These days prepper communities and survivalist groups are growing throughout North America and the world. Even if you don’t consider yourself a “Prepper” you’re probably interested in being prepared. Finding people in your area or online to connect with who have a shared interest can sound tempting.
However, even if you do share a lot in common, and you might even live in the same community, some preppers can be dangerous.
It might be that they don’t take kindly to anyone sticking their nose in where it doesn’t belong.
It might also be that they’re reckless, and you don’t want to get caught in the line of fire when they make another mistake.
The Macho Man
Someone who is always looking for a fight, and trying to prove they’re the ultimate macho man is someone to avoid both in normal times and when SHTF. Not only do these people draw trouble to them, but they also cause a lot of collateral damage to those around them.
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Having one of these macho personalities in your inner circle can be even more disastrous. Especially in a situation where you’re all locked down together or in limited space, where there’s a real risk of everyone getting on everyone else’s nerves.
Even if this macho man personality doesn’t end up getting in your face, they’ll end up putting a lot of stress on the rest of the group. In any kind of disaster situation, you need someone who is helping bring the group together, not constantly tearing everyone apart.
Obsessed Only with Firearms
Most preppers have a respectable, if not extensive arsenal.
That’s understandable, as safety is also a very important part of being prepared for a potential catastrophe.
One also needs a respectable firearms collection to be able to hunt game both large and small.
The concern is when a person only preps firearms like they’re Burt Gummer’s secret illegitimate child. A wall full of weapons and a can of SPAM in the corner is more than just an ineffective prepping strategy.
To complement your firearms collection, it’s important to also develop practical home defense skills. The Special Forces Home Defense Academy offers a structured approach to this. Created by former Green Beret Terry Schappert, the academy covers everything from setting up effective security measures to reinforcing your property, offering practical knowledge that goes beyond mere weaponry.
Integrating this kind of training into your preparedness plan helps ensure that you’re not just amassing tools, but also learning how to use them effectively.
The Bragging Prepper
Anyone who brags obsessively about what they’ve got and what they intend to do with it needs to be avoided. This is about more than just not stepping on someone’s ego and having them act out on their boasts toward you.
A bragging prepper can draw a lot of unwanted attention from friends, neighbors, and people who might turn to them when SHTF.
If they’re also a part of your social network or prepper community, who’s to say they won’t start spilling the beans about what they know you have?
Admittedly there’s some gray area here. Ideally, all preppers should encourage their friends, neighbors, and family members to do some prepping. That way they’re better stocked and ready and won’t immediately come to rely on you when a disaster strikes.
It’s when they start helping others understand the basics and start giving you an in-depth inventory that you need to be concerned about how close they are to you.
The Guy Who Wants It to Happen
One of the most miserable types of preppers to avoid is the person who wants the end of the world to come. It’s part of their inner fantasy scheme and they’re constantly sharing that with you.
A lot of times these people are frustrated with their own lives for some reason. It might be a substance abuse problem that they’re not dealing with. It might be social awkwardness, being unemployed, or even an unaddressed mental health problem. They get it in their head that if the world went to cr*p, they’d be able to hit the restart button.
Unfortunately, at the core of this mentality is often a “Fixed Mindset” of someone uncomfortable with change. There might even be a sense of entitlement mixed with a lack of vigorous work ethic.
When what you need in a disaster situation is someone willing to embrace a growth mindset. A person with a fixed mindset who is now even further out of their comfort zone is just going to rebrand their toxic energy and pour it into the new situation.
The Field General
It’s one thing to be a part of a prepper community, yet you want to avoid being seen as a foot soldier in another prepper’s fantasy army.
Everyone wants to feel like they’re in charge, and in command of their own destiny.
That’s completely normal.
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It’s when someone in your prepper community starts taking command as if you’re all militarizing to form a militia or prepper posse. This sort of field general prepper creates multiple layers of concern that you don’t want to be a part of.
For starters, you don’t want anybody telling you what to do with your preps, your life or your family. I don’t care if they do have military experience. I wouldn’t want to be a foot soldier in anybody’s cause. No matter how just it sounds on paper. You don’t want the price of their bad judgment to cost you your security.
