4 ms·

Honestly I think rural people and especially the remaining primitive or hunter gatherer tribes are best positioned to survive. Rich preppers are simply targets

Honestly I think rural people and especially the remaining primitive or hunter gatherer tribes are best positioned to survive. Rich preppers are simply targets for roving gangs in the post apocalyptic world. Meanwhile the people on North Sentinel Island might not have much change to their lives. Who do you think is going to win in a fight between starving navy seals and some yuppie boomer preppers?

giantg2 5y ago
Part of prepping would be location selection. Nothing says they have to stay in an urban area. In fact, I believe most of the northern hemisphere would be unsurvivable in a "full scale" nuclear war. Places like south America and Africa might fair better, but that is highly dependent on distribution of the radioactive fallout. I'm not sure about your highly stereotyped example. It seems pretty unlikely that there would be many navy seals left after a full scale nuclear attack (their installations would be on the target lists and remaining ones would be deployed), not that there are that many to start with. But yeah, people who are not accustomed to a more primitive way of life will be at a disadvantage. The other thing to point out is that many of the people trained for great violence also have strict moral codes, making it more likely that they would help organize their communities rather than going around pillaging (although there will be some minority of any group participating in that).
- morpheos137 5y ago
  I think the lethality of fallout outside of cobalt bombs which I believe are not in use is greatly exaggerated. Just look at how many people witnessed h-bomb tests.
  - giantg2 5y ago
    It depends. Single tests or incidents are not very widespread. But if we are talking many hundreds or thousands of high yield detonations, then the cumulative effect could be more serious. Even if things are not immediately deadly, the longterm effects can take their toll. The NM downwinders are one example, and even just single non-weapon incidents like Chernobyl have fairly large and longterm effects. It would be interesting to see how many nuclear detonations it would take to raise background radiation in 10sv steps by county.

giantg2 5y ago

Part of prepping would be location selection. Nothing says they have to stay in an urban area. In fact, I believe most of the northern hemisphere would be unsurvivable in a "full scale" nuclear war. Places like south America and Africa might fair better, but that is highly dependent on distribution of the radioactive fallout. I'm not sure about your highly stereotyped example. It seems pretty unlikely that there would be many navy seals left after a full scale nuclear attack (their installations would be on the target lists and remaining ones would be deployed), not that there are that many to start with. But yeah, people who are not accustomed to a more primitive way of life will be at a disadvantage. The other thing to point out is that many of the people trained for great violence also have strict moral codes, making it more likely that they would help organize their communities rather than going around pillaging (although there will be some minority of any group participating in that).

morpheos137 5y ago
I think the lethality of fallout outside of cobalt bombs which I believe are not in use is greatly exaggerated. Just look at how many people witnessed h-bomb tests.
- giantg2 5y ago
  It depends. Single tests or incidents are not very widespread. But if we are talking many hundreds or thousands of high yield detonations, then the cumulative effect could be more serious. Even if things are not immediately deadly, the longterm effects can take their toll. The NM downwinders are one example, and even just single non-weapon incidents like Chernobyl have fairly large and longterm effects. It would be interesting to see how many nuclear detonations it would take to raise background radiation in 10sv steps by county.