I don't understand doomsday preppers

Sounds like your buying more than just gear.

 

What you said about an alien invasion like "To Server Man" made me think about the Twilight Zone episode "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" where strange occurrences start happening to the residents on a quiet suburban street that leads the residents to conclude that they are being invaded by aliens. Soon paranoia sets in and the residents start distrusting one another, believing that the other one is a alien agent. Soon the whole neighborhood is at each other's throats and at the end of the show, everyone is attacking each other and we find out that aliens HAVE been the cause of it all. One alien remarks to the other how easy it is to cause Earthlings to destroy each other through their own fears. Combine that with "V" and you have the following scenario.

What if an alien civilization came to Earth secretly and sent agents down to stir up trouble. Maybe convince one faction that the other is trying to destroy their whole way of life and then do that to the other faction. Soon there would be planes flying into buildings, drones blowing up schools, beheadings and torture. Throw in hacking attacks, distrust of our own government and a deadly disease and how long would it be before we would give anything for a little security. Then the aliens would show up like knights in shining armor, promising to protect us all if we just do what they tell us to. I wonder how many of us would give up our freedom willingly for the promise of security? (Trick question, we've already seen it happen).

If it makes you feel any better, in an apocalypse, the vast majority of us are going to die and the survivors are going to wish they were dead.

 

According to Paul Krugman, an alien invasion would be great stimulus for the economy.

 

I REALLY wish I had gotten in on the ground floor of the Rightwing Media Paranoia Market before 2008.

Once President Obama was elected....for "some reason"...it became a cinch to convince a bunch of frightened and bigoted rightwingers that "The End of the World is nigh!!!!!"....as guys like Glenn Beck (but not exclusively Beck) got in on.

Over-priced gold coins....like Goldline. "Survival Seeds"...over-priced veggie seeds you could get for 1/4th the price at a local hardware store. "Food Insurance"....over-priced flash-frozen food and MREs that you could get at 1/2th the price at the local Army-Navy Surplus. "MyPatriotSupplies", etc.

Plus the home security systems......and of course TONS of guns and ammo, for "Obama is going to recind the 2nd Amendment and confiscate all our guns ANY DAY NOW!!!!!"


Could have made a fortune (again as Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh have).....off of the blind fear and paranoia of a bunch of gullible Righties.

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And Ronald Reagan thought one would unite the world--

[video=youtube;chVKSY2gT00]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chVKSY2gT00[/video]

 

I can certainly understand being prepared for an emergency. Heck, I live in California! I have enough bottled water to last a couple of weeks. However, those kind of things are 'isolated' emergencies. In the case of an event that effects the whole planet in such a way that it would take decades to recover, I would not want to go back to the 'foraging for food' times.

 

Maybe that's because they knew he'd be the weak, inept horrible POTUS that he is, which has endangered the country. A weak America is no good for the world. He's already toying with the idea of an embassy in Iran. This fool would've been impeached a long time ago if he were white.

 

America will "miraculously" survive to January 20th, 2017......all the Doomsday Predictions of Beck & Company failed.....

but Glenn will be laughing all the way to the bank with the money that frightened and yes, racist Rightwingers GAVE him because they knew it was Doomsday because a Democrat...especially a black Democrat....was President..

70% of "Doom Bunker" thinking on the Right will evaporate like a fart in the wind if a white Democrat wins the Presidency in 2016....even Hillary.

99% of it will disappear if a Republican wins.

And all the bull**** paranoia will be shown to be either partisan or racially motivated. In fact, you just admitted it.

 

Here I have to completely disagree. There is no time limit on the Fear Industry. Studies have shown Americans are more apprehensive in the 21st Century than any time since WWII. As you noted, there is big money in keeping Americans fearful. There is also political advantage and it has become an art form over the last 20 years or so. It's hardly new. Don't you remember Willie Horton?

No one is better at fearmongering than Fox News. It's been their stock in trade since they first came on the air. Your War on Christmas is only one tiny example of stories designed to keep Grannie shivering under her bed. You'll see the demise of using sex to sell things before you see the end of fear. A basic human emotion and experts at using it.

 

Yes, because Ferguson is the prime example of what is going on all over the country right? Come on man, the same kind of stuff happened when Rodney King was beat in the 90's by cops. Don't remember the LA riots? Or how bout all the riots built around protesting the Vietnam War? I highly doubt Furguson is the ignition for country wide civil unrest. On top of that, Furguson causing civil unrest isn't an invasion is it, so you didn't even respond to what I posted. The time that we see civil unrest all around the country is when the fed cuts off all the entitlement programs. Don't see that happening anytime soon.

 

More RW "if/would" bull(*)(*)(*)(*).

 

Well, perhaps I was overly optimistic. But MUCH of the virtual screaming and yelling and wailing and gnashing of teeth and rendering of garments ....and talk of "prepping" ....like the talk of "armed revolt"....

will subside to a low ember of the Craziest of the Craziest of the Crazies.

I'm old enough to remember the FIRST incarnation of "Doomsday Prepping"...."Survivalism" back in the late 70s and early early 80s. They even made a comedy about it with Robin Williams and Walter Matthau.

