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1. 

   jennypenny
   

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   Joined: Jul '11
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   I finally got a chance to watch the episodes I recorded. I was looking forward to the show. I knew they'd have some extreme people on, but I was hoping to pick up some tips since there is so much crossover between ERE and prepping. Well, I'm a little surprised by the show.

   *Most of the people are closer to normal than I expected (except for the bullet guy who has already been declared incompetent by the government and stripped of his arsenal).

   *I'm a little shocked by how much money they spend on prepping and stockpiling. One couple spent $10K a year. That's my whole grocery budget for 5 people, 2 dogs, and stockpiling.

   *Everyone seemed too focused on bugging out. Bugging out is a last resort and rarely successful. People should live somewhere where they can meet there own needs easily (whether through homesteading or a supportive community).

   *Most of the people they showed would be done in by lack of medical care. This also seems like a common thread between prepping and ERE. Medical care is expensive, and if you need care for a chronic illness (even if it's just daily medication) it will lower your standard of living and would be your downfall in an emergency. The only guy who looked healthy ended up almost shooting his own thumb off during filming (confirming my thoughts on medical care). Seems like taking care of your health--even if it means a higher budget for food, exercise, and preventative care--makes a huge difference in the long run. And if you have an untreatable illness (like we have here), medical care should be a major focus of your planning.

   Posted 1 year ago #
2. 

   HSpencer
   

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   Joined: Jul '10
   Posts: 770

   I watched the one last night on the guy who used to be a truck driver, now retired and doing the prepping at some location. The guy was into ham radios, guns, etc.
   The guy looked like he could run 15 feet and have a massive heart attack.
   Physical fitness, IMHO, would be one of the large measures if one tried to survive an end of whatever thing. I don't think this guy in the show had a prayer of doing that. Maybe he can just sit on his four wheeler and shoot people with his 12 ga shotgun. If no one bothers him at the end of days, and he has enough salted back for a daily calorie count of "ten zillion calories intake", then he might make it until the old blood veins get totally clogged.

   My impression is they are all a bunch of nutjobs with, however, a pretty focused idea.

   Posted 1 year ago #
3. 

   George the original one
   

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   I haven't watched it... no cable/satellite TV at home :-)

   Yeah, the emphasis on bugging out seems to be the current marketing tactic now that Obama hasn't taken the guns away and you can still buy ammunition. It amazes me that the doom & gloomers haven't figured out that they're just a cog in the marketing machine.

   In my own scenarios, bugging out is what you do well ahead of time. It is using the currency of choice to leave behind the political instability, slipping across a border to live the life of a political refugee.

   The nightmare scenario that is tough to survive is akin to the rampage in Rwanda where one is oblivious to the explosion of orchestrated neighbor hostility. Heading to the hills will likely only prolong the terror rather than rescue you from it.

   Posted 1 year ago #
4. 

   C40
   

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   Joined: Feb '11
   Posts: 576

   I haven't seen it but I've heard Jack Spirko talking about it on his Survival Podcast. He's said that for the show they are just finding idiots to make look bad for entertainment.

   I find this fitting with a large portion of TV documentaries and reality shows. Most are extremely far from real or actual life. There was a reality show filmed where I went to college. I knew a member of the cast (Matt Ellis, his "roomate") and he told me how ridiculous it was. One example I remember is that they bought a condo in a downtown building that has nothing to do with campus, and built a fake dorm room inside the condo to use for filming scenes which supposedly took place in the campus dorm room that Tommy lived in with Matt.

   This also occurred during my last semester when I had only easy/fake classes and was loafing around campus a lot. I witnessed some scenes being filmed. I'd see an hour or two of setup, preparation, and practice for a 30 second film clip. I'd see Tommy Lee in three different outfits in one day. This is how reality shows work.

   I'd find this to be fitting with other TV programs (including a reality show that was filmed at my college campus, which I knew some of the cast of... they explained to me how ridiculous it was)

   Posted 1 year ago #
5. 

   jacob
   

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   Joined: Jul '10
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   One of my friends worked as a tech for a reality show. He pretty much confirmed that it's called a "reality show" because it has nothing to do with reality. (Similar reasoning behind the naming of political bills, but I digress.) In essence, the show is made post-production.

