You never imagined it would come to this. Years of careful preparation, stockpiling food, water, and supplies, now gone, either stolen or rendered useless by the chaos of a SHTF event. Whether it was a blackout, an EMP strike, or the collapse of essential services, you are suddenly thrust into a world where survival is the only law.
The person you were before, who followed rules and lived by a moral code, seems almost unrecognizable. Hunger gnaws at you, and fear is constant. At some point, you realize that scavenging or even being a looter is no longer an abstract concept, but the only path forward.
Accepting this reality is difficult, but acceptance is the first step toward staying alive. Survival does not wait for moral certainty, and in these moments, hesitation can be deadly.
The Reality of Survival Looting
Looting is a word that carries heavy stigma, and yet in a survival scenario, it is often indistinguishable from necessary scavenging.
This is not a video game, and it is not about thrill-seeking. The risks are real: physical injury, confrontation with others equally desperate, and the constant awareness that every movement could be observed.
In a STHF scenario, where law enforcement is absent or overwhelmed, and resources are scarce, every decision must be made carefully.
Stealing to survive may feel wrong, but starvation does not wait for conscience to catch up. The key is to approach this grim reality with clarity rather than panic, because in this case strategy becomes your lifeline and adaptability is your advantage.
How to Prioritize Your Immediate Needs
When faced with a suddenly empty pantry and no clear path to resupply, survival depends on identifying what matters most.
Water becomes the immediate concern because without it, survival time is drastically limited – most people can only last three days without drinking water, and even that can feel like an eternity in extreme heat or physical exertion. Every decision is amplified by dehydration and fatigue, making caution and planning essential. Finding safe drinking water requires vigilance, whether it comes from natural sources like streams and rain collection or from abandoned structures that may still hold usable supplies.
Nevertheless, even in the wild, it’s possible to have water, even without a lake, river or other sources in sight. For example, you could learn how to make water out of thin air using only a few rocks.
This VIDEO will show you exactly how you could make this possible:
Food follows closely behind – it must be high in calories, non-perishable, and easy to transport. Shelter is equally critical, not just for protection from the elements but as a defensive measure against others who might also be desperate.
Last but not least, you should take security into consideration as well. Any scavenging mission without a clear escape plan is a gamble you cannot afford to lose.
Observation and Caution in Movement
Before you enter a building or neighborhood in search of supplies, you cannot allow yourself to act hastily. Even if hunger and desperation are dominating your mind, you need to stay calm and deliberate. Pay attention to patterns of movement around you, look for signs of recent activity, and be alert to potential hazards that could put you in danger.
👉Read more on this subject: How to Become Invisible In A Crisis
Places that appear abandoned can hide unstable structures, fire risks, or other scavengers who are just as desperate as you are. Take the time to plan your approach, noting multiple entry and exit routes, and think about how the environment itself might reveal your presence. The more patient and careful you are, the better your chances of securing what you need without confrontation.
Mental Awareness and Strategy
When you’re scavenging or looting in a collapsed world, your mind becomes as important as your feet and hands. Every move you make depends on awareness, strategy, and the ability to stay calm when everything around you feels unstable. That’s why understanding your surroundings and knowing how to handle encounters with other desperate survivors matter just as much as what you manage to collect.
What to Do When Meeting Other Looters
When resources are scarce, encounters with desperate people are unavoidable, and you need a clear plan for how to react. Your priority is always to avoid unnecessary confrontation while staying safe and mobile.
Pay attention to signs of activity such as footprints, discarded packaging, or open doors, which indicate the area may be contested.
Joel Lambert, former Navy SEAL and author, has a way of cutting through the noise. He says that in a true crisis, when everything around you is falling apart, the human mind is capable of far more than most people believe.
What feels impossible at first becomes manageable once you steady yourself, control your breathing, and start making decisions with purpose.
