Question for the survivalists / tinfoil hats / doomsdayers

[sm625]

My question to you all is...what is the lynch pin? What do you think is the tipping point that brings it all to a halt?

It probably wont be like that. It will just creep in gradually. Only 10 years after the breaking point will we possibly be able to look back and say with any certainty that is was this event or that event that was the tipping point.

It will be regional. Power outages. Think august 2003. Another nuclear event. Think Fukushima. An X-class solar flare. A terror attack (probably a false flag). Could be a chemical attack which poisons us or it could jsut be somethign that gets drones unleashed on the citizenry. We are slowly moving towards a poor and destitute country with walled and gated "opulent zones." (Where the wall street criminals enjoy the wealth that they stole.) And these areas will be under constant threat of revenge attacks, which the News will be calling terrorism... And yes even under that sort of tyranny, the poor and broken masses will still vote for the wall street hacks that are paraded across the infernal screen.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

I have a emergency kit like CDC recommends and I also have 8 collapsible 5 gallon water jugs. I always make sure my gas grill has plenty of gas in the tank in case the natural gas supply gets interrupted. I have portable generator and two 10 gallon gas containers which would provide power to basic needs (refrigerator/freezer/lighting) for several days.

 

[exdeath]

Fuel is a problem. Doesn't store indefinitely. Should rotate it every 6 months at least.

 

[desy]

Yep 2003 happened and my wife said what would we do w two young kids at home?
I said I'll work on it, so over the yrs I've worked on food clothing shelter and security.
Since I own a house its where I'll want to stay and you can put a lot into a house.
Food is simply a matter of buying extra what you normally eat and rotating .
Store some water and the ability to purify water. Fuel source I went with propane with an indoor safe heater and cooking and propane stores indefinitely. Electricity is nice so I bought an inverter and store a couple of 5 gallon cans which I rotate into the cars to use as short term power generation to run tools and convenience items.
I hunt so I had firearms so now I just make sure you have the ammo to go with as they are useless without it, it stores forever in proper conditions.
In the dead of winter when its 40 below I could go a few weeks without freezing, if its summer I could go months comfortably with food and water.

If it did get that bad however you will be under tremendous pressure to share, anyone that thinks they can just go it alone is delusional. Think of all the groceries you bring home in a week now multiply that 52 and that's what it'd take to go a year. You'd have to farm, horse trade with others, give charity, think you can stay alert 24/7 to 'defend' your pile? impossible.
You should be encouraging others to prepare, start with family, don't go all EMP zombies on them, 2003 was enough of a wake up call and really if they are prepared for that then they would be prepared for most everything else anyway.

 

[Svnla]

Any recommendations on food that can be stored long term? I wouldn't mind having a month or two supply, just in case, but the whole rotation of canned goods seems like a hassle. What about a family sized water filter? I'm not on a well, so I'd have to find a natural source of water - a dirty stream a mile away or rain barrels.

I have:

Cereal boxes
20 lbs bags of rice
Cans of food - variety from tuna to spam meat to chicken noodles to veggies to fruits
Beef jerky bags
Bags of beans


Food is not a problem to store long term (within reason and not forever), water and fuel are.

Go to YouTube and do a search about "bug out", there are tons of videos about the subject and some of those guys are HARD CORE.

 

[AViking]

If I was serious about this and I lived in a house I would probably have chickens. My family had a small chicken coop and holy crap did we have a lot of eggs. With half a dozen chickens you have free breakfast everyday. Chicken feed might be a problem but most of the world has free roaming chickens in their villages and I think they can survive off garbage and shit just laying around.

You would probably also want to have a wood burning stove and keep a mountain of firewood nearby.

You could also go crazy and put that cage around your house. I've seen that in some of the bad parts of LA if I remember correctly. It was an entire cage around the house.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Fuel is a problem. Doesn't store indefinitely. Should rotate it every 6 months at least.

I don't store fuel, I wait until it's known for sure that the hurricane will affect the area where I live and will fill the fuel/water tanks within 24 hours of landfall . If the hurricane level is high enough I will evacuate rather than stick it out. Normally if the power/utility outage is due to a tornado there will be fuel and supplies available within a 10 to 15 mile radius.

 

[WackyDan]

There is no point in stocking up food for a crisis without a means of self-defense. Your neighbor with the weapons doesn't need to stock food, because he is taking yours.

Bingo. Personal protection comes first along with the means to hunt/gather which does indeed mean weapons. If you think the animals that live in the inner city are going to stay there and die as the local 7/11 runs out of cat food, then you are mistaken. They will be coming to your house.