   Anyhoo .. I think prepping may fall prey to the consumer-paradigm where the prepper is thinking in terms of stuff and technologies and that the solution is simply to buy stuff. It's a form of gadget-geekery. I even think this is pretty normal/average. It's far easier to buy a $200 field surgeon kit thinking yourself prepared than to spend 50 hours getting advanced first aid training.

   A lot of survivalist thinking is also still mired in cold-war thinkingL Just bug out to the wilderness to avoid the nuclear fall out and the roaming zombies. (Meanwhile you can spends dozens of hours and thousands of dollars spec'ing and upgrading your bug out vehicle and your massive arsenal of guns.) Then return six months later when the silly city-dwellers have all eaten each other. I think this paradigm is changing quite fast these days though. It's turning into a combination of "how to survive the 1930s" and "how to survive your country turning into a banana republic"-survivalism.

   Posted 1 year ago #
6. 

   Roark
   

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   Joined: Aug '11
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   There is no point in watching almost any television show because everything is made into a circus, even if it is a legitimate topic. This is because many people would rather be entertained or feel good about their lives when they see people inferior to them on the television when they get home from work.

   Posted 1 year ago #
7. 

   Marlene
   

   Journeyman
   Joined: Aug '11
   Posts: 150

   @HSpencer: I´ve seen this link on Hackernews wehre research with rats seem to indicate that physical fitness affects how much energy is delievered (stored) in the brain.

   Posted 1 year ago #
8. 

   Marlene
   

   Journeyman
   Joined: Aug '11
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   erm - sorry for the long link.

   Posted 1 year ago #
9. 

   Dragline
   

   Master
   Joined: Aug '11
   Posts: 964

   I tend to agree that TV is just a drama/entertainment factory and a lot of this "prepping" is just an excuse to buy some "really cool stuff" and acquire a sense of self-importance.

   In fact, what you would most need in a societal breakdown scenario is a community of some kind -- even if its just a gang. Think of all the apocalyptic movies you've seen like Last Man on Earth/Omega Man/I Legend (yes, that's all based on the same story -- watch the original sometime with Vincent Price) or Mad Max/Road Warrior trilogy, etc. Sure, the protagonist is some loner/prepper with really cool junk, but the zombies/mutants/gangs always seem to have the upper hand because there are simply more of them organized into some framework. And the loner guy is always looking for that "community at the end of the rainbow", which often magically appears at the end of the saga.

   Why not start with the community and stop accumulating junk? I guess that would be boring TV -- people being nice and helping each other learn new skills. Not enough conflict/drama for prime time.

   Posted 1 year ago #
10. 

    jennypenny
    

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    The people on the show are pretty close to normal for extreme preppers. Most people in the bug out business are much crazier, trust me. I guess I was hoping for more since it's natgeo instead of TLC.

    @George--"I haven't watched it...no cable/satellite TV at home"
    Now you're just bragging :)

    Posted 1 year ago #
11. 

    Dragline
    

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    I wistfully remember when TLC used to show educational programming like the James Burke "Connections" series. Of course, they actually called it "The Learning Channel" back then.

    Posted 1 year ago #
12. 

    jennypenny
    

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    I agree about the demise of The Learning Channel. It's a long way from "Connections" to "Princesses and Pedofiles" or "Toddlers and Tiaras" or whatever it's called.

    Posted 1 year ago #
13. 

    JasonR
    

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    Joined: Feb '11
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    For Connections:
    http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/james-burke-connections/

    We don't have cable here so the above was very appreciated. I forget who originally posted it here...Surio? Anyway, enjoy the wide lapels and tight pants.

    Posted 1 year ago #
14. 

    Chad
    

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    I agree with HSpencer. These people are incredibly out of shape, whic was their biggest issue. I'm not even sure the one guy could hold a gun up long enough to track and shot someone who was running around.

    I found the one lady amusing. She was 300 lbs. and had never done a day of exercise in her life (there was no muscle buried under that fat), yet was teaching a self-defense class. She could know every BJJ and wrestling move in the book and she still wouldn't have been strong enough to make those moves work (and you don't need to be super strong to make them work). Plus, it would have taken her 20 minutes just to do the move.

    Jacob's correct in noting that these people are all Cold War nuclear fallout survivalist types. All they did was change "Russia launced their ICMB's" to something like "the sun is shooting out giant flares!" Prep for this type of disaster isn't very helpful for the more likely, though still not common, scenarios such as another Great Depression or ultra-corrupt government.

