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I serve on the board of our Cooperative Extension office, there are still plenty of government programs that train you to grow your own food, to preserve your food, etc.
I am also on FEMA's email list, so I get lots of updates on local disaster preparedness drills and scenarios.
From where I sit, the 'government' is doing all it can to encourage citizens to be prepared.
The word government has various connotative and denotative meanings:
1) We have various agencies composed largely of normal people that are as decent as the next.
2) We have The Deep State. Defining that is problematic, everyone seems to see it differently. Ingsoc/Deep State agents tell us that it simply doesn't exist. Bill Clinton - "There is a government within the government and I don't control that."
3) We have the Surveillance State and I don't imagine they are too keen on preppers. Though I would bet that many of them are preppers due to being more "woke" than most.
4) We have the power elite sitting on top of the pyramid and they surely are cognizant that it is going to be harder to chip and micro manage rural preppers. They have ample representation where they want it - Hollywood, mainstream media, elite universities, banking, executive, judicial, and legislative branches (government).
I tell a lot of people that I am a prepper. Nobody has had any negative thoughts about it. Many wish they had done more prepping but they are consumed with day to day living. Several have actually said that I will take care of them. Well - I can't do that.
I will say that there is a genre of preppers that tend to see bullets as the ultimate survival tool. They do not help the reputation of those who simply seek to continue to live through the unthinkable with some degree of comfort.
Hope for the best, plan for the worst? That involves prepping.
I don't think there is a stigma in Oz. I think my government has more interesting things to deal with. (unless of course they try to not pay any assessed taxes) To be honest, I really don't care; none of my business.
I don't know any survivalists. I'm sure many/most of then are quite rational, and do not suffer from paranoia.
I have met a few 'new agers", with their refusing to vaccinate their kids, belief in 'natural remedies' , the healing power of crystals, and some very odd (to me) 'spiritual beliefs' . Those folks are nuts, imo.
A guy I grew up with ,and his wife have been what used to be called "hippies' since 1971. They live in an eco friendly house in the hills. He is a sculptor, she a potter. They have raised 2 kids. Never much money. Oh, did I mention they are probably the happiest two people I have ever met?
Unlike the rest of us, they have refused to be conned into conflating 'standard of living" and quality of life
"I do not think the government appreciates preppers/survivalists."
The government doesn't have a hive mind. There are different opinions between agencies, field offices, and individual employees. A lot of civilian government workers used to be in the military and are some of the most hard core preppers I've ever met. And I'm not talking about gun nuts. These are just people who have seen first hand what happens when society and governments break down and then return home and realize we're in little better shape than the countries they were deployed to. Elected officials are another matter, because they have been purchased by special interests, but these idiots don't run the minutia of the government.
"From where I sit, the 'government' is doing all it can to encourage citizens to be prepared."
We've gone far downhill from the government that once encouraged victory gardens to current local ordinances that forbid people to plant gardens in their front yard or harvest rain. Again, "the government" doesn't have a hive mind, that's why different jurisdictions sue each other. Government disagrees with government, and uses government courts to guide their behavior. And waste tax dollars in the process. Bureaucracy at it's finest.
"90 days of preps is probably better than 90% have achieved"
Actually, I'm guessing 90 days of preps is probably better than 99% have achieved. I'm also guessing most Americans couldn't make it past several days without drive throughs and just-in-time delivery services before they lose their sht without government and/or charity assistance. Our personal goal has been to to be "prepped" for an indefinite period of time. That means the ability to harvest our own food/power/water (easier to do in a tropical rain forest with four growing seasons) but what we've learned goes against the "survivalist" grain of burying oneself in a bunker or setting up a defendable compound:
Part of prepping is setting up networks with like-minded neighbors and colleagues so that that the families that are better at raising meat can trade with the ones with fruits, vegetables, and carbohydrate crops. Anybody in the "farmer's market" networks is probably already doing this.
But also when it comes down to it, one needs the skills and abilities to protect their property as well. The survivalists are onto something, but their anti-social mindset could also be their biggest weakness if all their food runs out and all they have is guns and ammo.
My opinion is colored by my experience in Hurricane Camille and Hurricane Katrina.