He emphasizes a few core principles that help you stay alive when the world turns chaotic:
- Know where you can move next. Keep track of at least two safe directions you can go if the environment becomes unstable – a hallway, a door, a path that isn’t blocked by debris. In fast-changing situations, having options matters more than having a plan carved in stone.
- Keep your hands free whenever possible. In emergencies, you may need to climb over rubble, steady yourself on uneven ground, lift something blocking your way, or shield yourself from falling objects. If you’re overloaded, you lose the ability to react quickly.
- Use solid structures for protection. Walls, heavy furniture, parked vehicles, and natural barriers can shield you from wind, falling debris, or sudden movement in a crowd.
- Shift attention away from your path. In chaotic settings, a small noise, even tapping on a surface, can redirect people’s focus long enough for you to reposition safely.
CLICK HERE to read more about Lambert’s insights on survival and prepping like a Navy Seal.
Why Your Mind Can Be Your Greatest Survival Tool
Becoming someone who scavenges to survive will push you harder than anything you have experienced before. You will feel the weight of thirst, hunger, exhaustion, and the constant awareness that every decision could put you in danger.
So to stay alive, you must train your mind as much as your body. The best thing to do is to focus on immediate, tangible goals, such as locating water, finding food, and securing safe shelter. This way you ensure that fear and panic do not overwhelm your judgment.
In order to maintain mental clarity, it’s necessary to use simple routines: regularly check your surroundings, keep track of what supplies you have and what you need, and take brief moments to rest and hydrate when you can.
Even in this life or death situation, you must remember to keep a sense of purpose. This means something as basic as surviving another day, because it will give you the discipline to push forward when every instinct is telling you to give up. Remember, a single lapse in attention, even for a few seconds, can turn a manageable situation into a life-threatening one, so your mental sharpness is one of your most valuable survival tools.
Practical Considerations for Survival
Even when you’re scavenging or looting, how well you prepare can decide whether you come back safe or don’t come back at all. Everything you wear, carry, and how you move should be carefully considered. Read more here.
To make your efforts more practical, focus on these key areas:
- Make sure your clothing is layered, durable, and suited to the weather conditions, while your shoes protect your feet and allow quiet, fast movement.
- Carry tools that serve multiple purposes, like a sturdy knife, a pry bar, or a small saw, so you can access food, water, and other supplies efficiently.
- Keep a first aid kit on hand and know how to use it for cuts, burns, or sprains, because even minor injuries can become critical in a survival scenario.
- Only carry what you can manage comfortably, as overloading slows you down and makes you more vulnerable.
- Pay attention to fatigue and environmental exposure, and always know when to pause or retreat to preserve your strength and safety.
- Stay alert to your surroundings, noting potential hazards or signs of other people, so you can avoid unnecessary confrontation and stay in control of the situation.
The more intentional and disciplined you are with your gear and movement, the higher your chances of returning safely from any scavenging mission.
Moral Dilemmas when Looting
Few experiences test the moral fabric as intensely as scavenging for survival. You may have once believed that taking from others was unconscionable, yet in this new reality, the ethical rules you once followed may not guarantee your life. Hunger, exposure, and the instinct to survive can create tension between what you feel is right and what is necessary.
Understanding that morality in extreme survival is situational can be both freeing and terrifying. The aim is to preserve life while minimizing unnecessary harm. Using discretion and judgment allows you to meet your survival needs without escalating risk unnecessarily.
Even if your mind may struggle with this adaptation, remember that looting is a skill that can and must be developed quickly.
Final Thoughts
The reality is harsh: when the SHTF and your stockpile is gone, survival may demand actions you never envisioned. Hunger, exposure, and danger do not wait for conscience or deliberation. Accepting this reality does not mean surrendering your humanity. It means recognizing that intelligence, observation, and adaptability are as vital as strength and skill.
Mind you, those who survive are not necessarily the strongest or the most moral, but they are the ones who act decisively, balance pragmatism with caution, and maintain focus under pressure. When you have become “one of them,” your goal is simple but profound: live to fight another day, learn from every misstep, and use every advantage wisely.
