5 ms·

As someone who's been "prepping" for years, I got a few apologies after the pandemic began by people who used to think I was nuts. However, I think the reason

As someone who's been "prepping" for years, I got a few apologies after the pandemic began by people who used to think I was nuts. However, I think the reason they thought I was nuts wasn't because I was doing anything that was nuts; having extra food;clothing;water;medicine, a "bug out" bag, and some firearms isn't really extreme in any way. The problem with prepping is the term "prepping" itself, especially its association with "doomsday prepping", which is mostly an invention of the sensationalist media. Sure, such preppers do exist, but they are an extreme minority. The media focuses on them because they are the most entertaining. Practical preparedness is boring, at least in the TV sense. The average prepper is more concerned with weather events(inc. fires, earthquakes), civil unrest, pandemics, etc. Don't get me wrong, I've met some preppers IRL that are kind of delusional, but even they aren't "doomsday" preppers. I don't think I've ever knowingly met a "doomsday" prepper. Unfortunately, I do think that the media's mockery of prepping did nothing to encourage people to prepare in a practical way, and if anything it discouraged people who have a distaste for things they believe are right-wing. In my opinion, prepping needs to be rebranded. We should probably drop the term "prepping" all together and just call it something like "civil preparedness". A little promotion from FEMA would help, too, especially if done under Biden, since FEMA has pretty much abandoned any meaningful public communication about preparing people for emergencies. FEMA, and formerly the US DoD as well as Office of Civil Defense, used to publish more literature on emergency preparedness and response, but you'll notice that after the late 1980s those efforts significantly declined. In any case, the title of the article implies that lots of preppers are "crazy folk" and provides what seems like an alternative that is not crazy. The reality is that this article describes exactly what at least 95% of preppers do. Well, besides the zombie apocalypse part.

JoeAltmaier 6y ago
I find that folks are in denial. They don't want to think of being on their own, with civil society in disorder. They feel (understandably) helpless in such a situation. So they cling to the idea that it "won't happen here" and anyone preparing for it is foolish. We'd have to get over that mental hill, before folks can come out on the other side and start sensibly preparing. I've thought a civil preparedness plan could be building-by-building for instance. Multi-family dwellings could have a set of shared resources. Makes it more palatable, when 'everyone is doing it'.
briffle 6y ago
I agree. Some would call my family preppers, but we live in an area likely to be devastated by a major earthquake. We wanted at least 2 weeks of supplies, water, etc in case of it. We actually were closer to a month. People thought we were strange, until toilet paper and meat shortages at our local stores this year. I have had a few friends ask me for advice on stocking up now. We started back when we lived in the Midwest. We had a basic "tornado kit" in the basement (our first year, there were a bunch of tornadoes within 5 miles of our home) and then later, a blizzard knocked out power. Of course, the power company does the big city first, then works their way out to the country. Took us 3 days to get power back. We had propane, but the furnace needs electricity to start up the fan. The Well needs power to run the pump, etc. I was very eye opening to us.
enlightens 6y ago
The idea of civil preparedness sounds a bit like https://www.ready.gov/ https://www.ready.gov/
stagger87 6y ago
I will disagree with the idea that doomsday preppers are an extreme minority and with the idea that they are an invention of media. Doomsday prepping is pushed by several large religious organizations such as LDS, JW, and SDA to name a few. Between just these three organizations there are ~10M US citizens whose beliefs align with a doomsday scenario, and a large percentage of these people prep at the insistence and recommendation of their church.
- onecommentman 6y ago
  There’s a bit more nuance than that: https://mormonbeliefs.org/2016/05/02/mormons-doomsday-preppers/ https://mormonbeliefs.org/2016/05/02/mormons-doomsday-preppe... https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/56kmto/doomsday_preppers/ https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/56kmto/doomsday_prepp... Doomsday prepping as a phrase is an oxymoron. If there is a Doomsday, whatever that is, toilet paper is going to be the least of your concerns, almost by definition. Maybe Darnsday prepping. Or just simple due diligence, or keeping a well-stocked pantry as your ancestors did for centuries.

JoeAltmaier 6y ago

I find that folks are in denial. They don't want to think of being on their own, with civil society in disorder. They feel (understandably) helpless in such a situation. So they cling to the idea that it "won't happen here" and anyone preparing for it is foolish. We'd have to get over that mental hill, before folks can come out on the other side and start sensibly preparing. I've thought a civil preparedness plan could be building-by-building for instance. Multi-family dwellings could have a set of shared resources. Makes it more palatable, when 'everyone is doing it'.

briffle 6y ago

I agree. Some would call my family preppers, but we live in an area likely to be devastated by a major earthquake. We wanted at least 2 weeks of supplies, water, etc in case of it. We actually were closer to a month. People thought we were strange, until toilet paper and meat shortages at our local stores this year. I have had a few friends ask me for advice on stocking up now. We started back when we lived in the Midwest. We had a basic "tornado kit" in the basement (our first year, there were a bunch of tornadoes within 5 miles of our home) and then later, a blizzard knocked out power. Of course, the power company does the big city first, then works their way out to the country. Took us 3 days to get power back. We had propane, but the furnace needs electricity to start up the fan. The Well needs power to run the pump, etc. I was very eye opening to us.

enlightens 6y ago

The idea of civil preparedness sounds a bit like https://www.ready.gov/ https://www.ready.gov/

stagger87 6y ago

I will disagree with the idea that doomsday preppers are an extreme minority and with the idea that they are an invention of media. Doomsday prepping is pushed by several large religious organizations such as LDS, JW, and SDA to name a few. Between just these three organizations there are ~10M US citizens whose beliefs align with a doomsday scenario, and a large percentage of these people prep at the insistence and recommendation of their church.

onecommentman 6y ago
There’s a bit more nuance than that: https://mormonbeliefs.org/2016/05/02/mormons-doomsday-preppers/ https://mormonbeliefs.org/2016/05/02/mormons-doomsday-preppe... https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/56kmto/doomsday_preppers/ https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/56kmto/doomsday_prepp... Doomsday prepping as a phrase is an oxymoron. If there is a Doomsday, whatever that is, toilet paper is going to be the least of your concerns, almost by definition. Maybe Darnsday prepping. Or just simple due diligence, or keeping a well-stocked pantry as your ancestors did for centuries.