To be disturbed by the "Prepping" board.

[TheoriginalLEM]

Is this a thing now?

Is there really a need to be stockpiling food, medicines and creating a bolt hole?

Am i missing something? Seriously (this is not a light-hearted thread), i suffer from anxiety and this is really disturbing me.

Hopefully people have just been watching too much walking dead.

I'm fascinated by the fact that this kind of thing has come into the public consciousness again.

I'm just about old enough to remember the Cold War era when the threat of a nuclear war was a realistic possibility, and there were people who openly planned for survival after nuclear fallout, and tv shows and novels were the plot revolved around survival in a post-apocalyptic world. Then the Cold War ended and it all kind if died out for a bit, but it seems in the last decade to have come back with a vengeance. I'd love to know what was driving it.

this thread would actually fit in well on the preppers board

I remember travelling in Albania where there were tiny concrete bunkers peppered all over the landscape like flat mushrooms- apparently in anticipation of some Cold War conflict? I couldn't imagine how they would actually have been used in reality- anyone have any insight on what the plan was? Was it actually the doorway to a network of underground burrows?

Also seeing videos in the war museum of the official advice on actions given in the event of a nuclear attack- so tragically inadequate, hiding under tables, behind sand bags, etc. It must have been terrifying but perhaps it helped to be told some kind of plan..?

I think that, although the shadow of a nuclear war has mostly lifted, there is still a sense of our world being on a precipice especially with the threat of runaway climate change. It's something we're told to anticipate in our lifetimes, and have already begun to see, although for now our living standards and consumption in the developed world are still at the highest level in history.

Bigkidsdidit - you are remarkably dogmatic about how people should be thinking and acting. You may think it's ridiculous but a lot of people don't. Lots of people from all over the world use this site, not everyone lives in the same state of comfortable smuggness that you are lucky to occupy.

I'm pretty sure its just jealousy about a "niche interest" getting its own board. There was a similar outcry when the "Scotsnet" topic was set up. (Same hysteria, different reasons).

It's completely ridiculous

I've just had a look at the prepping topic. I can see that if you live fairly remotely it makes sense to have some non perishable food in the cupboard in case of bad weather, and of course it's a good idea for everyone to have a torch in a known place in case of power cuts.

But some of it seems v extreme and more than a little bit weird. I saw one post by someone who had bought some kind of camping stove but was worrying about using it (in the event of whatever emergency they're prepping for) as she had read somewhere that "the Hordes" would smell the cooking and come rampaging!

I went onto the walking dead thread but didn't realise you had proprietary interest in that thread wecanbuthope. I'm on the walking dead thread frequently myself but clearly its yours...

I don't understand why people are getting wound up. I don't think anyone on the prepping threads is preparing for an apocalypse. Most of us just live rurally and get snowed in and have frequent power problems in the winter but can also see that other short term emergencies might happen which mean we have to fend for ourselves for a bit longer. Nobody has years worth of food and a nuclear bunker (or at least nobody has admitted to that!) Everyone seems very normal

And just to really screw with people's minds, I also frequent S&B

How ridiculous. Something makes you anxious, don't read it or hide it. The same can be said about the loss board, relationship, money board, special needs board. Anyone going though or might be going through loss, divorce, financial difficulties or children with potential special needs might get anxious seeing those boards too. If we did that with every topic there would no boards at all.

Just a point, but demanding to silence a small group of people who are posting on their own board, minding their own business, is also the action of a twat.

Who is demanding that anyone be silenced?

Prep all you want, talk about it all you want, but please also acknowledge that talking about how there will be fighting and fucking in the streets when the end comes might be upsetting for some people.
All the OP has said is that she finds it worrying, that is all.

If having a stock pile of food keeps you happy then be my guest, but please don't tell someone to get a grip.

I hate the thought of a group not being allowed to discuss a topic that is not illegal, inciting hatred or even grounded in reality a lot of the time, on the grounds that others might be distressed by a title

Just a point, but demanding to silence a small group of people who are posting on their own board, minding their own business, is also the action of a twat.

Pipin is right. Nobody has demanded the preppers be 'silenced' or 'not be allowed to discuss a topic'. OP was just posting about her own reaction.

Some of you sound a bit paranoid TBH.

"please also acknowledge that talking about how there will be fighting and fucking in the streets when the end comes might be upsetting for some people. "

That's not what is being talked about..

The OP seems ok now having listened to the discussion and seen it's mostly normal and practical with the occasional jokey ZA comment.

Rocky that's a sensible concern. If there's a temporary food shortage,nothing on the shelves etc, you have enough food to last you say 8 weeks, and the neighbouts don't and are beginning to starve to death because they literally have nothing - what do you think they would do when they find out you have food? The entitlement attitude would kick in, they would come demanding their "share", and be quite violent if you didn't cooperate.