I keep a go bag and probably a month's worth of food that won't spoil. Try to keep enough gas on hand to boogie out into the foot hills if need be. Probably won't need to in my lifetime, but might as well have some prep and we eat the food on a revolving basis anyway.

I'm not a prepper/survivalist per say, but just one that would rather be prepared enough to buy enough time to work out the next plan of action should the need arise.

 

[TreVader]

They don't deal with civilians because we currently have rule of law... and those items are illegal for civilians.

Defense contractors are run and operated by... drum roll... wait for it...

Civilian employees. DUH.

And they aren't going to take kindly to being fucked over or watching their friends get run over by the tanks they built. At the very least nobody is showing up to work anymore because the world is on fire, where is the military going to get it's mighty missiles and fuel for it's planes now?

Supply line in a conflict is EVERYTHING, and without civilians showing up to work to deliver those weapons, a military isn't going to get very far.

But keep puffing your chest instead of looking at the whole picture. Go play your Call of Duty games and pretend you're a god crushing civilians with your unlimited ammo that you pull out of your ass when you respawn and don't worry about where it came from.

And I assure you I am more familiar with some of those weapons than an average grunt that gets trained on them in 5 minutes with the short and easy version of the field instructions written with small words and pretty pictures, by civilians coincidentally, specifically for said grunts eg: "place icon on target, press and hold button when beeps".

You are precious! I wish I could bottle you up and keep you at my desk to remind me of that childlike wonder I used to posses!

Are you actually suggesting that the engineers at lockheed martin know how to fly an F22? Or will even attempt to try to use the weapons they have contributed small portions of individually?

No individual engineer knows how to operate any of these systems. A very smart one MIGHT with lots of knowledge about the cockpit be able to get it in the air but after that, he's toast.

Soldiers are trained to obey their commanding officers. That's what they do, and in the case of the government breaking down they are trained to BE that government. They will not help "their friends" (as if somehow marines stationed at camp pendleton will run into their relatives on deployments wherever). They will kindly tell you to sit down and shut up and when you don't they will kill you.

What makes you think you know anything about operating any piece of high-end military equipment, let alone a javelin? You played COD Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox? Adorable

The javelin is an $80,000 surface to surface missile that the vast majority of trained soldiers wouldn't know how to operate properly. You would be better off with a spoon!

 

[TreVader]

Oh, hon, can you take a moment?

In my first post:

and then


That feeling you have now is the feeling a person has after they realize they just argued points with somebody who never made them. It's not a very good feeling is it? Now, as I said before, your reading comprehension sucks.

If you prefer the word chain to line you can use "supply chains" if it will make you stop raging.

You're far too angry and mad over this topic. Your crying is completely unnecessary and you are simply coming apart at the seams over this. I cannot imagine why.

So what if I didn't read your post. The fact is the majority of people here were criticizing you for not wanting to stockpile M16s like an idiot. You should be on my side!

 

[soulcougher73]

There is no point in stocking up food for a crisis without a means of self-defense. Your neighbor with the weapons doesn't need to stock food, because he is taking yours.

Aye. Gold/silver is a waste too. Its those type of situations nobody will want some heavy gold bars when survival is on the line. And even if they did. That is what the guns are for

 

[Eureka]

You guys are all nuts. Society doesn't collapse in the blink of an eye. Rome didn't collapse overnight, the Soviet Union didn't collapse overnight, and neither will we.

Prepping is only useful to survive through a regional catastrophe when everything is cut off for a few weeks/months. Walking Dead type situations don't occur unless something truly ridiculous happens, like we lose all the fossil fuels in the ground instantly or all of the crops die overnight.

Surviving a real society collapse is knowing when to get out of your country and settle down somewhere else before STHF.

 

[TreVader]

You obviously missed the whole Iraq War fiasco huh?

What? Are you suggesting that AQI or the insurgents came out of that war with anything but massive casualties and no accomplishments?


If you're idea is to somehow copy the Iraqi insurgents then be my guest. The iraq war was the US Military exerting maybe 3% of it's power on one entity. You can't imagine what our military is capable of doing when nobody is there to tell it to calm down or not bomb these people or those people. The iraq war would have been over, and i mean completely finished in a matter of hours if we just let our military go nuts on them.

