Doomsday Preppers.

[thaiturkey]

Cool, I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

It's funny, my wife wanted chickens for that very reason (self-sufficiency), so we got some. Now I'm the one addicted to them (and constantly wanting to get more).

And one prepper was convinced that the ducks on her local pond would cause an epidemic of Avian 'Flu. She'd zap your chickens in the blink of an eye!

In fact, she was one of the smarter ones. She has a shop selling prepper equipment to the gullible and her own prep. madness was no more than promotion for her business.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

I dont have regular TV so have not watched the show. I do watch a lot of preppers on youtube, some of which have been on that show. Some are smart people being very prepared an some are flat out crazy. What bugs me is the people that have more money than sense not only have a room of toilet paper an spam, they are telling other people they need that too. Then there are the ones that think they are prepared for anything an are teaching others how to make bread from scratch using self rising flower. Thats like making a cake from scratch by using a cake mix...

The medical supplies stuff has almost become a joke to me too. Why is a self proclaimed gun expert that has never had any medical experience in his life talking about what should be in everyone first aid kit. Its usually full of junk that you dont need an missing everything you do.. People are always shocked when they look in my medical supplies.


I currently could probably live without going to a store for 2 years an maybe more. It would not be fun but I have food that is canned an some on the hoof that would keep me going that long. I also live in a community that I bet could come together an live well cut off from the world. We buy allot but with everyone around, we can grow or make everything we need if it came down to it. Nothing to do with doom an gloom, just old fashion people living on a mountain...

 

[Q9]

Nat. Geo. Channel has just announced that it will be doing something very much like that.

The 'doomsday scenarios' that motivate most of the sad Preppers are such that most of us probably wouldn't want to survive.

Some catastrophes are more possible than others. Nuclear war? Extremely unlikely. Total breakdown of society? Entirely possible. Hyperinflation and economic collapse? Oh, yes. Martial law? Unlikely but possible. Plague? Highly unlikely. EMP strike? Unlikely, but the possibility is frighteningly real.

Think about this. Do you think the average western Roman citizen thought that it was possible that they'd be invaded and obliterated by barbarians? Probably not. Did medieval Europeans concern themselves with the possibility of a Black Plague that nobody had ever seen before? Of course not. These things happened anyway. Were the Chinese people worried that Mongols were going to come out of freaking nowhere and overrun them before it actually happened? No, because it hadn't happened - yet.

To bring it closer to now, on a smaller scale. Did the average L.A. citizen worry about a possible city-wide riot prior to 1992? If they did, most certainly weren't prepared. The crap hits the fan a LOT, far more often than we're willing to acknowledge, I think, even on a national or global scale. I mean, think about the War for Independence. It went from protests, to noisier protests, to really noisy protests, and then BAM! War! All it took to start a full-scale war was a bunch of angry farmers with guns shooting at some British troops they thought were going to take the magazine (arms storehouse). Think about that.

Now, I'm not advocating the whole "detach yourself from society and live in the middle of nowhere in a bunker" thing, but it pays to be prepared. Disasters have happened on a truly epic scale, and almost every single time there was literally no reason to expect it until it started happening. If you'd told a European in the middle ages that a random plague was going to kill a third of the entire population a year before it started, he'd have either laughed you off or gone all Monty Python and the Holy Grail on you, and then they'd have to see if you weighed the same as a duck because he thought you were a witch.

 

[thaiturkey]

Some catastrophes are more possible than others. Nuclear war? Extremely unlikely. Total breakdown of society? Entirely possible. Hyperinflation and economic collapse? Oh, yes. Martial law? Unlikely but possible. Plague? Highly unlikely. EMP strike? Unlikely, but the possibility is frighteningly real.

Think about this. Do you think the average western Roman citizen thought that it was possible that they'd be invaded and obliterated by barbarians? Probably not. Did medieval Europeans concern themselves with the possibility of a Black Plague that nobody had ever seen before? Of course not. These things happened anyway. Were the Chinese people worried that Mongols were going to come out of freaking nowhere and overrun them before it actually happened? No, because it hadn't happened - yet.

To bring it closer to now, on a smaller scale. Did the average L.A. citizen worry about a possible city-wide riot prior to 1992? If they did, most certainly weren't prepared. The crap hits the fan a LOT, far more often than we're willing to acknowledge, I think, even on a national or global scale. I mean, think about the War for Independence. It went from protests, to noisier protests, to really noisy protests, and then BAM! War! All it took to start a full-scale war was a bunch of angry farmers with guns shooting at some British troops they thought were going to take the magazine (arms storehouse). Think about that.

