Reality Check

[Paul]

Hi All.
Back from the wilderness.

My SWMBO realized that I wasn't enjoying the UK forum scene anymore, not really learning anything new, and was fed up with all the political raving, militia / para military talk, conspiracy theories, religious nutters (thankfully absent on this forum), and nonsense non prepping cr@p which I was being bombarded with on the various forums I 'frequent'.

So a reality check was called for. She was right too.
I'd like to share my findings with you.

I've been trolling through every site I could find in my IP address book.
Be they commercial, personal, BBS (old style messaging forums still used by some older US sites) or forums I could find to work out what was going on.

It hasn't been a happy journey either.
Old friends have gone silent key (i.e. died), old logins rejected, and a higher order of mistrust and suspicion exists on the US specialist sites. I'm thinking they are all getting ready for their governments forecasted crackdown.

I'll add too this the snobby UK sites and forums where if you're deemed unacceptable by some jerk off your 'application' for membership is revoked.

Boy have I had fun there. Two logins from anonymous IP addresses with deliberate errors in statements to get a reaction then revealing the 'truth' when accepted with a benign milk sop introduction.

Funnily enough the general US sites are a LOT more sensible than UK sites are. Seems their moderators are a tad more laid back about things then the jerks who "run" other UK sites and forums.

Most every site I've visited has a core of basic information.
Content virtually word for word copied from standard references. (FM 21-76 US ARMY SURVIVAL MANUAL comes to mind).
Then they suddenly stop updating the core subjects and somehow lose focus on pure prepping and survival shooting off in all sorts of directions which must drive newcomers to prepping and survival absolutely bananas.

Anyway it's got to a point where if you read just one sites base articles, you've read them all.

Some of the proper survivalist sites and especially the US militia sites are developing daily with mountains of useful information.
It's got so bad (or good depending on your point of view) on some sites that the resources exceed 10GB of PDF files.
Where they get some of these documents from is frightening if you actually take the time to read the restrictions for publication notices plastered all over the front covers.
My library was always good but the temptation to fill my hard drive with junk has been overwhelming.

The raving loony sites where political, gun hoe, and religious talk takes priority over prepping and survival talk abound now.

The popular press both here and abroad all have the impression that the average prepper and survivalist is a gun toting redneck loony with sloppy trigger control and one step away from being a full on militia type domestic terrorist.
They're probably right too.

Death threats to presidential nominees aren't too useful to the prepper movement are they?

Add to that the increasing fear of TPTB cracking down on "stockpiling" and drawing up lists of people buying weapons, paranoia abounds.
Except in the UK where government intervention and monitoring is largely ignored (The ostrich head in the sand approach) as not likely to happen to us.
After all this is the United Kingdom and we have rights!
Besides they wouldn't dare.

I'm so surprised that some UK press agency hasn't done an expose and hatchet job on UK prepping based on site and forum content.

After all if it's not someone pushing shotguns, it's crossbows or airguns against human targets. It's socialism verses capitalism, race and religion, immigrants, TPTB and 'us'.

It's going to make really interesting reading when they do because the lines between "anarchy" sites and prepping or survival sites are getting "blurred".

What's readily apparent though is there is no common bond with UK preppers.
There's 60 odd million individuals live in the UK I'm thinking.
Some have similar thoughts.
3,000 (ish) active UK preppers do but apart from religious organizations (LDS) and self help co operatives (like the Ludlow Survivors), the general UK prepping world hasn't got any cohesion like the US prepping, survivalist, and militia groups have.

No bond, no organization means that when TSHTF only those who have personal friends within spitting distance of each other will be in a position to help each other with the rest of us ending up as "one against many".

RV's don't help or often work here. It seems that either no money, work, or plain old apathy rules when talking RV's.
Everyone is probably too distant from each other anyway.

Add the UK prepper paranoia of losing their PERSEC, it's overriding the advantages of building physical bonds with like minded people.

Or is it still the so called "British reserve"

It's good to know though that noble ideas of creating a national prepper communications system will ultimately be used to tell someone that there are 1000 odd rioting sheeple looting your home.

Ho hum.