 

[Zargon]

wow you are pretty delusional about the military.

do you even know any military personel

have of the active duty soldiers dont even LIKE the military because they are treated so shitty

if SHTF and they were ordered to go occupy some city thats in chaos, what makes you tihnk they wont just go home if their home is a mess too


did you see the vidoes of looting from katrina and sandy?

thats reason 1 to have a gun as part of disaster preparedness.

there is absolutely nothing crazy about keep a few weeks of food/water and some misc supplies on hand, the US has enough major hurricanes/storms/earthquakes ETC to justify it

people are shitty and the dredges will use any opportunity to lash out and take what isnt theirs

 

[BoberFett]

Sweet rationalization, wtf do you need guns for then? Do you think wild roaming bands of cannibals will be wandering the countryside after a "temporary upset in supply lines". And wtf is a supply line? Are you an army?


Funny how as soon as somebody points a flashlight at the blatantly obvious lack of logic in any doomsday rational you immediately try to pawn your stockpiling of guns and food as "natural disaster" supplies. How embarrassing!

You're moving quickly towards becoming as well respected as Incorruptible and Anarchist420. Bravo.

 

[BoberFett]

I hate to break it to you but you know absolutely nothing about the military. Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Newport News are not "private civilian contractors". They are defense contractors, and while they are private they do not deal with civilians.

This is actually the funniest post I've ever seen. "Government shipments sabotaged by engineers"? "Javelins get out to civilians"? You would just blow yourself or your friends up with a Javelin, and news to you my friend my friend a Javelin ain't gonna do shit agains a squadron of fighter bombers or Apaches or even one platoon of marines.

You think any of these military personnel are going to ditch their units for YOU? Hilarious! They will pick up their families and crush you if you resist. Whatever insane political beliefs some soldiers have, they don't f#@k around when it comes to chain of command loyalty. They will blow your whiny civilian face off if they're commander tells them, and rightly so your face is probably hideous.

I personally have actually never read a funnier post! Seriously, it's like you've distilled every campy notion a 13yo would have about the end of the world into one scenario!. Priceless

And he's gone full Incorruptible...

 

[BoberFett]

You are precious! I wish I could bottle you up and keep you at my desk to remind me of that childlike wonder I used to posses!

Are you actually suggesting that the engineers at lockheed martin know how to fly an F22? Or will even attempt to try to use the weapons they have contributed small portions of individually?

No individual engineer knows how to operate any of these systems. A very smart one MIGHT with lots of knowledge about the cockpit be able to get it in the air but after that, he's toast.

Soldiers are trained to obey their commanding officers. That's what they do, and in the case of the government breaking down they are trained to BE that government. They will not help "their friends" (as if somehow marines stationed at camp pendleton will run into their relatives on deployments wherever). They will kindly tell you to sit down and shut up and when you don't they will kill you.

What makes you think you know anything about operating any piece of high-end military equipment, let alone a javelin? You played COD Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox? Adorable

The javelin is an $80,000 surface to surface missile that the vast majority of trained soldiers wouldn't know how to operate properly. You would be better off with a spoon!

You're one of the stupidest people that has come around here lately. Your vision of the military is ridiculous, childish, and idiotic.

 

[BoberFett]

So what if I didn't read your post. The fact is the majority of people here were criticizing you for not wanting to stockpile M16s like an idiot. You should be on my side!

Newsflash asshole: Nobody is on your side, you prick.

 

[bshole]

You guys are all nuts. Society doesn't collapse in the blink of an eye. Rome didn't collapse overnight, the Soviet Union didn't collapse overnight, and neither will we.

Prepping is only useful to survive through a regional catastrophe when everything is cut off for a few weeks/months. Walking Dead type situations don't occur unless something truly ridiculous happens, like we lose all the fossil fuels in the ground instantly or all of the crops die overnight.

Surviving a real society collapse is knowing when to get out of your country and settle down somewhere else before STHF.

If a civilization ending event occurs, meteor strike, nuclear armegeddon, etc..... why in the hell would you want to survive it anyways? Watch or read The Road....

Prepping is about the most idiotic thing I ever heard of. I think there is fair amount of mental instability associated with the movement. Remember it was the son of a Prepper who massacred all of those kids at Sandy Hook.

 

[Atreus21]

I used to work for a survivalist who would put his survivalist magazines out on the break tables after he read them. One article I still recall thirty years later involved making a survival buggy from a VW Beetle by cutting a gunner's hatch in the top, bobbing the fenders, painting it camouflage, and adding a pintle-mounted Gatling gun made from two Ruger 10-22 rifles with 250-round drums and a common hand crank-driven cam trigger operator. The article include the sage advice that if you could not afford the Beetle and your doomsday prep gear, you could wait until society began to collapse and steal one. I've received many a chuckle thinking about some idiot sheepishly returning his neighbor's Beetle freshly converted into a camouflage-painted survival buggy. "Sorry about that, Bob. I was sure the inevitable race war had begun. Turns out it was just a couple of drunk idiots."

hahahaha.

