Prepper Hype

[Paul]

A cautionary Tale.

Came across a closet prepper yesterday.
Nice seemingly normal type guy.
Found me in a cafe talking prepper "shop" to a bud.

You'll know the type.
The ones who read a lot, say nothing, but through doing so get VERY wound up as they've no one to talk to to get a realistic measure of events.

He and his family are petrified about all prepper press on pandemics.
Petrified to the point where he's thinking of pulling his kids out of school just in case they pick up a bug or two.

He spent over two grand on masks and equipment in the last month seeing as though some guy fell ill with a tropical illness and was hospitalized in London.

All because of the prepper "doom and we're all going to die bit" on numerous forums.

I know the threat of pandemics is real and taking sensible precautions a must but I was left feeling that some scary stuff is presented in "a bit over the top" way and not put into the proper prospective.

For example.
Flu kills. Yep, totally agree.
If some mutant form hit the UK then some will die.

Protection?
It's airborne so apart from keeping away from everyone until it's run its course, there is little you can do about it.

Yet would you?
Keep away from everyone I mean?

Imagine that it takes 6 months to run it's course in the UK.
Perfectly feasible supposition.
Prepper press says "It's deadly, don't go out, don't interact".

Panic time!
You fully intend to stay in for 6 months, don't work, don't interact, no money coming in, bills to pay, no re-supply, as the prepper hype demanded that you:-

"Stay indoors don't interact it's deadly".

After a week or so it turns out that it was like swine or avian flu, a non global event.
The death rate confined to those with previous respiratory medical conditions.

Problem is you're now out of a job and in today's screwed up world that's usually terminal in itself.

Prepping IS about keeping both eyes and ears open to what is happening.
Reading between the lines of the government clap trap that "The UK government is well prepared for anything that might happen".
Having the skills, knowledge, and equipment to protect you and your family but using a bit of commonsense.

It's too easy to write doom and gloom but some articles are light on real life facts and advice.

So can we try and qualify articles and press snippets with information like:-

What the real chance of picking up bug XWZ is in the UK?
Not just "Oh my God we're all going to die!"

If you can, find out practical advice and offer that up with your snippet of news i.e. regarding bugs.

Is it airborne or spread by contact?
Can you safely interact with others?
What are the symptoms?
Are there any simple procedures to protect yourself?

What to do if you contract this mythical bug XWZ.

Helpful things as opposed to just scaring the life out of the unknowing.

To all you closet readers out there.
It's OK to read but interact too.

Many folk would like to ask questions you want answering but are quite frankly scared stiff to ask things.
They are worried that they might appear silly, lose face.
This is one of the better forums.

Fun comments and banter abound here BUT NO QUESTION IS SILLY and you'll be sure that someone out there wants to ask the same thing but haven't got the guts to ask it.

Discussion is one way people learn things and put things into prospective.

Besides I believe that everyone has something to offer.
You've all got skills that some of us would love to learn from.

So ask away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Biter]

Excellent post Paul. Prepping is all about balance and common sense. There is a point you go past upon which it is just prepping for the sake of it with no logical basis.

Prepping out of fear or being paranoid is more likely to do harm than good to yourself or your family.


Look at a full scale nuclear war. Experts think that the ice age that it would bring will last 2 years killing 90% of the worlds population. What chance do you realistically stand? None in the UK. Does that mean we should pull our families out of school and move to alaska? Or maybe we start storing two plus years of food and fuel, so we can enjoy the slow die off from radiation sickness once the ice melts?

Getting an NBC suit and respirator is not a bad prep as maybe we are effected by a power station event like in Japan or a Dirty Bomb in a city. But we should have realistic expectations otherwise we are not actually prepping.

[NorthernRaider]

Dunno why some see prepping as gloom and doom because by default preppers are optimists, they see a problem and instead of crying whoa is me and turning happy clappy religous, or killing the family to save them from armageddon ( no I never understood that way either) most preppers say " Hey with a bit of planning and forthought we can get through this, but only if we start prepping now"

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Some folks are worryworts by default they are usually or at least often hypochondriacs like my mother who I reckon has been ill with god knows what for at least the last 45 years that I know off. Others seek causes to reinforce their sense of fitulity and dispare, others use peoples fears to manipulate them into joining silly religous groups.

The ones I definately have no time for are those who say " I dont want to survive if X happens" but the doom mongers run a close second.

I often say to those who say prepping is piontless cos everyone will die, " But what happens if you dont die?, What are you going to do?, What if your children survive are you going to abandon them because you cant cope? "

[Straight Shooter]

the common facter for all preppers... WE KNOW.. there,s sumut up or wrong, we are uneasy with what we hear and see , in short we no longer trust whats going on around us .... we may not know or have complete understanding .... the feeling is enough for us to act and to act in the best way for our own circumstances, to me it does not matter what the reason is to start to prepare its enough for me to know that they do........hence this great site...good post paul !

[NorthernRaider]

Yup why argue over what type of threat there is when we can just as easily agree theres plenty to choose from and the best policy for us is to cooperate with each other in trying to be as well prepped as possible.