Something to consider for preppers....

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


I have only watched about 15 minutes of the show you referenced, so I really do not know how obvious or open their preperations are. You have to remember that the whole point of the show is to sell commercials. Watching people do rediculous and often impractical things is what gets people to tune in. Note that it is illegal to booby-trap your home in most places, so they probably ARE breaking the law.

There are many things that can be done that keep a low profile while also securing your home. Things like rose bushes under the windows, steel exterior doors with a quality deadbolt, etc. I agree that with enough determination the most fortified place in the world can be breached, including the bad guy's hideout.

Also there is the type of prepper who is actually looking foward to the shtf scenaro. I know some of these people. They will be armed to the teeth at all times during Martial Law. They generally boast and brag about how they will be able to defend themselves against a decent sized army. It won't be fun trying to get to their supplies. Unfortunately this type of person give preppers the stereotype of being crazy gun-lovin lunatics. They are the voice that is heard because the best preppers keep what they do to themselves.

In any long term situation like one discussed in this thread, those with resources will begin to stand out. Eventually it will be easy to see who has been eating and sleeping well and who is desperate for these things. At some point you WILL stick out from the desperate starving people either if you are the prepper or the bad guy who has loads of supplies at the hideout. If you can see the defenses (like nails in the window) than somebody has probably done a bad job prepping, and could be a juicy target for raiders. Staying low-key is important.

Hey, Wrabbit.

A couple of things.

First, you indicate that preppers would suffer the particular ire of bandits and home invaders. I have sad news for you: EVERY survivor will suffer the same fate: you and your family get raped to death.

It won't have mattered whether you resisted or not. Bandits get off from the opportunity to control their victims and put them through hell. Like the Bosnian war. Hell is other people.

The only reason most home invaders don't do this now is that they have some basic fear that the police may be on their way. In a world without police, criminals will indulge their darkest fantasies to get their revenge against their own families by tormenting any survivors, no matter how innocent.

"No honor among thieves."

Second Thing:

I believe that many or most preps taken by the majority of planners will never be acted on. I took the prepper quiz and the authors are absolutely fixated on having a generator. And yet:

-After a collapse there will be no noise. That means no traffic on the main road, no jets overhead, not air conditioners running in the distance. A generator is LOUD. It will draw everyone like a magnet. Everyone, predators or wounded or hungry, will gravitate to the sound of your generator like zombies drawn to the smell of your brains.

Likewise the sound of gunfire. Now, people won't come running, but they'll get out their own arsenal and draw down on you when they see you in the streets. If you are hunting in the woods, then the sound of your gun will draw all kinds of vultures (some of them human!) to "share" in your kill.

And bug out vehicles. If your armor-plated pickup and trailer are the only objects on the road, or the only tires hitting the pavement, it will bring them out.

I literally watch the show to pick it apart and laugh.
As others have stated, no real prepper would EVER go on TV and show off what they have.
I swear they scrape the bottom of the barrel looking for these individuals...just to give the real ones a bad name.
Again, just like conspiracy theorists must be nutters..so too must preppers be.
It's a way for the media to get into the heads of the blind and make the one eyed people look insane.To an extent...it works.
It seems they deliberately sought out somebody prepping for each doomsday scenario, especially since they note the "probability" of such at the conclusion of each episode.

I'd love to know who mans their team of "experts". Credibility is everything.

reply to post by AccessDenied


I'll go one further, AD; I think that when they sing you up, that they give you a list of specific threat to prep for, and you have to choose one off the list.

Next they tell you to have a quirk, something unusual that makes you entertaining to watch.

Pick one from column A:

meteor
pandemic
earthquake
rapture
tsunami
radiation
war
famine

And two from column B:

southern accent
paranoid personality
domineering head of household
special training in military, law enforcement or medicine
dysfunctional family
medical dependency
doubting spouse

and then you've got yourself a program!

I suspect some of them are actors who moved from California out to the flyover states to make it more realistic. I think some of them have only been prepping a month or so.

I like the TV show and find it entertaining, but it might do more harm than good.

For starters, government agencies and most responsible people will tell you EVERYBODY should prepare for emergencies like natural disasters that are likely to occur in most parts of the US. California has earthquakes, the Gulf and Atlantic coasts have hurricanes, the middle US has tornadoes, parts near the Mississippi river have floods, etc. You do not need 50,000 rounds of ammunition and 10 years of food, but you should probably have non-perishable food and bottled water to last a few days, first aid kits, flashlights, radios, batteries, and other needful things. People may was that show and not think they need to store anything because only crazy people worry about disasters.

Second, the show promotes the idea that in times of disaster, people turn against each other. Sometimes during disasters, communities and and should band together. Crime goes down and people mobilize to help their neighbors. I would like to think if disaster struck, my neighbor would help me, not try and kill me so he can have my "preps" and so that I would not steal his.