    Posted 1 year ago #
15. 

    JohnnyH
    

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    I've watched the show (I watch TV when eating) and it's getting progressively worse... The pilot special had some truly competent people (wood gas truck was impressive). Now it just seems like they're picking rubes to ridicule the entire movement.

    Does seem highly illogical to "bet it all" on a disaster, let alone a specific event like catastrophic polar shift... Still, I sleep better having enough food to live through 1 winter, guns/ammo, tools, garden, so on.

    Posted 1 year ago #
16. 

    Mo
    

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    Posts: 442

    I haven't seen the show. Whenever I think the ERE community is a bit fringe, I just bug out over to a prepper/doomer site and suddenly I feel refreshingly normal.

    It amazes me what people think will be useful to them. Many seem to plan for some sort of cross between nuclear winter and being stranded on an uninhabited island, or lost in a forest. It doesn't seem to make much sense to me. How exactly will glow sticks help me in central Indiana?

    Physical conditioning (preparation), as mentioned above, is markedly under represented.

    Posted 1 year ago #
17. 

    JohnnyH
    

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    The constant repetition of the prepping community buzzwords gets so irritating... Seriously, "bug-out" or "hit the fan" is said about 4 dozen times an episode.

    Posted 1 year ago #
18. 

    Chad
    

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    Ok, I've watched this a few times now. It appears these are really people who want to be "special", but aren't special. So, they become "Doomsday Preppers" to attain this status. The majority of these people pick completely ridiculous doomsday scenarios. The one I just watched was prepping for a pole switch. It may have happened once 800 million years ago. What are the odds of it happening while you are alive? It's probably more likely you will win the lottery twice if you don't play.

    Of course, it's not bad to put together a little prep for something like Hurricane Katrina if you live in the south or for a big quake if you live in California, but these scenarios are ridiculous.

    Posted 1 year ago #
19. 

    tylerrr
    

    Journeyman
    Joined: Dec '11
    Posts: 200

    I agree that "community" would be very important in a catastrophic situation and these people are finding a reason to accumulate stuff, but not necessarily skills to survive.

    Posted 11 months ago #
20. 

    Dragline
    

    Master
    Joined: Aug '11
    Posts: 964

    Wanna join my Army of Post-Apocalyptic Zombies? First thing we'll do is make a map of all of the Prepper compounds . . . Easy pickins!

    Posted 11 months ago #
21. 

    cimorene12
    

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    Joined: Dec '11
    Posts: 14

    I've watched the show. The idea that we can be self sufficient is the most important part of the show and the reason why the preppers are vaguely similar to the ERE community. However, we are not as crazy.

    I do object to @Chad's comment on the woman who taught self defense. She had guns and could probably take out at least a few people. They showed her throwing her husband, so I know that she can at least do some wrestling. I admit that I'm not a wrestling pro, so I wouldn't know just how effective she could be.

    Posted 11 months ago #
22. 

    ktn
    

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    Joined: Jul '10
    Posts: 116

    For those of us, with no TV or no access to US programming, and wondering what the fuss is all about - just do a search on YouTube for "doomsday preppers". Most of the episodes are on it.

    I read somewhere that NatGeo killed the series (amazing someone there had the brains to do it). I am no fan, but like this guy who was on the show says.. a lot of the dumbness was staged/manipulated/edited: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgQD4DuK81k

    Posted 11 months ago #
23. 

    Chad
    

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    @cimorene12
    Anyone can throw someone else that is letting them. Children do it to adults all the time in martial arts classes, it doesn't mean they could do it on the street to an adult. I don't have a ridiculous amount of training, but 4 years of karate, some wrestling, and 10 years of line play in football (which is basically hand to hand combat with the goal of getting to a point or preventing someone from getting there) suggest she just wouldn't be effective at all in hand to hand combat.

    She could possibly shoot someone, but pulling the trigger on a real human is much much harder than most of us realize. It's taken years for the armed forces to get a large portion of the soldiers to fire their weapons in combat and she doesn't have that training. Let alone hitting something during all that pressure.

