Doomsday Preppers Week 2: How To Destroy Your Internet Marriage Without Even Trying
Last week’s premiere of National Geographic’s Doomsday Preppers was every bit the train wreck we’ve come to expect from the series, which features eccentric disaster-preparedness fanatics spending tens of thousands of dollars (or more) to prepare for a variety of disaster scenarios.
Tennessee-based prepper Big Al was afraid of a Soviet nuclear attack, and somehow thought that Valdimir Putin would give him enough time to drive halfway across a continent to his questionably safe wood-heated underground bunker. Future serial killer Jason Beacham coldly planned to leave his mom behind and pal around with knuckleheads his own age that might one day make a good meal. The Southwick family was the only family on last week’s episode that seemed to have a chance of lasting more than a few days, though the smallpox outbreak scenario the family patriarch was preparing against was farfetched at best.
The second episode, “Bad Times All the Times,” is a bit less insane than last week’s show, and actually offered up two prepper families that have a shot at surviving… along with a third that may end up split by the self-deportation to Colombia of the most rational person the show has seen since it’s been on the air.
Jay Blevins is worried about the breakdown of social order following an economic collapse, which is a recurring theme so far this season, being the scenario cited by three of this season’s six preppers so far. It seems clear that President Obama’s economic policies are having the same effect on the disaster prep industry as it has on the gun industry.
The Blevins family lives in Berryville, VA, roughly 60 miles west of Washington, D.C. A former law enforcement officer, Jay believes in the “sheltering in place” model of prepping, versus the “bug-out” model that all of last week’s preppers chose. He has decided to fortify his stately suburban cul-de-sac home instead of fleeing for the hills. His use of pre-cut 3/4″ plywood sheets to prevent entry through first-floor windows is fairly solid conceptually, and would probably work against the random mob violence and looting he’s prepping against.
After mentioning his “circle of force,” Jay whips up a batch of home-brewed pepper spray that he makes out of lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and hot sauce and, better yet, convinces two men in his prepper group to be shot with it. They go down in pain and misery (to our amusement), but it’s obvious that the home brew doesn’t work as good as the commercial-grade product.
Jay has also developed a quick reaction force out of his local prepper network made up of neighbors. There’s no way to know how effective they would be, but a dozen or more armed opponents would probably do a decent job of persuading looters that they’d rather be elsewhere.
After the Blevins family, we meet Brian Murdock. Like Big Al from the premiere, Brian is worried about nuclear war, where he thinks 1/3 of humanity will die. Brian lives on the outskirts of Boston but bought 50 acres of rural land with two shallow ponds and a well in upstate New York… 375 miles, and a seven-hour drive from his home. Like Big Al, he seems to think he’s going to get plenty of warning of a nuclear attack. He plans on bugging-out and living in an RV that doesn’t look particularly nuke-proof.
The one thing Brian thinks he’s missing from his prepper planning is a proper prepper wife, and he can’t seem to find anyone in this country who will consider filling that role. Because of this, we get to meet Tatiana, who met Brian via an online dating site and has made her first trip to Boston from Colombia to be Brian’s bride. Tatiana seems to know that Brian considers himself a prepper, but it was obvious from the moment she hit the door that she had no idea what Brian has planned for them as a couple.
She had no idea he plans to bug-out to a RV in NY, and she thinks he’s crazy. Why did she come here? Folks tweeting the episode summarized their meeting as “mail-order gold-digger meets insensitive idiot,” and I think that’s somewhat unfair to the gold-digger… I mean, Tatiana.
While many (obviously including Brian) think Colombia is a third-world backwater, Tatiana quickly shows herself to be among the most level-headed people to have ever ventured in front of a Doomsday Preppers camera. She makes a point that many religious people might take to heart: God will protect you or take you at his will, so why live your life in fear?
Quite frankly, Tatiana has more sense about what matters than her poorly prepared, slow-witted companion, and it may take an act of God to force her to stay with such an obvious buffoon.
Bryan and Lacey May own a car stereo business in Indiana, and are worried about a super-quake on the New Madrid fault.It’s not the most insane prepper scenario imaginable, though I can’t find any credible scientist that thinks a mid-plate fault like the New Madrid could see a quake rip the country apart, forming a sea between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico as Bryan envisions.
The couple have no savings or extra income, so they… started selling sex toys? Nat Geo made an abrupt and bizarre cut to commercial right after mentioning this gem, and it happened so quickly that you wonder if the segment was an “oops” the network cut away from as a mistake. That sentiment is only reinforced when they come back from commercial and Bryan comes back and starts talking about bartering and how important he thinks it will be to have precious metals (gold and silver) and various trade items on hand after the quake.