There’s also concern that other people in your prepper community will turn on this field general persona. All it takes is one of two families, getting sick of being bossed around, and suddenly you’re on the wrong side of a mutiny. Switzerland got along just fine in World War Two by remaining neutral, and you can do too!
There’s also the concern that a lot of these field generals are also bragging preppers. They talk a little too loud, too often, to the wrong people. Suddenly they’re on a government watch list. Some guy wearing a windbreaker somewhere starts connecting strings from a push pin on his picture to a push pin on your picture.
The Tunnel-Vision Prepper
A prepper who is only concerned about one single type of scenario is someone you need to avoid just for the sake of being well-rounded.
Some preppers watch a TV show about one potential doomsday disaster. It gets under their skin, and they focus all their prepping efforts on one thing.
For example, if someone is solely focused on preparing for a famine, they might heavily invest in food storage and foraging skills. While these are important, they might overlook other essential preparedness areas, such as water purification and self-defense.
Similarly, a prepper focused only on power outages might build a sophisticated backyard power plant but may neglect other critical needs like first aid and community defense.
A balanced approach to preparedness means addressing a variety of potential scenarios. For instance, in the event of a blackout, setting up an alternative power source is crucial, but you should also consider other needs like food cultivation and water safety.
In the case of an EMP attack, it’s important to protect your valuable electronics to ensure they remain functional. This includes using EMP-proofing measures like this EMP Cloth to shield essential items, such as your electricity generator, from potential damage.
There might not be one single cookie-cutter prepper to avoid at all costs. Yet there are some you don’t want to tangle with or need to keep at arm’s length.
People with a macho-man personality or who seem to want the end to come so they can flex their way out of their unhappy lives are also preppers you should consider avoiding. These are just fights waiting to happen, and you don’t want to be the target or caught up in the mix when their toxic personality goes off.
You also have to consider people with serious addiction issues. Drug addicts and extreme alcoholics can become violent and unpredictable when they lose access to their fix.
You also have to beware of someone who thinks they can shoot their way out of any problem, or who sets up their preps with complete tunnel vision. Preppers with such a narrow vision should be avoided in all but the most extreme circumstances. They often need more than they realize, and if you’re not careful, they’ll try to take it from you.
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“The concern is when a person only preps firearms like they’re Burt Gummer’s secret illegitimate child.”
KEK
Burt was ready for the war and he saved everyone
Ol Burt was well armed, goes without saying, but his bunker was well stocked with provisions as well … I’d be proud to be a part of Burt Gummers. crowd … having some of his traits as well.
You may know, Gold-Star mom, and former Mesa County, Colorado Clerk, Tina Peters has been subjected to days of criminal prosecution in court. The cheaters are intent on INTIMIDATING anyone who questions the integrity of the elections process. The compromised machine election companies have already been caught bribing, pressuring, and laundering money to victimize voters in multiple countries.
This article seems to be another rehash I read somewhere before, probably on this website.
The gray or grey man is the classic way to go. Many preppers believe it is better to be in a community than a lone wolf, really?
Ever watch the movie the “The Postman” an arm chair general mentality of an Genghis Khan or a Napoleon Bonaparte character who read a lot of books or been in the military for a couple of years.
No thanks, I like being somewhere in between a lone wolf and a drone bee member of a restricted survival community.
Hey that is Tim Walz the Harris VP pick, who let the cops during the Minnesota riots to pop homeowners with teargas for not staying inside their homes. A total commie like Harris the Indian ans family slave owner now says she is black?
Is this the America we want like what we see in California, the Left Coast and the New York illegal mess, don’t think so. It is time to make the Liberals all leave instead of us legal Americans, it is our country, no thanks to you freeloaders here, go home!
I’m somewhat of the same mind. I tell one person what I am doing. My kid. He’s doing things where he is. I am a loner mostly anyway so shtf will be different for sure, but I am mostly lone wolf anyway. Staying bugged in if it’s that bad. Leaving for weather is one thing. Leaving while being actively searched on the roads is another.
