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Sub, I agree. But often this whole ideal of prepping is associated w/ militias, defense of our US Const., our laws & our turf from encroachment -- which... harkens back to the 1700s & US founding. Thus these folks feel that the ONLY way to reclaim US from going wrong way is to arm themselves, & speak out in defense of our nation -- or what's left of it, in their eyes.
I believe defending the Const. is important but extremism won't help. But you can easily see how folks begin w/ a survival mentality, then graduate w/ peer support/pressure into more deeper ideas of what it takes to comprise self defense & eventually -- it is totally consuming. So that's when the psyche meets the road -- & arming, sequestering, etc. begin to take hold & voila -- a new standard is born -- & hence this type behavior becomes acceptable to a whole lot more folks, I think then most would believe.
I'm still in AZ & many here have much of this potential & agree w/ anything goes to defend, & it isn't easy to not think where there's smoke there is fire given some reasons they present. I too, get caught up in emotion & if speaking to these guys whether in a store line or gassing my car, & it is easy to rah rah up yourself, til a frenzy or mindset makes you think if they are right -- then maybe they're really -- sounding the alarm bells like Paul Revere, haha.
This is where cooler heads & common sense must prevail -- or paranoia will set in -- & all hell WILL self-fulfillingly break loose.
The OP may or may not be right. On this particular forum the 3-4 most vocal "preppers" have consistently attacked either the "stupid" people who do not prepare or the overreaching government that apparently these "stupid" people believe will help them in time of need. Go back a year and pull up the posts and find out for yourself.
Most people here like to point out Katrina and FEMA. They like to say that looting and riots are commonplace reactions to natural disasters. However, in reality, most disasters result in people banding together and helping each other and the government assisting that with resources and money. However, some people just refuse to believe that just like people refuse to believe basic science or facts in many other debates gripping this country.
Finally, not everyone preps or is self sufficient because they are making a political or ideological statement. For example, I grow my own food because I like to know what it is exactly that I am eating. It really is as simple as that. It is funny, really - one of the folks on this forum often invokes communism to deride anyone who opposes him. However, one of the attributes of communism was the single ideology and the need to ban every free thought outside of the ideology. Ironic, isn't it?
Here's the deal, the OP's bias was showing in their subsequent posts. The broad brush strokes painting preppers in general and as a rule as gun toting anti-government fomenters of dissent was so far off the mark of the "preppers" that I personally know that I had to comment. The OP's subsequent rebuttal said to me personally that they are in it for the fight not conversation so I am done with them.
Had the OP posted that the situation in Oregon was getting pinned to the "preppers movement" and then chose to set a discourse about the small percentage of the very wide spectrum of people that are considered preppers of one type or another that are armed for a showdown with with the government in particular rather than specific defense of self, family and home the conversation while fractious, would have gone another direction entirely.
First of all there is no preppers movement. Submariner did a decent job of breaking down a few sub-groups that all could fit under the umbrella of the word prepper. Every Mormon on the planet that follows their religious teachings on keeping food would be considered a prepper. I would fit under the header of homesteader or self sufficiency advocate as Submariner described it but I also consider myself a "prepper".
Some preppers I know are stockpilers, others practice living skills like bow hunting, some do both, some like me are working toward self sufficiency. All of them express frustration at some level with society, economics or the government but none of them own more than a few firearms for mostly hunting and just basic ammunition to go with them and none of them get anywhere close to talking about armed showdowns with the feds.
Our household owns two firearms, one for bird hunting, one for home protection as we live out in the country. I'd say we would be on the light end for our area if our neighbors were inventoried. I'd say my ideology most aligns with goodmockingbird (who I could not rep again) and not unsurprisingly we live in the same area of the country.
And frankly yes, should a very widespread disaster of whatever type hit a large area of the country, those that think FEMA will come in to save them, are in for a shock. Unless one is located in a major urban area where order will need to be maintained quickly, FEMA will be nowhere in sight for weeks if ever. It will be neighbors helping neighbors and outside organizations like the Red Cross, Salvation Army and others that will eventually get there but how long will that take? The answer lies in the size of the emergency and the size of their resources and the community itself. Personally I'd like to be able to wave those resources on to other people. I never want to be jostling in a bread line, ever. If I have to I will have failed to do my basic duty as a good citizen.
The name of this forum is Self-Sufficiency and Preparedness. If it was Survivalism I probably would not visit because I would not fit in that description as I understand it not as some have tried to define it. Frankly this thread has annoyed me entirely. I really get peeved when I see mainstream media lump very disparate groups of people together under one stereotype or stretch a bad actor over into a group to be disparaged because a small percentage of that group may in fact be similar to that bad actor. It's distortion of the truth designed to cast aspersions on the whole for purposes and agendas not to be revealed. People eat that up with big spoons and ultimately such distortion causes shifts in who is considered "the enemy" in public perception. It is false and disruptive. Look at law enforcement now, mostly good people doing a job to provide a service but they are the enemy in many communities. Anyone on the other side of the political continuum is to be despised and vilified due to the rabble rousing of self serving egotists looking to elected. This is part of the problem with America and people in general, a critical inability to see fine distinctions and to judge for oneself.
The name of this forum is Self-Sufficiency and Preparedness.... Frankly this thread has annoyed me entirely.... This is part of the problem with America and people in general, a critical inability to see fine distinctions and to judge for oneself.
Great post! This thread has annoyed the hell outta me, too, from the very first page. And if you look at most responses, they are incredulous that the OP cannot 'see fine distinctions' that are evident to the rest of us!
Anti-government and pro-gun positions are mainstream. Listen to the remarks of former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton on both Obama and the need of the citizenry to be armed.
Governments are subservient to the people in free societies; the people are subservient to government in dictatorships. The Founding Fathers hated the government, but it seems that more than a few here would call them madmen.
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