Before Hurricane Camille, the people in the Richelieu Apartments refused to evacuate because the apartment managers said the apartments were safe. The local police left after advising them to evacuate. I do not remember any big push for evacuation from the local government. There were elderly people in the apartments who could not leave, but local authorities did not have a plan to evacuate them. I became a prepper afterward when I realized that the government relied on rules rather than common sense. I knew one of the policemen involved. He said they were told that all they could do was advise people to leave. He said that sometimes he wishes he had put a gun to their heads and made them leave. 131 people died, 41 are missing presumed dead. Hurricane Camille killed a total of 259 people before it dissipated.
A mandatory evacuation was ordered for Hurricane Katrina. It was issued at 10 am on August 27, 2005 by some parishes; New Orleans issued their order August 28. Katrina came ashore the next day. But, there was such chaos that people who did not have a way out of the city received little help. There were buses to bring people out of the city, but the people were told to bring a sleeping bag and 3 days of provisions. The highways quickly clogged and became impassable, so the people were taken to the superdome. The superdome was not equipped to handle the number of people who were taken there, or who came later. (I am sure that most of the people didn't have a sleeping bag handy!) The buses that were to take them out of the city after the storm flooded when the levees broke.
Afterwards, the police officers and federal law enforcement agents carrying rifles went thru the city seeking residents who had holed up. They confiscated any weapons they found. The police claimed the 700+ guns they confiscated were either stolen, or were found in abandoned homes. (I still wonder why they searched abandoned homes. I thought they were just supposed to check for bodies). New Orleans turned into an armed camp, patrolled by thousands of local, state, and federal law enforcement officers, as well as National Guard troops and active-duty soldiers.
I knew of people who got a knock on the door and were asked if they had any weapons. They lied and said they did not.
We were organized by a local man who was retired military. While patrolling our neighborhood, some of us were detained and questioned until our organizer showed up with his military credentials. Local police were not a problem, but we had non-locals who didn't know us and treated us with suspicion. There were actually comments made that I overheard about 'radicals', and 'those people who bunker up'.
The hurricanes taught some painful lessons. I would trust my local police because I know them. Some of them are in my Sunday school class!! Outsiders, not so much. The outsiders seem to feel we should all just shut up and follow orders.
The exception to this was the military. When those big trucks rolled in, they were filled with professionals who knew what they were doing and were not afraid to do it. They didn't take any 'stuff' from anyone. They left us alone. Their only question was 'What supplies do you need'. God bless them.
^^^Going around and confiscating guns strikes me as opportunistic theft. I have the Katrina movie "Trouble the Water". Incredible how messed up almost everything was. Then Pres Bush told the Fema Chief that he was "doing a heckuva job".
Some feel that Bush should have been the coach of a womens volleyball team instead of the POTUS. But most of us know who the real POTUS was.
"I do not think the government appreciates preppers/survivalists."
The government doesn't have a hive mind. There are different opinions between agencies, field offices, and individual employees. A lot of civilian government workers used to be in the military and are some of the most hard core preppers I've ever met. And I'm not talking about gun nuts. These are just people who have seen first hand what happens when society and governments break down and then return home and realize we're in little better shape than the countries they were deployed to. Elected officials are another matter, because they have been purchased by special interests, but these idiots don't run the minutia of the government.
"From where I sit, the 'government' is doing all it can to encourage citizens to be prepared."
We've gone far downhill from the government that once encouraged victory gardens to current local ordinances that forbid people to plant gardens in their front yard or harvest rain. Again, "the government" doesn't have a hive mind, that's why different jurisdictions sue each other. Government disagrees with government, and uses government courts to guide their behavior. And waste tax dollars in the process. Bureaucracy at it's finest.
"90 days of preps is probably better than 90% have achieved"
Actually, I'm guessing 90 days of preps is probably better than 99% have achieved. I'm also guessing most Americans couldn't make it past several days without drive throughs and just-in-time delivery services before they lose their sht without government and/or charity assistance. Our personal goal has been to to be "prepped" for an indefinite period of time. That means the ability to harvest our own food/power/water (easier to do in a tropical rain forest with four growing seasons) but what we've learned goes against the "survivalist" grain of burying oneself in a bunker or setting up a defendable compound:
Part of prepping is setting up networks with like-minded neighbors and colleagues so that that the families that are better at raising meat can trade with the ones with fruits, vegetables, and carbohydrate crops. Anybody in the "farmer's market" networks is probably already doing this.
But also when it comes down to it, one needs the skills and abilities to protect their property as well. The survivalists are onto something, but their anti-social mindset could also be their biggest weakness if all their food runs out and all they have is guns and ammo.
The veterans mentality is understandable given the consequences of running out of ammo in a combat environment.
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