Why Does Prepping and Paranoia go Hand In Hand?

[chicom]

Not looking for a specific answer, just what everyone thinks.

We all prep for a variety of reasons, but the overall prepping community does emote a sense of paranoia to varying degrees.

The OPSEC thing sometimes gets too carried away. If someone is that concerned about it, why would they be posting on the net in the first place? I think they need, as we all do, social interaction with people. They however, confine that interaction to people they see as of the same frame of mind, viewpoint and perspective. Then on occasion, they begin to suspect that those whom they are interacting with have ulterior motives and less than honorable designs.

I'm not talking about a specific instance, either myself, or anyone else, just the casual observations and feelings I've had over the past decade. It makes me wonder if many people who frequent prepper boards, do so from mental institutions, or are on serious behavioral medications.

Not saying this is specific to this board, because it is relatively new. Everyone knows the boards I'm talking about. We all probably frequent the same ones, as they revolve around our little societal subset.

But I've seen some weird stuff, not your average conspiracy stuff, but how posters turn on each other, then portray each other as shills, agent provacateurs, or spies with nefarious intent.

It be crazy.

Now I understand one should be rationally prudent when engaging folks on the net or in real life, but I think it's becoming a little over-accentuated these days.

I have never met anyone from my discussions on the net, and frankly, no offense to anyone, really have no desire to do so in the future. I don't really care who reads my posts, whether it is Cletus, or the CIA. If I didn't believe what I was espousing, I wouldn't waste my time in typing it. You are not doing yourself any favors by curbing your speech, or playing secret suirrel on the net.

I just think it is a big cannibalistic game people engage in on the net.

So, what do you think?

[bacpacker]

I agree in some respects, at least with some people. I look at prepping from a different perspective. I grew up spending a lot of time with my grandparents and farming. My grandparents were in their teens and 20's during the depression and often told stories of what they had to do to survive. They did find time to enjoy life during that time and the rest of their life. But they always took time to grow their own food until Alzheimers took over with my grandpa. They also were very conservative with their money. When my grandma died we found over $8000 in her freezer she had put back over the years, both coins and bills. This is to a large degree who I patteren my prepping after. I was also in the boy scouts and have tried to remain true to their motto: BE PREPARED!

I agree with you on this OPSEC is important, but not the most important thing. The social interacion is a big deal for some, just like facebook for many. I enjoy reading what many folks have to say on certain subjects, I look at it as an opportunity to learn or see things from a different perspective that I hadn't thought of. OTOH, I have read some post from folks (not on this forum) that make me scratch my head and wonder what they are smokin, or right away think "well there is a agent provacature". I try to give folks the benifit of a doubt, but have always had a knack for reading folks pretty quickly (sometimes the wife says too judgemental), but I'm rarely very wrong which she acknowledges.

I look at 5 different forum's that look at prepping from several different perspectives and some are very much like you speak of. Others are quite different and are almost more about homesteading/farming than prepping. I don't see nearly as much hand wringing going on there. I don't really see any of that here either and I attribute that to the mods being very specific to what they want on here. I for one like being able to have good discussions about a topic with it getting hijacked or ran over by a crowd and the thread losing what it had going for it.

I have taken the opportunity to meet a few folks from discussions I've had on various forum's. So far I have made some nice aquantencies and a couple of good friends. We still keep certain things to ourself, but are also able to share things I wouldn't consider on an open forum.

Overall I don't really disagree with much of what you said. I guess I just come at it from a different perspective.

[The Stig]

The OPSEC thing sometimes gets too carried away. If someone is that concerned about it, why would they be posting on the net in the first place?.....

..... just the casual observations and feelings I've had over the past decade. It makes me wonder if many people who frequent prepper boards, do so from mental institutions, or are on serious behavioral medications.

Now I understand one should be rationally prudent when engaging folks on the net or in real life, but I think it's becoming a little over-accentuated these days.



Nail, meet hammer.

I've decided that those who blabber on about OPSEC are most likely those who wouldn't know true prepping if it jumped up and bit them on the ass.

As you said, common web-sense is one thing. But there seems to be an element in prepping circles that have combined tin-foil overload, secret squirrel activities and AM Coast to Coast into a heady brew of uselessness. Instead of discussing actual prep related topics they argue over minutiae or rail against the gooberment.

