Looking at the pandemic: Are Preppers a little more legitimate now?

[2rocky]

in looking across the internet for tool reviews and other things, I stumbled across more than a few You Tube channels who definitely had a "prepper vibe" to it. Part of me feels that some of those principles were given legitimacy and more mainstream attention has been focusing on self sufficiency.

Are folks in the Northwest seeing more community preparedness because of this?

Were the Doomsday Preppers Right?

Post-apocalyptic and doomsday prepping beliefs were put to the test in 2020.

www.psychologytoday.com

 

[Rzrbck918]

I cant speak for the northwest but I can speak for the lower midwest and say that I think any heightened concern has begun to dwindle quickly. I don't see much at all as far as communal preparedness is concerned. I see some small pockets of additional preparedness in friend groups and families.

 

[Bam Bam]

I think that they are. When I worked for the Gov, we were advised by FEMA to keep a certain amount of water, food, and toiletries in our homes- in case something happened. Since the Government said so, it was called "staying prepared". If a YouTuber posted the same thing on the internet, he was called a "prepper", or a "doomsayer". Funny how that works.

 

[homers]

I think it makes sense to have a certain amount of basic, essentials on hand. The amount depends on the size of you family and where you live. Remember during the early stages of the pandemic, the grocery stores around me had a lot of bare shelves. Anything non perishable was gone. not much in the meat/dairy sections either. Had that situation continued for a few more weeks, I think all hell would have broken lose and shit hit the fan with panic, chaos and ultimately violence. We weren't that far from it happening.

 

[Wildabeest]

I live in UT half the year. It’s a standard way of living here . Funny thing is the other half is spent off-grid in WY where I’m far better equipped to survive Armageddon.

But, yes, Covid plus all of the city riots and political tension has certainly gotten more people thinking about what they will do should all Hell break loose.

 

[jrabq]

As God is my witness, I'll never run out of toilet paper again!!

 

[brymoore]

No. Covid was an inconvenience if you weren’t one of the very small percentage that died.

The reality of any nuclear issue, prolonged electronic blackout/EMP, severe disease, etc is you are only prolonging your suffering by few a days/weeks by prepping. The four horsemen will find you too.

 

[Knight.54]

I’m no prepper.
But I was never at risk of running out of meat or bullets ( and I’m not talking about .223)or shotgun shells.

TP got a little dicey

 

[Sytes]

Yes. Preppers hold a value that's elevated due to this event. Market sales of materials and food products prove this as fact.


The old saying... "Better to have and not need than to need and not have".

 

[Hircine]

Peppers gunna prep. Doomers gunna doom and zoomers gunna zoom. But what's the point in living life in perpetual concern "fear" of the inevitable? Unless you got a decommissioned missile silo to live in and Elon Musk money, chances are that no ammount of preparation will ever be enough. We all gunna die so might as well enjoy the ride while you can.

 

[Wildabeest]

No. Covid was an inconvenience if you weren’t one of the very small percentage that died.

The reality of any nuclear issue, prolonged electronic blackout/EMP, severe disease, etc is you are only prolonging your suffering by few a days/weeks by prepping. The four horsemen will find you too.

 

[Sytes]

But what's the point in living life in perpetual concern "fear" of the inevitable?

I don't believe it's fear... It's a thrill for many. A buddy gets his rocks off building from imagination and ingenuity. Went to a couple shows many years back and he was wowed by the creative ventilation mechanisms, as one example.

Why do I have some 6 handguns, 5 rifles, and 3 shotguns? I like shit that goes, "Boom!".
There are people opposed to firearms that push up their nose at the idea of owning "so many guns!!!" I know farrrrr too many people who own a hell of a lot more boomsticks and twigs than I! WGAF? I'm not hurting others with my purchases nor is my friend harming others with his creative fallout shelter - regardless if some shmuck on the internet thinks he's going to die regardless. We all do at some point.

 

[gouch]

My SIL's parents really got into the whole Y2K lifestyle. As of two years ago he was still feeding his pigs, goats and chickens all their provisions. If anyone needs any food grade 5 gal. buckets, I know a guy.

