What I saw at the doomsday prepper convention

CNN Money ^ | 11/11/13 | David Z. Morris

[Kartographer]

More and more Americans are spending money to get ready for an uncertain future -- gathering food, water, tools, and skills to help them weather anything from a hurricane to a pandemic. Contrary to images of deluded or gun-obsessed "lone wolves," many preppers are average consumers reacting to concrete worries, and their way of thinking is spreading, fueling an emerging lifestyle trend. That lifestyle is generating demand for a broad spectrum of products offering survival -- or even comfort -- when large-scale systems go down.

[packrat35]

Every gun show I ever attended had plenty of prepper stuff. That’s one of the main reasons I go.

[packrat35]

I call those boot lick Freepers, mostly cops or ex-cops who think they are better than the rest of us and that cops can do NO wrong.

If things get really bad, cops will nothing more than another gang trying to rob you.

[Marcella]

Yes, we had Freepers going apes-— because we prepared for an emergency lasting more than a few days. The last one suggested that when the SHTF, Kartographer and I would divide up the US with him taking half and me taking the other half. He had a derogatory name for me but I don't recall it just now. Kart and I haven't decided who gets which half yet.

This article mentions David Crawford who wrote, “Lights Out”. David lives in San Antonio and the location for the story is in and around San Antonio. I can't remember exactly how we got in touch with each other, but we had numerous emails about his book and the problems the country has. I did tell him the part in his book about a Texas election could not happen that way and quoted the election law so he would know not to make that mistake again. I have an open invitation to visit him in San Antonio when I go there and have enough time to see him.

I mentioned his book a few times in articles I wrote for Survival Podcast and David is a member of that group and has conversation with Jack the owner of that site. I think I remember he was a guest on Jack's radio program one time.

I am a member of a marvelous website for readers, Goodreads.com/ and authors go there to give away their new books to get reader feedback - they want a written review by the readers of their book. You just join for free, write about yourself on your page there so authors can read about you and when you sign up for free books, as many as you want, authors will decide who to give their book to. They may give away one book or ten, or however many they want.

I have won two books so far and have been a member about a month. One of the books is “Oh Sh!t…The Awakening”. This book is about a collapse of the country due to our economic meltdown. The author is Michael Kaye and he contacted me and we had emails and he went to Survival Podcast to read articles I wrote and he contacted Jack the owner of Survival Podcast.

My point in mentioning the above is this: We are all in a group of preparers and the more contact we have with each other, the more we learn and help each other and we know the section of the country where they are. David Crawford and Michael Kaye and you and I are in the same group. There are many thousands of us so don't feel like the Lone Ranger.

If you want free books (who doesn't?), just sign up on that website, write about your interests, your skills, you education, anything that would be good for an author to know, and click on the giveaway of books and start entering for free books. I can tell you it was a pleasure to open my mail box and see free books as they also pay for the postage. Most of the time, the author will sign the book.

Every genre is listed there and you can click to see free books of one genre, and do it that way, or look at the books of all genres in a list. There are normally 80+ pages of books. You will never get to the end as more free books are added every day. There is a time limit to sign up for each book and that is listed.

[Kartographer]

“But the truth is there would be nothing romantic about a civil war. It would be a horrific experience even for the best prepared.”

One of the reasons I post a link to Selco’s Blog along with my Prepparedness Manual. I have for the same reason recently added a link to this documentry:

Sarajevo: A Street Under Siege

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kuCAOlQSEA

And if there is war those best prepared usually are the winners. Many a war is won by those with the best logistics.

[Lazamataz]

For the last 5 years, prepping seemed less and less crazy, until I hit the tipping point about two years ago. Now, those who do not do even minimal prepping are the crazy ones.

I am so screwed.

[Gator113]

Funny, I had thought I had done that a very long time ago and this thread made me realize I hadn’t. —old age is hitting me like a ton of bricks. ;>)

[MHGinTN]

But, but, you told me you had at least a three day store of canned foods in your apartment! You’re one of those prepper varmints, you can’t fool us. I’ll bet you’ve got a couple of gallon milk jugs cleaned out, just to fill up when WROL arrives.

[B4Ranch]

Every child grows up knowing that law. Never, ever piss of the cook especially right before a meal or during the meal or just after the meal. Too many things can go wrong if you do.

[Lazamataz]

If things get really bad, cops will nothing more than another gang trying to rob you.

That differs from now how, exactly?

[Marcella]

You said to Kartographer: “Your postings don’t require verification. You are not known as a BSer or a liar amongst the folks that I know and trust.”