Like anything in life , you must choose wisely
there will always be those who can be trusted , and are well trained
and those who you cannot , no matter what , do the background , learn to read the writing on the wall as you be real with your self .
met many military backgrounded people who you cannot ever trust
and have had quite a few who were the best , loyal , most trusted you could ever ask for
so this applys to preppers and people who live in the wild , not used to people and hate the public , thats why they live in the outskirts of society
with good reason .
you learn that trust is earned , not given , and thier is always motive for why
learn to read people : what is said, what is left out , How said, and who it highlites, or benefits
there is alway s a reason why people are the way they are .
and if you hit the trigger point in thier character , you either bring out the hidden Good , or the extreme phyco bad .
In service with many ptsd who were normal , but there is alway s a trigger pt which brings out the memory s
same with preppers , they who ever you are have a point of compassion or conquest
God is alway s waiting to forgive and save the lost when they come to the realization they are lost and need a savior .
for the heart of mankind is desparately wicked and God is the Restraint which hold back evil and the intent of mans heart
Selfish, Self seeking , self directed , and Narcisistic .
Man with God has self control
Man with out God has Evil Intent .
background and research while you still can .
How true Amen !
This reminds me of the movie “Signs” where a farming community is is given signs and symbols with strange news videos of a creature scaring a kid’s birthday party in south America. All strange occurrences happening an people blindly go about their personal lives. Then one day or night the at least the farming community is harvested and some are taken away to another place.
The preppers are kind of like that some where aware in the movie and prepped to bug out, many did not. It will be like that in a real life situation there will be chaos, your choice whether to stay or go in our situations. There really is no guideline for real life. We do have historical events and global events that can act as a guide to our future actions of prepping.
Many hate people interjecting politics into the comment area.
But prepping and political events have always been a prime mover towards prepping more so than natural events like tornadoes, hurricanes and flooding. We now have the Marxist illegals roaming our America into the mix.
WWIII is coming as we relive history again with idiots in charge globally.
Yes a belief in God also helps us spiritually too.
The movie “Signs” where a farming community is is given signs and symbols with strange news videos of a creature scaring a kid’s birthday party in south America. All strange occurrences happening an people blindly go about their personal lives. Then one day or night the at least the farming community is harvested and some are taken away to another place.
Preppers are kind of like that some where aware in the movie and prepped to bug out, many did not. It will be like that in a real life situation there will be chaos, your choice whether to stay or go in our situations. There really is no guideline for real life. We do have historical events and global events that can act as a guide to our future actions of prepping.
Many hate people interjecting politics into the comment area.
But prepping and political events have always been a prime mover towards prepping more so than natural events like tornadoes, hurricanes and flooding. We now have the Marxist illegals roaming our America into the mix.
We know WWIII is coming as we relive history again with idiots in charge.
Belief in God also helps us spiritually too.
The movie “Signs” where a farming community, This comment needs repeating as we go into these strange days before November 5th.
Things don’t remain the same, like Chick-Fi-lay they have gone woke even though they are not open on Sundays for many un-Christian consumers.
I have seen the movie signs plus a few others, but otherwise one aspect of survival if you are in a situation that have the tweens, meaning macho man and the occasional drill sergeant I think I would still rather be prepared to also go it alone because from over 30 years of military service and the ones still in there will be the choice of who do we leave behind if we had to make that choice and we all know what the other two would say, sacrifice for the greater good. Are we going to sacrifice our kids, grandkids, great grandkids, perfectly healthy people and perfectly healthy babies and I’m not just saying this because you I bet are assuming I’m female. I wouldn’t put anything online about myself because we all know someone is watching. Everyone thinks that they can sacrifice themselves for say a child, a mother and father, or even the most vulnerable. Not so say I. I have seen grown men and women who panic and don’t even consider the former mentioned. I have seen people throw their spouses, kids and so on to the wolves to survive. So right now I’m somewhere between the lone wolf and the regular Joe who has a community of people around them.
Agree with you, now with open borders we do have those Psycho’s roaming around America, illegals and the political deep state actors enabling these actions today.
