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Prepping/survivalism is not really new thing, it goes for very long time, under the different names maybe, in some regions and times in history it was actually considered as a normal and everyday life. It was there a long time before we started to use those words in today’s meaning.
A lot of people started to be preppers after bad situations they went through, without thinking of it as a movement.
I started to do all prepping activities after I experienced war, a lack of resources, and a system. I considered it common sense, nothing particular as a movement until I stumbled on it.
Prepping as a movement that we know it today has been around for some time, too, and being a prepper is not a new thing. It is just easier to find it because the world has become kind of smaller with all social networks and other communities on the internet.
Inside that movement, I believe every prepper in his times strongly believed a huge event , or SHTF is coming very soon, in his or hers lifetime, events like the 3rd world war or nuclear war with all the horrors that will bring.
It might be because we tend to have smaller or bigger events happening more and more, everything from local political turmoil to wars somewhere. And especially today, those events are closer to us, and we can see them faster, closer, and in more detail because of modern technology.
Whatever bad happens, and whenever it happens, the media brings it to us fast, close, and in detail.
So, is it just the feeling that times are getting worse, or are they worse for real everywhere?
History of ups and downs
Wars happen and have happened before. Also threats of nuclear war happened before, local wars, and horrible economic situations happened before too…so is it same now or we are in much worse times now?
I believe the history of humankind works with its own ups and downs, so we have that curve go up and down.
“Ups” on that curve are dangerous times or times where there is a huge chance for some worldwide event, a very bad worldwide event like a war that might include more nations and bring huge destruction and impact the whole world on some level. “Downs” are times when everything seems calm.
These ups and downs might work similar on your own local level or national level.
So, looks like normal human history with up on the curve that will go down.
The thing is that my impression of ups and downs on the curve is:
- Ups and downs are happening both(locally and on world level)
- Both ups and downs are higher on the curve
- Ups last longer and downs are kind of disappearing
Both things are visible if you step back – or take actually a couple of steps back and look from a kind of distance. In other words unplug for a moment from bombardment of the media and look into the state of your region and state of the world.
You might find out that we tend to take our ups as normal, like the normal function of the world.
Boiling frogs
My favorite story about frogs that will jump if you put them in warm water, but if you put them in cold water, the frog will get cooked— boiled if you gradually heat the water—is here as a good example.
We are all sitting in almost boiling water, but a lot of us are not noticing it.
We are, or most of us are, in a spiral of deteriorating situations in our own regional settings and in worldwide settings, where events are happening faster and faster.
Maybe somebody somehow wants us to think that having more wars worldwide (with the possibility of one melting to nuclear) and worsening situations at home (political, economic, highly polarized, among other reasons) is how the world works today, and all this “happened before” and all this “came down.”
Maybe nobody wants anything, maybe it is simply way that world works today.
One thing is sure: we are already in the heated situation, and we need just one of those events to push us over the cliff to full SHTF.
One of the scenarios how SHTF will happen (and it is one of the very probable scenarios) is we all wake up one day in SHTF and ask ourselves how this happened, at the same time not realizing bad events happened years ago while accepting the being locked down, accepting being labeled in name of freedoms, accepting that horrible wars happen…accepting the fact that it is our normal life is way too much controlled, shushed, pushed and told what is right or wrong or inventing new names for things.
Most of us are frogs in almost boiling water. Some of us are preppers who are paying attention to what is going on, so hopefully, we will jump out of the bowl.
Regional vs. worldwide
Most people usually look for “important events“ in Ukraine, the Middle East, or wherever else far from home, and it is normal to follow news from around the world and react to it. Preppers look and follow news from the world (Ukraine, Middle East, or wherever) and make educated guesses about how those events might impact them LOCALLY.
Now, I am not talking about nuclear war only. It is about how those events might impact the situation at home in economic things like expensive fuel or other things, or more political polarization over support or similar.
So, it is not only about immediate possibility of SHTF, it is about deteriorating of already existing problems at home because world problems.
The impact can be fast and slow. Both need to be recognized.
