Perhaps you have seen the National Geographic series Doomsday Preppers and think preppers are insane. I hope not. Unfortunately, that show makes fun of people like us, but there are many good things you can glean from such shows if you can get past the misconceptions. With that in mind, the following are some stereotypes about preppers which should be dispelled.
1. They Are Paranoid Or Conspiracy Theorists
This is easily the biggest reason why people who prep tend get a bad name amongst the sheeple who see preppers as individuals that live their lives continuously in fear. We have been misled by television shows, movies, and even our own government with regards to what prepping is truly about.
TV is largely to blame for this because preppers are often viewed as being a little weird or paranoid. The truth is that preppers are simply less likely to rely on someone else in order to do things for them. Some of the preppers I have met are actually the most calm and well-balanced people I know, in large part because they ARE prepared.
2. They Are Extremists Who Expect Doomsday
That’s not true at all. Preparedness isn’t a matter of preparing for zombie hoards or for complete government collapse.
Prepping–at it’s core–simply focuses on having the proper amount of food, water, and many other supplies in the event of an emergency situation, whether manmade or natural.
My guess is the COVID 19 Pandemic probably opened your eyes as to how important it is to be prepared and how quickly important items (like toilet paper) can become scarce.
3. They Are Isolated
This is not true. While I am sure there are some preppers who live in the middle of nowhere, this is not how it is for most prepping households. In fact, most preppers are just like you and me, and probably live in the suburbs, have neighbors, and attend their children’s sporting events like everyone else.
4. They Are Gun Enthusiasts
Actually, this misconception is mostly true since many of the more dedicated preppers familiarize themselves with firearms and self-defense. Many preppers agree that it’s wise to be armed in case of an emergency.
While most preppers know the importance of owning a defensive weapon for protection, our basements are not lined from the floor to the ceiling with AR-15s and grenade launchers; neither are we defenseless should a situation arise. What works for your situation is up to you.
5. They Live Underground in Bunkers
Although there are plenty of stories and shows about preppers who have gone to such extremes, it’s not the norm. Most preppers are just normal people who live in a house because, believe it or not, prepping isn’t about going to extremes. As I said before, most preppers live in an average home in a pleasant neighborhood and, unless they let you inside their homes, you probably wouldn’t be able to spot them.
6. Preppers Are Rich
It is certainly easy to spend a million dollars on prepping; I would if I could. Fortunately, prepping is actually not as expensive as you might think, especially since it’s something many people slowly work towards by purchasing a few extra things here and there as money and time permit.
Most preppers don’t make preparedness a one-time deal, and they don’t buy everything in the beginning. Preparation is a long-term commitment. It requires planning and patience to find the best deals, such as at thrift shops or wholesale clubs. Treat it like a marathon and not a race and you’ll be on the right track.
7. There is Only One Type of Prepper
Preppers are often misunderstood as being clones of each other. The stereotypical image of a prepper is someone who is generally white, male, and is inclined to far-right politics. If you are looking for videos about prepping on YouTube, you may notice a number of stereotypes, but a deeper look reveals that prepping varies on all facets of the partisan and religious spectrum. We come in all colors, shapes, and sizes, and women are most certainly preppers as well. And we prepare ourselves in a variety of ways, from stockpiling to homesteading, all of which is better than doing nothing at all.
8. Selfish Misanthropes
Preppers are sometimes viewed as hating humanity or being a person who is entirely selfish, but the fact that we believe everyone should be self-sufficient and no one should expect handouts doesn’t mean preppers are selfish; far from it. While self-reliance among us is common, we’re not heartless people. When needed, we prefer to offer a helping hand rather than a handout.
9. They’re Military or Police Wannabes
Although some preppers are undoubtedly wannabe cops or military men, many are actually ex-military who have witnessed the results of civil unrest and government corruption in other parts of the world. The truth is that most preppers are merely exercising their God-given right to defend themselves in a wide variety of ways and, unfortunately, that sometimes looks like they’re pretending to be military or police when, in fact, they’re just doing their best to prepare for the worst.