    Plus, unless she knows there is an obvious threat, the gun will probably be holstered. Which, per law enforcement experience means a well trained police officer is still in danger from an unarmed or knife weilding suspect at 21 feet. This distance would probably be larger, as I doubt she would train enough to even get to police officer level. Mythbusters did an interesting show on this last night trying to determine if the "Don't bring a knife to a gunfight" myth was valid.

    Posted 11 months ago #
24. 

    jennypenny
    

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    Posts: 1,342

    Has anyone watched this season? I think this season is much better than last season. The preppers are more well-rounded in their preps, and I've learned more. For example, one guy had a farm and was capturing the methane from his pigs. They're also focusing more on the family/social aspect. There was a group that lived on a suburban cul de sac that had banded together. They also had one funny couple. He was really into prepping, but she was from Costa Rica IIRC and she kept saying she left there to feel safer and now he was scaring her :)

    Anyway, if some of you gave up on it last year, it might be worth another look.

    Posted 4 months ago #
25. 

    NorthernIrelandERE
    

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    Joined: Jan '12
    Posts: 10

    I watched this show, but I admit, I watched for entertainment purposes rather than actually trying to learn anything. Some of the best scens included....

    - The guy with the massive stockpile of guns who managed to blow his thumb off ON-CAMERA while talking about how he was going to protect his family. I bet the irony of not even bring able to protect himself hasn't even sunk in.
    - The morbidly obese guy rolling about the place with the rifle was silly, but at the same time, he seemed like he would be a cool guy to go have a beer with.
    - The kookiest one without a doubt was the guy who was dressed in the homemade deerskin clothes who looked like Alan from The Hangover. When he started talking about knowing when roadkill was still good to eat, I knew we had a winner. I felt sorry for his kids though. He took them out of school for the day to do survival stuff, also said he didn't waste his time saving for college fees. Ridiculous.
    .
    I felt sorry for the people who were living in the truck because they lost their home to foreclosure. Although at the same time, I couldn't understand why the husband was spending thousands of Dollars on buying camoflage for his truck while his wife was wife was SKIPPING HER CANCER MEDICATION.

    Posted 4 months ago #
26. 

    JohnnyH
    

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    Posts: 1,366

    Yeah show was just such a hit piece freak show I had a hard time watching it... Why do people sign up for these reality shows (ie: Extreme Cheapskates) when they know they're going to be made the fool?

    But thanks for the update jenny, I'll check out the new ones.

    Posted 4 months ago #
27. 

    dot_com_vet
    

    Master
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    Posts: 379

    The "weapon preppers" are making themselves a big target with their practices.

    Loaded weapons scattered about the house scares the heck out of me from an accident perspective. And if the zombies attack, they will address the threats first.

    We've had some moderate weather events here, and it's the neighbors/community that returned life back to normal. (Not doomsday preppers.)

    Posted 4 months ago #
28. 

    Chad
    

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    I may have to check it out again. The methane idea could actually be beneficial and not just OCD crazy like the most of these people. Though, after 10 minutes I'm usually done with the show. There is only so much "idiot" I can take. Plus, I do feel sorry for them a little. The majority are clearly wasting their own resources for minimal return, if any, and they are clearly being taken advantage of by NatGeo.

    Posted 4 months ago #
29. 

    rachelFLF
    

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    The thing I don't understand about this show is how these folks can go public with this stuff. If the shit hits the fan and their fears become reality, everyone in their town will know they've got a year's worth of food, gas, etc and will storm the place. A close friend was raised by a prepper father (they call it survivalism actually) who stockpiles a secret basement with all this shit and if he knew his son had told ANYONE about it, he'd be furious. The point is to keep it a huge secret so you can actually use your stores as planned. I know some folks on the show claim they are trying to educate people or make some sort of community or something, but I can't help thinking they are either idiots or their egos just got the best of them. Except that Texas couple with the storage container compound I guess - they've got acres and acres and rifles and seem like they might be able to handle anyone who tries to interfere.

    Posted 4 months ago #
30. 

    jennypenny
    

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    >>they are either idiots or their egos just got the best of them.

    Those are the most likely reasons, but I know those people also get paid quite a bit of money to be on the show. I wonder if they need the money (those elaborate preps are expensive) and that's why they agree to appear. Still...OPSEC is always rule #1.

    Posted 4 months ago #
31. 