I think those people take that route because:

1) They really don't know how to prep other than claim to have a BOB or a BOL

2) It's easier to pull up a chair to the cyber-bar and tell tall tales (or in this case, wacky prep paranoia) than actually face the reality of the difficult situations we could possibly face

[RedJohn]

You're all right on. Most people confuse SHTF with TEOTWAWKI. Although OPSEC is somewhat necessary to avoid people coming to ransack your place after SHTF because they know that you have stuff, what are the odds that out of a few thousand members one with bad ideas would be leaving next to you.

People just love drama and a conspiracy is good entertainment. Most of these, despite reading forums like ours will still be caught with their pants down when the shit hits the fan. They'll still be the ones storming the stores an hour before an event that was predicted days before.

[cwconnertx]

Really for many people who feel unfullfilled in their lives its easier to sit in the warm shit in your pants that to make changes. So they rail about how someone is out to get them, there is some conspiracy against them suceeding, or something else.

For others, they missed their chance to work for the CIA and want to be spies, to feel like they know something others don't know. It adds some excitement to their otherwise dull lives.

And in many cases its just more fun to imagine some grand calamity the way they watch a disaster movie, movies make a volcano in LA, tornado in kansas, or even Red dawn seem glamorous or fun. Until you have seen a human being half crushed by a falling object, and people you know killed in disasters up close those things may seem like fun. I can tell you first hand, its not fun to be there, but words have little impact compared to the exciting images out of Hollywood disaster flicks.

[chicom]

Another aspect are those who may prep, even on a grand scale. They join a forum, and detail their mastery of prepping, so they may assume the rank of expert and arbiter of all things prepping. After establishing this preeminence (in their minds) they become consumed with the thought of someone coming to take all their stuff away.

It's as if their accumulation of materials is the one and only defining factor of a prepper. If someone comes and takes away their preps, they cease in being a prepper. They ruminate and obsess on how such may manifest. As they dwell on the subject, their xenophobia grows and the list of potential adversaries expands from the govt to motorcycle super-gangs, to the mindless golden horde, to people in their town, people in their neighborhood, everyone on the net, to even people in their MAG or family.

More than likely in the face of life altering disaster, they'll be locked in their barricaded homes with rifle in hand and 200 mags, peering out peep holes in anticipation of the eventual brigands zeroing in on their home. More than likely they'll plug some hapless passerby who just happened to be on their way to somewhere else because where they are coming from sucked. They may cut across a property because it is safer than the roads, and the house looks abandoned, so nobody will mind. But no, super prepper is in there taking a bead on you, and you are the realization of all his fears.

Blam........Blam, Blam, Blam.....................................Blamity, Blam, Blam, Blam.

So acute xenophobia with a healthy dose paranoia helps facilitate the perception that a property and home is uninhabited to the casual observer, thereby accounting for deadly interaction that was unnecessary to begin with.

Is that what prepping's all about.

Everyone is after my stuff!!!!!! ACK!!!!!!!

It isn't for me.

[bacpacker]

Chicom There are certainly folks like that all over. No doubt about it. I agree that ain't prepping in my mind. To me expereince and skills are worth 10x what goods you have stored, no matter how much it is. That will run out one day. What do they do then?

[TroubleShooter]

In reality, why do they call it prepping ? In my younger years my grandparents and parents planted a large four family garden in which all members helped with the tilling, planting, picking and canning , salting meat, raiding the henhouse......Breaking ice for the cattle, (stupid animals, stand there and bawl I was the ice breaker, what did they do before me??) auction, slaugther and the whole nine yards...
.We had want we needed to cut firewood, sharpen chains and axes with files, until about 1980 I had only seen a logsplitter which the neighbor had that run off the backwheel of his car,I told dad I could have it all split before he ever sets it all up with my sledge and wedges.
We networked with local people to plow the garden area up, the hay baler would come in one day, bale it, we would hump it..cut locust posts for fence and stretch with come a long........I remember the outhouse and only running water was in the kitchen. I remember my first fast food was Zantigos .......around 8-9 yo......... My grandfather and his idodine bottle cured every medical problem I ever encountered....We kept guns , ammo , fishing gear and tackle , we ate what we killed or caught..

We called it life.

I think those who are paranoid has never expeirenced the lifestyle and are not sure how others will react to it or they are prepping in fear of a government and are afraid....................But there are those who are just plain off their rockers , I have met a few of them , hope they forget about me.....

I live between today's norm and yesterday's knowledge ........I will embrace today's techology ,but I will also remember yesterday's ways.