10. Preppers Are Always Overreacting
This couldn’t be further from the truth. Preppers tend to plan ahead because they know how bad things can get and can see how bad things are getting. This includes more than the fear of nuclear bombs and terrorist attacks, but also the state of the economy, civil unrest, natural disasters, and plenty more.
I think that sometimes we overreact, but for a good reason. I’d rather overreact and be wrong than fail to prepare at all and be dead.
11. Preppers Hope a Disaster Will Strike
Most preppers hope and pray that nothing like an extreme disaster or doomsday event happens. Most preppers, I assume, don’t want to use what they’ve set aside because it means that something bad has happened!
[Editor’s note: Okay, there might be a very small part of me that wouldn’t mind a reason to say “I told you so” but then it quickly subsides because I know that outcome will inevitably mean someone got hurt. And that’s the last thing I want to happen no matter how badly I want to be right.]
12. You Need To Have Experience In Military, Law Enforcement or Medical Professional
Some people believe that to be a true prepper one must serve a stint with the police, military, or as a medical profession. While the military can teach you a lot of survival and tactical skills, this does not mean that you should join the army in order to become a better prepper or to be qualified as there are many courses online (and in person if COVID weren’t a thing) to learn skills like first aid training, marksmanship, food storage, and more.
13. Only Survival and Tactical Skills Are Needed to be a Prepper
This is false. There are many other skills that are helpful when living a prepared lifestyle, such as farming, carpentry, hunting, electrical, etc. Therefore, a prepper should be well-balanced.
Yes it is important to have tactical skills, and you can actually get some training locally where you’re usually trained by former military or law enforcement.
14. Prepping Is All About Gear
This is completely untrue. It’s sometimes funny to watch people become more involved in preparing right from the start. They almost immediately start buying paracord bracelets, tactical pants, and backpacks. They get it because they’ve probably seen it on mainstream shows like Doomsday Preppers and hundreds of preppers’ forums.
I have seen people in many prepper forums post tons of pictures about their bug out bags and guns in hopes of improving their credibility or just to show off. For me, a self-sufficient lifestyle in the country is far more admirable than someone who has tons of gear but is still reliant upon the utility grid.
Remember, too, that prepping is very much about skills and knowledge. Having the latest and greatest gear is nice but will do you little good if you have no idea how to use it.
WHAT IS PREPPING THEN?
Now that you have a better grasp of what prepper’s are not, perhaps you are left wondering what prepping is actually all about? Let me keep it simple. Prepping is all about, drumroll please… being prepared.
Of course, prepping has different levels like anything else in life. You can choose to be a prepper who has a few months of food and supplies on hand, or one who has enough equipment and supplies to live independently for years on end without worry. Whatever you are comfortable with is fine. My point is that becoming a prepper may appear daunting, but it looks different for everyone at different stages in their journey, so don’t get discouraged.
HOW TO BECOME A PREPPER THEN?
By being a prepper, three things always come to my mind:
1. Start Small
When you decide to become a prepper, you should not start planning to stockpile six months worth of supplies immediately. Instead, plan for a much shorter period of time, like a week or two, and steadily progress toward the timeframe you want to reach. By doing so, it is not only more economical, but you also won’t have to sacrifice as much initially and likely get discouraged.
2. Dependency List
List everything you need–like food, water, shelter, etc.–and then deduce what you need to sustain yourself. When you’ve figured that out, get started purchasing what you’re lacking. In addition, find ways to become more self-sufficient or seek out alternatives for those things; for example, you’re dependent on electricity, so buy a flashlight and extra batteries, learn how to make a fire for heat or to cook with, get a small solar setup to run a refrigerator and so on.
3. Don’t Get Discouraged
Because different things work for different people, homesteading and raising a family are no different. It may be impossible for you to get completely off the electricity or water grids, but you can take baby steps to become less reliant. Some of you may have trouble storing more than a month worth of food at a time, and that’s okay. The most important thing is to do what you are comfortable with and what you can. After all, if an emergency occurs, even a little preparation is better than no preparation at all.
Scavenging: The Art Of Survival And Resourcefulness When The SHTF
It’s important to first define scavenging and to understand that it’s different than looting. Many people use the terms interchangeably, but looting is quite different from scavenging.