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I fill this article will open a mind set that if anything that happens to my supplies or surroundings. That it is okay to steal from everyone else’s. Looter…
I truly hope that everyone that reads this will not stoop to the level of this article
I been on this site for a good long time and when it came to talking about looters or looting, it was looked @ as a piece of crap and anyone caught looting would be dealt with, Harshly.
Now you have became one of them.
Don’t let me see you looting.
Remember harshly…
Was it a good article, yes and no..?
stay sharp
A big PS: you will stand in judgement. Is it worth it, becoming one of them…
Where I live, we have been cut off from all civilization for weeks. Nothing.
“Locals” took over security and did very well. Had anyone attempted looting or other crimes, they would have been shot on sight. AND, it would have been legal.
Signs were posted “you loot, we shoot. Crabs have to eat, too.” We have been in this situation a few times. Did anyone shoot? We did hear gunfire (just a couple of shots each time). IF someone was shot, it was not mentioned.
Advising someone to put themselves into harms’ way is not a good idea. There are enough of us who were military or police to take care of business…or just good citizens protecting what is theirs.
This article was written by somone who “imagines” how it would be.
I understand your point of view, but what would you do if you lose your supplies and have no other option? I am genuinely curious. Thank you
You risk your life and will likely lose it. There are no good answers. People will die. Most don’t want to hear that.. We have been conditioned by our government to think help will come. It won’t. After isloated disasters it takes minimally 2 weeks to even get things rolling.
After Ian, the Feds came around and told us the Chinook helicopters were not bringing any supplies in (and they could have). They wanted all of us off our island- even though there was little damage to most houses. We refused and were armed. They went away, but no supplies came.
If you don’t have it, you won’t get it…and you WILL lose your life.
That’s just how it is in survival of the fittest.
It will not be pretty when survival of the fittest hits.
Disease and infections are probably the biggest danger.
I have thought about this and scavenging abandoned material is something I could do, stealing another individuals supplies will not even be considered. I prep with the idea of not being a burden on other people. Thousands of years ago we were told there was ten things we should do or not do, then a couple thousand years ago the message was if that is too complicated at least treat your neighbor the way you would want to be treated. And yes I believe each of us will stand in judgment.
We have to acknowledge the reality that most people, even those who are failry prepared, will react in a negative way or will be forced in a life or death situation. When you are hungry, cold, so on, you tend to do all that it takes to survive. And looting in this article does not refer to stealing from other people. It refers to doing what you are forced to do and doing it safely. Why would you want to steal from someone when there are surely abandoned resources available anyway? Why risk it even if you want to? This is what it is about. If your food runs out, would you stay and do nothing and die, or let your child die, or fight for your life? There is an abandoned supermarket close-by. You might find something there. Would you still not go there because of ethics? We all like thinking that when we are not in such a situation. But the truth is, most people won’t and nobody can blame them for wanting to survive or feed their families, as long as the obvious line is not crossed. Others will cross it. That is a certainty, not a scenario or a fable. He will understand you looting from an abandoned hangar so you have some extra tools or food for your family.
if a person loots then they will no longer be hungry, they will be dead. FAFO !
Ask a prepper staff.
If you were trying to wright in your article about surviving in a SHTF, then you should have left “looting” out of the article and just used scavaging as y’all added beside lotting.
When you used the word looting in there it changed the hole perspective of, I fill what you wanted to say in this article.
We as most see the word lotting as the same as stealing, despite what others want to call it.
There is a code of ethic’s with most real peppers and you see we stand on it.
Scavenging is doing what your article means.
Lotting is not scavenging.