Opsec can go out the window many ways.....and you will never know it, I have recieved several magazines at home and work, revealing other ppls purchases, just yesterday I received a "Cheaper than dirt" magazine in the mail addressed to a woman down the road.....I have seen pics posted on facebook , and other social networks or passed around by children which reveal items in the background unknown to most, My children have done it......

It is not prepping, it is a lifestyle...

[bacpacker]

+100 trouble shooter, well said.

[beginner]

You're all right on. Most people confuse SHTF with TEOTWAWKI.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I couldn't agree more. To me when I think of a SHTF event, I don't picture a nuke, huge volcano eruption or planets colliding. I tend to think of power outages, winter storms, job loss, flooding etc as the SHTF scenarios I tend to plan for among a few others. Zombies, or nazi aliens however do not factor into my reasons for prepping.

[Fatty]

I definitely agree with troubleshooter. I would also agree that most prudent people don't prep or live a prepared lifestyle out of fear, I would think its more out of concern. The same type of people that like to question and understand what a lot of sheople mindlessly go along with. Then in that crowd you'll have the occasional ball of tin-foil.

[piranha2]

I would just like to survive. It does not consume my every thought, my family does. I guess, I would like for them to survive.

[pitbullnga]

well to be honest... IMO opsec is okay if you want to hideaway with your dog and cans of beans. I would rather throw opsec out the window abit and have some human interaction.

[LUNCHBOX]

So far, 13 posts and you could agree and disagree with most of them. (IMO)--you can be paranoid for to many reasons and none of them mean you are a prepper. Prepping to me does not mean t.e.o.t.w. or e.o.w. Its just being ready for something un-expected to happen that puts a strain on your household. (of course the word strain could be a power outage or hyper-inflation) I beleive people look at prepping and paranoia as the same.....

[RedJohn]

Prepping to me does not mean t.e.o.t.w. or e.o.w. Its just being ready for something un-expected to happen that puts a strain on your household. (of course the word strain could be a power outage or hyper-inflation)

I am glad that we have a good group of people here.

[bacpacker]

+1000

[The Stig]

Prepping to me does not mean t.e.o.t.w. or e.o.w. Its just being ready for something un-expected to happen that puts a strain on your household.

Couldn't agree more and well said.

I don't agree with the idea that if you prepare for an end-of-the-world scenario you'll be covered for something less mundane. I think it's the other way round....get yourself prepared for as many small events that are realistic to happen in your area, and over time those preps will start to overlap & bleed together. Then if a horrific situation occurs you've got a broader and more comprehensive array of preps at hand. Otherwise, you end up with preps centered around some romantic MadMax meets Red Dawn fantasy rendering it more likely to be impractical and unworkable for reality.

Further, if you are worried about a chemical spill you're far less likely to be consumed with paranoia about FEMA sending the UN to confiscate all your Batman comic books.

[beginner]

I don't agree with the idea that if you prepare for an end-of-the-world scenario you'll be covered for something less mundane. I think it's the other way round....get yourself prepared for as many small events that are realistic to happen in your area, and over time those preps will start to overlap & bleed together. Then if a horrific situation occurs you've got a broader and more comprehensive array of preps at hand. Otherwise, you end up with preps centered around some romantic MadMax meets Red Dawn fantasy rendering it more likely to be impractical and unworkable for reality.



Sums up my sentiments on the matter perfectly. If you look after all the small things, the big things will look after themselves.

[AlphaTea]

Every time I read a thread on this site I am reminded of how lucky I am to have found this place.
Not a lot of posers, mall ninjas, ex-cia-atf-special-forces-green-beret-black-ops-SEALS, or plane old whack jobs.
Just people like me.
Wifey used to think I was a little OCD about squirreling things away. Since 11/3/08 she has been very supportive...
She has even had some very helpful input and is very OPSEC minded and has lately been after me to build a safe-room/hidden room in the house.
Are we paranoid?
Nah.
Just a hell of a lot better prepared that most.

[Fatty]

And just because someone's paranoid doesn't necessarily mean their wrong;p

[Grumpy Old Man]

Couldn't agree more and well said.

I don't agree with the idea that if you prepare for an end-of-the-world scenario you'll be covered for something less mundane. I think it's the other way round....get yourself prepared for as many small events that are realistic to happen in your area, and over time those preps will start to overlap & bleed together. Then if a horrific situation occurs you've got a broader and more comprehensive array of preps at hand. Otherwise, you end up with preps centered around some romantic MadMax meets Red Dawn fantasy rendering it more likely to be impractical and unworkable for reality.

