If you watch “Doomsday Preppers” or some other show on TV, the answer would seem to be that it’s because we’re crazy. They selected people and edited the clips to make them look crazy, which led to years of people laughing at preparedness.
This last year has changed the public perception of preparedness.
So, then, why do we do it?
-WiscoDave
Well, I did it because I feared a government was gonna confiscate my weapons, but, then It told me I was a white supremacist, that blacks burning down cities was peaceful, that an idiot didn't steal the Whitehouse, that the FBI would not investigate it because there was No cheating, that Patriots would be arrested because they didn't believe it, and, just turn on the TV, and the media would back up everything It said.
ReplyDeleteYeah. And I'm the crazy one.
Dano
How de we prepare for the Zombie Apocalypse?
ReplyDeleteRunning shoes and Axe Body Spray.
DeleteCardio, double tap. Nemo
DeleteBecause when I want to replace the empty toilet paper roll there is a package in the cupboard. Plus, when the weather turns to crap I can stay home, and bake while everyone else is out fighting over the last loaf of bread or gallon of milk.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely spot on Judy. It sounds a bit trite, but that is the essence of preparedness. Prepping, if you're doing it right, should give you peace of mind. And most of prepping is not about "stuff", it's about what's between your ears. If I get a flat tire, I not only have a spare, a jack, and a lugnut wrench, but I KNOW how to do it.
Delete"Be Prepared" stuck to all us old boy scouts.
ReplyDeleteBecause shit happens.
ReplyDeleteWhy do people prepare? Two reasons, really: 1) it does give you some margin of error and flexibility in the event of a crisis, though there is no guarantee that your preparations will survive the event; 2) it lets us feel like we're "doing something," which gives a little psychological boost.
ReplyDeleteBecause guvmint can't get out of its own way under the best circumstances. I sure as hell won't rely on it when things go awry.
ReplyDeleteHistory
ReplyDeleteBecause my grand parents lived through the depression, and grand mother told me stories. And after 32 years in service I learned that no matter how hard or effective I and my staff, later me as staff, planned MR. MURPHY has a vote. Shit will go sideways. If you are not under a rock or in a cave you are seeing that the FUSA is going sideways. Shit even liberals are buying guns, what does that tell you.
ReplyDeleteLooks nothing that is going on is new, nothing is. So if you might take the time and read some f-in history you will learn how societies die, the FUSA is no different.
I said today that China looks at the LONG game, I’m talking generations. Americans are self centered adolescents and dont think past their sexually organs. So basically you might want your young kids or grand kids to learn mandarin Chinese
Don’t think I really addressed why I prep, Its 52 degrees here in Idaho and I just finished splitting and stacking wood. Call me crazy.
Cavguy
Why do we do it?
ReplyDelete1. We do it because preparation is exactly the same thing as hoarding, and therefore antisocial.
2. We do it because it is very very likely that a disproportionate amount of preppers are white, and therefore trying to maximize self-reliance is racist white privilege. (How this applies to me personally is a bit of a mystery, but people waaay smarter than me, who have diplomas and certificates and everything, tell me that a Chinese dude is somehow a white supremacist, so I guess it must be true. /hangsheadinshame)
3. We do it because we are lunatics who should be locked up for our own safety. What kind of paranoid nutbag could even think that FEMA would fail to provide for our shelter, food, clean drinking water, and safety within 24h. I mean, just look at the smashing job authorities did with Katrina!
Face it, anyone who is prepped, or even thinks that prepping is a good idea, is an antisocial, racist, paranoid nutbag. But we're just assholes that way.
I am not an asshole, I am a jackass but yes
DeleteWe prepare because while we might be crazy, we're not stupid.
ReplyDeleteI hate this term because I'm old enough to remember going to my great-grandparents fifth floor walk up in The Bronx when I was a kid and I remember the pantry being stuffed to the gills with gear that today would get them labeled "suspicious".
ReplyDeleteI remember three shoe boxes filled with different types of batteries and there being a least two types of each flash light; from small pen lights, up to those big boxy-looking things with the miners lamp on the front. Jars full of home made food, ranging from homegrown peppers, to tomatoes and home made pickles. Cans of lard, air-dried meats, bottles of home made wine, cans of condensed milk, you name it they had it. Hell, I remember an old over-under shotgun and a police .38 they had on the top shelf as well! I asked my great-grandparents what it was all for and they told me, "You cannot rely on anyone but you and your family and maybe a few neighbors. Never listen to the government when they say that they'll help you, they won't, in fact they'll rob you blind if they have the chance." Sage advice from people who remember the great depression very well.
