APN's "Where did all the Preppers go?"

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by TNTCrazyLady, Jan 15, 2014.


  1. TNTCrazyLady

    TNTCrazyLady Monkey+

    APN (American Prepper Network) recently had a post (WHERE HAVE ALL THE PREPPERS GONE? - American Preppers Network : American Preppers Network) about Where Have All the Preppers Gone? This is also a post cast on APN Radio. Here is my reply …


    Aside from the obvious reason like not advertising my intentions, there are other things at play too….

    Some of these other reasons are personal; I have moved to a rural area in another state. The move took time, getting settled before winter hit took time, getting my new web site up and running took time. My new grandchild being born, having a hard drive crash, losing a job and finding a new one. These are perfect examples of personal reasons not to be advertising my preparedness where the media can pick on it.

    Where I have moved to has very few ‘gun shows’ as we are rural and even the local grocery store (not supermarket) sells common ammo. People in my new rural town are more prepared, as it is a necessity of life, than in the urban environment I lived in previously.

    I also think that shows like “Doomsday Preppers” spotlighted the extreme side to preparedness instead of highlighting the “everyday” side to preparedness. You know the everyday, rather local emergencies that occur; the artic deep freeze that ran across the country earlier this month (with its power failures, etc), the West Virginia chemical spill, getting the snow/ice dam off my roof and keeping the driveway clear are good examples of the everyday preparedness issues.

    In answer to some of the other questions the APN post asked:

    Do we now believe that our national power grid is in better shape than it was two years ago? NO; the physical components of the grid are way past their expected life span and NO software program on this planet can fix a hardware issue!

    Do we now believe that reliance on government agencies to take care of us in times of disaster is a good plan? NO; these ‘government agencies’ are not really ‘taking care’ of us during disasters, unless you count a Band-Aid as taking care of. Hurricane Sandy should be a good reminder of just how these agencies take care of us. Do they offer some ‘useful assistance’, yes, however even these ‘government agencies’ tell us we need to be prepared to take care of ourselves for 3-5 days.

    Do we think that the food in supermarkets is safer to eat and a dependable source for our dinner table? NO! I am a long time ‘health food’ or ‘organic’ consumer, mostly because of some really intense allergies. Then there is the fact that when you look at historical statistics (that have at least some quantifiers like ‘per 100,000’) we can see that ADD, ADHD, cancer, birth defects, various food intolerances (gluten and lactose especially) are on the rise in the overall population. And that is top of the fact that the U.S. no longer carries the title of ‘healthiest’ and ‘longest life span’.

    I would also add that our medications are questionable since our government is under the influence of corporations that donate millions of dollars to political campaigns and hence ‘own’ said candidates if they get elected (federal corporatism).

    Do we think public schools under Common Core are now paragons of education? NO, Common Core is an offshoot of the ‘No Child Left Behind’ program that was started back in the 1980’s and according to the federal department of education, ‘shown no significant increase in literacy’. This is on top of the fact that one can go out to the US Patent web site and see that the number of patent filings have reduced drastically since the 1960’s and are continuing to fall. This means that our ingenuity and inventiveness skills are decreasing, not increasing.

    Do we believe that our legislators are competent and work tirelessly to ensure our freedoms are maintained? NO, since the mid 1800’s the legislative branch (along with the executive and judicial branches) of our government has been taken over by lawyers that are ‘career politicians’ and not the everyday day person, Statesman, acting as a representative guardian of their constituents wellbeing and interests. We now have a federal government ‘of the Democrats & Republicans, for the Democrats & Republicans, by the Democrats & Republicans’. Our tax dollars now pay for; political parties internal functions such as determining who is their top candidate (primaries) and national conventions; lobby organizations and special interest groups and unions. That’s right these entities receive millions of tax dollars per year. I don’t know about you but I can think of quite a few other programs that deserve that money!

    Do we feel our world is now a safer place with scanners at airports, cameras on every street corner, surveillance through all our electronic devices, and drones patrolling overhead? NO not with all of this under the leadership of the first ever government entity that can bypass the Executive, Legislative and Judicial ‘check and balance’ branches of our government under the guise of a ‘perceived immediate threat to U.S. National Security’ – IE: The Patriot Act and Homeland Security.

    Although the fact remains that the most likely crisis, disaster, emergency or hazard that any of us are likely to face in our lifetimes fall under the usual natural and the more personal (illness, injury, crime, financial), disasters, these all require an acceptance of personal responsibility for ourselves, our families and yes, our communities.

    This responsibility has historically been the ‘norm’ for U.S. Citizens until the advent of our Federal Dictatorship. The US would have never beaten the most powerful army in the world to become its own nation, would never have expanded west and would not have half the ‘inventions’ or conveniences that we take for granted today if the average citizen did not take on responsibility for themselves before looking elsewhere.

