Preppers have gotten a bad rap, with mainstream media often portraying preppers as tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorists, and entire reality tv series, like Doomsday Preppers, dedicated to mocking them.
The fact is, the term “prepper” covers a broad range of people who believe in being very well-prepared for emergency situations. Asking “what is a prepper?” is sort of like asking “What is a house?”
One thing that’s generally agreed on, though, is that preppers aren’t preparing for a minor inconvenience like a flat tire. They’re preparing for major emergencies.
This could be anything from a storm or earthquake which knocks out power for weeks or months, and damages infrastructure, to much longer lasting disasters like civil war.
According to Merriam Webster, a prepper is a person who gathers materials and makes plans in preparation for surviving a major disaster or cataclysm. That’s a pretty accurate description of myself, my family, and the preppers I know, both in-person and online.
Preppers vs. Survivalists
Preppers tend to focus on stockpiling supplies, and establishing bug-out locations for themselves and their family members. Bugging out is prepper slang for fleeing your home in an emergency scenario.
Survivalists tend to focus more on developing skills to survive in any situation.
There’s a lot of overlap, though. Serious preppers also work on learning and developing survival skills, and survivalists certainly value their supplies. A survivalist will always have their everyday carry with them, and rather than bug-out bag, they’ll have an INCH bag. INCH in this case is not a unit of measurement, or a tiny tiny little bag; it stands for “I’m Never Coming Home.” A bug-out bag is also known as a 72 hour bag, and is designed to tide you over for a few days until you can get to a safe destination.
Why Do Preppers Get A Bad Rap?
Some preppers think that they know exactly what kind of disaster is going to happen (like a lot of people on reality tv) and go on and on about it in a way that may sound kinda cray-cray. Maybe a few people really do know about what specific disaster is going to strike us? If they do, I doubt they are loudly broadcasting the fact and bragging about how prepared they are for it.
Some preppers like to brag about their preps, and get all macho and over-the-top about what they’re going to do when SHTF.
And generally speaking – the media, and reality tv shows, are drawn to those types of preppers, because they make for good entertainment. Talking to normal, sane people isn’t as compelling as talking to over-the-top conspiracy theorists.
So you’re not going to hear from the more low-key, sensible types who just like to be prepared, and who are smart enough to keep their mouths shut about all the food and ammo they have stockpiled. Our community tends to end up being represented by the conspiracy theorists and the loudmouths.
What Are We Prepping For?
It’s a good idea for everyone to prepare for emergencies like bad storms, or a car breaking down, or losing their job. Having a first aid kit and several weeks worth of food, water, and medication, for every family member, and every pet, as well as emergency kits for your car, just makes sense.
However, beyond that, the goal of preppers generally is to prepare for longer term disasters lasting months, years, or forever.
Things that I personally worry about:
- Civil war tearing our country apart to the point where martial law is enacted.
- The collapse of our country. Empires last an average of 250 years. We’re about due.
- Terrorist attack knocking out most of the grid in large areas of the country.
- Other countries banding together to invade us.
Some other things that preppers worry about:
- MCE – Mass Coronal Ejection, a solar flare that could fry the grid.
- A supervolcano exploding
- Another pandemic but way worse than Covid, with no known cure or treatment
- Martial law
- Climate change
- Nuclear war
- Widespread crop failure causing long-term food shortages
- Cyberattack
- Water shortages
- Supply chain disruptions
- Economic collapse
What all my prepper friends are secretly hoping for: Zombie invasion! Yeah, yeah, it’s always zombies with me. If we’re going to have to go through the end of the world, we might as well have fun with it.
How are preppers preparing if we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen?
We can’t anticipate everything, but preppers believe that they can increase the chance of survival for themselves and their loved ones if they take sensible precautions.
Stockpiling food and ammo is just prepping 101.
Here are some things that every prepper that I know does:
- Has several years worth of non-perishable food, at a minimum
- Knows how to hunt and how to field dress wild game.
- Has a large stash of weapons and ammo
- Has access to water and also has a stash of water in their house
- Knows how to purify water
- Has a bug-out location in mind
- Has a bugout bag for themselves and every family member
- Has taught their family how to get to that bug-out location
- Knows how to garden, can and preserve
- Plans to bug-in but is prepared to bug-out as a last resort
- Has a good prepper library
- Has more than basic medical knowledge
- Has stockpiled medication for every family member
- Has prepped for their pets as well as their family
- Knows basic bushcraft
- Has decent navigational skills without benefit of GPS
- Knows how to chop firewood and pitch a tent
- Teaches survival skills to their family members
- And last but not least…DOES NOT ADVERTISE that they’re preppers, because if SHTF, people are going to flock to the houses where they know the supplies are.
So, yes, some of your friends and neighbors may be preppers, but if they’re smart, they don’t broadcast that fact. You may know more preppers than you think. Some people can’t help but brag, or show off their preps. I don’t think that’s smart. A prepper may be an absolute crack shot, and may be very well-armed, but can he fight off dozens of people who are trying to swarm his house? What about hundreds?
I personally believe in the gray man theory – blend in and don’t be noticed.
So, the question you may be asking yourself is – should I start prepping?
In my opinion – of course, I think you should! You don’t have to run out and stockpile everything overnight, but my belief is that a few weeks of emergency supplies is nowhere near enough. There’s a lot of peace of mind that comes with knowing that you have at least a few months worth of supplies for everyone in your family, that you know how to deal with a medical emergency, and you’re ready for whatever life throws at you.