It is hard to know someone as there are backstabbers in the mixed crowd we have Americans who have growing up differently from us older generations. We believed in the handshake was your word of truth, justice and the American way. Now we got foreigners who can’t speak English nor want to assimilate into America, we have no go zones in America.
It is still our America until those sheeple give away our Constitutional government to the woke. The Apocrypha Bible, the story of the Ezra’s Eagle and the winged feathers.
If they can’t speak English, they do NOT belong here.
Remember that.
It is still our America until those sheeple give away our Constitutional government to the woke. The Apocrypha Bible, the story of the Ezra’s Eagle and the winged feathers.
Agree with you, now with open borders we do have those Psycho’s roaming around America, illegals and the political deep state actors enabling these actions today.
It is hard to know someone as there are backstabbers in the mixed crowd we have Americans who have growing up differently from us older generations. We believed in the handshake was your word of truth, justice and the American way. Now we got foreigners who can’t speak English nor want to assimilate into America, we have no go zones in America.
It is full clear vision that Christ is coming to keep us from living by the sword die by the sword stupidity.
We will be on our own in the next few months as sheeple decide their future of America. Their choices are progressive liars or commonsense business approach.
We have same old liars from the current administration with no real ideas. They steal ideas from others who have real concrete choices to fix problem. Those progressives will say anything to get elected, then go to their real socialist narrative to end freedom as we know it. Look what is happening to the UK citizens being put in jail, look at our JAN 6th political prisoners currently.
I have been a “Prepper” for 10+ years now. One “Prepping Principal” I learned, early-on : DO NOT tell Neighbors about your preps or that you “are one”. Especially neighbors with KIDS. With Them “Especially” – “Asking turns to Begging, Begging Turns to TAKING”. Also WATER – is a major issue with many who don’t understand how critical it is. You are going to need access to a source or more Stores than you think. I keep 2ea 55gal drums in-house, + more and have access to a neighbors pool. You are going to need at least say 2gal a day or more. Your water-heater capacity/supply may not be enough for you.
Also on DEFENSE – Learn to shoot NOW (Combat Type Shooting – Shooting and moving), while Ammo is still available. I keep thousands of rds on hand. Combat Competition Shooter many yrs now. Ammo is Also a good Barter Item to have on hand – 223 & 9mm especially. Also don’t forget to address Medical Issues. Wife is former Combat Nurse-Vietnam. “SHE” – Sure “Aint no Whimp” 🙂 So I have that covered. I Told her – “I” will do the shooting, YOU – Just patch me up 🙂 Anything else I miss that I need ? I Live in a house on a Ridge, E.Tenn.
Every single post is about your “sport shooting “
That is a perfect example of the above article, the general a weapon prepper:)
Ok so you live on a ridge in Tennessee. Sounds good. What does one do when their 55 gal drums of water are depleted? Did I miss the hand cranked water well ?
I hope you have one. Let’s say you can repell everyone in the starving mobs of people swarming out of Asheville and Knoxville until they die off. How long can you eat your food stores until they are all eaten . Do you think you can grow enough corn on the hillside to survive like a Cherokee year 1600 . . , for how long?
Will the Midwest farmers be able to grow enough grain to feed the survivors with no fossil fuel ? Will enough of them have shielded the ignition systems of their tractors and also stored enough diesel fuel ?
Will the railroads have shielded their diesels?
Are these questions being discussed in Congress?
This is what all these tunnel vision preppers keep missing. We are prepping for the local scenarios’, not so much for global. We believe in God but not in organized religion.
Religion and politics are what the pioneers, the 1970 survivalist and preppers have in common.
Most preps are for the dreaded SHTF myth any type of not normal situation is a SHTF crisis, especially if a socialist, Marxist or a Chinese communist puppet gets elected into being president.
This nation in modern times has been and is being indoctrinated to be stupid with the dependency on the internet and smartphones and online shopping.
Barbecue Bob wrote, When you see two women, always running hand in hand, you can bet your bottom dollar, one’s got the other one’s man. We’re never happy with what we have, times I’ve worked for a company instead of myself I’m always amazed at how everybody is playing some political game to get ahead. You can’t be too skeptical.