To make money to build up their cache of trade goods and supplies, the May family breeds lizards called “bearded dragons” for pets. Then we go back to the adult toys web site. We didn’t imagine it! No, I’m not going to make a cheap joke tying these devices to the 40 car batteries they have in the basement. People, come on.
Bryan also bartered for a shipping container that they plan to bury in the backyard and connect to their basement as an emergency fallback if things get too dicey. They have more than a year’s supply of food on hand in addition to all their trade goods, lizards, and vibrators.
It may sound funny, but laugh at them at your peril. The May family may not look like much, but they display the cunning that got us to the top of the food chain, and their ingenuity and creativity might keep their descendents there long after the rest of us have killed each other battling over the last Twinkie.
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Related at PJ Lifestyle:
Economic collapse, war, quakes are not that far-fetched. As I’ve said before, this series seems to be predicated around ridiculing preppers so fewer people will take even minimal steps to prepare for more common troubles like power outages or big storms. It’s not like Sandy is going to be a one time event.
The sad part is that Tatiana makes more sense than most of the guests they’ve had on that program, but she’s so fatalistic, it’s almost nihlism.
Hey! When it’s time to go, it’s time to go, babe, but I ain’t gonna go ‘gentle into that good night’ w/o a bit of a struggle, first.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
I know you meant to credit Dylan Thomas. Thanks. It’s a great poem.
With the way the CFR government is sending this cuntry into debt, supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, getting millions of Muslims into this country, and millions of illegal aliens on the voter rolls, it doen’t like good to me.
It’s strange, I prep like a Marine Corp Platoon Sgt. who might have to fish for dinner, but for the life of me, all my wine and beer stocks are always almost at zero.
Uploaded on Sep 11, 2011
General Wesley Clark: Because I had been through the Pentagon right after 9/11. About ten days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in. He said, “Sir, you’ve got to come in and talk to me a second.” I said, “Well, you’re too busy.” He said, “No, no.” He says, “We’ve made the decision we’re going to war with Iraq.” This was on or about the 20th of September. I said, “We’re going to war with Iraq? Why?” He said, “I don’t know.” He said, “I guess they don’t know what else to do.” So I said, “Well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda?” He said, “No, no.” He says, “There’s nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq.” He said, “I guess it’s like we don’t know what to do about terrorists, but we’ve got a good military and we can take down governments.” And he said, “I guess if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw&feature=player_embedded
Wesley Clark? He does not know shit, and chances are greater than 90 percent that he is lying.
I know a lot of people who worked under him in the Army, and he is known as the Prince Of Darkness.
Like I’m going to believe Wesley Clark even if it’s nothing more important than whether or not it’s raining.
W…76-
Fer cryin’ out loud, “Democracy Now!”? They are as crazy as that loon Alex Jones at “InfoWars”. Just another side of the political fence. Now, tighten your tinfoil hat like a good drone.
RE: Wesley Clark
I knew that character as a armor battalion commander in 2d Brigade, 4ID(M).
He was an overbearing megalomaniac with delusions of godhood back then. Getting stars didn’t improve him.
Hillary Clinton Admits the U.S. Government Created al-Qaeda Published on Apr 10, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifZK6SVlQ1Y&feature=related
True, on the surface, but not for the reasons you think.
Now do not forget your meds tomorrow.
Well, at 63, I’m not too concerned with surviving. I have this recurring nightmare of crawling out of my ‘shelter’, mainly to escape the effects of living on beans for 3 years, and finding I’m the only taxpayer left. Imagine a scenario where the only other survivors are Obama, Mooch, the Cabinet, and our beloved Congressional leadership. I’d be looking at Paul Krugman type, tax rates.
Actually, the only item I want in stock is one of those cyanide capsules, the ‘baddies’ use in Bond movies. Google doesn’t offer much info, however!
At 61, I’m not as strong or as fast and flexible as I used to be. But I’ve not forgotten my training. My hope is too live through this. But, given what’s coming at us all, I’d rather go down with a pile of spent cartridge casings at my feet than surrender to something worse than war, worse than death. May history be my witness.
At 68 I share your sentiments exactly. As a good friend once said, “Don’t fret too much, you aren’t getting out of this life alive anyway.” I’d much rather go down fighting than starved to death or executed in a mass murder perpetrated by insane savages.