 

[werepossum]

So what if I didn't read your post. The fact is the majority of people here were criticizing you for not wanting to stockpile M16s like an idiot. You should be on my side!

You don't have a side, you have a point. On top of your head. No one wants anywhere near your head. Or your desk, even though I'm sure the Barney stickers and colorful mobile would be quite comforting.

If a civilization ending event occurs, meteor strike, nuclear armegeddon, etc..... why in the hell would you want to survive it anyways? Watch or read The Road....

Prepping is about the most idiotic thing I ever heard of. I think there is fair amount of mental instability associated with the movement. Remember it was the son of a Prepper who massacred all of those kids at Sandy Hook.

The probability of a civilization ending event is astronomically less than a civilization disrupting event which is astronomically less likely than an event where it's just a hassle to go get food and water for a week or three. Surely you'd like to survive those?

At the very least, everyone who is able should commit to not being part of the problem, so that in case of an event the government or the Salvation Army or the Red Cross or whomever can serve the people who lose homes or who honestly don't have the resources to provide for themselves rather than the people who simply can't be bothered.

hahahaha.

Yeah, I always pictured those guys having a bazillion rounds of ammo and a year's worth of canned goods and no can opener - and no neighbor willing to open the door. "It's that crazy guy! Pretend we aren't home!"

Maybe it's the luxury of having guns but guns and ammo are my lowest priority. I have maybe a couple hundred rounds in total, maximum, and I literally cannot imagine an event which would leave me alive except that I ran out of ammo. If I'm wrong, well, I still have probably fifty rounds' worth of powder and shot for my 12ga muzzle loader, so I just hope they are the slow zombies.

 

[Doppel]

Prepping is about the most idiotic thing I ever heard of. I think there is fair amount of mental instability associated with the movement. Remember it was the son of a Prepper who massacred all of those kids at Sandy Hook.

You don't think people should keep any extra food or water around?
That is idiotic?

 

[Darwin333]

There is no point in stocking up food for a crisis without a means of self-defense. Your neighbor with the weapons doesn't need to stock food, because he is taking yours.

I have actually been through various crisis situations such as being described. Only once did I actually "need" a weapon and that was during Katrina. Even then I didn't need some fancy ass AR (Rather ironic, I did have one but it was one of my guns that never came out), a shotgun slung over your shoulder so that your were visibly armed was by far the best "defense".

In every other situation I never needed a gun, albeit I had one, but I did need my food and water. Knowing that I would say that food/water is definitely a priority before a gun and when you do get around to defense a simple and cheap pump action 12 gauge is absolutely perfect.

With all of that said, neither food nor guns/ammo are the most valuable things to have in a crisis. Without a doubt the absolute most valuable thing to have during a crisis by far is fuel, usually in the form of regular old gasoline. I have gotten guns, food, water, offered sex from someones wife, gold, untold amounts of cash, you name it for relatively small amounts of gas. People buy their nice fancy generator for their house and then they buy one or two 5 gal. cans of gas for it. They don't fill up their vehicles or waste half the gas in it looking for other supplies they didn't stock up on and until power comes back on you can't purchase gas with any amount of money. After refusing $10 a gallon a guy offered to let me bang his friggen wife for 5 gallons of gas!

I keep a few weeks worth of food (easy as hell), two weeks of water (a bit more space consuming) and of course ammo for all of my guns but I also keep well over 100 gallons of gas at all times. The gas is a bit more of a pain in the ass because you gotta keep rotating it into your vehicle but when/if you ever need it the trouble will be well worth it.

 

[Darwin333]

If a civilization ending event occurs, meteor strike, nuclear armegeddon, etc..... why in the hell would you want to survive it anyways? Watch or read The Road....

Its the "not civilization ending events" that you should prepare for. Stuff like natural disasters in which you are basically on your own for a week or two and then life starts going back to normal.

Prepping is about the most idiotic thing I ever heard of. I think there is fair amount of mental instability associated with the movement. Remember it was the son of a Prepper who massacred all of those kids at Sandy Hook.

Being prepared to live through the aftermath of a hurricane when you live in a hurricane prone area is idiotic? Wow, tell me more please.

 

[AViking]

The problem with the really horrible disasters is that roads aren't really working. They're either flooded, broken, or gone. Otherwise I'd just get a scooter that does 60-100 mpg and then not need to store so much fuel. You need all that fuel because you're going to have to stay put.