What about you?
Do you think things are really getting worse? Or do you think it’s just easier to hear about it now with technology? Do you think bad times are coming?
Share your thoughts in the comments section.
About Selco:
Selco survived the Balkan war of the 90s in a city under siege, without electricity, running water, or food distribution.
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Eva Vlaardingerbroek Delivers Historic Speech “The Great Replacement Reality” at CPAC Hungary
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/beautiful-eva-vlaardingerbroek-delivers-historic-speech-great-replacement/
This is a real, worldwide, global replacement program written by the UN in 2000. There is no place to hide. Good vs Evil is coming to a head.
27 year old childless woman warning of whites being replaced. Yep.
Thank You WindDancer for the link to the Eva Vlaardingerbroek article.
The majority of illegals are collecting some kind of government welfare. The majority of criminals in prisons are illegals or the descendants of illegals.
While Biden and his fellow democrats like New York Gov. Kathy Hochul say America is a nation of immigrants and was built by immigrants they leave out the fact that the immigrants that came here before the 1900s came here for the opportunity to build with their own hands a better future, not to get free housing and free food from the government. They were the ones that really built this nation. The millions of illegals Biden is bringing across the border to get free housing and free food from the government are destroying the nation and will bankrupt it not make it better.
A nation without a border is not a nation. Rising crime, civil disorder, an overwhelmed welfare system, destruction of the culture of the country, these are the goals of the globalists.
Yes Selco “We Are Frogs and the Water Is Almost Boiling”. And once the water is boiling the people will be directed like rats in a maze to a predetermined globalist solution which is a fascist state with full censorship. A fascist state is needed to save democracy will be a likely theme. Anyone stupid enough to think a biological man can be a woman and should be allowed to compete in sports against real biological women is also stupid enough to think a fascist state can be a democratic state. The msm brainwashing machine sure knows how to destroy any kind of critical thinking of the masses.
So if the msm/democrats now want us to call illegal immigrants newcomers, then if criminals break into your house and steal your stuff will we be required to call them uninvited house guests. I think we are long past Orwell’s 1984.
See
NYC begins handing out migrants taxpayer-funded, pre-paid debit cards at Roosevelt Hotel shelter, with 450 people set to begin receiving up to ‘$18,200-a-year’ payout by the end of this week
Migrant families will receive a pre-paid card with a week’s worth of funds of up to $350 for a family of four
By Bethany Saxton For Dailymail.Com Published: 15:03 EDT, 26 March 2024 | Updated: 17:50 EDT, 26 March 2024
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13240229/nyc-migrants-taxpayer-debit-cards-roosevelt-hotel-shelter.html
See
NY Gov. Kathy Hochul’s migrant U-turn: Video reveals how Democrat welcomed asylum seekers ‘with open arms’ in 2021 – but TODAY she tells them: ‘Go somewhere else’
By The Immigrant’s Journal on September 21, 2023
https://www.theimmigrantsjournal.com/ny-gov-kathy-hochuls-migrant-u-turn-video-reveals-how-democrat-welcomed-asylum-seekers-with-open-arms-in-2021-but-today-she-tells-them-go-somewhere-else/
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s statements about the illegal immigrants in December 2021.
‘You’re welcome with open arms and we’ll work to keep you safe… We’ll not only house you, but we’ll protect you.’
From the Eva Vlaardingerbroek article:
“This week in Stockholm, three Three elderly women in their 70s were stabbed in broad daylight on the streets. In London, four people were stabbed in a time span of just 42 hours. In Paris, hundreds of Afghan migrants took to the street to riot. And – also in France, yet another church was burned down to the ground. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is just a few incidents in just a couple of days on our beautiful continent. But we all know that these incidents aren’t incidents anymore. If there’s one thing that’s for sure is that we know, and our governments also know, that there is a link between mass migration and crime.”
Scroll down the webpage for the video at the bottom. Some very intelligent remarks made in the comments too. And some very dumb ones as well.
