The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

I have somehow gotten it into my ad algorithms that I am an ultra-right doomsday prepper.  I get a lot of ads for patriotic-based, off-grid survival stuff, like portable solar generators and dehydrated food tubs.

And while this isn't my thing at all, I do actually kind of respect it.  Unfortunately, I think it takes advantage of the conspiracy riddled mind, but the concept of being prepared in the face of certain disasters definitely appeals to me.  I'm the kind of person that will have a hurricane box, for example, with basic supplies.  But for me, it's all about risk assessment.  I'm likely to have a hurricane.  I'm unlikely to have to live underground because of societal collapse.


All that said, I do think that the concept of a lot of these things is interesting.  And sadly, I imagine the kind of people that do this are perpetually unfulfilled, because you can never really be ready for the end of civilization, so I imagine it's always nagging at you that you aren't doing enough, if you're truly convinced that the fall of man is immanent.

Off grid living and self-sustaining systems line up with other interests I have so it's all tangentially related.  Do you guys have any thoughts or interests in this?

My feelings are that you would only be delaying the inevitable. You could perhaps outlive most or perhaps even all people after the fall of civilization (depending upon what that looks like) but you will still inevitibly succumb which is why the idea of life after death is so appealing to many. It gives them hope or perhaps peace of mind. Not really all that different from you trying to be prepared for a hurricane in my humble opinion.

I agree, prepping for a hurricane make sense.  Prepping for siege does not.  The problem with many of the ultra-preppers isn't that they aren't just preparing for the worst case, they want it.

I think something like Katrina's aftermath is probably the worst-case "realistic" scenario.  There were people stranded in (on) their homes for days, but those were the people who didn't follow the evacuation orders.  So even if you had a huge bunker in your backyard with months of food... well, that stuff is all underwater now, or you had to leave most of it behind when you evacuated.

In California, the two most realistic catastrophes are earthquake and fire.  Earthquake is uncommon, but more importantly, you don't get warning for an earthquake and you have no idea what will be left standing.  It seems to me like the most practical prep for an earthquake would be something like a tent that you can quickly erect, rather than a fixed bunker.  As far as fire goes, if I get a fire evacuation order, I will simply drive to some area of CA that isn't on fire, where they will still have food for sale... and I'll be leaving most everything behind in my house.  So the only prep I really need (other than a bug-out bag) is money.

In any sort of nuclear war scenario, the people who die in the first strike will be the lucky ones.

Prepping to some degree makes sense to me. Many people can live off the grid perfectly fine but many others are lost if they lose phone and internet from something as simple as EMPs. There are books out there which will help you live off the grid but hunting, fishing, and farming skills would be helpful in many situations. Some sort of stock of food would also be helpful to get you up and running. 

I'm not really a pepper. I use sandbags to help with water on my back porch, I  get water,  I get some food supplies but not even a week worth usually. It's been a successful practice for almost 30 years in Florida. Doomsday prepping makes me chuckle a bit. Has anyone ever met a person that does it?

Yep. I know people who have hand pump wells on their property as well as keep gardens for such a time. Many people have go bags already packed and many, if not most of the people I am close with, have enough ammunition and weapons to overthrow a small government.

I think people would be surprised to know the list includes doctors, lawyers, as well as a bunch of rednecks but it is more common than you likely think. I look at it this way, after a natural disaster it is typically those same people who are first to jump in and help as they have to the tools to perform in horrible conditions. Most often they are the actual first responders to help people. 

After the tornadoes of 98 here in Central Florida we had to escort deputies and others into remote areas to look for bodies because we had swamp equipment and they didn't. I know much of that has changed as police need to be able to suppress a military but the people helping have not.

That is the thing with a lot of the "preppers", their number one focus is "self-defense"  But if you have more ammo than food stored, you aren't preparing for self-sufficiency you are preparing to become a looter.   

Given the increasing prevalence of people arming themselves to go instigate confrontations, in a real disaster situation, the people with more ammo than food are likely going to be "defending themselves" from unarmed people who refuse to hand over their food stores to the armed thug shouting at them (what would be called "armed robbery" when not being done by a God-fearing patriot).