Ward, I am a few years older than you, and I keep myself in fairly good shape. The main thrust of the article and of many people is to dismiss those of us who prepare for disasters as loons; obviously, the producers go to great lengths to find suitable loons for their “reality” show. A more practical approach would be to prepare for the nebulous disaster that is unpredictable, for example Hurricane Sandy. I am sure many of those people wish they would have had emergency rations and supplies on hand. A bomb shelter is good for sweet bugger all when it is several feet under water, if you get my “drift.”
Being adaptable is important, as well as not being stupid. I had a conversation with a grocery checkout girl the other evening about the rather bland but nutritious items I was purchasing. I told her they were insurance against the system breaking down. She asked what system and I said the system we live under, and she told me her mother was always preparing for emergencies, but nothing ever happens. Yes, I told her, we hope nothing happens, but if something like Hurricane Sandy happens, do you want to starve?
She did some quiet reflection, after I asked her the question. Maybe she will keep a few canned goods in the back of the pantry, just in case.
Be prepared and good luck, Skook
“She makes a point that many religious people might take to heart: God will protect you or take you at his will, so why live your life in fear?”
An excellent argument against smoke detectors and fire extinguishers.
Mr. Owens, as the comedian puts it, “Here’s your sign.”
Put your trust in the inventions of man and reap the wind. Put your trust in God and reap the fruits of eternity.
A) So you’re telling it’s ungodly to have fire extinguishers! Or for that matter, firearms? LOL.
B) Yep, just like the CSA reaped what it sowed. Just exactly what they bargained for.
Being prepared for several weeks without the existence of the rest of society makes good sense–not necessarily with any or with friendly neighbors–and the more stupid the choices society makes, the more likely and and for longer term that absence is.
I suppose this was meant to be witty but it comes off as snide and mean.
Yeah, most of these folks don’t seem to have a clue but they recognize there’s dangerous times ahead and are trying to do something.
However, do you suppose that NatGeo cherry picked their choices? Did you even consider writing about that and what they means about the attitude of NatGeo to the idea of prepping and toward those who so amateurishly take some action to the perceived threats that ARE out there and also to the political leanings of those who take preparation seriously as compared to the producers?
Now that would be a story. Especially considering that only just a few weeks ago, NatGeo made an editorial decision to aid mr Obama in his reelection by showing a movie that had NO bearing on the truth of the actions it supposedly depicted. Gee that doesn’t mean anything about their politics, does it?
I’m sure that in your younger days, you did some stupid and not well thought out things and thought some thoughts that departed from reality enough to have given a Dr. cause to have you observed. We ALL HAVE.
Is this what we’re in store for every week of this show? A snarky, snide and mean screed with you acting so smug and superior and patting yourself on the back for not being a dim as those folks. Frankly, I’ll pass on that. I get to see enough articles by some smarmy kid criticizing anyone that’s been labeled a “right winger” (and don’t try to deny that preppers are considered right wingers). This person then does their level best to show how clever they themselves are by setting up some poor fools in the spotlight to show how stupid they are.
Easy targets. Why don’t you go pick on someone who can defend themselves? Or maybe do an article on the “real” preppers. The ones that NatGeo doesn’t want to show. The ones who are serious, intelligent and organized. Think they’re not out there? Prove me wrong, go on a search yourself. That would be an actually useful article or series.
Rather than aid and abet NatGeo in their obvious attempt at painting anyone who is a prepper with the redneck/dumbass brush you should be critiquing the mistakes and the focus of the producers. You think that none of the situations these folks are in weren’t edited from hours of other action. I bet I could film you for 48 hours and then edit that and make you look like a jackass. You should know this.
You also make a claim that the guys homemade pepper spray doesn’t work too well but don’t bother to say WHY or HOW DO YOU KNOW? (Which is odd considering in the previous sentence, you claim is targets were on the ground in pain. Which is it? Did it work or not? Or (most likely) did you need a quick few thousand words this week and threw together some crap on the screen and hit send without actually reading what you wrote?
I may give another article (but given the small sample I took of your other writing, maybe not,) written by you a glance but if you start snarking on people and not giving any reason other than someone else’s opinion or yours as to why they deserve it, then I’m out.
(From what I’ve seen so far, I fully expect that if any reply to this comment, will be teenage snark and trying to discredit me as if you even know me or anything about me and then dismissing my criticisms with more labels and snark to show how you’re so much cleverer than me and therefore anything I say must automatically be wrong.)
