Are most survivalists crazy??

I know this will create a lot of noise,but hear me out.If you watch Doomsday Survival,prepper,whatever,you'd assume they are all whackadoodles! I recall one that showed a family in Virginia,I believe,waiting for a massive earthquake....and stored all the canned food in glass canning jars! A great skill,but not for a massive earthquake! And if you read JWR,he recommends you buy a few hundred thousand rounds of ammo,37 Main Battle Rifles(stupid term),and every electrical device he advertise's.Freeze dried food at 5 bucks a serving,radiation detectors,ham radios....the list goes on. At what point do you,or we,give up?

blkcwbyhat
At what point do you,or we,give up?

When you are ready to throw in the towel.

That is a matter of perspective.

reply to post by blkcwbyhat


I don't think they are all crazy, anything shown on TV should be laced with a truck load of salt IMO.

My father was a prepper' back when the cold war was starting, now he managed to obtain a hell a lot of stuff ranging from canned food to a modified version of the V2 rocket and everything in between. His thoughts were if hell is coming better be prepared to fight and survive.

I wouldn't call him crazy, but obsessed? hell yes! He was in the scrap trade and many times the ships laid in port from the US and Britain would sell their scrap. So he did buy anything he thought was useful. Now the cold war is over and all the stuff he hoarded basically came to rust and the food went out of date. Only use we ended up with his prepping' was as props for films (mostly depicting apocalyptic events)

Having said that, I believe its good to be 'prepared' as long as it doesn't control you. Its 50/50 could spend your whole life dedicated to protecting yourself and family and nothing could happen and vice versa spend no thought on it and be helpless if the day came.

reply to post by Maltese5Rhino


Your father had a V2 rocket? Where is it now?

An every survivalist must have:

blkcwbyhat
If you watch Doomsday Survival,prepper,whatever,you'd assume they are all whackadoodles!

That is entirely the point of these shows. They aren't discussing the beliefs or convictions of those featured, it's just a very insidious form of mockery, which in turn encourages the pathetic little tv watching sheeple to believe that anything "conspiracy" is loopy and completely insane, even when it is pointed directly at their faces.

reply to post by blkcwbyhat


Are most survivalists crazy??

ABSOLUTELY!!!

They've been suckered, by fear salesmen, into spending every last dime they have prepping for something that's never going to happen.

They're just the latest victims of the doom porn industry sponsored by some truly crazy people like Alex Jones, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Wayne LaPierre, etc...etc...etc...

Actually, I don't think they're crazy, at least not in the literal sense of the word. They're just easily misguided and extremely gullible.

reply to post by Aleister


It had to be destroyed by the Maltese Government as part of their arms clear up. It wasn't an original V2 by the Germans btw as he apparently purchased it from a Russian scrap dealer who obtained it from Germany (My dad always wanted German tech if possible) and it was most likely the Russian R-1 Wiki... My older brother remembers it well and said it was tampered with all over the place. My father wasn't the only one hoarding arms, many Maltese after WWII ended up literally having whole arsenals at hand because the Allied forces had shipped far more than needed to Malta after the initial assault on Sicily and after the war....they left most of it.

reply to post by Flatfish


at least 100 % gullible! All the "buy gold" ad's on those shows,the freeze dried food,so on. I do believe in prepping,to a degree.Keep some food on hand,propane,fire wood,camping gear,the basic stuff. But JWR recommends night vision,500 yd scopes,all the main battle rifles and 3x that,it gets to a point of insanity! And if you fear an economic collapse,what will your gold or silver be worth anyway? Would YOU trade your supplies for precious metal,if you can't sell or trade it? JWR recommends hoarding nickels,as it has an industrial value....would YOU lug around 500 pounds of nickels,hoping that the solar flare didn't strike a smelting plant? My main point was,you cannot prep for every SHTF scenario.

reply to post by Maltese5Rhino


Very nice. You and your brother must have had some fun toys and a fun playground with all of this stuff. And thanks for the history lesson about Malta during and after the war, interesting details.

A few hundred thousand rounds? 27 rifles? Just what would someone be planning? That seems quite extreme.
$5 dried meals? That's fine to grab a couple for a BOB/GHB (Bug Out Bag/Get Home Bag), but there are far more economical ways to store food for emergencies.

My goal is to have about 3000 rounds per weapon, and at least one firearm for everyone who would be on the property following some kind of SHTF event. The reason you need a good amount is that you have to use some for practice, to keep your skills honed also.

Keep in mind too, prepping isn't just for a SHTF scenario. Just think about this winter storm. How many people are snowed in, can't get to stores, and stores aren't being restocked, etc. If they had prepped (and they had warning), for it, they would be fine, and have plenty during these few crisis days.

On the show, most seem crazy due to editing. Having been on a reality show before (not Doomsday Preppers, but for our wedding), I have certainly seem how editing can give one a completely different appearance than normal. Also, the show tries to focus each guest on ONE scenario, when I've never met a prepper obsessed with just ONE possible SHTF event.

For me, preps have to have an immediate benefit for me to invest in them. I'm more about having renewable resources (like a renewable water supply, and renewable food sources) vs. any kind of hoarding of supplies.

reply to post by Gazrok


you made my point,to a point! To you,a SHTF scene may be an earthquake,hurricane,blizzard,etc. I live in Arizona,so those have no effect to me directly.While they may give me a shortage of gas,power outage,whatever,my garden will grow,birds will fly,so on.As of now,the northeast is getting major storms,but I'm not grabbing my guns.I didn't during Katrina.If hyper inflation hits,I won't pillage and loot Best Buy! My SHTF would be a solar flare or yellowstone blowing off,and even then,most will die off,so I won't need to be a sniper. Prepping is always a good idea,but 20k in rifles and ammo?

