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It’s a Weird Time to Be a Doomsday Prepper
The Atlantic ^

Posted on 05/28/2023 2:43:37 PM PDT by nickcarraway

If you’re looking for a reason the world will suddenly end, it’s not hard to find one—especially if your job is to convince people they need to buy things to prepare for the apocalypse. “World War III, China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Joe Biden—you know, everything that’s messed up in the world,” Ron Hubbard, the CEO of Atlas Survival Shelters, told me. His Texas-based company sells bunkers with bulletproof doors and concrete walls to people willing to shell out several thousand—and up to millions—of dollars for peace of mind about potential catastrophic events. Lately, interest in his underground bunkers has been booming. “When the war broke out in Ukraine, my phone was ringing every 45 seconds for about two weeks,” he said.

Many of his clients work in tech: Although the prepper movement in America spans the upper and middle classes, the left and the right, Silicon Valley has in recent years become its epicenter. In his book Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires, Douglas Rushkoff delves into what he calls “The Mindset”—the idea among Silicon Valley doomsday preppers that “winning” means earning enough money to escape the damage that befalls everyone else. In 2018, Bloomberg reported that seven tech entrepreneurs had purchased bunkers in New Zealand. And a 2016 New Yorker profile of Sam Altman quoted the OpenAI CEO as saying he had “guns, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks from the Israeli Defense Force, and a big patch of land in Big Sur I can fly to” in the event of super-contagious viruses, nuclear war, and AI “that attacks us.”

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Conspiracy
KEYWORDS: fubar; prepper; preppers; shtf
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To: nickcarraway

There is no doubt things are turning dark.

“The only thing harder than preparing ahead of time is having
to explain why you didn’t.” - Gabe Suarez

https://www.mediafire.com/file/nita0e562aytg1b/Preparedness_1j.pdf/file


21 posted on 05/28/2023 3:46:14 PM PDT by Kartographer (“We Mutually Pledge To Each Other Our Lives, Our Fortunes And Our Sacred Honor”)
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To: DannyTN

Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu said “An evil man will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes.”


22 posted on 05/28/2023 3:51:27 PM PDT by Kartographer (“We Mutually Pledge To Each Other Our Lives, Our Fortunes And Our Sacred Honor”)
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To: Dr. Sivana

“I don’t have the money to buy that level of prep, or the varied skills and time to do it on the cheap. I accpt the possibility that in a real SHTF situation that I might just well die. I hope that I am given the Grace by God to die a Holy Death, and that I can protect my wife and children somehow.”

You’re more realistic than 99% of the population. Most people are storing food for the people who will kill them for it later, whether it’s their neighbor who didn’t store quite as much as they did and is now starving, or the stranger who will shoot them from the tree line the minute they step out of their house. I especially like to hear, “oh, I live in a safe place, all my neighbors are great.” Wait and see how great your neighbor is when they run out of food and know you have some, or how great you will be when you run out of food and your family is starving.


23 posted on 05/28/2023 3:58:21 PM PDT by suthener
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To: lilypad

Good book. Between the time I read it the first time and the second, my yongest daughter came down with Type I diabetes.

Too close to the bone.


24 posted on 05/28/2023 3:59:09 PM PDT by Hieronymus
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To: Scrambler Bob

How are they going to get to New Zealand? I don’t think the apocalypse will come with a two week warning.


25 posted on 05/28/2023 4:00:41 PM PDT by DeplorablePaul
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To: suthener

I think I’m situated pretty good, but that is a combination of being sort of in the middle of nowhere and being two hours on the unpopulated side of Ottawa (albeit west, not north).

If Ottawa has the ability to salvage any zone of sanity, it will be Ottawa that is salvaged, and I think the area has the general ability to hang on by itself for a while.


26 posted on 05/28/2023 4:04:06 PM PDT by Hieronymus
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To: lilypad
"One Second After"

Oh, that's a MUST-READ.
Very well thought out.

27 posted on 05/28/2023 4:04:15 PM PDT by Psalm 73 ("You'll never hear surf music again" - J. Hendrix)
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To: Dr. Sivana

hunker down - have lots of New Haven pizza on hand and you’ll be all good


28 posted on 05/28/2023 4:07:01 PM PDT by Third Person
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To: Third Person

Modern will freeze it in an air tight seal. A friend sent me some. It did the trick.


29 posted on 05/28/2023 4:15:48 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("If you can’t say something nice . . . say the Rosary." [Red Badger])
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To: suthener

No amount of prepping can guarantee survival but no preparations will guarantee misery, failure and death or you can add to the numbers of those who will rob and kill because they did nothing. I guess its up to each of us to decide how we wish to die. You can die trying to provide and protect your family of you can die robbing and kill others. Up to how you wish to meet your maker.


30 posted on 05/28/2023 4:16:58 PM PDT by Kartographer (“We Mutually Pledge To Each Other Our Lives, Our Fortunes And Our Sacred Honor”)
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To: struggle

“Yet no one will tell us why billionaires all have remote getaways in new Zealand”

And I bet they all have security personnel hired to protect them there.