Lol ... you liberals are so short sighted it isn't even funny. We will leave the looting to you the professionals. I have horses, donkeys, a bunch of chickens but I also routinely have deer and bear in my yard or neighborhood. In fact, I can confirm the sandhill crane tastes like a steak and I've also eaten bunny, squirrel, quail, dove, armadillo, raccoon, possum. and gopher turtle. Never eaten bobcat but I've seen a bunch of them too. I live on the edge of the The Ocala National Forest and say all of this because we would run out of ammo way before we run out of options to survive.

I don't really think that hunting with guns is a legitimate survival strategy, long term.  I just don't think we have the animal populations to sustain it.  A bunch of people would need to die off first, which would probably happen.

I think you YOU could survive, but not the collective WE.

I think that ocean fishing would probably be a good method.  The ocean is really big.

The entire "live off the land" strategy is not viable for anyone who lives in a city/town with more than 10,000 people.  There's no way the area you live in would be able to sustain that many people foraging off the land (or nearby sea): thousands would need to relocate.

Over time, we could build towards a society that would support far more local foraging, with thousands of families having their own gardens etc.  But an overnight catastrophe that sends thousands upon thousands to the forests, swamps, rivers and coastline to forage for food?  Even the people with hunting skills would be screwed by all the clueless people scaring off deer, ruining traps, etc.

We have far far far too many people in concentrated locations to live in a hunter-gatherer society.

If I lived in a big city I would at least try and get prepared to have to take care of my family. I would learn to shoot a bow, how to fish, how to make a fire etc. Having a few weeks of food to get going also wouldn't be a bad idea. Learning to cook those big snakes in the everglades might be helpful as well. hahha

For our area, fishing seems to be the only viable source of meat.

It's basically unlimited.  I don't think you can overfish with fishing poles, especially since there won't be deep sea boats netting thousands of fish. 

Imagine a beach or river with thousands of people fishing at the same time.  Even if you know what you're doing, you won't catch much.  If you don't have a boat that lets you fish farther out in the ocean, you're screwed.

I don't buy that. It doesn't take much of a boat to get into the ocean. I see people on kayaks all the time pretty far off shore. Heck, in many places like the Keys it isn't very far until you're in very deep water.

There are simple boats, piers, you can fish from the shore -- I'm also assuming that people will either be dead from whatever happened or will be fighting for resources and territory, so there won't be thousands of people.

My prepping isn't based fishing or hunting.  

In the last 50 years: The worst I have ever been stuck in my house because of snowstorm is 4 days (but we didn't lose power)
Worst power outage we had was 5 days.  Longest we have gone with a dry tap is 36 hours.  Longest we have gone with a boil order on the water is 3 days.  The longest I have been unable to order toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and paper towels was four months (during covid)

Therefore:  I am prepared to go 21 days without being able to leave my house for food, water and power.   I  have a 12-18 month supply of toilet paper, hand sanitizer, paper towel, masks, garbage bags and various other items that have a near infinite self life.    

That makes me prepared for a disaster considerable worse then anything my area has seen, I am not preparing like it is Oct 6, 2023 and I live in Rafah.  

Like a fishing rod and a bucket of fish. 

To take a random example, let us take the city of Sanford, FL.

Sanford's population in 2020 was 61,508.  How many of these 60K+ people do you expect to be dead?

"Fighting for resources and territory" is precisely what I'm talking about when I say that no one will be successful if there are tens of thousands of people trying to fish and hunt the same local area: there will definitely be skirmishes as the well-armed people decide that you're messing up my fishing and you need to go somewhere else.

If there was no more electricity or food supply?  I don't know....50,000?  I mean....pretty much everyone eventually.  We are all weeks away from starvation and will be relying on canned food.  It would be widespread death very, very fast and I bet some armed people would be taking over the Costco and hoarding years worth of canned goods.  But outside of that, Mom and Pop would be dying within months from famine, disease, dehydration and human conflict.

In the long run, everyone dies.

I mean immediately after this event, in the first few days, how many of those 60K do you expect to be alive and looking for food?  If you have tens of thousands trying to fish, or roam through the wilderness hunting, there will be far too many people to make the activity productive.