I’ve been thinking about this same topic. In some ways things seem horrible and urgent because of the availability of info via the internet. You can easily have a diet of nothing but gloom, doom and disaster on a daily basis. I have seen an element in alternative news and preparedness folks who spin the info to appear as scary as possible in order to get more views, meaning more money which ups the sense of panic unless you know how to filter.
I’ve tried to look at events with history in mind. What did prior crisis events look/feel like to the average person as it happened? People thought WW1 was ushering in the end of the world yet here we are. The historical view does take some of the fear and puts it into perspective of this has all been done before.
In other ways because of the globalization of everything when a local bad event happens in a far off country it effects our lives for the worse. We have been tied together whether we like it or not. So this makes it feel unprecedented and worse.
I got sucked into the big bad event mindset for a while but it was unsustainable. I simply don’t have the finances(or mental energy)to continuously prep for such things. The less glamorous events are the most likely anyway and I have been working towards creating a lifestyle that will be better equipped to deal with a massive economic collapse and more icky government.
So short answer- There is nothing new under the sun but things are not going to just magically reset to “normal” any time soon. It is the human condition.
The other side of this coin is the “Yeah, yeah, I’ve seen this before. The sky isn’t falling.” attitude many take these days. These people do NOTHING to prepare for the possibility that the sky WILL fall, or that they’ll even see hail, and are caught flatfooted when things go south.
My prepping started with one question; “What happens if the lights go out?” I started prepping for the power being out for a day, then a week, and then a month. Then my attention turned to asking WHY the power went out, and started prepping for those possibilities.
Prepping is a WAY OF LIFE. It’s NOT a “fire extinguisher” you pull off the wall when needed. The “crisis” could be WW3. It could also be my wife saying “I forgot to get (X) for the meal I’m making.” It could be, and has been “Go home and self-isolate. Good luck buying food for the next several months!” That’s how it works.
For the record, I’m not a “doomsday” guy. I’m not waiting for “the balloon to go up.” That being said, I’m sure that WW1 WAS miserable for those involved, and started with the assassination of an archduke no one but the locals knew. That’s more often what the “black swan” looks like… You JUST.NEVER.KNOW…
When thinking about history and awful events I think of Hitler, Pol Pot, Chairman Mao, Joseph Stalin, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Kim Jong-Il, Idi Amin Dada, Ho Chi Minh and Suddam Hussein! What makes Americans think we will not have an evil dictator help the new world order genocide Americans. Our politicians just like many other countries politicians are evil.
The general direction regarding censorship, WEF, UN and WHO indicate that powerful organizations appear pressed to institute and finalize their policies. It certainly seems that these institutions are anticipating a coming black swan event. They have back tested the level of control the population will endure. Now another emergency will enable them to institutionalize their effort toward total control. The final puzzle piece will likely be the deployment of national CBDC’s.
Ups and downs – yes. Frog in boiling water – yes. Dominoes beginning to fall. All good analogy’s and observations.
What I notice is that throughout history the ups and downs tend to peak at different times. We have an economic crisis, and as it is ending we wind up in a war. Or the war pulls us out of the economic crisis. We have a major drought, but as there are no wars at the time, many countries can come together to provide aid and support. There is always a major event in one of our spheres that affect us, but generally only in the one sphere.
At present we seem to be in a time where many of our spheres are hitting a high point at the same time. We have a financial crisis caused by mismanagement over the last decades. We seem to be involved in at least two wars, if not pushing for three at the same time, while deluding ourselves that because we don’t have troops on the ground that we are not directly involved. We have not only drought conditions affecting our food supply, but wars and unrest in areas that supply a large amount of the world’s food supply. Etc. Etc. Etc.
There is virtually no area that you can look at that we are not in crisis. Many of the crisis in one area, exacerbating crisis in other areas – thanks globalization! We are simply living in a time where all of the “Ups” have come together at one time. Will we be able to survive as a society? As a civilization? Only time will tell. Stock up on you tinfoil! LOL
In addition we have been meddling in many other countries making millions of enemies that hate America and Americans. They should be angry at the world leaders but that is not how things work, they attack the citizens.
