Prepper stupidity?

[Tuxedomaddness]

All these people who prep for society breakdown, supply chains broken.

Humans will just break in and steal.your stuff?
If society went down surely it's better to be fit (zombie apocalypse) than have a pantry full of flour and pasta??

Well no it's reality.
Humans are animals. They will do whatever it takes to survive in adversity!

Human biological nature is not a 'tik tock tend'. It's survival.of the fittest.

I don't think weapons are going to help the preppers much, seeing as many people are armed. The armed non-preppers will simply gang up to overwhelm the armed preppers.

I got sucked into prepping at the beginning of the Ukraine war. Lasted about a week and stopped when I realised that it means regularly checking best before dates, eating stuff that's old, substituting with new stuff. It's not as simple as buying a shitload of essentials and forgetting about them for 10 years! Life's too short, and I hate tinned beans anyway.

There are several towns in SE with no water at the moment. It’s considered quite usual here to keep a few bottles of water for such eventualities.

You best double lock your doors then!

But are you saying it is common amongst people you know in real life?

I've known people stockpile certain items when there is going to be a shortage but I've never known anyone subscribe to " prepper" mentality.

This thread seems like an attempt to portray abnormal rare behaviour as a common phenomenon.

It's like they have a sense of security in their own 'bubble/home'.

I mean... that's hardly the wildest idea, is it? We all have a sense of security in our homes, if we're lucky. I think you're being too focused on a specific movie scenario where stories are structured for people to leave home and go on a quest. The reality - which is what your neighbour is actually living in unlike your scenario - is that they might be better off having more rather than less if there's a sudden scarcity due to pandemics, wars affecting supplies, that kinda thing.

Even in the zombie apocalypse survival manuals, they advise that you fill the bath asap so you have enough water before the supplies are cut off. Sure we can snipe our way out and head for some refuge in Siberia, but most people will do better lying low and waiting for the worst to be over. And if it never is, maybe they'd rather end it themselves in their home than go. Again, isn't that true of most humans - that they want to end their days in their own home?

In short, while there's no doubt some prepper stupidity in this world, you don't make a good case for it and seem less connected to reality than your neighbour in you apocalyptic visions.

Well if people are hungry and thirsty it wo'n't be a rare thing.
Why do you think people now breeze into a shop, nick food and walk out! Because 90% of the time they are desperate.
It doesn't take much of a mental leap to figure out what will happen in a real 'catastophe'.

Are the majority of preppers really expecting a zombie apocalypse though? Or just interruptions to the supply chain/power cuts/floods/pandemics, in which case the rule of law will very much still be in place, there will just be shortages.

No. There have been countless examples of places suddenly losing "civilisation" due to disease, weather events etc. What tends to happen is that people band together and help each other. It doesn't suddenly go all Lord of the Flies. Humans are better than you think.

It was one of the proudest moments of my life when young DS said from the backseat of the car ' that would be a good place to move to in a zombie apocalypse". Just kidding, it wasn't a good option - it was a prison so we'd have to clear out all the inmates first. But still he was pretty young.

Security is my top priority! If it kicks off suddenly I'm racing over to a neighbour who has triple glazing, a wood burning stove and a big dog - golden retriever, not the best guard dog, but better than nothing! This has been agreed, I'm contributing peanut butter and gin, and we'll hunker down.

A bit more time to prepare and I'm going to another friend who lives by the sea, she doesn't have a boat but we figure we can take one, seeing as society will have collapsed. I will have my neighbour with the Golden Retreiver with me, and my peanut butter and gin.

I think that billionaires who've built huge bunkers will very quickly discover that their body guards won't be that loyal - they'll be the ones with the guns afterall.

I never stock pile for anything.
Neither do I plan for the worse, i expect the worse so no need to plan it.
No point in anyone trying to rob me im a minimalist my home looks empty.

In fairness, the idiocy of some of the water companies indicates that water's not complete madness (even if they do supply free bottles of the stuff)

We’re preppers, to an extent. We have a shed entirely filled with long lasting foods, bottled water, assorted supplies, including a fridge with generator and a year long supply of the medication I need to survive.

The most likely scenario is not that society totally breaks down, mad max style - I agree in that scenario eventually somebody would just raid the house and take it.

But disruptions to supply chains, shortages of my medication, shortages of the foods my autistic child will actually eat….all of these can easily happen and have happened in the past decade.

The vast majority of preppers are preparing for something less than a zombie apocalypse.

When Covid hit we didn’t need to leave the house or battle for delivery spots for the first month, I felt like my general caution had been vindicated!

"Store your grain in your neighbours belly" is an old Indian proverb that is worth thinking about here. People are most likely to survive disastrous events with the help of others. A lot of human behaviour that we take for granted actually has, at its root, the need to maintain social bonds for survival.
A small close-knit group of neighbours in the middle of Manchester probably has much better survival chances than loners in the Highlands in their Biffy bags. Despite the rampant individualism that has taken over in recent years, we really do need each other.

I don't think preppers are preparing for a zombie apocalypse. There are quite a few scenarios in which having enough food and water for a few weeks would be helpful- supply chain breakdowns, water outages etc, which could be related to a cyber attack, pandemic etc- all things which we have recent examples of. Unlikely that society would break down in those examples- we'll all just be queuing for our water rations while the preppers are relaxing at home.

Government advice is that you should have at least 3 days' food (eg canned beans etc that don't need heating) and water at home if you can.

Obviously some people take it a bit far.

The After Days by Amy Ginsburg is quite a good read, 2 middle aged couples in the US and a breakdown of society following the electricity going off for days. An easy read but makes you think!

In a catastophe we'll all willingly be bowing down to our feline overlords.

There you go. You don’t need to prep - you can just rip her throat out and tuck in!

There's a whole MN board for it.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/preppers

Depends on the type of 'apocalypse' you're talking about. In a nuclear war we would all be fucked. In a zombie apocalypse we would all be fucked. Societal collapse some of us would be ok, but it would require extreme violence.

People who prep in the UK aren't usually prepping for any of these things. It's more along the lines of fuel, power and grocery prices skyrocketing or another lockdown. In which case it would be useful to have supplies.

I'm not a prepper per se, but I do have skills and supplies to stay alive if needs be.

I think the preppers in the USA carry a huge armoury of weapons as well for this sort of eventuality.

Humans will just break in and steal.your stuff?

The clue is in the name. Prepper. They prepare for stuff like that.

I have enough tomato soup for 2 weeks 🍅
1 if I let my elderly neighbour have some, but I'd have to assess her chances of being a useful ally against the hordes 🧟 🧟 🧟

Oh my goodness
@SalmonofUnwisdom
I had absolutely no idea!

I"m so glad i'm nearing the end of my life.
I feel so sorry for those being born into this world we have created.