Maltese5Rhino
reply to post by blkcwbyhat

 

I don't think they are all crazy, anything shown on TV should be laced with a truck load of salt IMO.

My father was a prepper' back when the cold war was starting, now he managed to obtain a hell a lot of stuff ranging from canned food to a modified version of the V2 rocket and everything in between. His thoughts were if hell is coming better be prepared to fight and survive.

I wouldn't call him crazy, but obsessed? hell yes! He was in the scrap trade and many times the ships laid in port from the US and Britain would sell their scrap. So he did buy anything he thought was useful. Now the cold war is over and all the stuff he hoarded basically came to rust and the food went out of date. Only use we ended up with his prepping' was as props for films (mostly depicting apocalyptic events)

Having said that, I believe its good to be 'prepared' as long as it doesn't control you. Its 50/50 could spend your whole life dedicated to protecting yourself and family and nothing could happen and vice versa spend no thought on it and be helpless if the day came.

All of the above it well said. The zombie apocalypse may never come but disasters do come all of the time, from hurricanes to blizzards to tornadoes. Being prepared is simply common sense.

reply to post by NavyDoc


granted,being prepped for a SHORT term SHTF is fine,but night vision and 20k rounds of ammo is almost begging for a crisis,or just an armchair Rambo fantasy

Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on. Nick Fury

I've heard this line before but I think that it says a lot. Gotta be flexible.

I know some people who prep and some are flexible, but others will die in place trying to defend what they have purchased, even against overwhelming odds, they think they'll win out in the end.

I think its crazy how many survivalists appear to be on the verge of an obesity or diabetes related death, yet insist that they are preparing for the worst case scenario. If you're not prepared to run for a couple miles, you're fooling yourself with your stockpiled ammo and food. I think plenty of survivalists preparations are escapist fantasy, the opposite of what they think they're doing.

reply to post by conundrummer


I think you saw the episode I did! Some lard butt guy in bib overalls sneaking up on the house with a shotgun!?

Well I can add this

If you want to listen to some REAL, DOWN TO EARTH, Survival advice and discussion, ATS does it every week

ATS Live Radio All things Survival Show

(You can listen to some past shows at that link as well as the live show on Thursday at 8pm EST)

What you wont get:

1. Zombies (Except in fun)
2. Conversations on Large Caliber Rifles (Except why you don't need or want them)
3. Over eaters anon (We do some physical training advice from time to time)

What you will get

Solid, down to earth, bushcrafting, survival and pioneering conversation

David Wendell is one of the hosts and teaches survival and bushcrafting all over the united states, my friend, mentor and one of the most knowledgeable bushcrafting experts on the planet.

I'm no slouch normally, (I have my bad days) and usually specialize in military issues and knives.

We have a full studio of former military communications specialists (Jack), gardening experts (Laura), tool specialists (Greg), an engineer (Doug) and even a disaster specialist from New Zealand when we can get his Internet working (Luke)..

So if you are tired of the crazy side of survival, come on over, pull up a chair, kick your feet up and give us a listen.. You wont be disappointed.

We have a dedicated audience of several hundred folks now and I am sure they will welcome you with open arms..

Catch us on facebook also at Bushcraft on Fire

On YouTube at Bushcraftonfire where we have several hundred "How To" videos you can watch at your leisure..

GREAT THREAD

Semper

reply to post by semperfortis


yup,you can quote all the "experts' you want...what is SHTF?? They all sound like a rambo wannabe to me! Learn to dehydrate,can,preserve food.....guns and ammo won't make you live longer,it just puts off the end

As usual, it's a matter of degree. What do you mean by "survivalist" anyway? Are you going to call anyone who has a year's worth of food stashed away in nitrogen packed cans a "survivalist"? How about someone who owns a generator and has wired his house? To me, no one in these cases is anywhere close to mentally deficient, crazy, or suckered by fear. They are practical people who recognize supply chains may be disrupted and therefore they are prepared. The idea here is not to "survive forever" in a Mad Max world; it is to be prepared in case of some sort of natural or man made disaster that means you can't jaunt to the local grocery store today. For some this may be a simple matter of a bridge collapse, or an unusual snow storm. it's not Armageddon, but it is disruptive.

How would you like it if you went two weeks without power and water, and without heat, for example? That some people are doe snot make them crazy; it makes them prudent,

unlike you, who won't last more than a few days before you go begging to the government or your neighbors for a free handout because you didn't believe it could ever happen and you didn't ever think you'd need toilet paper.

On the other hand, if you're talking about someone who has an underground bunker in the woods, dozens of weapons, and tens of thousands of rounds of ammo, and goes around in camo, well, maybe that's over the top. In any case, what's it to you? Are the extremists hurting you? Stealing from you? You're not frightened of them, are you? I mean, what's your problem, really?

reply to post by blkcwbyhat


When something does happen and im sure eventually it will, all the ''know it all'', Non preppers will be crying and screaming on the doors of the preppers ''we got children to feed ,you have to help us ,you cant keep all that food for yourself '' blah blah blah ,whingeing and moaning !!!!!!!! like that episode on The Twilight Zone ,where the USA was being attacked [wasnt] and they were fighting to get into this guys bunker .better a live ant than a dead grasshopper