“not some lone ranger”
If the ultimate goal is to just simply survive, a well stocked retreat in the middle of no where with contact with no one has better odds of surviving than a military force.
I’ve surfed a prepper forum off and on, reading some of their ideas. Many fall into that “goofy commune” thing you mentioned where they’d be so obvious and so ill prepared for a military style attack against them it’s laughable.
There is no “middle of nowhere.”