Our economy is going to crash. It’s not an opinion it’s a mathematical certainty.
Very true Akdave.
The problem for the globalists is who will be blamed for the crash that they are the cause of. They control the media and the democrat party. So who do you think they picked to be the fall guy. Will it be Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters or Russia or China? One thing is for sure they don’t want Donald Trump to be president because he can’t be bought or controlled by them They seem to be desperate to prevent him from being elected.
I think before the October Democratic National Convention happens Joe Biden will be replaced by Gavin Newsom. If Joe Biden doesn’t want to go along with his puppet masters plan then will Biden have a sudden unexpected/orchestrated health issue?
Do you think things are really getting worse? Yes, and the decline of Western Civilization is more rapid than the decline of the Roman Empire. Please ensure that you are also “spiritually” prepped to endure the hard times ahead. – Godspeed
Amen brother.
Does anyone here live in a blue state? What are people saying there? I live in a red state and always wonder what the rest of the country is thinking. Are they waking up at all?
Here’s a voting results map by counties of the USA
https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2020_Election_Results_Map_by_County.png
There’s no such thing as red or blue states. That “red/blue” garbage is a media perpetuated psy-op meant to fracture and distract us as a nation and marginalize the opposing team one doesn’t align with.
There are only tyrannically leftist dominated strongholds (city prisons) and the rest of America. The “team elephant/donkey” paradigm is an illusion used to make us all feel like we might a say so in how this circus is ran. The reality is that team elephant/donkey is one team. And their team hates you, regardless of any color you politically identify with or hue of one’s pigmentation.
I think you know what I mean. I grew up in New England and live in the Deep South. Like 2 different countries and I’m asking what people on the streets are saying, if anything.
I live in a Midwest blue state. However it is only blue because of the big cities. The rest of the population definitely leans red.
I noticed in my rural town that every time food price increase warnings or looming shortages of certain items show up on the prepping channels on YouTube those items are quickly out of stock. People are listening and reacting accordingly. More people are gardening, getting chickens and planting fruit trees.
That’s good to know. The more people doing this the better.
I see a lot more homesteads being created. I live in a rural area but drive to towns & larger cities often & there are more & more houses being built on otherwise farm land. Not sure if it’s the farmer’s kids building on it or they sold it to another. I think it’s great.
I do see alot of chicken coops going up too.
I appreciate Jim’s comment about “leftist dominated strongholds (city prisons)”, which is pretty much how I feel about any subdivision with only one or two points of egress! I don’t want to live where someone can barricade a street and lock me in! DH doesn’t see it that way, but I want to be off the grid as far as possible, with many points of egress. I live in Michigan, where they have put children on the trans chopping block, and want to kill babies up to the moment of birth, with no parental consent. This makes it really easy for sex traffickers to come here to abort their little girl slaves so they can get back to work. Disgusting! Anyway, there are still lots of conservatives here who are quietly digging in and preparing to survive…
We need to fight back, at school board elections, county prosecutor elections, all the way to President of USA, not just survive. I want my country back!
Yes: the threat against all humankind is serious and one has a choice: join the many who are fighting it, or join the many who are not. I choose the former, and also prep because even if we win, we will probably face some difficult times. There is comfort in self-reliance.
Living in insanity makon-g torid inteon resIt’sg.I’veve been a prepIn myr my liffor e., Having some hard times reinforced that mindset. My grandmother and my parents all lived so we ate from harvest to harvest. That is still my mindset. A partner in prepping is always an advantage. My parents gardened and canned together. They gleaned fruit orchards for canning and selling cheap to retired friends so they could also have fruit to can or dry. My church group wants to learn to pressure can. I’ll work with some and see if a county extension person will come to do a presentation for young women wanting to learn. Gardens are a growing interest among all ages here. I’ve put in a small orchard here and I’m enlarging the garden and planning some plantings to will make life here less visible to a single area road. right now a parked truck is all that is seen. I want that to disappear.
