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Ebola Apocalypse and US "Preppers"

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posted on Oct, 23 2014 @ 03:40 PM
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I presume the Psychologist is an American? Interesting when a biped critiques his own culture. Sort of a window into all of his own personal issues.



But why is the United States apparently full of people ready abandon their comforts and revert to a simpler, more basic lifestyle in the face of hypothetical disaster?


Most preppers don't plan to 'abandon' anything; their plans are designed to cope with the loss of current lifestyle. Some people have been out of work in the past 6 years. Maybe they have a cynical attitude about the rest of our civilization and its promises.



"The Americans are among the most superstitious and religious people - the largest number of Christian fundamentalist believers anywhere," he told Channel 4 News.


A political talking-point. Anywhere---compared to Western Europe. Much of Africa and Eastern Europe are even more religious/superstitious than Americans. But liberals never consider the world outside of western Europe. But it is fairly typical for a Psychologist to say such things, given psychology's antipathy for religion, as a competing world-map....




"There's something in the US mindset that looks for these kinds of quasi-religious ideas. And the other thing about Americans is that they're very suggestible."


If they are so suggestible, why haven't they take up the establishment's suggestion that they dispense with all preps? Just maybe, they are less credulous than the rest of the population.




"If they're exposed to such (survivalist) beliefs, they're prone to begin to look at the world very suspiciously. Then these sorts of myths are generated and become a belief system."


Funny. The preppers I know were paranoid first, and only became preppers in response to what they see as a threat to their safety that isn't being addressed by society's authority figures.

I think Dr. McClod may be a closet survivalist, trying to GOAD the sheep into waking the fudge up! by being so over the top that it makes people seriously consider what he's trying to hide....



posted on Oct, 23 2014 @ 03:51 PM
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a reply to: ValentineWiggin
If I were in the government, if I were someone close to tpotus, Social media would have me shaking in my boots. The first order of business would be to take control of the narrative. Besmirch conspiracy theorists--anyone with a brain. You know, lump 'em in a group of Nutters. Because god knows, if the sheeple keep Googling, they may get an eyeful. They may start pressuring their Congressmen and Senators. God forbid, the sheeple may vote the wrong way.
Good post!


edit on 23-10-2014 by drwill because: (no reason given)



posted on Oct, 26 2014 @ 02:09 PM
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originally posted by: ValentineWiggin
Source



But why is the United States apparently full of people ready abandon their comforts and revert to a simpler, more basic lifestyle in the face of hypothetical disaster? David MacLeod, a psychologist with a special interest in disaster psychology, says it's a US phenomenon.

"The Americans are among the most superstitious and religious people - the largest number of Christian fundamentalist believers anywhere," he told Channel 4 News.

"There's something in the US mindset that looks for these kinds of quasi-religious ideas. And the other thing about Americans is that they're very suggestible."

He also thinks that survivalists are prey to a certain kind of pessimism. "People of that mindset are very often, in ordinary terms, anxious. They may be superstitious.

"If they're exposed to such (survivalist) beliefs, they're prone to begin to look at the world very suspiciously. Then these sorts of myths are generated and become a belief system."

It may be that, just as health workers in west Africa have to combat local supertitions as they fight to limit Ebola's spread, so a different set of irrational fears and responses are at play among the citizens of the richest country in the world.


I found this article pretty condescending towards "Preppers" as they call it, Survivalists and even Conspiracy Theorists. Thought it would put it out there for your digestion, what say you ATS?


I couldn't agree more with the article.



posted on Oct, 27 2014 @ 05:12 AM
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yesa reply to: iclimbtowers
i agree . when i lived in wisconsin we would stasrt the winter in october with jundred of cans of vegatables and a freezer full of meat another gull of frozen foods a rack full of canned pickles we put op and preserves and jams. we had a couple hundred drinks in 12 ounce cans too and the out building used to be a daity and it had our well a a ten foot by 15 foot water tank. why because you never knew if you were going to get stuck for days in your house



posted on Oct, 27 2014 @ 10:44 AM
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a reply to: ValentineWiggin

I have never liked the label of prepper since it showed up in recent years. It amazes me how condescending people can be about others wanting to be ready for anything. I'm also amazed at how people start this crap to ultimately make themselves feel better about their own choices. There's obviously an agenda too, why would people prepare for the future if everything is perfect and status quo. The image of " everything is awesome" just can't be infringed upon after all, never mind the reality of the world.

