.
The preppers are learning whether or not they prepared adequately.
That’s one of the reason i thought the people on Doomsday Preppers were ridiculous and stupid for being on the show. Been on national TV and showing everyone what you have stockpiled just makes a huge target in a crisis.
Not sure why they would, unless they’re completely out of touch with the current situation. I mean, I’m managing on just fine without really preparing anything. I’ve always had a tendency to keep some dry pasta, rice and frozen veggies around. I try to limit my grocery stops a bit more, but I’m still going out if there’s something I particularly need. Like hell am I paying for food delivery.
There’s a local guy who is a trustee for the township next door. He’s always been a prepper (according to him, his monthly township newsletter is sent using 100% renewable energy). He sent out a mass email/newsletter last week to let everyone know that he has provided his “Emergency Preparedness Guide” to everyone for the past 15 years. He’s also been featured on the news twice, and the media is not giving us the correct info - but he has FACTS from his own resources and prepper circles.
He did include the guide in his email. But it was also a brag.
If this situation is what the preppers prepared for, they sure wasted their money.
I’m getting delicious take-out Indian food from the corner, while they’re finally learning how shitty all that freeze-dried food tastes. I’m working remotely in the comfort of my living room, den, etc., while they’re realizing they spent thousands of dollars building an bunker that they don’t really need.
Their issue is psychological, more than anything. However, their psychology has started to infect other people, who stupidly started to hoard things, which sets off a self-fulfilling process. It’s a teleological mindset, in that it will make itself come true no matter what, because they have to justify themselves at all costs.
I think it is a little premature to sit and gloat that the preppers are wrong. We are in the middle of this crisis and no one know exactly how it is going to play out. How long do think take out places will remain open and/or in business if this becomes an extended event that goes on for months?
It won’t go that long. At the moment the actions are in place to protect the vulnerable. Which is a good, humane thing to do. But if it starts to turn into a risk of economies collapsing people are gonna decide to screw the vulnerable and turn the switches to go back to normal, coughs and aches be damned.
I think that’s true. At some point, maybe most of us will have gotten it–to varying degrees, like the flu–and there will be a vaccine, and a certain portion of the elderly will have been sadly killed by it. It won’t be necessary to stop food production or sales, or for everyone to go hide in a bunker.
It’s not a nuclear war. That’s what the preppers want. They want a nuclear war, so they can be “right.” And I guess they will be “right,” at that point.
Agreed. Our household is doing just fine, and we did basically zero prep for this situation.
I say “basically” zero prep because we usually cook at home, therefore we shop at Bulk-O-Rama (including a lot of rice and beans), and we DIY almost all the repairs. So this is business as usual, apart from managing cabin fever and a family of 4 trying to do work/school remotely.
About 18 months ago I converted all my portfolio to mostly bonds, figuring that our luck under Trump could not possibly last much longer. I timed that a bit early, but I’m satisfied with the outcome as of now. To be 100% clear I didn’t see the Trump collapse specifically being due to a pandemic. What I expected was that Trump would get his crisis, as every president does, and he would utterly fuck it up because he’s an idiot.
Though it’s worth saying, as early as 2018 experts were calling out how Trump was setting up the US to absolutely botch a pandemic outbreak. (If you don’t believe me, here is a Vox article from 2 years ago titled “Trump vs. “disease X”
The administration is setting up the US to botch a pandemic response.”
Preppers should be kicking themselves in the pants for prepping for the wrong thing, but I suppose they’ll always say it’s never too late for the red balloons to go up.
Really a “bunker” and “nuclear war”? I think your image what a modern day prepper is is stuck with the visual of an 80s survivalist.
I know some leftists may find this hard to believe but a lot of modern day preppers use climate change to justify what they are doing. (The ones I know do.) Amd they have mentioned the possibilty of a mass epidemic like we seeing now. . I have heard them be anxious about nuclear terrorism and the resulting EMP. But I haven’t heard any of them talk about the threat of “nuclear war” in years.
I figure it’ll either remain workable or else the problem will solve itself. If society collapses and we all go Road Warrior, it’s only a matter of time before the local power plant melts down and solves my issues for me. If that hasn’t happened, it’s a sign that we still have enough government control to keep the other essentials operating and I don’t need a bunker filled with a year’s supply of lentils and a gold brick.
Obviously I was exaggerating. The specifics don’t really matter–the point is that they’re ideologically driven. Most houses in L.A. have preparations to survive after a major earthquake, but the assumption is that society is overall capable and good enough to put itself back together. Prepper ideology (including the Mormons, I’d say) is predicated on a rejection of that notion.