As far as starving or letting my or your kids die of starvation. Yes I will go to the store or hangar and get what is there, if needed to survive.
stay sharp
Of course Ant, I completely understand what you are saying. But in that SHTF, those places that you go to still have owners, they are not abandoned because of a business running out of money and bankruptcy. They are abandoned because people fled. It is technically still looting. Why would we say it is scavanging when it would be looting? Taking water from a gas station would be looting, not scavenging. It is taking something someone else owns. See what I mean? For many, even that code of ethics might go out the window. Obviously not for you because you clearly have strong beliefs. But many will become monsters. So we have to protect people who would not and teach them to stay away from those monsters. Cause they will also go for that gas station. This is the type of conversations that such a topic creates. And we need to be honest with ourselves and also admit all the hard truths that come with it.
Looting IS a crime. You ARE stealing from someone. Taking abandoned property is not. But your article promoted LOOTING.
You loot, we shoot. Time to do some thinking about suggesting people put themselves into that situation.
Again, I have arrested people for looting. And, where I live people can and do shoot looters – and THAT is not against the law.
Absolutely! But what happens in a true SHTF situation? Police does not exist anymore. Laws do not exist. All businesses become abandoned property as people flee. People are hungry, desperate. Many visitors of this site would be in that situation. Will you shoot someone who steals something from an abandoned gas station to feed their family? I am sure you wouldn’t. But others would. So why not teach good people who would be desperate to be safe when trying to protect their families as well as they can given the circumstances? Cause when they go to that gas station, they might not meet you who would understand. They might meet one of those people who you arrested for looting when laws still existed. This is the type of thought provoking we are talking about.
It depends on the circumstances. My mother used to recall surviving in Nazi occupied Holland during WWII, when as a child she and her brother would sneak into farms guarded by German military to grab some basics to feed their fatherless family of nine. Getting caught would have cost them their lives. The same scenario without the German occupation, but say a natural disaster, probably would have seen the community work together, which the Dutch are noted for, eg the 1952 bursting of the dykes (my mother was pregnant with me at the time). A tight community would probably have no need for looting, but in a dystopian environment would likely find survivors fighting over remaining resources. An abandoned supermarket is open game as far as I’m concerned, but other will also be aware of it. Looting another’s food is definitely not on the cards as I could not live with myself and the consequences, that’s where preparing a community beforehand with like minded people is vital.
>CAddison: Spoken like a true survivor, thank you. How long was it before you got resupplied, and what “lessons learned” about your preps can you share? What worked, what didn’t, etc.
Looting IS a crime. You ARE stealing from someone. Taking abandoned property is not. But your article promoted LOOTING.
You loot, we shoot. Time to do some thinking about suggesting people put themselves into that situation.
Again, I have arrested people for looting. And, where I live people can and do shoot looters – and THAT is not against the law.
We never needed to get resupplied. Our preps did what they were supposed to do. After things settled down, I picked up what I needed to get my pantry back up where we want it. Most bought on sale at the grocery. We are probably good for a year before we hit the freeze dried buckets (My Patriot Supply type). Anything we could trade or barter for would extend that.
We lived off the grid 6-9 months/ year for 22 years. Sailing or camping. Some camping was deep winter up to -30 degrees.
We live on an island. The locals are hardy.
What I CAN say is that if you follow prepper standards, it works. We had no issues. Our camper is solar/propane. I have a couple of folding solar panels. With a small inverter they get it done. Rechargeable Eneloop batteries are great. Get adapter sleeves for D cells.
A fan, like construction guys use, that work off the power tool batteries are a great idea. Recharge on the solar panels. We already have the ryobi tools, so it works well.
I also suggest that if we have a big grid down, instead of one of those solar generators, you can use car, boat, camper batteries. Those solar generators are just big batteries. remove your car battery (if the car is not useable) and hook it up to a solar panel. You aren’t going to be using a big refrigerator for long in a grid down. We have a propane/12v refrigerator. The smaller the better. Life will NOT be the same, so get over trying for that!
In a long term shtf, ammo can be used for currency, too. Need to have a lot of it. A ranger friend has paid for his haircuts with ammo for years. Ammo goes up in price along with inflation. Not a bad investment, eh?!
Hope my ideas help.