Now, I'm not advocating the whole "detach yourself from society and live in the middle of nowhere in a bunker" thing, but it pays to be prepared. Disasters have happened on a truly epic scale, and almost every single time there was literally no reason to expect it until it started happening. If you'd told a European in the middle ages that a random plague was going to kill a third of the entire population a year before it started, he'd have either laughed you off or gone all Monty Python and the Holy Grail on you, and then they'd have to see if you weighed the same as a duck because he thought you were a witch.

What are you prepping for and how?

 

[Q9]

What are you prepping for and how?

It's general stuff. We (myself and my family) aren't exactly awash in money, so mainly we're focusing on growing & canning as much of our own food as possible, raising the chickens, preserving seeds, that kind of thing, along with (slowly) accumulating a store of staple foods. We want to eventually get into aquaponics, too.

In a perfect world, we'd have 20 acres, free-range chickens, an aquaponics greenhouse, and a huge garden, but it isn't a perfect world, so we're having to work around the limitations of a neighborhood. We have discussed working together with several families at our church and getting a bunch of land, but that's still talk, sadly.

In my humble opinion, hyperinflation and economic collapse followed by martial law in the major cities is the most likely, which is why I REALLY want to be in the country, that way we could just hunker down and avoid any potential crapstorms.

 

[hemet dennis]

It's general stuff. We (myself and my family) aren't exactly awash in money, so mainly we're focusing on growing & canning as much of our own food as possible, raising the chickens, preserving seeds, that kind of thing, along with (slowly) accumulating a store of staple foods. We want to eventually get into aquaponics, too.

In a perfect world, we'd have 20 acres, free-range chickens, an aquaponics greenhouse, and a huge garden, but it isn't a perfect world, so we're having to work around the limitations of a neighborhood. We have discussed working together with several families at our church and getting a bunch of land, but that's still talk, sadly.

In my humble opinion, hyperinflation and economic collapse followed by martial law in the major cities is the most likely, which is why I REALLY want to be in the country, that way we could just hunker down and avoid any potential crapstorms.

It's all over on December 21st

 

[Q9]

It's all over on December 21st

I'm debating whether or not to have a big "doomsday party" where a bunch of my friends and I wait until midnight on 12-21-12, then proceed to spam as many sites as we can with messages about invading aliens.

 

[hemet dennis]

I'm debating whether or not to have a big "doomsday party" where a bunch of my friends and I wait until midnight on 12-21-12, then proceed to spam as many sites as we can with messages about invading aliens.

I think the power companies should all shut down for 10 min. That would freak some people out.

 

[thaiturkey]

It's general stuff. We (myself and my family) aren't exactly awash in money, so mainly we're focusing on growing & canning as much of our own food as possible, raising the chickens, preserving seeds, that kind of thing, along with (slowly) accumulating a store of staple foods. We want to eventually get into aquaponics, too.

In a perfect world, we'd have 20 acres, free-range chickens, an aquaponics greenhouse, and a huge garden, but it isn't a perfect world, so we're having to work around the limitations of a neighborhood. We have discussed working together with several families at our church and getting a bunch of land, but that's still talk, sadly.

In my humble opinion, hyperinflation and economic collapse followed by martial law in the major cities is the most likely, which is why I REALLY want to be in the country, that way we could just hunker down and avoid any potential crapstorms.

It's amazing what you can harvest from the wild too. Poorer locals here still gather 'vegetables' from the hedgerows, bushes and trees. They fish, keep chickens and, in the rainy season, hunt for frogs, land rats and land crabs. Some still eat bugs and there are businesses that raise them for sale. None of that is for my Western palate, I have to say, and there is plenty of wholesome food available.

The US is still the biggest economy in the world and it has natural resources. The nation may have to make some adjustments as the balance of the world economy changes but I don't think that there will be an economic collapse that leaves everyone to fend for himself. Should it get that bad, would you really want to exist in the world as it might then be? Most survivors would be preying on those how had the means to feed themselves and that would not be a pleasant experience.

 

[JD4570]

To true Thai. Here wild fish and game make up a substantial part of out diet, not to mention wild fruits and nuts. We also raise a good portion of the food we consume. But you also must not forget that anyone trying to prey on what by definition those that are predators would be most unpleasant, for most likely the one who tries to prey on a hunter will become the hunted.