Nice comment, Jake. It helps to visualize the catastrophe that will have all the NatGeo snickerers finally giving up on government assistance and storming the “crazy right-winger’s” compound and his large stores of ammunition…
You won’t get serious preppers on the show because a good prepper knows that survivalists’ plans for surviving involve finding and killing preppers, then looting their stuff. So preppers don’t want to advertise their plans.
You dish out the snark like a pro, too. Pot, kettle you know the drill.
Exactly. Don’t really understand the survival utility to putting your plans on national television. The people who have been on the show with products may be benefiting from the publicity but no one else has business appearing here.
jakee308 – I strongly suspect (know) real preppers would not be caught dead talking to NatGeo. I bet they would chuckle and tell NatGeo and their crew they were wrong and to p.o.
Just a guess.
It’s likely that NG’s ‘talent’ hounds couldn’t recognize a truly prepared human being, much less convince him/her/them to martyr themself if they did manage to ferret one out.
OTOH, I wonder if the blue-brained geniuses of greater Smugsville pay their agitprop muses enough that an enterprising Emmanuel Goldstein might leverage said pay to further their prep goals…Food, kit, and training are getting rather more expensive in the various people’s republics of America.
DISCLAIMER: I’m in no way prepared to personally weather any unfortunate event or circumstance that may befall me or those under my care, and am only prepared insofar as I know where to complain when king 0h-that didn’t really happen-Bama isn’t fast enough cutting a check to save my ass from some [impossible] act of Gaia or man.
Bingo!
No real prepper would be caught dead on TV, because that guarantees that, should the SHTF, their national exposure would bring the hordes to their door instantly.
100% correct. I dropped my National Geographic subscription years ago when they became another arm in the liberal propaganda machine. I don’t watch their television programs anymore either. They have become one more spam mailer/e-mailer as far as I am concerned.
The current print issue of National Geographic features a big, profusely illustrated article on a feat of plucky amateur preparation and backyard engineering that NatGeo thinks is worthy of celebration: Yes, it’s the smuggling tunnel network of Gaza. It evidently symbolizes the dreams, and epitomizes the ingenuity, of the poor besieged Palestinians and their determination to thrive under brutal oppression. I hope one of these preppers NatGeo is mocking someday demonstrates more than his homemade pepper spray on these smug explorers of the primitive world…
Touch’n Indians, as Dennis Miller says.
These “reality” shows mostly try to make their subjects look like idiots so they pick the ones that will best suit that goal. Personally I think there will be a civil order problem at some point in the future when we hit the inevitable fiscal wall. It is difficult to say how bad it will get or how long it will last.
I figure a couple of weeks of emergency supplies and plenty of ammo is the best bet. Most of us would not be able to survive without any source of food or energy for too long. If it comes down to killing others for survival, that gets tough for average folks too.
Interesting – maybe a version with non-nutcase preppers would be good? Of course most of them would be smart enough to say no thanks.
Snarky, silly, article. I’m really beginning to think twice about renewing my pjmedia membership.
I agree that reality TV shows highlight the silliest and most outrageous examples as a form of entertainment. It enables the viewers to feel superior to them.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of others who are quite serious and practical, and who do not seek publicity. I always figured that it’s simply common sense to “have it and not need it, rather than need it and not have it”.
I recently went through Hurricane Sandy. I’m inland and didn’t suffer any damage, but my power was out for three days. That’s the longest outage I’ve ever experienced. Before the storm hit I bought ice for my cooler, so I was able to enjoy cold beer as well as save some of the contents of my refrigerator. I had several LED flashlights, as well as a headlamp that strapped to my forehead. That turned out to be invaluable, and I highly recommend it. It’s much better than hand-held flashlights.
I also had a gas range from the 1950s with pilot lights that still worked, so I was able to heat up leftovers that were thawing in my freezer. I never even had to touch my canned food.
So on the third night, I came home from work (where we already had power) and settled in for another night in a dark house. I opened a beer, strapped on my headlamp, settled down in my reclining chair, wrapped a blanket around me, and picked up the book I was reading. A few minutes later the lights came back on. I was relieved, of course, but I momentarily thought, “Hey! I’m just starting to get the hang of this.”
And that’s what real preppers are all about. Some major calamity may come (probably sooner rather than later), but there are always things that can go from a minor weather event to a major catastrophe.
Being prepared to take care of yourself in the event of hurricane, earthquake, civil unrest or just a major problem with the power grid is not crazy.