Further, if you are worried about a chemical spill you're far less likely to be consumed with paranoia about FEMA sending the UN to confiscate all your Batman comic books.

Damn it! Not my Batman comic books! LOL. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean people aren't out to get you; sometimes it's just plain good thinking.
Over the years I've experienced a number of The-End-Of-The-World-As-I-Know-It; the birth of children, the loss of a job, a divorce,moving to another state and the deaths of my parents. Was I prepared for these? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Is it paranoid to stockpile food in these uncertain times when any of us might lose our jobs? Some would say yes, some would say no; it all depends on your frame of reference as we say in physics. Is it paranoia when you see freedoms being taken away in the name of Government Sponsored Security for the parasites of society?

Being prepared is what the Boy Scouts and my church upbringing taught me. It is being a responsible steward over what the Good Lord has blessed me with. It is taking care of my family and my responsibilities. In short, it is only paranoia if you look to Big Brother to take care of you!

[bacpacker]

Well said Grumpy! You have a good frame of reference as well. Boy Scouts offer the opportunity to learn many things that will help you prepare for the life yet to come for young boys.
The good Lord has given each person certain gifts and abilities and it is up to each of us to develop and protect each of them, whether it's a spouse, kids, grandkids, job's, whatever it may be. It sure isn't up to the .gov to take care of any of that.

[RedJohn]

Well Grumpy, this was TEOTWAYKI not TEOTWAWKI. I did not feel any of these events myself. :)

[Grumpy Old Man]

Don't fret RJ. If you live long enough you'll get to rack up some. After all, how do think I became grumpy? The old part is I haven't managed to kill myself yet.;)

[RedJohn]

Don't fret RJ. If you live long enough you'll get to rack up some. After all, how do think I became grumpy? The old part is I haven't managed to kill myself yet.;)

I have lived a long time already (52 in 21 days) to rack up a lot myself. I am grumpy too but don't want to admit to it. With my life, I am glad there are no wives and no kids (that I know of, of course) as they would not be very happy with me.

Of course I get to spend ALL my money on me and my guns :)

[beginner]

I have lived a long time already (52 in 21 days)

Wow! You ARE old! :P

[RedJohn]

Wow! You ARE old! :P

Yeah but with my lifestyle I made it to 52 and just that is a freaking miracle. Are you going to? :D

[beginner]

Yeah but with my lifestyle I made it to 52 and just that is a freaking miracle. Are you going to? :D
I've never been married or have kids either ;)

[RedJohn]

I've never been married or have kids either ;)

Well, I've been married once to a wonderful girl that never asked anything of me. Still, I could not stay. I am so used to be alone that I really prefer it. If I may, how old are you?

[Fatty]

I hear your only as old as you act:). Or atleast I'm still young enough to live by that motto.

[bacpacker]

I used to think that to Fatty. But as I've gotten older I have to say it's not always how old you act, sometimes it's just how old you feel.

[LUNCHBOX]

BP, your right about that, I think about how hard it will be if something really did kick off. I hear people complain about leaving the air conditioning to go out into the heat and go to the store to pick up whatever--haha. Just wait until you have to go out and grow it or fish/hunt for it and when you get done with that, clean it then prepare it and the whole time no air conditioning. Its going to suck no matter what age you are. At least if your feeling old your still feeling something.

[piranha2]

Thats a good one, I am feeling something.:mad:

[bacpacker]

LOL, Yeah much better than the alternative (dead). I worked out in the garden Most all day Saturday. By 3:00pm I was toast. It's amazing how much time can ruin you. When I was growing up we would get up hay all day for several days straight, from mowing to baling and hauling, while gettin everybodys hay up. I remember temps being in the 90's, air temp. Up in the barn it had to be well over 100. We'd drink a ton of water between loads and usually take an afternoon break and eat a bunch of cold watermelon. I'd be tired at the end of the day, but no big deal. I doubt I'd make it past lunch today. Gettin OLD is so much fun.

[piranha2]

Every morning that I am looking DOWN at the grass is a good morning.

[beginner]

Well, I've been married once to a wonderful girl that never asked anything of me. Still, I could not stay. I am so used to be alone that I really prefer it. If I may, how old are you?
You've got 20 years on me ;)

Been living alone the past 3 years. (Well, if you don't count my dog :p )Honestly, I'm okay with it. But, I don't prefer it.