Howdy from an undisclosed location high in the desert swamp,
I read this article and again hoped I would never have to be in this position of deciding I want what you have. Then I read these comments and realized, it doesn’t matter if I will or won’t. Reality is there will be people who are going to have made the decision of it’s you or me. Until your family, kids big or little are inconsolable from hunger and looking to you for the solution don’t say you won’t do something drastic. This article reminded me again there will be looters. We have had them. There will be break in thieves. We have had them. There will be scammers. We have had them. Throw desperation and lawlessness in with dehydration and raging hunger, you will be dealing with exactly this and worse people than what this article says.
You can say you won’t. You can think you won’t. When you’re actually in the maelstrom of societal meltdown is when you will actually know. In the meantime prepare for these people coming at you. We have had them.
Remember the Alamo
Remember Pearl Harbor
Remember 9/11
Remember North Carolina
Remember to have your soul prepared
Hello Chaplain Dan
I see that you have put some of us as saying, that until we are in that senerio, to not say if I would loot someone else’s supplies.
I, as a man of GOD and the love for Jesus my lord and Savior. I can tell you I would never loot another’s one’s supplies.
There will become a day that you will need to choose good or evil and for me I will choose GOOD over evil. By saying that. Just like I will not deny Jesus, even to the sorwed to my neck or to death with no supplies because I will not loot someone’s supplies, so I can live while you die. Not me.
I am not saying anything bad about your comment, BUTT what I am saying is that I will not take from the Innocent.
Now, I will take from the very people that I see taking from the innocent. Yes they will pay harshly.
With much respect to you, Chaplin Dan…
I can’t speak for anyone else, only for my self.
stay sharp
Once again, we have to reiterate, this is NOT about looting someone’s supplies. It is about looting safely from resources that are abaondoned anyway.
Red Ant,
I believe you. I didn’t write real clear. I was a passenger. This article made me look at it from the bad guys point. This IS what a desperate person or person of poor character will do. After hurricanes this is always a problem. Just because they can. How will it be when it is life or death? I hope I never find out.
This is an interesting article for sure. Lots of room for what will I do and what will a desperate person do to discuss.
Looting IS a crime. You ARE stealing from someone. Taking abandoned property is not. But your article promoted LOOTING.
You loot, we shoot. Time to do some thinking about suggesting people put themselves into that situation.
Again, I have arrested people for looting. And, where I live people can and do shoot looters – and THAT is not against the law.
Yes looting does practically mean stealing from a place or a person by extension. If someone owns it, then it is stealing. The point is, when you are put in an extreme situation, will you loot food from a supermarket? It is still stealing. It is not yours.
There’s plenty of people in the U.S. that will loot as their first response to getting what they want .But after some kind of long term shtf scenario , the government that protects them may not be there to care for them ….and now looter’s will have a wake up call ….Hard working Americans are going to kick your ass if you decide to make our lives worse then they presently are .
Ain’t gonna happen. Will NEVER become one of THOSE. Plans are in place.
I agree that our intentions will be honorable and just. I only hope (and prepare) that by the time my supplies run low, most nefarious characters have left the area and moved on once they think that they have “picked the carcase” clean. However, the challenge will be when you meet another individual at an abandoned grocery store and there is a single can of beans that rolled under a shelf. Who gets it? I can guarantee you both won’t go for the sharing option. What then?
The article does get you to think, WWID?
Thank you Staff for a thought provoking article.
I think this article makes the case for the city’s should incorporate more edible plants into their landscaping…water features…. with fish stock in them …that thrive in their area .Letting the 12th graders have more of foraging classes offered before we set them free .Same with Sunday sermon’s geared for the importance of such scenario’s. that we can help our unprepared brother and sisters.
Yeah…when will we see that?
I have gone back and reread the article thinking I may have misread or misunderstood the author, but there it is in about the 12th sentence ” Stealing to survive may feel wrong but_ _ _”
Then I looked up a definition of looting:
In law, looting generally means stealing goods during a state of emergency (like a riot, earthquake, or flood) or armed conflict, often involving burglary or theft offenses. It’s defined by the context of crisis, where laws like California’s Penal Code § 463 PC elevate theft (petty, grand, or burglary) committed during an emergency to the specific crime of looting, carrying felony penalties, distinct from regular theft.