I went onto the walking dead thread but didn't realise you had proprietary interest in that thread wecanbuthope. I'm on the walking dead thread frequently myself but clearly its yours...

Very mature.

It's a thread devoted to the Walking Dead. It's not a thread to promote bullshit prepping.

Crikey.

If there is much angst on an Internet forum about prepping, God help us all if the shit really does hit the fan.

Its all really easy.

There are a group of us who enjoy talking about this stuff. It's interesting and half of what we talk about isn't stuff we actuallydo, its just stuff we have read about and enjoy discussing. A lot of it is very practical such as which solar phone chargers are best if there's a power cut and what to keep in the car boot if theres snow forecast, some of it is tongue in cheek. Yes there are occasional references to zombies but nobody truly thinks zombies are about to attack.

If it bothers you then hide the threads or the topic as a whole.

The OP and some others have said they don't like it, it makes them anxious, and such. They've been told numerous times they can hide the board.

I can't figure out why this thread is still going at 341 messages, when on the first page, the OP and others could have said "oh, I can hide it? Then I'll do so, problem solved" and just moved on.

All this fuss over a non-issue. Don't like it? Hide the board. Easy.

Because threads often deviate from the initial post.

Not really that confusing.

A few points:

1. Not all MNers live in safe old Engerland.

1. Some of us give to food banks (or in my case spend their lives working with homeless people and resent the idea that we are selfish fuckers).

1. The Zombie Apocalypse is a joke, meant as shorthand for any situation where the shit hits the fan.

1. Now that we have our own thread, people can hide it. I suggest people who find it 'loony', 'nuts' (nice language mocking MH BTW) or anxiety-provoking can hide it.

1. People who don't prep discussing the morality/practicality of prepping is irritating. It assumes that in the ten seconds of brain time you gave it, you have thought more about this than us. You haven't.

It's not a hobby, it's severe paranoia plus a hoarding problem.

Most preppers on here are being a bit disingenuous too. First they say it's just about being able to survive floods or a week long power cut, then the fantasies about a catastrophic event begin (hence "I wouldn't share my hard won supplies with starving children"). I am amazed so many people think like this.

It's one thing to dream of being self sufficient and off grid (not for me, I love Costs too much) but quite another to anticipate the total collapse of society. I think on some level they actually WANT it to happen, too.

I don't need to prep. I've got an Iceland, Superdrug and 'fashion' shoe shop over the road.

Come the apocalypse I'll loot the ever fucking hell out of them.

I'll be sat in my flat in six inch heeled pleather thigh boots (with enough make up for a drag Queen) eating doner kebab pizza liberally sprinkled with sanatogen multi vitamins and laughing at the preppers eating their tinned potatoes.

I might even be cackling. In fact, I will be.

But why do you think we shouldnt be abke to discuss it DriverSurpriseMe? Isn't it up to posters on the Preppers board to discuss what they want to as with any other board? Why is it one thing to dream about being off grid but another to anticipate the total collapse of society

I'm curious as to why you want to restrict what we want to talk about amongst ourselves? Surely you either join in if it interests you, ignore if it doesn't. Same as any other topic or thread.

unbelievable

"Most preppers on here are being a bit disingenuous too. First they say it's just about being able to survive floods or a week long power cut, then the fantasies about a catastrophic event begin (hence "I wouldn't share my hard won supplies with starving children"). I am amazed so many people think like this."

It's not so hard to imagine a short term emergency where people who haven't prepared ahead are beginning to starve. Think about a town being cut off for a couple of weeks due to horrendous weather. In the scenario where we will be maybe 2 or 3 weeks without food, and I have enough food to get me comfortably through that time period, but the neighbhours are beginning to starve to death and have literally no food left, then I wouldn't be sharing. My reasoning would be that in that scenario, those who are starving are going to die anyway, it's not like me giving them one meal will help them. But the minute I do share, word will go around and I'll get raided because the entitlement mentality will kick in. Parents with starving children will think they have a right to take food out of my mouth to feed their child, they would see it as acceptable to doom me to the same fate as their child as long as their child gets another meal, prolonging their life a little bit longer. And I understand that reaction, parents will move mountains to protect their kids, and I wouldn't want to be fighting against one trying to steal from me. So the best course of action would be for me not to let on about anything. If it's a choice between the neighbhours dying and me surviving, or the neighbhours dying and me dying as well, guess which I'm going to chose.

It really rubs me up the wrong way how some non preppers are happy to mock and talk down to preppers, it's all paranoia, you're a loony, it couldn't ever happen, but then admit they would happily steal from preppers if they had to. Well surely the common sense thing to do would be to look after yourself, prepare ahead of time so you DONT have to steal from innocent people if there's a crisis? It's like saying that you can't be arsed getting house insurance because it's just paranoia, but you'd expect your neighbhours to fund you if you get robbed and need your things replaced. Either get the insurance or don't, but take the consequences of your choice whatever they are and don't expect others to bail you out.