How many weeks after Armegeddon do the security people own the bunker and all the prep food and ammo.

The tech billionaire used to have a billion dollars. Major survival materials in the old world but has almost no useful skills for the new world.

Trained security people do.


31 posted on 05/28/2023 4:17:17 PM PDT by ModelBreaker
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To: Flavious_Maximus

I’d wager “Big Sur” means the Santa Lucia Mountains a bit inland from the coast, not the coastal region. The mountains are very rugged and rise very high from the ocean.
* Junipero Serra Peak, 5,857 feet
* Cone Peak, 5,158 feet
* Ventana Double Cone, 4,856 feet
* Mount Carmel, 4,420 feet


32 posted on 05/28/2023 4:20:03 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (I don’t like to think before I say something...I want to be just as surprised as everyone else.)
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To: nickcarraway

I’m a meso-prepper. Due to location and prep skills, I’ll last barely five years if limited nuke or EMP. Will be hunting after year five if the ammo is not spent on intruders. My curiosity hike from my mountain place back down to Denver will likely be what kills me.


33 posted on 05/28/2023 4:40:17 PM PDT by LittleBillyInfidel (This tagline has been formatted to fit the screen. Some content has been edited.)
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To: Kartographer; DannyTN; metmom; 4everontheRight; 4Liberty; 5thGenTexan; 45semi; 101stAirborneVet; ...
Kartographer :" Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu said “An evil man will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes.”

This is exactly what we are seeing in the policies of the WEF (World Economic Forum) and the United Nations policy of " Agenda 2030", as well as our own national _residential policies.
The situation is the same in the Netherlands where they want farmers to quit farming and reduce their livestock.
It seems they all forget about the demonstration project in Sri Lanka of eliminating all nitrogen for agricultural products,
and now Sri Lankans now have run-away inflation, as well as social and economic chaos, as well as government instability.

The basic "Prepper Rule" is :
"Store what you eat, ..and eat what you store"(food rotation program to lower expenses and cut down waste).
Where do you start ? Look at your last 3 - 4 weeks food bills for stuff that you regularly use. Instead of buying 2 cans of tuna, buy 3 cans and put one up in storage.
Then anticipate shortages of essential commodities according to what you are able to purchase and can store: food, batteries, clothing, medicines, transportation, home heating, fuel, power, glasses, charcoal, etc.
Don't go into debt to get and store Prepper supplies; use closets, under the bed storage, for regular purchases, or cover boxes with plywood and a tablecloth,
which then becomes regular and common furniture etc., etc.
Over a period of time, prepping becomes a habit and a lifestyle of economy, especially in the time of inflation where prices rise bi-monthly or more frequently.

34 posted on 05/28/2023 4:58:56 PM PDT by Tilted Irish Kilt
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To: Tilted Irish Kilt

Sun Tzu said “An evil man will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I ran into that quote recently. Exactly what the domestic enemy is doing. And of course the WEF/UN?Globalists pushing it and the Demsheviks are on board.

We grow a garden every year, and this year a good neighbor gave us a bunch of extra starts. At least we can eat from it until frost. I don’t can veggies (huge shudder). But a while ago I started growing alfalfa sprouts; I used to grow a lot of sprouts as a (very pathetic) living. Cheap fresh food. Very cheap compared the price of lettuce!

They really do want to reduce population and starving is a historical way to do just that.


35 posted on 05/28/2023 5:42:27 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Never worry about anything. Worry never solved any problem or moved any stone.)
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To: nickcarraway

The elites and WEF worshippers have their supply of food and will watch us starve or kill each other as they continue to destroy the world.


36 posted on 05/28/2023 5:45:04 PM PDT by dragonblustar (Democrats groom then butcher children and call it gender affirming. )
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To: Vaduz

I’m reminded of a quote from Patton....”Fixed fortifications are monuments to man’s stupidity. If mountain ranges and oceans can be overcome, anything made by man can be overcome.” –George S. Patton


37 posted on 05/28/2023 5:46:14 PM PDT by ealgeone
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To: Owen

The average person in New Zealand won’t have access to those lands. They will be forced into one of those 15 minute cities or vaccinated/starve to death.


38 posted on 05/28/2023 5:47:08 PM PDT by dragonblustar (Democrats groom then butcher children and call it gender affirming. )
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To: Vaduz

Ugh. why? Everyone, build your own!

2 weeks underground and you be styling...like Heston in Omega Man!

I wannanew Mustang!


39 posted on 05/28/2023 5:49:03 PM PDT by griffin (When you have to shoot, SHOOT; don't talk. -Tuco)
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To: Kartographer

Radiation poisoning is a horrible way to die....and can fairly easily be avoided.

There is a free pdf of this publication floating around the internets.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_War_Survival_Skills


40 posted on 05/28/2023 5:57:43 PM PDT by griffin (When you have to shoot, SHOOT; don't talk. -Tuco)
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