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??

I watched 'threads' a few years ago
I would rather just be taken when the bomb drops

Buying up water for prepping is a bit stupoid though.

I have lots of those plastic container in the loft that are filled with various loft type junk.

If there was a nuclear attack I would fill them up with water and hide behind it (the water would block some of the radiation from the explosion) and I have a box of water purifying tablets that I could use on them for weeks ahead.

So dual use water, no hassle or space storing or bringing in supplied apart from a few boxes of tablets from amazon along with the iodine pills.

Science.

That isn't really what prepping is all about though. It's about being prepared and self sufficient in various scenarios. For example if there are long term power outages, you'd have alternatives like battery operated torches, candles, a stock of fully charged power banks (including those charged by solar power), portable solar panels, camping stoves and fuel, etc. Or if the water supply is disrupted, having a supply of some water, but also ways to purify water and suitable containers, water butts...

Maybe having a bag ready if you need to evacuate with essentials in: water purification tablets, torches, power banks, tools, cash, important papers, first aid kit, emergency survival blankets etc.

As for the zombie apocalypse, your best bet is to have a well stocked bunker. You'll probably need some sturdy weapons as well, as you'll need to destroy the brain to stop them, but if you can take out their knees, it will slow them considerably so you can run away. I figured we wouldn't last 5 minutes in a zombie apocalypse as my kids wouldn't shut up and the zombies would hear us.

And preppers don't announce that they are preppers, so neighbours wouldn't know to target their house.

You shouldn't prep for an unrealistic scenario as the zombie apocalypse.

Prep for the electricity being down, or the water supply being shut down, or the shops being practically empty for a couple of days. Or for a week, if you want to be on the safe side.

Those are the kind of utilities that an enemy would attack to cause chaos in your society, and let's face it: Those scenarios can also happen because of incompetence somewhere in the system. Wouldn't be the first time.

We always have a fully stocked larder, some extra toilet paper, and ten litres of water per person. My dad found it a bit silly, but I gave him a five-litre container with water because I don't want to spend half a day walking over to his place to give him water in case of both water and electricity being down. Depending on the type of crisis, the authorities might ask us all to stay at home. He always has plenty of food.

I find it amusing that some of the people I know, who vehemently argue against prepping, at the same time either are or have the kind of children and/or spouse who get hysterical if they have to "make do with" the "wrong" brand of food/clothes/tech. I mean: Really? Normally, you have a rebellion on your hands if you suggest they eat Tesco's cornflakes instead of Kellogg's, but you think they will react well to getting food from the Red Cross for a week? Ha ha! No.

People have been prepping since the 50s, it's really nothing new.

Lets face it, would you really want to sit around and wait for the government to come and help you in a crisis or would you feel that bit better if you knew that you and your little family would be ok for a few weeks or months whilst things settled. (If things hadnt settled by month 3 i think we would be in far more trouble than could be helped by a few tins of beans or chickpeas quite honestly.) The government already recommends you should have 3 days food and water on hand so reading between the lines, how much should you REALLY be stocking?

Yes . But as I said earlier I thought this was the province of out and out eccentrics.

Since when did this become regarded as mainstream behaviour. That's what I don't understand. Just feeds unto the narrative of how selfish and looking after number one our society has become.

A proper prepper won’t tell anyone what they have and wont have stuff all in one place either. The whole point is to be invisible and go looking for supplies where others won’t even think about. I know there is a vending supplies warehouse and a vetinary supplies warehouse within walking distance, there’s a deep quarry type place locally, completely hidden, unseen at the end of a track with a stream/lake and buildings with solar power and spiked fences, easily defended, park a lorry across the entrance, let the tyres down and nobody would know the place existed unless they had a drone.
I’m not a ‘hardcore prepper/homesteader’ by any means, I don’t have caches buried in the woods, but I do have a plan, can hunt/trap, fish I and carry a bugout bag in my car which is useful in all sorts of situations, not just EOTWAWKI.
People will die because of stupidity if society breaks down, they won’t consider that light/smoke/cooking smells will be like a beacon and they won’t do simple things fill the bath and large containers with water if the grid goes down.

I think that there is a huge difference between types of preparation.

There are people who arm themselves, have bunkers and are preparing for out and out chaos such as war.

But I do have a well stocked larder and some water. I have my old camping stove still. That's because I live remotely. No mains gas. No daily popping to the nearest shop (tiny shop in the nearest tiny town). For most products it is expensive to drive to the nearest supermarket (an Aldi) that is 40 minutes away so that's a fortnightly trip. We have been snowed in for over a week. And the road that runs past us sometimes gets blocked for a couple of days in stormy weather as the wind bring down trees. And we have power cuts. They can last a while. Not only does that mean no lights, no heating, no refrigeration and no cooking on the hob or oven it also means no water. Our water comes from a borehole up the hill. It needs electricity to pump and to treat. So yes I have bottles of water to cover a few days. While my neighbours are at a distance we do tend to help out when there are issues. Does that make me a prepper? I don't know but I'm certainly not going to behave as if I was living in a city with everything easy to obtain on a daily basis because for me it isn't.