    Noob
    

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    Joined: Jan '13
    Posts: 79

    @Rachel&Jenny.. While I've never seen the show. Most of those people like stated above put on acts for the show to make it more interesting. And also not being paranoid, but being a realist, I would say that it would be better for the general public to see these people as crazy rather than sane. If people thought there really was a good reason to prep, then it might have side effects. After over a dozen years in service to his majesty Uncle Same, I can say that I know all about OPSEC and that another situation is probably that most of these people know NOTHING about OPSEC or military mentalities or just keeping secrets.

    I subscribe to a few of these prepper websites, because you do find some neat things on them that will help you save money. I found these water coolers that are basically industrial strength dehumidifiers and after a few hours, they pull moisture out of the air, filter it, and store it in containers. Solar powered too. So.. free water essentially after paying for the unit.

    Most preppers that are out there are really stupid though. They think that buying guns and ammo is the way to go. Some of these guys on the websites I belong to will practically save every penny they make in a year because they are growing their own food and making everything they need by hand. Anything they need outside of that, they trade for. That's the community need for them. Someone in Texas is raising sheep, but you're in Maine and are making candles but want to knit some socks? You go online and trade. BUT.. then these dummies take all that money they saved up throughout the year and spend it all on guns and ammo. Then every few years you're going to have to rotate your ammo out because it gets damp.

    Now these community ideas and not keeping things secret is half cause their stupid, and partially cause of what I stated above. Also, think about it like this.. let's say severe power outage. everyone gets notified that power will be out like a week or so. (this really happened when I was a kid. Power company drives around putting notices on doors.) Well, you've got a few weeks worth of supplies, while all your neighbors are drivign to town to buy up supplies that everyone else already bought up so there isn't much food. So you know that power should only be out a few weeks, so you start feeding your neighbors. If your neighbors were more aware, they would have stockpiled too. So theres some of that going on with these people. I mean can you really say that if you only have enough food for your family for a year and you absolutely know that you will need it for that long, that you will let your neighbors 6 month old baby die from starvation? I doubt it.

    Posted 4 months ago #
32. 

    Chad
    

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    If they get paid a nice sum they may not be so taken advantage of by NatGeo.

    Posted 4 months ago #
33. 

    mrjay
    

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    Joined: Jan '13
    Posts: 44

    I am not too much into this whole preppers thing, but my SO is (i don't have a DW...so sig other? lol). She has watched a lot of the end-of-the-world type shows (although they're all gone now since 12/21 didn't really happen) - my thoughts on this:

    Yes, if you have a "secret stash" (she talked me into one, we spent about $300 on it), you shouldn't let anyone out there know you have it. BUT ALSO - if "the world did come to an end", after six months of "no infrastructure", people will know you have it. They'll be rotting away, and you'll be in good health, because you had a stockpile. Don't think for one moment they won't notice. Right?

    For entertainment purposes, I know there has been some discussion on here (or maybe it was another forum?) on the tv show Revolution. Sure, that's a good "base" for imagination. My personal fav of all time (and I can't believe they cancelled it) was JERICHO. Look it up if you haven't - - now that was some good thought provoking stuff.

    Kudos, ya'll. :)

    Posted 4 months ago #
34. 

    Noob
    

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    Joined: Jan '13
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    I LOVE Jericho. They just started continuing Jericho, but it's only in comic book format. Seasons 3 and 4 are now out in comic format. Or well most of 4 is last I checked. They draw in all the same faces of the shows actors, same names, everything. Just continued in paper. So for all the jericho fans.. it's back.

    Posted 4 months ago #
35. 

    JohnnyH
    

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    I remember the episode of Jericho where the young shopkeep labored the trainwreck of foodstuffs back to the store to sell for paper currency. I think they were playing a teenpop song while doing it.

    It was more interesting that anything on network TV in the decade.. But it still didn't have credibility, IMO. If Jericho turned around please let me know and I'll finish it.

    Posted 4 months ago #
36. 

    Noob
    

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    Season 3 in the comics focuses more on the war and I forget if it's 3 or where they're at in 4 where they start explaining the purpose of all the bombs and the people behind them. So they're getting more into the bigger picture. Of course like I say.. you have to be into comic books as there is rumors of a movie, but most likely the only thing we'll ever see of Jericho again is this comic.

    Posted 4 months ago #

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