Once while surveying a forest service property line, we kept running into those buckets laying all over the forest. The first thing we thought it had to be a pot grower's mess. But then we ran into a guy and asked him about it. He laughed and told us that his neighbor was really serious about Y2K and was stashing hundreds of those buckets full of food into his shed. What he didn't notice was that a bear had torn a hole in the back of the shed and was taking the buckets out almost as fast as he put them in.

There was a time I thought I was relatively prepared for disaster. Probably 6 months of food, enough guns and ammo and lots of camping gear that could double as survival gear. Gardening, hunting and food preserving skills and equipment. I felt good. Then disaster struck and it was all gone in a matter of a few hours. So like others have said, unless you are willing to devote your whole life and fortune to preparing to maybe survive a disaster that probably isn't going to happen, while not having a clue as to how to prepare for the one that will happen. You're probably better off just living life as though it will always be a sunny spring day and take the lumps as they come.

 

[Mallardsx2]

Most of the "preppers" I know are not preparing for what happened in the "Pandemic".

Most of them are preparing for gas/electrical grid shutdowns and scorched earth scenarios. What we experienced IMHO was neither of those.

 

[Nameless Range]

As the son of a "prepper" I have always just seen a lot of prepper behaviors as common sense.

Tons of examples exist of the power going out in numerous geographies across the country. In essentially every one of these examples, the power comes back on eventually. Sometimes hours later, sometimes weeks. It is not hard to imagine many scenarios that will almost certainly happen, where the power will go out for longer than folks are used to. When it does, many folks will lose their minds because they can't heat their shelters, and they will not have food or water. Say it's something extreme but absolutely plausible - a modern day Carrington Event, for example.

One could say that preppers who think they will survive alone for years on canned food and bullets in the face of a civilizational breakdown are goofy and unrealistic, and I would agree. But I also think there's this collective delusion about how things will always be the way they've been. When we look certain scenarios in the eye, things are fragile as hell, and it may take a month or two to rectify certain situations. Plenty of examples of this across the globe.

I have a stack of buckets with freeze-dried food that theoretically will last 25 years. Lot's of companies offer them, and yes, usually the rhetoric in their sales pitch is wacky. That said, I can heat my house and have food and a method for water acquisition for long enough that I suppose it could be viewed as "prepperish". Could be irrational, but I find a peace of mind in knowing that my family could hack the power going out for longer than it ever has before without the base of Maslow's Pyramid collapsing on us.

 

[TOGIE]

prepping is always having a fresh log of chew somewhere in the house

prepping is always having a full bottle of bourbon somewhere in the house

too bad those are two things i either limit or don't do anymore

 

[MtnElk]

prepping is always having a fresh log of chew somewhere in the house

prepping is always having a full bottle of bourbon somewhere in the house

too bad those are two things i either limit or don't do anymore

#DadLife

 

[NDGuy]

Eh I go back to it's always nice having some staples and extras on hand. But in a real SHTF scenario, most people (myself included) likely wouldn't be able to last long for any major prepping to matter.

Injuries, disease, cannibal neighbors, food, clean water. All necessities that need to be tended too and got to remember EVERYONE else is looking for them as well in a SHTF situation.

I laugh at people saying well I'd just hunt and be fine. Yeah but everyone else is too, all the sudden those few hundred deer in the area you like won't last long when 1000s of people are after them to feed themselves.

 

[TOGIE]

#DadLife

exactly. now prepping is always having an extra costco sized box of diapers in the garage and ensuring there is someting to take to work for lunch the next day

 

[FI460]

My parents have a substantial prepper shed. Full of all kinds of dry goods and various supplies. They didn't even open it during the pandemic.

After the early days of COVID they now also have a spare bedroom full of paper towels and toilet paper. Real annoying when you're the one sleeping in that room and you roll over and cause an avalanche of Angel Soft to smother you.

To the point @gouch made: I think our most likely SHTF scenario here is a fire. None of the crap in that shed will matter when it burns.