If a serious situation arose such as a nuclear war then I'd simply have to enjoy lots of painkillers with some nice whisky because the aftermath of such a calamity is not something I want to survive. As for wailing about zombies. If anyone really believes in that crap then they need serious psychiatric help. Whether they are a 'prepper' in a concrete bunker or some privileged inhabitant in a town sneering and mocking people who do have to ensure sufficient food and water for a few days of disruption.

If there’s a total societal collapse, I hope that I’ll die in the first wave of whatever carnage there is.

Preppers are nuts. A world of rape murder and violence but I’m ok because I have 100kg rice?!?! What?

And crossbows

We had a local area water supply problem for a week or so - we shared out the water we had to our neighbours and they restocked when they had a chance to go to the local Tesco. It was handy to have a stock pile. and there was no looting.

100%.

We "prep" but not to any extreme. We just have lots of "stuff" in that will get used eventually, such as plenty of tinned/packet foods, a few large bottles of water, lots of frozen food, bread and milk in the freezer, obviously toilet rolls and other toiletries. None will go to waste, it all gets rotated and replaced.

We also have other things, like plenty of spare batteries, camping stove (for when we go camping) with a few spare gas bottles, old style battery radio, torches, etc. Again, all in pretty regular use, nothing will go to waste or rot away through lack of use.

Try to keep our cars at least half full of petrol.

All VERY handy a few years ago during Storm Desmond where our city lost it's electricity due to flooded sub station for 3/4 days and then suffering regular power cuts for the following week. Obviously shops and petrol stations were closed, so people needing stuff had to drive out of town to the next nearest town, 20/30 miles away depending on direction. People who were unprepared were panicking especially for food, as the council/electricity firm didn't bring in street hot food trailers until day 3!

Nothing of what we do is extreme, it's just common sense to be able to cope for a few days if there's bad weather, power cuts, supply chain problems, etc. Certainly not prepping for Nuclear war or a zombie apocalyse. Councils, utility firms and emergency services take time to get things organised when things go wrong.

They’ll not get their zombie hands on my Dutch Barn Vodka.

The thing is, we have lots of examples of where systems and societies have broken down, and they indicate that human responses are wide and varied, and that ultimately they speak to the fact that we are social animals where resilience often relies on cooperation. There are examples of horrific violence and selfishness, but also of stunning altruism and self-sacrifice.

And a lot depends on what you're prepping for. Sudden apocalypse is at the extreme end. The much more likely scenarios are shorter-term - a large scale cyber attack or energy system shutdown that leads to mass supply chain disruption - or something that creeps up much more slowly.

For me, the short term is what I plan for. The ability to get by for a couple of weeks and ideally up to a month with pretty severe rationing and some external supplementation. I'm fortunate that I've got enough space to store some essentials but a month is really the limit.

But then I grew up in a place where we could regularly be totally cut off by floodwaters for a couple of weeks so I think that level of readiness is quite ingrained in me.

In a crisis no one would drink alcohol.

They would use it as an antiseptic to sterilise wounds, or as a flaming weapon to throw at people/the zombie horde.

It isn’t mainstream behaviour.

The 5 x 12 bore shotguns in the cabinet are our insurance policy.

It’s the opposite of selfish.

My prepping = my absence from the supermarket queue where you and others are trying to buy all the things you need when a supply problem suddenly manifests.

“They’ve got a Breville out the back”

Ever watched Threads? It’s a docu-movie from the 80s about what post-nuclear Britain might be like. Harrowing.

Why is the automatic assumption that it’s individualistic? I have approximately a 3 month stock of the non perishable foods and products we use and a months supply of medication. It means that I can ride out the minor crises that empty the supermarket shelves, I can look after my family, help out wider family and my neighbours when they’re dealing with ordinary emergencies or illness.

On an everyday basis, it gives me the flexibility to hold out for bargains and not have to pay price hikes for essentials. My grab bag has seen us through multiple a&e visits. I’m not stripping the supermarket shelves of water or ice lollies right now, so there’s more for everyone.

Having been through a major natural disaster, in a first world country, and seen the shop shelves empty in no time at all, I think that anyone who does zero preparation and can't survive for a week on what they have in the house is an idiot.

This is my thinking, the world is burning but it’s ok as you have lots of tins!

Presumably it’s a control thing that gives people comfort.

Growing up in a rough part of London is all the prepping I need 😆