In the stress of a crisis situation, you need to be able to rely on your team.
Avoid these types of survivalists at all costs as not only are they unreliable, they could be a major obstacle to your team's cohesion and your survival potential.
The Bragging Prepper
It is great to be prepared by having a stockpile of food, a self-sufficient food system, rainwater harvesting system, and off-grid energy source. It is even great to talk to your neighbors about why this is important. What you do NOT want to do is brag about how much prep work you’ve done.
Even though it is common sense that you should shut up about your disaster stockpiles, a lot of preppers can’t help themselves. They feel the urge to brag about all their prep work. And guess whose door the unprepared neighbors are going to come knocking on when SHTF? That’s why you need to avoid bragging preppers!
The Gun Enthusiast Prepper
Gun rights is a really popular topic in the prepper and survival communities. I don’t want to get into the politics of it here. But I do want to warn you to avoid gun enthusiast preppers. These are the types of preppers who are so fixated on their guns that they fail to fully plan or prepare for disasters. They think that guns will be the answer to all of their problems.
Yes, guns are definitely a good survival weapon and can help you in a lot of ways. But a gun isn’t going to help you make a shelter, find clean water, cure a bacterial infection, and so forth. Stay away from the gun enthusiast types of preppers. In a SHTF situation, they’ll probably be the ones doing stupid stuff like shooting at everyone, wounding your family, and giving away your location.
The Commander Prepper
There is a big difference between a leader and a commander. As this website says, commanding relies on getting people to do things the “commander” wants through the use of power, coercion and fear of punishment. By contrast, leaders inspire performance and desirable actions by gaining the group’s trust and respect, and by having common goals.
Even if the commander does know survival skills and has a good disaster plan, he isn’t going to be able to get his team to respond. Everyone hates being bossed around. The group dynamic will quickly suffer and everyone’s survival will be put at risk.
The Fortune Teller
Here is the final type of prepper you should absolutely avoid. Fortune teller preppers are the ones who think they know exactly what will happen when SHTF.
They are the ones who say matter-of-factly, “When EMP strikes, the entire grid will go down. Within 3 days, half the population will be rioting in the streets and looting. Within 1 month, people will have reorganized into groups…”
Yes, we CAN predict some things about the aftermath of a disaster fairly accurately – like that supermarkets will run out of food and that looting will occur. We know this from past experience with disasters like blizzards, earthquakes, and hurricanes. However, NO ONE can predict exactly what will happen in a major SHTF scenario.
It is great to listen to theories about what will happen during a SHTF disaster scenario. But avoid fortune teller preppers. They will be so stuck on their idea of what will happen that they won’t be able to help you make well-rounded preparations.
A dirty, little secret is that as a rule, these types of survivalists should also be avoided in non-survival settings if at all possible.
The guy who is always bragging about his preparation or guns, for example, is generally asking for trouble in other areas of his life
That is not always the case, sometimes people rise to the occasion, but as a rule, how you are in real life is a glimpse as to how you will act under stress.
To learn other types of survivalists you should avoid if you can, check out Primal Survival.
1 they say shtf every time they post on Facebook
2 the ones who offer to help you so they know where your stash is so they can take it from you later
3 ones that think they can live on twinkies
4 the one that is looking forward to being a cannibal
Life is much simpler if you just avoid humans period…
The “prepper” with guns that you think he doesn’t need is not the problem. In a true “war” situation, no zombie invaders, when your group comes together you will need a means to arm them for protection of themselves and the group. You won’t be able to shoot the enemy with an arrow and steal his weapon. You will need a supply of your own. Don’t confuse a “Tackleberry” prepper with one that thinking of an entire group situation. Don/t confuse “bragging” with “explaining”. Some of us want our friends and family to be prepared for anything from a power outage to full blown war. With everyone in your family group being prepared for emergencies you all will have a place to go if your area is hit. Just be careful who you dismiss from a stereo type. Prepping relies on as many resources as you can find.
These are primarily generalizations referring to common sense situations most survivalist are already cognizant of.
I have to take issue W/ the reference to
“Gun Enthusiast”.
Sounds much like something you might read in the New York Times.