I'm vocal about being ready for anything. Having extra food in my house has been a massive comfort to our family on multiple occasions. Knowing I can heat my house without any kind of outside power at -30 F has been a lifesaver. The ease, security and convenience of having a well stocked home is an unrivaled comfort. As other posters mentioned, our grandparents and great grandparents wouldn't have dreamed going into winter with a weeks worthy of groceries in the house, they lived a self sufficient lifestyle. They never expected someone else to take care of them.



posted on Oct, 27 2014 @ 02:13 PM
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How can we be the richest country on Earth while having the largest National Debt?
Leave it to a psychologist to find the justifications he looks to label others with.
Like replace "suspicious" with "sensible" or "paranoid" with "prepared".
By his same standards the US government would be the most neurotic, fundamentalist organization on Earth.



posted on Oct, 27 2014 @ 02:19 PM
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originally posted by: MGaddafi
I caught the prepping disease and I can certainly see how it could cause people to lose sanity due to life hobby per prepping for death.


Everyone I know is prepping to survive.
To prep for death one would have to have an idea of what comes after.
Care to clue the clueless in?
I would love just 1 non-religious answer to that question!



posted on Oct, 27 2014 @ 02:25 PM
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"The Americans are among the most superstitious and religious people - the largest number of Christian fundamentalist believers anywhere," he told Channel 4 News.

That's a stupid comment. I'm not a fundamentalist Christian and I'm prep'd. It's not superstition .. it's SMART. Any number of serious things can happen and it's smart to be prepared for a three month hunker down - IMHO.

If the crap hits the fan, the author of that horrid piece will be knocking on a preppers door, looking for some clean water and a can of beans. He'll try to suck off those very people he made fun of.



posted on Oct, 28 2014 @ 01:09 PM
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what say you ATS?


I say the Doc hasn't got his head screwed on right.

Here's the thing....most "preppers" I know aren't ultra religious, or pessimistic.

We're simply recapturing a bit of the self sufficiency of our ancestors, in a very uncertain modern world.
For all its marvels, our modern society operates on a very fine-honed edge. It wouldn't take much to completely topple it, and that's the rub.

In addition, where a downturn in the market can mean many lose their jobs without ever seeing it coming, new ways to provide are really the old ways our grandparents prepared for lean times. Even squirrels put away nuts for winter. I'd hope we're a bit brighter than squirrels.

Besides, there's a certain satisfaction with it. This weekend, I'm going to finally eat some eggs from chickens we raise ourselves (got our first eggs Sunday). Starting this spring, we'll eat produce we grew ourselves. A couple of years from now, we'll pick fruit from trees we planted ourselves.

Being prepared for a catastrophe is really a SIDE EFFECT, at least for me. By thinking about it, I can prioritize what is most important for our quality of life....NOT our survival. Surviving is easy. Preppers don't want to just survive, we want to maintain a good life for our families. Water and food are important, but true preppers want to have power, running water, and life quality too. And safety. Defense is a key part, as other people are the biggest threat we'd have in a SHTF scenario. People who didn't prepare, who now want to prey on you instead.



posted on Oct, 28 2014 @ 03:15 PM
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a reply to: Gazrok

I AM religious, but the content of my belief-system doesn't impact my prepping. I think that when "The End" arrives, having a sustainable food-source won't actually do you any good.

I liked what you wrote about being prepared as a side-bonus of the way I live. Likewise, if hard times never visit my doorstep (yeah, right; when DON'T they?), I will not feel like I've wasted my efforts. I have a much richer life, learning how to make things for myself, and working with my family to get food, instead of all going off to their own jobs so we can buy poisonous crap from Uber-mart.

Basically, I have unconventional hobbies. I don't come home from work every evening and get drunk after supper before falling asleep in front of the TV. That's basically what the people around me at work do.

I take my family fishing. I take my family camping. Make my own sausage. Jar my own 'canned goods.' Grow so much food that we drive it to the city and give it to the food pantry. Teach my kids about insect pests. Let my kids raise farm animals. Teach them responsibility. I build lots of stuff, like chicken tractors and hot frames.

I had a slice of homemade pie after supper last night. Real homemade pie. As in, homemade crust, with hand-picked apples, and that lattice-work upper crust no factory can fake. It was the best damn piece of food I've eaten all year. And it was made with lard. Hell yes.