Just curious why you chose my hometown as an example? Much of Sanford lies outside the city limits and is kind of rural. Sanford lies on the St Johns River so many miles of land to fish from. Besides, they say manatees taste like beef.  Sanford has Lake Jesup which has the most alligators per square mile of shoreline than almost any other lake. It takes 6-8 weeks to grow a chicken big enough to eat. Eggs are produced daily. Cows and goats are in abundance so milk and beef are plentiful too.

Obviously not everyone will survive very long but many people., especially the rednecks of Sanford, will do fairly well on their own.

Not many, in terms of hunting and fishing.  I expect the first waves to come from theft and looting.  I don't think we will hit the fishing stages for months.  People will be on canned goods and raiding the Costco.

Unless you are more than 25 miles down a dirt road you are not rural enough to be left alone.  In post WW2 Europe any area/farm that was within 20 miles of an Intercity road or 50 miles of a city was looted by hungry refugees.  There is literally no place this side of the Mississippi for a safe homestead post a total breakdown of society.  That is why total breakdown is not something I am prepared for

I get that it's all hypothetical but 40 clear acres gives plenty of sight line for different family members to keep watch and dozens of rifles to defend. Sure they could get overrun with enough people and equipment but that's a risk we all take every single day. While declining, millions of home invasions occur annually.

I actually have a few of the items you see on lists like this.   The reason being, these "doomsdays" you speak of could actually happen, and not just for political reasons.   It could be an attack from a foreign country with an EMP bomb, a radioactive pulse from a nearby star, or any other number of ways that the grid gets disabled leaving us in a powerless environment.

I currently have two solar powered generators with EMP protection sheaths and a 1968 Ford F-100 in my garage.  I also have a shelf full of MRE's, dried beef and Ramen Noodle packets.  I also have two rifles and a pistol and several boxes of ammo for all three guns.


He's just trying to start shit like he always does.   I know Sanford really well and with its rich farming and fishing history, a lot of its residents would last much longer than Orlando to the south.   

Not millions less than a million with the majority of them being because the burglar knew the house contained guns or illegal drugs.  Best way to avoid a burglary is to not own drugs or guns

According to Mr. Google's AI ... In the US, there are approximately 1.65 million home invasions annually. These incidents account for a significant portion of the 2.5 million burglaries that occur each year, according to Simply Insurance. Many of these break-ins happen during the day, with a reported rate of one every 30 seconds.

If we are in an Armageddon situation and you have anything, then it would be considered more valuable than drugs and  guns would be even more valuable. 

Because you appear to be representing in this thread that you live in some remote rural backwater when the US Census says you live in a town of over 60,000.

Silly me for relying on the FBI stastics rather than Chatgtp scrapping a company that makes money selling home ins.

Hahahaha ....  I am from Sanford (50 Years worth) as is my wife. We now live on property in Northeast Lake County which is about 30 minutes west of Sanford. I live in the county but the 2 closest cities are Eustis and Mt Dora. It backs up to Sumter (The Villages), Marion County (Ocala/Marion County boasts the highest concentration of horses and ponies in the United States.) and the Ocala National Forest. In fact, we have a bombing range not too far away in the forest that the Navy flies out of Jax to bomb. It rocks our houses when they do. Gun shots are quite the norm around here as many people have a range on their property.  And get this ... many of the businesses downtown have Trump signs in their windows or on their marquee without fear of retribution. We recently celebrated the 124th anniversary of Georgefest ... a week long family event with carnival rides and games, a bass tournament, Running of the Georges Race, a dog jog, parade, contests, vendors, and awesome live entertainment ...  all in honor of George Washington.  It's quite a conservative area.

Eh ... I don't put that much thought into these goofy debates. I Google and then run with AI answer. If it is something important I will try and verify.

You should trust AI results less than you would trust Wikipedia:

(http://viperbeam.com/forum/how_many_rocks.jpg)

note: Google AI no longer shows this result, as they manually went in and cleaned it up after the internet made a lot of jokes about this result (and others like "To keep cheese from sliding off your pizza, use non-toxic glue").  As recently as a month ago, I searched for "head coaches with multiple Super Bowl championships" and Google AI informed me that Andy Reid has 3 Super Bowl rings, one of which he won with the Eagles (they have since cleaned up that result, too).