this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2024
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The irony in the "prepping" movement these days is that it was never intended to be this thing about having an inexhaustible supply of resources just for you and your family (if you're still on speaking terms with them) to live off of when the nukes fall.
It's not about sitting in your attic and picking off starving people who are looking for a meal while you sit on a cache of food and ammunition.
It's supposed to be about being a useful person in your community who can help each other weather the worst in life. You will get much further in a disaster if you have skills than if you have stuff. You might have an entire Home Depot to yourself, but it's far too late to learn carpentry when the rain starts to fall.
Unfortunately for many it is.
I don't really generally circulate with far right wing folk. However this is one place that overlaps with my interests. One of the most unlikely intersections between the far left and the far right is home solar power. When you start to stray way from purely commercial groups trying to sell you stuff, you get to the DIY solar community.
Here you'll find multi-gun toting, hardcore Randian libertarians, that "want the damn government control out of their lives" right next too tree hugging, LGBTQ/feminist equality supporting, carbon-neutralling liberals. Both groups squint hard not to see who they're talking to or asking for advice on Charge Controllers, panel interconnects, AC inverter config settings, or off-grid battery solutions. Every now and then one person from one side or the other won't be able to help themselves and they'll make reference to their particular extreme political views. Everyone just holds their breath hoping a fight doesn't break out and most of the time its just ignored by both sides.
In here you'll find those far right preppers and they are convinced that they'll have to be 100% self supporting when the government falls "real soon now".
Unfortunately for the gunmen in this example, their guns will wear and tear. A crucial part or two will fail and not be replaceable. Then their entire strategy of "kill everyone else" will fall apart. And that's aside from the fact that human societies have always flourished because we have worked with rather than against each other.
Their guns will be worthless long before they wear out. They are going to run out of ammo eventually. None of these folks are capable of manufacturing modern nitrocellulose gun powder or primer caps necessary to reload their fancy rifles and handguns. I don't even see them taking a more pragmatic path of learning how to make old school black powder for muzzle loaders which they could conceivable made in their bunkers. Admittedly, I'm on the tree-hugger/equality side and don't even own a gun. These are just my observations from outside their group.
Were these preppers more honest with themselves, there would be another area they would overlap with many on the far left: Cosplay.
100% agree. Our survival as a species has always depended on us working together.
I have acquaintances that would definitely be considered classic preppers. One told me that he has 10k plus (each!) of rounds for multiple calibers of weapons, and a years worth of food for each of his family members in a “bunker” on his property. It’d take a LONG time to burn through that many rounds.
Ammo starts to degrade after about 10-20 years assuming your storing it well. Which is less likely to be true in the "end times". 2 decades is a long time but depending on your age it's not a life time, and firing damaged ammo can be dangerous.
Very true. I get the feeling that he cycles through a lot of rounds, but not a close enough friend to have shot on his land more than once.
So, he's one of the people who drove ammunition prices up.
I think he’s had a stockpile since forever, but probably yeah.
Fire (and more importantly, smoke) is a powerful tool. Displace enough air and people start either getting away or dropping.
This gave me a thought, would having equipment for ammonia and other chemicals (for fertiliser as well as explosives) be useful for preppers?
Useful in what what? Farming? Sure.
Most people like this that I've ever met have several thousand rounds of ammunition. They'll run out, but it will take a while.
True, but remember they don’t think that way, because it messes up their fantasy.
Have you heard the nonsense the owner of Reddit spouts constantly? About how he was so good at hoarding that he’ll have a private army and slaves and people will come crawling on their knees to serve him for a little food and he’ll be a king? These losers all think like that, and facts like tools break and bullets run out and you have to cast more and get the supplies to do so just ruins their dreams of being an unstoppable tyrant.
Also just praetorian shit happens. Having resources is insufficient, your guards have to like you or fear the consequences of banding together to kill you
Oh, they have a plan for that too. Making them all wear shock collars and holding their families hostage.
That's what they say.
What they think is all the underaged girls will come running to willing beg to do anything for protection.
That's the true prepper fantasy, it's just a middle age crisis made manifest.
That can be delayed for a long time by stockpiling spare parts.