    Bottom line: All of us Preppers are still here, doing our thing - quietly, under the radar and behind the scenes. Oh you might here about some of us here and there when we help a community in crisis (like A.N.T.S. Americans Networking to Survive, Baptist Relief, Red Cross, etc). Other than that we do not need ’15 minutes of fame’ or a ‘pat on the back’ to feel good about ourselves or prove our worth to our community and country.



    “Today is the Tomorrow that you worried about Yesterday”

    Prep On ;-}



    TNT



    I am a 50 Something, no longer so urban or in NM, homesteading Prepper; I share Preparedness, Homesteading, Self-reliance knowledge & doc's at: (formerly NM Urban) Homesteader - Home
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 15, 2014
  2. Dont

    Dont Just another old gray Jarhead Monkey

    I have enjoyed many of your other articles featured at another site was pleased to see you post this one.. Keep them coming, you are a sharp prepper...
     
  3. ditch witch

    ditch witch I do stupid crap, so you don't have to

    If anything, prepping has become something of the norm in my area. There's still plenty of bleating sheep, to be sure, but in the past few months people have started coming out of the woodwork. In fact, we've made some pretty good friends over the past few months that are new to prepping but pretty serious about it.
     
  4. Dont

    Dont Just another old gray Jarhead Monkey

    This area has had a long history of prepping..
     
  5. Gopherman

    Gopherman Sometimes I Wish I Could Go Back to Sleep

    LOVE IT!! Great Summation!!
    People are starting to wake up now that more people are seeing concrete proof of Fukashima, which has largely been ignored by the Government, entrusted to protect us.
    People with common sense know a disaster that has been out of control for 3 years, with another 37 years to go, have been buying their own radiation devices and posting their results online.
    Fukushima 2013 « nuclear-news
    This unfortunately, is only one scenario that is playing out right now!
    The Massive dip into national food reserves is another, A recent report said that for the past 6 years we are consuming as a world more than we are producing, which by the way, could be solved if they stopped paying farmers to not plant, so that prices could stay artificially inflated.
    Most Nations including the US are down to 15% and even lower on some grains,of their normal stockpile of Soy, Rice, Corn....
    Global Food Supply System Could Collapse, 2013 Could Experience A Major Hunger Crisis
    AND the bee's are dying wholesale! Good luck after their gone!!
    Albert Einstein once said: “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination … no more men!” He wasn’t an entomologist, but entomologists around today agree that the sudden and mysterious disappearance of bees from their hives poses serious problems!
    We are moving within the next 60 days to a very urban situation! Once those West coasters start realizing their hair is falling out and their teeth, Cancer skyrockets, they'll wake up! Forget getting a good price on a piece of land after that!
    The time is definitely now to make a move, if your planning to get out of the cities.
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2014
  6. HK_User

    HK_User A Productive Monkey is a Happy Monkey

    Preps should be a low key event to the world around us..

    Other than that nothing much has changed.
     
    tulianr likes this.
  7. Dont

    Dont Just another old gray Jarhead Monkey

    Should be what you need every day of the year, keeping in mind that you may not have power or gas.. People do put money into savings in one form or another, then why not food and gear savings..
     
    Mountainman and Gopherman like this.
  8. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    There haven't gone ANYWHERE.... They have just learned the Primary Rule, of Prep'ing.... OpSec... "Keep your Ears Open, and your Mouth Shut" It is as simple as that.....
     
  9. Gopherman

    Gopherman Sometimes I Wish I Could Go Back to Sleep

    The only problem with money in the Bank, is having money IN the Bank. When they go south or grid down scenario, how you gonna get to it? It may even be worth something initially, till people figure out whether the power is coming back on or not.
     
  10. Dont

    Dont Just another old gray Jarhead Monkey

    You state just what I had thought when I typed that.. It was a metaphor... All knows that when one saves for the bad times it is in the form of REAL money or in goods..
     
    Gopherman likes this.
  11. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    You can't buy a fallback position, after the fact.
     
    tulianr likes this.
  12. Dont

    Dont Just another old gray Jarhead Monkey

    No you can't.. I shopped for a year before settling on this place... Turned down a lot of "remote" properties..
     
  13. Gopherman

    Gopherman Sometimes I Wish I Could Go Back to Sleep

    I have a good friend who just quit his 20 year job with the company to get his money out of his 401k. I asked him why? He stated" Somethings not right, I don't know what it is But there's definitely something wrong, and I'm not going to let anybody control my money any more!"
    People are feeling it all over, every walk of life. It's almost like when animals sense a storm brewing, or an earthquake coming, an uneasiness in the pit of the stomach.
    A lot of people will sit down on the curb with their face in their hands, others will rape, pillage and burn until theirs nothing left. Then it's really going to get ugly. What I find interesting are all the " Be Prepared videos and literature the Gov. and main stream media are putting out there.
    CDC's ZOMBIE Apocalypse, AMERICAN BLACKOUT,
    Library | FEMA.gov This site has a butt load of them. Then there the other side of the coin, when you do prepare you end up on a list while at the same time they make it illegal to Profile the real offenders!
    Go figure?
     
    Mountainman and tulianr like this.
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