Scavenging differs from looting because it is a context-specific and morally-guided process where an individual attempts to improve their chances of surviving. Therefore, those about to engage in scavenging should be aware of the situation and clear about their morals.
As we think about the journey our food needs to take to get from farm to waste bin, we will find quite a number of places where scavengers should go. Where are these places? Some prime scavenger spots would be:
- Farms
- Supply lines (trucks, ships, train, and autos)
- Distribution centers (warehouses)
- Marketplaces
- Abandoned stores
- Processing factories
- Homes
- Rubbish gathering areas
- Waste areas
Vacating is a temporary condition that can facilitate subsequent phases of survival. We should be conscious not to compromise society’s capacity to bounce back and fight off other threats. Therefore, scavenging needs to target specific needs, their locations, and waste is not allowed.
[Editor’s note: I would be VERY wary of scavenging for supplies. After all, you’re clearly taking something that belongs to someone else, and if you’ve bothered to prepare at all then there should be no need to do so. In addition, you could be putting yourself needlessly at risk from others doing the same thing or from property owners who intend to defend their belongings.]
5 Easy Survival Skills To Learn
Here is a list of five easy, yet important, survival skills you need to know right now in order to survive in the wild when you need to.
1. How To Build A Shelter
Shelter is a primary survival function because it is one of the things that we need to survive. Building shelters is important because they ensure that you will not be exposed to the extreme environments around you.
2. Study How To Start A Fire With Sticks
This is obviously an impressive one, and it seems like every movie with some survival theme always has a two-stick fire. Whether the wood is twisted between your palms or pushed back and forth against a larger piece of wood, we’ve all seen it before.
3. How To Get Drinkable Water
There are two types of water in the wild: one that will kill you or make you horribly ill and one that won’t. If you don’t drink water within three days, you are going to collapse from dehydration and that will end your survival streak.
While there are a number of water purifying options (if you don’t already have a water filter) such as bleach, purification tablets or boiling water, one of the easiest and most available options is a moisture filter created by heat and damp moisture to fill a catchment device such as the small moisture hole made by survival expert Les Stroud.
4. What Plants You Can And Can’t Eat In The Wild
When you are hungry in the wild, you can try to catch an animal, but you will likely spend a lot of energy doing so.
Instead of the leafy green route, why not find some of the edible and growing goods in your area? They are easy to find, abundant in growth, and easy to store as a supply while you are making your way to higher ground or safety.
Plants follow a similar rule to water, if it’s wrong you could die, if it’s right you could find your next favorite food. You should brush up on the edible plants in your area beforehand.
5. Navigation With The Sun
Navigation by day is one of those simple survival skills you can use if you find yourself lost in a survival situation. By way of example, if you are a fan of the Vikings, you may want to make a stone watch with a mobile sundial. This sounds too specific and unnecessary for me. In fact, those two sticks you used to make a fire in #2 can also be used for finding north, once you know that, you will have fixed directions and may recognize a direction to a nearby town.
When in a thick tropical jungle and surrounded by streams, one alternative method of navigation, used by the sole survivor of the plane crash, was following the direction of the rivers flowing, since she knew that they would lead to large water sources where people would live along its banks.
There are numerous survival skills that you must acquire in order to survive in the wild.
CONCLUSION
I find that the people who are the most skeptical about how others live tend to be the ones who don’t really know what they are fighting for. There are many things that people have misconceptions about, but prepping shouldn’t be one of them.
Preparing for a natural disaster, such as a tornado, hurricane, flood, or earthquake, doesn’t seem crazy to me. It actually sounds very smart, especially if you live in high-risk areas and know how prevalent they have become in recent years.
I hope this has helped a few of you out there who may have been on the fence about prepping.
When you are ready to begin, but feel overwhelmed, my advice is to start small with the recommended three-day supply of fresh bottled water and food for your entire family, including animals. Make sure you keep a first aid kit at home and in your car and learn how to use it. Consider building a bug-out bag (BOB for short) and start exercising if you’ve let your health slip. Start where you are, prep for as long as you can and in no time you will be further than you can imagine now.
[Note: This was a guest post.]
Leave a Reply