Then the general tone of the rest of the article is one of sneaking around and not getting caught. That is clearly on a different level from scavenging something that was going to go to waste.
So I stand with red ant and hope that none of the people on this site will stoop to the level put forward in this article.
I am the author of the article and I would like to remind you….The story isn’t advice or encouragement to loot, but a fictional scenario meant to explore what happens when all your supplies are gone and your back is against the wall.
I absolutely understand the difference between scavenging (using abandoned resources) and looting (taking from someone). I used both because the point was to explore how stress and desperation can blur lines in extreme situations.
My opinion is that if a scenario makes us uncomfortable, that’s usually a sign it’s worth thinking about. The goal was to push our thinking, not promote anything unethical.
Thank you,
Kate L. Gilmour
Here is the hypothetical for you because everyone actually agrees with you. This is just for conversation, not for stealing from someone, which is obviously wrong. In an extreme situation, your family is hungry let’s say, will you go to the abandoned gas station to loot it? And the truth is most people will. And there won’t be just one person doing it. This is the reality we live in. Even if you take a candy bar, it is still crossing that line. You have no help, no food, nothing. Will anyone even blame you from going to that gas station? These are the types of hard questions we have to ask ourselves and be completely honest with the answer. The topic of looting from people is very simple. You shouldn’t do it as you wouldn’t want anyone else doing it for you. But what about an abandoned business?
Y”all are overreacting. Go back up and read the first explanation the staff gives. They say up top it’s not looting people. It’s looting empty buildings or hangers and such. Read their first explanation.
They have tried to back track and justify a completely wrong chose of words. The article says looting and stealing. They need to do better.
Yes, it is looting and stealing. When you loot and steal from a shop, it is still looting and stealing. You do not own what you take, even if the place has been abandoned for months. You go to Walmart and you take a water filter. Anything you want. Still looting and a different situation than going for someone’s home. The goal is to create exactly that dialogue. Lines are thin in extreme situations and the majority will cross it. This does include many preppers who will go to that Walmart.
People own those buildings…..
Exactly.
As far as the survival of the fittest….God made everyone equal with the advent of the colt 45….☮
Gator, I cant find where the STAFF said Hangar, a commenter did. I would not spend a lot of time searching a Hangar, for food. Food attracts rodents and believe me, they dont want rodents near aircraft ! ! ! So, if I am stupid and missed something, then I guess I am.
“I will never steal ” never, is a hard hurdle to clear. Choose to die rather than denounce your God, Ok.. but look at YOUR three children under age 15, 8 days with no food. will you let them die ? or steal food ? for them, not any for you.
If YOUR supply’s are gone, but you have people to STEAL and LOOT from, AND no other choice, then I think you live in the wrong place. ever heard of hunting, fishing, foraging ?
if its a 1 month problem, no big deal – come to my house with an open hand, take more than I give, well you wont be leaving.
in a city, your screwed ! in a rural area, you should have friends and resources !
STAFF you messed up. Trust ALL OF US, you did not frame it correctly. The article, and the big staff post ( not the little staff posts) ” we have to acknowledge that most people” are flowing in opposite directions. Back Tracking !
The important part, most comments are in the right direction.
STEAL from a family, never right. STEAL from abandoned factory, owned by stock holders that can NEVER collect the stock value, due to collapse, That is scavenging, and not seen as stealing ( victimless ).
Idea to solve the problem, DONT live in city, DO keep more than 1 pantry cache, Have a REAL escape plan, like a place to GO.
Yeah, hangars are definitely not ok.
“If YOUR supply’s are gone, but you have people to STEAL and LOOT from, AND no other choice, then I think you live in the wrong place. ever heard of hunting, fishing, foraging ?”
