The Prepper Thread

I'm embarrassed that I'm the one starting this thread since "Prepper" conjures up mental images of fat accountants and handlebar mustaches draped in confederate flags, but this forum is both the best & worst source for information and I figured I'd give it a go. IBTR.

We've watched "Doomsday Preppers" a few times on streaming and it's fun entertainment in small doses because it's cringey as fuck usually. I've found a few podcasts, but they're all a bunch of loony sovereign citizens that are masturbating the the idea of the apocalypse. Same thing with any youtube videos I've found - It seems like everyone in the prepper community is actually fantasizing about the downfall of civilization and the "prepping" is just a LARP for their favorite scenario. I get that, but I'm actually interested in being as self-reliant as possible and most of that has nothing to do with guns or combat scenarios. It's food, water, shelter and health for myself and my family. Where the hell do people like that congregate, and am I associating myself with the wrong, uh, "movement" due to terminology?

Preppers are usually crazy sovereign citizens and focused on combat & conflict. Rampant conspiracy theorists, too.
The self-reliant or "sustainable" crowd always have a strong ideological aspect to them that I couldn't give a fuck less about.
Mormons have the right idea, but I'm not giving up my Sundays or whispering to ghosts.
The Amish are my jam, but they don't tend to have podcasts or youtube channels.


Anyways, I'm hoping that can be a place to share information about how to become less reliant on other people or organizations for life's basic necessities. Practical tips on gardening and farming, ranking geographic regions and features, long term food storage, etc. Everything going on in politics right now is pretty alarming to me, but the "Don't rely on others" philosophy is something that I've always clung to since I was a teenager and I'd love it if this thread held on to that concept and not some sort of political revolution or collapse concept.

EDIT: Adding a snippet from Lightning Lord Rule 's post in here because I think he worded the whole topic I'm aiming for better than I did:

Lightning Lord Rule said:

This is an interesting topic that I've thought about from time to time over the years.

I think you have to start from 2 slightly different questions, which lead to different but possibly overlapping answers:

1. In a homesteading situation, how much of modern life is feasible to become self reliant/self producing?

2. In a disaster/SHTF/Zombie Apoc/whatever situation, what will I be deprived of that I need to stock up on now?

Click to expand...

I have fuckall to share because the whole reason I'm making this post is because I can't find sane & grounded conversation elsewhere, but I guess I'll dump some of the stuff that I've been reading and hope one of you poopsocks or lurkers jumps in with other recommendations.



And of course, my favorite episode of Doomsday preppers:

Big Phoenix said:

I don't see the point of conventional prepping if you live in a urban area. Those dozen or so buckets of rice won't do you any good when you have no water to cook it and trying to cook it attracts raiders.

Imo if it's a true apocalypse you are simply fucked. Best bet would be to gtfo of dodge to whatever place is safe.

Having said that I'm all for keeping a reasonable amount of supplies to get you through the natural disruptions that happen. At a minimum a weeks worth of food and water. From there any other supplies you need to get you through the likely disasters you expect to endure. Of course if you do this liberal cunts think you're a terrorist.

Id go buy a case or two of bottled water and a case of MREs. MREs are a bit more expensive than other options but the nice thing about them is each one has everything you need for each meal inside a very portable little package.

Click to expand...

This is kind of what I'm talking about. I live in a very rural area and my interest isn't anything like "how to survive the first 30 days", it's in how to transition your way of living to another way that relies on other people as little as possible. Having a water well that can be supplemented with solar or manpower, for instance. Backyard gardening that has synergy with small livestock, etc.

I really think I'm interested in a sort of homesteading lifestyle more than anything, but not a massive change that upends everyone's life and requires detaching from society.

I look at our pantry every day when I get home and I'm always trying to think of a way to keep a years worth of food on there that will actually get eaten & cycled out as we keep living our lives the way we are.

I struggle to explain that narrow window that I'm interested in, but if you look at the extremes as being -
oblivious/uninterested-----x--------------------------full blown doomsday prepper

I'm the X.

Guns was last year. Murdering for supplies isn't really an option because I'm a social butterfly and I don't want dinner parties to get awkward.
Also, everyone around here hunts and I've seen people's arsenals. Becoming a world-renowned dicksucker would be a better plan to survive around here than fighting them.