The desire to not be in plain view goes back to a hard year having to disappear to stay alive. Some of those things stay with you throughout the rest of your life. I always loved camping but that was beyond a simple camping trip. It was unprepared survival. I prayed a lot about how to and what to do. I learned a lot in that 10 months. I grew a lot too. I still love food cooked over a wood fire outside. But I’m working on ways to prepare food with less advertising to anyone nearby. And I’m looking for a way to use the well here without on grid power. It’s about 250 feet deep. In my last property, the wells were 65 feet deep with water standing at 38 feet below the surface. I had one set up with a manual winch. That won’t work here. I’ve lived with and without electricity and my last home was DYI solar powered.
Living prepared to live as if you’re on an island with no one else around you is more my style at home. It takes a lot of learning and thought. But I love it.
Sounds like you have a story to write about your unplanned survival episode. That might make a good one for this blog!
The first line of my comment came up like fruit salad all mixed up. “Living in insanity makes life interesting. I’ve been prepping most of my life.”
Thanks for the clarification. I thought it was some kind of prepper code that I didn’t know. lol
If what I’ve been hearing for years is true, then ‘You ain’t seen nothin’ yet’. I’ve heard for years that the CCP is calling for “Lebensraum”. Anyone who follows history will recognize that term. And Taiwan ain’t it.
The land in question has very fertile fields in a western valley, then in the middle vast plains with wheat, corn and soybeans. After genociding the present population in those areas, they plan to transplant hundreds of millions of Chinese to that land.
I learned as the Japanese spy agency publicized that the CCP intends to open their taking of “Lebensraum” with a “nuclear Pearl Harbor” (that is the term that the Japanese used). These are plans that were originally drawn up decades ago, according to defectors from the Soviet Union, but whereas “Red Dawn” was originally Russian troops, it has been updated so that the Chinese get the lower 48 while Russia takes back Alaska. The big question that remains is “When?” They are bringing in tens of thousands of their troops every month, they could very well be ready by this summer.
My preps are more for living after the war than the few months of fighting. After a few iterations, I developed a design for a twig stove made out of common sized tin cans. I’ve cooked meals over only a few pieces of wood and almost no smoke. But my long range preps are for more than a few months, preps of wood working and metal working tools, as well as sewing, and knowledge on how to use them, to trade for the food I’m not good at growing. In other words, I’ll do much as Jessica’s dad from 1stMarineJarHead’s story.
The water is getting warmer, and some of us frogs seem to recognize that it is getting quite hot. But things seem to be so quiet except in far off Asia and Ukraine, it hardly seems that we are looking at the boiling of World War III. Will we be ready? They hope we won’t.
Yes things are heating. There are many bad actors in the U.S. stirring up trouble and trying to destabilize our communities. Our government is full of self seeking individuals who do not have the best interest of the citizens at heart. We need to look out for ourselves, our family and our community. If we are prepared for SHTF we will be able to help others
“May you live in interesting times.”
A blessing?
Or a curse?
Regardless, there are things going on right now not only in the US, but globally, I never thought I would ever see happen.
The US is fighting a proxy war with Russia that could become a real fighting war or even WWIII. Read yesterday Zelensky announced on Ukraine TV he was finalizing a deal with the Biden admin for 10-years of cooperation and support. Another forever war?
The Israel-Hamas war could spill over into an outright Mid-East war. Not better.
Relations with China seem to be on the kaput.
Here in the US, we have a unsecure southern border. I just read some guy with ISIS affiliation illegally crossed the border in 2022. Isnt that reassuring.
Depending on which stats you look at, crime is either falling or going up. It has been noted a number of cities that defunded their police, have now refunded their police.
Antisemitism is up some 300%. The current violent protests going on, on some college campuses is not good. Some of those protesters are promising more to come. What does that look like?
A recent poll found some 4 in 10 expected some kind of civil war in the next 5 years. A few years ago, I would of said that was crazy talk. Now, I can see it. Not better.
Prep as much as you can, to the extent you can.