I have people who trust me on this website and I write prepper articles for another website and am considered knowledgeable about prepping - there have been over 40,000 hits on my articles. Now, I have two liberal relatives to the left of Stalin, who are close to me and they think I'm nuts because I prepare. They have never asked me one question about prepping. There is an old saying that one is only an expert out of the town where one lives. I guess that goes for relatives, too. To them, I am a zero wasting my time and money. Do I care? Not one bit.

Kartographer has helped thousands prepare AND he has a regular job besides. We are lucky to have him.

[Old Sarge]

1st Rule of Prep Club: You do not talk about Prep Club.

2nd Rule of Prep Club: You DO NOT talk about Prep Club.

3rd Rule of Prep Club: If someone says “SHTF”, do a shot.

4th Rule of Prep Club: No more than two people to a retreat; one must be a buxom blonde coed for repopulating the human race.

5th Rule of Prep Club: One BOL at a time.

6th Rule of Prep Club: No tie-dye shirts, no socks with sandals, no ponytails, no drum circles.

7th Rule of Prep Club: Prepping will go on as long as it has to.

8th Rule of Prep Club: If this is your first post to Prep Club, you HAVE to buy all other posters a shot.

[Lazamataz]

First, they think preppers are giving up on saving the country from liberalism and waiting for an apocalyptic event to take care of things. They look at prepping as giving up on political action and civil society.

Second they view preppers as nutjobs. Lets face it there are some who are, as shown by some of the people on shows like Doomsday Preppers. Someone who spends every penny to prepare specifically for an event like continental shift or a reversal of the earths magnetic poles is not exactly thinking logically. Still, those preps may help them in event of a more likely scenario like more common natural disasters or economic collapse.

Third, there are some people on these threads who actively want a collapse and civil war. It’s a fine line between being ready for the worst and wanting it. If you spend all your time and money getting ready hold off “zombie” looters, eventually you want to try out all those cool toys, kind of like cops with federally funded swat teams and armored cars. But the truth is there would be nothing romantic about a civil war. It would be a horrific experience even for the best prepared.

I'm the fourth type. I'm the total nutjob that buys kevlar-lined Volkswagon microbusses with a year supply of Cheeze-Wiz in it, totally convinced that aliens will beam Illuminati symbols into sheep and that will cause a total breakdown in all civil discourse and politics.

And I will love it.

[Lazamataz]

But, but, you told me you had at least a three day store of canned foods in your apartment!

I have one half-bag of Funions (hot style). They are a little stale. Does that count as prepping?

[PA Engineer]

“Despite the presence of at least five booths of firearms and accessories, many exhibitors are equally dismissive, even derisive, toward guns, gun shows, and the culture surrounding them. John Egger tried to sell seed kits at a gun show once and won't be returning. Gun show attendees are “a different breed of people. They don't want to learn.”

Not patronizing at all.....

Yep. This beauty of stupidity to add to patronizing:

The premise of Lights Out is a large electromagnetic pulse (EMP), knocking out electronics across the U.S. and causing a slow decline of society.

[Pharmboy]

You have time, Laz...Armageddon isn't scheduled for at least a few more months.

[IMR 4350]

If I had given her a bag and told her electricity was in it, she would have believed it.

We still had wind gust over 50mph and she was driving over the power lines but she still asked me if my electricity had been turned back on because I was “rich”.

No clue where the electricity came from or how it got to your house. She simply thought it came from the pole.

She also thought the electric co. had a switch for every house and could turn the electricity on for one “rich” persons house and leave it off for the other “poor” people.

She also told me she was almost out of gas because she had been driving around for over an hour and wondered when the gas stations would be opened.

I told her the stations had run out of gas so even if they had a generator there still wouldn't be any gas.

She told me there was plenty of gas because she had seen rich people buying the poor peoples gas before the storm, so there was plenty of rich peoples gas left.

I don't have the slightest clue why, but I am a nut magnet.

Nut's just gravitate to me and say some of the most bizarre things.

[Hugin]

I'm the total nutjob that buys kevlar-lined Volkswagon microbusses with a year supply of Cheeze-Wiz in it, totally convinced that aliens will beam Illuminati symbols into sheep and that will cause a total breakdown in all civil discourse and politics.

I figured as much. ;~)

[PA Engineer]

8th Rule of Prep Club: If this is your first post to Prep Club, you HAVE to buy all other posters a shot.

I'm still waiting for mine. They never seem to make down to my end of the table. Can we switch seats now?

[papertyger]

Now, I have two liberal relatives to the left of Stalin, who are close to me and they think I'm nuts because I prepare. They have never asked me one question about prepping.

It has been my experience that conservatives ask all the questions, and liberals have all the answers.....

[SisterK]

“convinced that aliens will beam Illuminati symbols into sheep and that will cause a total breakdown in all civil discourse and politics.”
Why are you writing in the future tense? These things are already happening.