No such thing as a fifth floor walk up in NYC
DeleteOnly four floor walk ups
Six story apartment buildings had to
have an elevator
Maybe it was four floors, time and whiskey will do that to you.
DeleteCause I can read a balance sheet.
ReplyDeleteWe are an island unto our self, and I don't like relying on others.
ReplyDeleteI read answers, and wanted to add my strong, Yes! note of approval to just about everyone of them. There are literally hundreds of good reasons to stockpile various things just in case of an event that shuts down the normal lines of modern society, from food delivery to our energy supply, to waste disposal or water delivery.
ReplyDeleteHaving an alternate supply or source of continuing on, without depending upon the government or some other nefarious source, is always the right thing to do.
One thing that was not mentioned was a hedge against runaway inflation. With the government spending money that we simply as a nation do not have, but just print, they are only steps away from bringing on a cycle of inflation. In such a case, your dollar in your wallet tomorrow, is worth more by buying a package of dry kidney beans, from the local dollar store. In 6 months, that dollar in your pocket might not be worth 50cents, but your 12 oz. bag of dried beans could now be selling for 2$.
You also must of course, figure in getting out of unsecured debt, with secured debt edging out unsecured debt by a slim margin. If you owe 3,000$ on your primary auto, you need to get it paid off as fast as you are able, to avoid the possibility of repossession, in an economic downturn, and a loss of income. The dollar in your pocket or the bag of beans in the pantry won't be of any help, if you no longer drive to work.
As most of you reading this no doubt know, prepping is not a super difficult thing to figure out, mentally. The hard thing is that you have to adopt the mindset of our relatives of a generation or 3 before us. You all remember the story from grandma, about having to put 2$ a week into the tin can on the cup board, until they had saved up the 25$ in order to go and buy that lamp for the living room. Not only did they not buy Chinese junk, but they bought very high quality, for the most part hand crafted made in America goods, that were going to last several generations. Thus the fact that they had to save up for it. Credit was something that they used, but only on things like buying a home, a car, or on the odd occasion, a new furnace in the middle of winter, or such. For my grandmother to see me pay for my order at McDonald's with my debit card, even if it is just like paying case, but not having to have the actual cash, she would have a kitten. I am 60, and I sometimes think of the act of how easily I am willing to plop that plastic down, pretty much everywhere. Strange new world, I guess.
I have said, that the one good thing about this pandemic, if you dig deep enough, it the fact that my wife now sees the reason that I maintain extra items, even if we already have 2-3 cans of the same item already in our cupboard. I have 4 cans of cream of mushroom soup in the cupboard, yet they go on sale, I will buy another 4, or 8 cans, to store in my free standing pantry. While things like that do have an expiration date, I try to rotate stock, but not obsess over them. I know that we will use it before a few years, at least, and things will keep easily for longer than that.
And it has been said before, but bears repeating, don't buy things that your family won't or doesn't eat now, planning on suddenly having them find a newly inspired love of kimchi, or pickled herring. Don't hate me for saying those two, they are just examples of items that you either love or hate, not much room for in between.
Good post, Wisco, and especially timely. And I believe that Wirecutter has mentioned before, the ease of which it is to buy just 5-10$ extra per week, for the pantry.
Happy St. Patrick's Day.
Pigpen51
Because we can, and don't want to be on the Texas news as a beto voter with no electricity and water.
ReplyDeleteUnprepared???? What the hell is that?
ReplyDeleteR
Or that clinton (Bill, not Killrry) town hall retard, who brayed, "who will take care of us?"
ReplyDeleteUhm, you, fool?
Rule 1 never tell anyone you are a pepper and what you have / where. It will be confiscated by local citizen council during shft Rule 2 Never buy too much ammo at one time from the same location. Try not to buy on the internet rule 3 buy guns if possible from some old folks having yard sales. Just ask you would be surprised what they have stashed away. Rule 4 keep a low profile from this day forward. Rule gather , learn how, keep manuals/ books on how.
ReplyDeleteWhy?
ReplyDeleteBecause Federal Emergency Management Administrators have one focus -- their careers.
During a disaster, if TheLittlePeople somehow miraculously manage to be helped, I can picture the fema bumblebrats suddenly sitting, befuddled.