All it took was lower gas prices (as we're seeing now), decent job growth, and The Gipper with his "Aw, shucks....it's Morning in America again" pablum.....

and "survivalism" went the way of disco and Mood rings.


Seen it before...will see it again. I just wish I had gotten in early on the CONJOB that guys like Beck, Hannity, etc. got in on.

Love to have made money....and...an additional bonus would be making it off a bunch of rightwinger suckers.

 

then we had a fix, and both parties were mostly full of folk who still believed in their country. There is no Reagan on the horizon the one party is entirely of the parasite class. Besides, a Carrington Event, does not need politics to make it devastating.

 

You're not old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis?

 

Yep. Back in those days, there were fallout shelters on every corner and school kids were taught what to do just in case. Of course hiding under your desk wouldn't have helped, but it made everybody feel better.

The Day After is always a good reminder of man-made doom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After

Edit: Free on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUEINQCKLHc

 

Well I was. And I find it remarkable that even the President if the United States going on national TV and speaking of a full exchange nuclear war, Americans were not as afraid as they are today. The Red Scare, not as scared as today. All of the civil strife, Neutron Bombs, wars, the National Guard on the White House lawn, the Americans were still more optimistic than they are today. Paranoia is irrational fear. We do have plenty to worry about, but that is not new, only the fear level. It is foolish to not question what and why something might have scared America so much.

 

But that was fear of a Soviet attack....."Survivalism" and the new "Doomsday Prepping" is based on a fear (much of it engendered by Rightwing Media....a good bit to sell products to make the RW Media hosts RICH)....that "America is going to collapse due to liberalism, feminism, homer-seksuals, minorities trying to act like they're just as good as us whites, etc."

It arose in the 1970s after the rise of civil rights, women's rights, etc....as, typically, a white Far Right male response to the fact that Jim Crow, sexual discrimination, white male supremacy, and "white male only rule" was evaporating.

It was resurrected again most recently "coincidentally" when an African-American Democrat was elected President.

It will mostly DIE again....as it did after the early 80s. Especially if a Republican is elected President (without him even doing anything). (BTW, naturally that Republican would be white and male...so that goes without saying, that that will "relieve" much of the fear and paranoia of the "Preppers")

 

My problem with the theory that a nuke war is the end of folk on the planet is that it ignored geography....Big world and relatively small area of nuclear destruction...The real issues have more to do with starvation and infrastructure disasters.

 

What's there to not understand? The only "prepping" I, personally, have done is inadvertent: preserved food, weapons, knowledge, etc...nothing that would even be considered actual "prepping"...but I understand why people actively do it. It is a perfectly logical course of action. There are actual children's stories built around the very simple concept. Come to think of it, in those stories it never ended well for the loafers who offered nothing but ridicule...I wonder why that is?

 

I think a lot of things about prepping are misunderstood. Knowledge would probably be your biggest asset. I mean really...there are a lot of things to eat people don't consider. You can eat cat tail roots, acorns, arrowhead root, clover...just to name a few. And if part of your prepping considers aquaculture or raising fish you should always have water. And if you live where trees grow you will have fuel. And if you raise livestock you won't need to refrigerate...just have some salt handy.

But prepping for me is not as much about survival as it is saving money. I can raise pork for about .60 cents a pound and cows are just a little more expensive. Garden seeds are cheap...I can get a pound of pea seeds for about a buck and a thousand turnip seeds for about the same price. If you raise heirloom plants you can save the seed for the next year. But I find it much less of a problem to buy them.

But like I said I don't do it to survive...every penny I save on food can be reinvested into other things...like expanding my little hobby farm.

 

All things in moderation. Now those people stocking their basements with water and guns I do not get at all. I do not think doomsday is coming unless there is a meteor the government isn't telling us about. Beyond that, I do expect to see significant economic disruptions that affect the food supply during my lifetime. That expectation doesn't lead to paranoid gun hoarding. I am doing reasonable things that will in the shorter term do as you indicate--make it cheaper to live. If disaster comes, I will be ok prepared. Water would be my biggest issue if it were to happen today, but over the next few years I will play with water harvesting just because as my food production expands, it will save me money, but also just in case.

 

I'm a prepper, but not a doomsday prepper. By prepper, I mean I have enough stuff in the house to be able to survive for a week in relative comfort if a hurricane or other natural disaster should hit. I have camping equipment for lighting/cooking/water filtering, I have a generator, etc.

 

The loonies that are left will have food - you won't. Starvation is a horrible way to die.

 

You are correct that the world dying off from radioactive posioning or nuclear winter is a false premise.

Those who are in large cities that have a current high crime problem will be most at risk. Also cities with poor water supply or that are too dependant on food shipments from far away are bad places to be.

 

Your forgetting the most important item a prepper can have in his arsenal … aluminum foil.

[video=youtube;w-0TEJMJOhk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-0TEJMJOhk[/video]

 

You have those who look to themselves to provide security, others look to the government for their security. Which one are you?