"Doomsday Preppers": More Harm Than Good?

            I’ve been watching the Nat Geo channel’s “Doomsday Preppers” since it started a few months back. While I enjoy it and consider it a very educational show for my own preparations, I have noticed other Preppers are not exactly ecstatic about it. You see, dedicated Preppers like most of those shown on the program are at the fringe of the movement. They have restructured their entire lives around preparing for an event that may never come. 

While I don’t want to speak for these people, I imagine some of them are actually looking forward to whatever event they are preparing for. And that is sad. Some speak with apparent glee about how well off they will be after the “event” compared to others. That is just not a good attitude. I know that it comes from the fact that right now people look at them a nuts and who wants that tag. The only way to no longer be considered a nut is if they are proven right in their wild preparations.

Most Preppers are regular people. We don’t have bunkers or military vehicles. We don’t have plans to filter our own urine for drinking. We don’t own 5 guns for every person in the house. We are forward thinkers, examining the worst-case scenarios of the future. We want to be prepared, not entrenched. 

So what is an average Prepper like? Look around you. Many people who prepare for emergencies do not call themselves Preppers quite possibly because of the growing negative connotations. I know that Nat Geo is working on their second season. They are looking for even more outlandish people to showcase. My hope is that they focus more on the average Prepper than the fringe. But it’s probably not good TV.

By the way, a good Prepper never shows their cards. Some of these people have tens of thousands of dollars worth of supplies and they are showing the world. Sure, they try and keep their names or locations secret, but someone knows them and knows where they are. If the events they worry about were ever to occur, the locals will be all over them.

Don’t let the bad press get you down.