definition of a SIT-X

I would just like to clear up the definition of a "Sitx." I have seen this term thrown around alot, and I just want to get the general consensus of what this definition means, and possibly where the (acronym?) originated from.

From my understanding, its basically a situation where everyday life is severely interrupted. I know things like hurricanes, tornados and Ice storms mess up daily lives, but should they really be classified as a SITX?

A SIT-X is a survival situation. Alot of people have a hard time surviving if the internet is down, let alone no power and no ability to buy commodities.

I have always though of this term as an EXTREME situation where the crap has literally hit the fan and life as we know it has been altered by more than a few weeks/months. I find no wiki or even tinwiki for this term, and google searches usually bounce to the 'stuffit app', or some random ATS post.

What does this term mean to you?

I think it means a situation where the result is unknown, but I don't know. I only learned that today here on ATS.

I believe SIT-X goes beyond "a situation where everyday life is severely interrupted"


Sit-X is an event whose effects make it clear that "normal-everyday life" is no longer possible.

The problem with SIT-X is that it comes in so many varieties. You could break it down and plot the possibilities on a graph, with the time it takes for the event to begin to the time that people react along the X-axis and the amount of devastation along the Y-axis

So for example if you take a slow march to total government control with prison camps and what not that would have a slow time and a low devastation, but a nuclear terrorist attack in Washington would happen fast and would have high devastation.

So we may have an agreement on the general parameters on SIT-X, but beyond that one must always describe the particular event.

reply to post by ravenshadow13


haha, i know right?! I constantly learn new things here, its like college, but without all the cursing. I gain more knowledge from ATS in a day than i got from a month at Western Carolina University,

reply to post by irongunner


you bring up a rather valid point with your sliding timeline. it can indeed be gradual, like water filling a bathtub, and the sheer number of possible variables leading into the situation is mind boggling. I just get mad when people make posts about their Grocery store being out of cheese and how the end is nigh,

I think a lot of the people under estimate SIT-X.... Not in the initial impact, what with every one have more guns than a small country, bug out bags, and all that canned food. No, I think most people under estimate what life will be like six months, a year, five years and so on after such an event...


Take for instance a huge natural disaster, a global one, like a freak whole in the magnetosphere allows cosmic rays to EMP everything. Well all of you electronic gear is no good, so there goes communication over any kind of distance. Cars are dead... bye bye travel. and the banking system is a thing of the past; after all what good is that dollar if you have no way of getting more or saving them.

So, how do you live with no electricity, no mechanical means of anything? That's SIT-X.

reply to post by irongunner


that is spot on right there. Alot of people would be SCREWED without power, and I bet alot of people would just be sitting around waiting for electricity to come back.

while that would be bad, it wouldn't be THAT bad. we have been living with electricity freely avaliable for a little over 100 years now. humans have been softened over that time, but I think we did pretty good in the 50,000 or so years before electric tech without being able to text message someone in the other side of the room.

My definition of SitX is a situation where city life ceases to function on any level. No energy of any type, no monetary economy, breakdown of law and order, no government services of any kind.

Modified rural life can continue, much like the pioneer days of self-reliance.