You are absolutely correct. That is exactly the big point we should all maybe think about. You cannot really hunt, fish, or forage in a city. Even in some small towns you have limited options.
It is actually great to see that most people in the comments are going in the opposite direction. We love to see that because that is true hope in a society that is not like that in its majority. Let us not forget for a second how most people look at preppers.
Here is another thing we can think about that you actually pointed out. Scavenging is when you go for discarded things, yes. But what if that factory you mentioned was active 3 months ago when SHTF and now is abandoned, people ran, and your life is in danger? Is it looting or scavenging? There are so many lines in the sand. And that is what we want to point out. If you are forced to do something extreme in an extreme situation where options are highly limited, it’s best you do it right. Yes, do NOT steal from a family! Go to the abandoned factory. But that is most likely still looting, not scavenging.
Now at a personal level, thank you for this conversation and all the comments. This is what makes people think. And we want people to think. Always.
God bless.
KRE, each of your points are very valid and the question of would I bend a little farther for the sake of someone near and dear, probably. In regard to where you live, whether or not you learned to hunt, and the amount of a pantry you keep, I tend to think of the phrase” piss poor planning on your part does not make an emergency on my part.”
A better approach for the original article could have been – Dont get yourself into the situation that you have to loot.
And for the Ask a prepper staff, think about this possibility. What if someone stumbled onto this sight and this was the first article they were exposed to. They might read half of it and go away saying ” Wow that guy Claude and the people that listen to him are really out there on the fringes. They talk casually about looting and stealing.”
Its not an image I want to be associated with.
At the end of the day I want to thank you for the effort you put into clarifying your intent.
All very valid points, of course. And the truth is that everyone talks about what to do so you do not get yourself into that situation. We also have hundreds of articles here who teach that. There are most likely tens of thousands on the internet. Not many about very, very tough situations and realities we should take into account. Every single person in the world is capable of doing bad things when the circumstances are of a specific nature. We cannot start from the idea that I would never do some things when we factor in our family and our lives. People did do crazy things in crazy situations, and there are not many things that could impact an individual more than hunger, or hunger of someone they love and care about. What is there to gain if we do not acknowledge the harsh reality of what could really happen in an SHTF situation. Tough questions like “what do you do when your family comes knocking at your door and they did not do anything to prep and only mocked you? do you let them in?” Same here, what do you do when you reach the point you have to look for food somewhere and that somewhere is a gas station people abandoned because of a really serious event?
And about the reading the article only half, there is another truth we have to acknowledge. The person who would only read half of such a thought-attacking article is most likely not ready for something serious and they are among the first who would turn into monsters in a real crisis. And those who do go through this entire mental process of actually thinking about it and putting themselves in such shoes like highlighted are the ones who we most likely want around. Cause if you are forced to do something like loot (not from a family, nobody actually said that, this idea was a supposition because of thinking taking from an abandoned place during SHTF is scavenging when in most cases it is actually looting), you have to be smart about that too. Just as you said you would bend a little further for someone near and dear, the truth is most people would do that, and bend it much more. We do not want them to do that. We do not want them to attack families. And we do not want anyone to die at the same time. Real thinking about a real crisis is hard. It is uncomfortable. And the reality is when you have to grab something for your family from a supermarket, gas station, and so on, things that would technically still be looting, not scavenging since they are till owned by someone else, ideally you would still be safe and not die for getting something for your child. When SHTF hits, 80-85% of Americans will be in metropolitan areas, suburbs, or “urbanized” regions, not in rural counties. There is no casual talk about such realities. It is not pleasant. It is not nice. Just like the world is not. And as I already said in another comment, it is great to see that our audience is on the right side of humanity. And such conversations can only help those who are not there yet. If one person realizes how serious such a situation can be and starts to prep out of those who erad the article, it is a great thing. Those who go only half way will not anyway if that makes sense.
As always, stay safe and thank you for chipping in and joining the conversation on such a tough topic.