Am I a desperate, paranoid prepper? Or am I living the good life right now? I am not waiting for a disaster before I start living.



edit on 28-10-2014 by tovenar because: (no reason given)



posted on Oct, 28 2014 @ 03:28 PM
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"The Americans are among the most superstitious and religious people - the largest number of Christian fundamentalist believers anywhere," he told Channel 4 News.


Need to point this out as well:

USA is the 3rd most populous nation on the globe; so if he means the largest raw number, then it is hardly noteworthy. On the other hand, if he is trying to say that the USA has the highest proportion of Christians, then he is woefully, jarringly uninformed. So much so, that you can't trust anything else he says.

Generally, only non-religious North-west Europeans / Anglophones believe that Americans are "the most religious."

The simple fact is, American hyper-religiousness doesn't even crack the TOP 20:

Wikipedia: list of countries with the greatest proportion of Christians

Sweeping generalizations make experts look clownish.



posted on Nov, 7 2014 @ 09:23 AM
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Am I a desperate, paranoid prepper? Or am I living the good life right now? I am not waiting for a disaster before I start living.


That's a great statement.

In the 2 years we've been on our ranch, I've basically turned one summer's experience as a handyman's apprentice into being able to run water lines, run electricity lines, building a chicken coup, putting up fences, and now, animal husbandry.

We still have jobs in the city. We still have cell phones and internet. We still have DVRs (and in fact, we have nearly 10 TVs all over the house, all of which can watch the recorded shows). Yet, we also have horses, and chickens (and eventually, goats). And, come Feb. we'll have our own gardens.



posted on Nov, 7 2014 @ 09:35 AM
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There is nothing wrong with being prepared in case something unexpected happens, but to actively expect the unexpected to happen any minute now is HIGHLY disingenuous. The second part is what many conspiracy theorists are guilty of. They cry wolf over and over again, yet civilization has yet to collapse. I'm not saying that our house of cards will last forever (nothing does and we are no exception), but why waste your life preparing for something you don't even know will happen or not? Just get ready for it, then stop talking about it until it actually happens.



posted on Nov, 7 2014 @ 12:48 PM
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We have a country home and could go off the grid if we had to but we like electricity, we're just very frugal with it. Where we live it's foolish not to prepare. After a serious snow storm stranded the 9 families living out here one home was designated an emergency food bank for residents.

Since we're all miles apart he was afraid we might not make it to his place so he distributed the food. I stored what he gave me/added to it. We can store 2000 gal. of water not because of paranoia it's just how we all live, cisterns/wells/mobile water tanks etc. are the norm.

We never run out of firewood, it's all we use for heat. I can use the wood stove for cooking. We have a septic system but there was an old outhouse outback, we could easily build another.

For us not preparing is naive/lazy and negligent. Someone would have to risk their life to bail our sorry asses out or leave us to die. Neither is acceptable. We can sit tight for however long it takes without being needy resource hogs.

During the snowstorm plows were focused on hwys/mountain passes and stranded motorists. The county tried to plow us out with inferior equipment not in use but it all got stuck before reaching us. We were fine, we could wait.

The army came in dropped feed from helicopters to stranded cattle. We could've flagged them down in an emergency, we had no phones. It was an experience and it felt really good to know we could manage.

Nearly 3 weeks later and out of smokes I walked out. LOL That's when I saw all the heavy equipment stuck. It was a cool adventure. The storm was over army guys were swarming all over the truck stop I went to. They were digging out motorists/interstate exchange.

It was a good test, something everyone should practice. I think it was only 17/18 days for us but some families were stranded 3 weeks. We could've gone a lot longer and discovered our/my weak spot, I've got to quit smoking or grow tobacco. We got short on dog food, had to feed them wild game from the freezer, they loved it.

We're not crazy preppers, we pay taxes, vote, work outside the home, sent our kids to college and lend a helping hand whenever we can. We have to live the way we do but urban settings are actually more at risk, if the infrastructure went away city people would be in a world of hurt. Without preparing they'd drain resources fast.



posted on Nov, 17 2014 @ 03:24 PM
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but to actively expect the unexpected to happen any minute now is HIGHLY disingenuous


I imagine most SHTF scenarios would actually play out over the course of a few weeks to a few months, before everything went to hell completely.




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