Good afternoon. You got to pay for whatever you have. You are checked at every turn. Your paycheck, the bank has a transaction. Crediit cards and debit cards all have a trail. Thats 99% of any of us. If you were lucky enough to work for cash, OK. Gift money, also ok as long as it’s cash. But that’s only 1% aggregated. Someone out there has a spending history on you, and with AI,, well, that’s one of the reasons it was invented. In South America they are setting it up to predict who’s going to commit a crime and/or follow you around. Sound familiar. Britton has CCTV all over the place. We’re not far behind in our cities and highways. Have you ever realized that on main highways, like I-95 and turnpikes, they have cameras every mile. They are inconspicuous but there. All told, prepping in your immediate vicinity does require some aspect of covertness. It’s not always easy for much of the population.
Good article. But, I can’t help but cringe at the popular propaganda about Switzerland. The Swiss banking system simply made themselves part of the Nazi contingency plan for if things don’t go as planned. The Swiss bankers had no qualms about taking in funds from forced slave labor and stolen property. It’s bad karma to rob your own bank. The Nazis are only portrayed as stupid in the movies. The people who had to deal with them knew better. Many of them escaped to places like Argentina and could easily afford disappear. All thanks to their Swiss bank accounts. Most people will continue believing the myth of Swiss strength and autonomy. Their neutrality was and is nothing more than a vehicle by which they can profit off of the greed and misery of their fellow human beings.
Another category would be hierarchical, closed religious cultures with a strong prep culture that does NOT accommodate “outsiders”. Mormons, Amish, etc. These are people who are generationally conditioned to avoid critical thinking and obey orders without question. There is a strong “us” and “them” way of function and you will NEVER be in the “us” category. Look up Mountain Meadows Massacre. So many people idolize these cultures as “peaceful” without knowing the facts behind the image. There are individual wonderful people in these groups but to belong they need to follow the leader- who is corrupted by power. Cults are not safe- especially for women and children. Solid Christian faith guides character, conduct, and promotes individuality and critical thinking, not sheeple behaviors. Speaking from experience as a long term resident near both groups and a survivor of crimes from both groups. Be the community you want to see- look for honest leaders who serve with humility and real wisdom. Or stand on your own- with God you are never alone. No atheists in foxholes…
This is a good article. I agree completely. I really do not like ANYONE that talks too much. They are planting seeds in memories that might haunt them later. I do have conversation with my neighbors and we tend to look after each other when we are out of town. Mix of different skills and stores – but there is power in numbers. If the SHTF – I’d hope we can work together. No big egos – but some good confidence.
Unfortunately, I know a lot of those examples listed. My son is the Macho Man … who really is minimally prepped, mostly with items that I’ve given him over the years in the form of birthday and Christmas gift. Claims the dollar is fine, everything is good, and if it were to go bad, he will just steal everyone else’s preps. A friend of mine, wants it to happen, and is less prepared than my son. Making a good income, married to a liberal school teacher wife, who won’t allow guns in ‘her’ home … so he has swords to protect himself and his family … and food enough at home, to carry his family until next week.
So I remain cautious even around friends and family, regarding my preps. I freely will tell anyone, I have a small amount of emergency: food, water, firearms, firearm seeds, and some old coins …. yeah … maybe x 50?
I think one type was missed.
It’s the ‘type of prepper’ who ‘says’ he is a prepper, but continually asks about what you have, how much, what brand, how you store it and where you keep it.
I just call them the ‘nosey prepper’.
This type of prepper is rather intrusive and nosey about ‘your’ preps, but offers little about their own or says all the time, “That’s what I have/do, etc.” or something similar.
If you explain the idea of ‘OPSEC’ to them they, many times, will ‘act hurt’ that you don’t trust them.
This type should not be trusted and avoided.
Bill Murray was asked, one time, whom he didn’t trust…
1.) I don’t trust them because I don’t know them.
2.) I don’t trust them because I ‘do’ know them.
It might be that they don’t take kindly to anyone sticking their nose in where it doesn’t belong.
That is a VERY prudent stance to have.
There is a saying that says “no flies enter a closed mouth” it is better to keep it in mind in current times