I have a fire extinguisher in my kitchen. I hope I never need it, but if I do, I know how to use it. Same goes for my guns, and my other preps.
Rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.
Natgeo “preppers” just nut cases showcased to make the rest of us look bad.
So, Bob, though I generally like what you have to say what prompted this mess?
Or is this just some snark to fulfill some small posting requirement. I thought you were smarter and better than this.
Just sayin’.
I don’t know. I like these articles. They don’t seem as snarky to me as to some of you. Maybe you’re a bit overly defensive?
No real prepper wants this sort of publicity. Putting your name location and face into the public domain just makes you a target if things ever do go bad. And if any of them are truly serious about stockpiling weapons, possessing military training or the chemistry knowledge of how to make poison gas and explosives from household chemicals, or anything else the government might consider “suspicious” they will never reveal this for fear (rightfully founded) of putting themselves in the government’s cross-hairs. Many still remember Waco and ruby-ridge, and the government has not grown kinder or more tolerant with time.
The people appearing on this show are like the people who keep every light in their home on, powered by their generator, when the power fails in a Katrina or Sandy type situation. They proudly display the only lights in the neighborhood, to flaunt to everyone how smart and prepared they are.
The serious ones black out the windows and keep electrical lighting to an absolute minimum, because they understand that electric lights on a house in a sea of darkness shine like a beacon to looters.
Noone that’s serious about preparing would be on a show like this. It’s just stupid to show everyone that you are preparing, and how you are doing it. If anything happens, everyone will know who to look for and what to expect to find around that person.
A person serious about preparing will keep a low profile and will not tell anyone about their plans, and will go to great lenghts to keep it secret.
An article such as this leaves me thinking about an old semi-humorous quip:
It’s not impossible — and it should give pause to anyone who makes a single, barely possible future calamity the focus of his existence.
That having been said, being reasonably well prepared for certain kinds of disturbances and dislocations — events that, while not certain to occur, are both more-than-barely-possible and foreseeably destructive — is difficult to criticize. Let’s consider a single example: an acceleration of inflation, caused by the Obama Administration’s ceaseless borrowing and spending.
When inflation hovers around the 2% to 3% level, few people give it much thought. The pot is being heated slowly enough that the frog won’t become alarmed and jump out. But as we who experienced it remember from the Carter inflation, when it rises to 7% or more, the effects are sufficiently compressed in time that Americans will react specifically to it:
– Some will go on credit binges;
– Some will spend their deteriorating dollars at once;
– Some will begin to speculate in the equities market;
– Some will belatedly buy hard assets that have a chance of keeping up with the inflation;
– Some will do all the above, and perhaps more.
Now, at this juncture in history, we can foresee that at some difficult-to-predict point in the near to intermediate future, there’s likely to be a sharp — perhaps even convulsive — increase in the prices of consumer goods. The huge cash balances in the accounts of major American financial institutions seem to me to guarantee it. Is it a lead-pipe-cinch, bet-the mortgage-money certainty? Not quite, but it’s beginning to look much more likely than not. He who reads the tea leaves this way has only two plausible reactions:
– “Well, there’s nothing I can do about it. Besides, there’s still a chance it won’t happen.”
– “I’d better brace for impact as best I can.”
The more probable one thinks that future convulsive surge in prices, the more likely he is to adopt the second attitude. He’ll put an appreciable fraction of his savings into precious metals. He’ll eschew credit exposure, particularly to variable-rate obligations. He might build himself a pantry and stock it with nonperishables, to hedge against the possibility that they’ll become hard to get. He will become, in the broad sense of the term, a “prepper.” Those who differ with him about the likelihood of the financial upheaval he foresees will deem him a bit silly about it, perhaps even mentally unbalanced. Probabilities being what they are, the disagreement won’t be resolvable by argument.
The whole thing is about probabilities. Just how likely is that inflationary surge? Opinions vary widely — and those at one end of the distribution consider those at the other end paranoid or imprudent.
This is the attitude I take toward preparationism. I can’t predict the future with absolute certainty; I can only try to assess the probabilities from what I can see, and from my knowledge of history. So I shan’t attempt to prepare for a global nuclear war, but I most certainly will brace myself, and my family, against calamities that seem to be likely enough to be worth the effort and the expense: increased inflation; a rise in gang-related predation; unavailability of medical services; price controls on oil, gas, and electric power; and the too-awful-to-contemplate possibility that the NHL might never have another season.
Your mileage may vary.
Finding people who are desperately scared, a little to alot off, and making fun of them. Nice job NatGeo. Bob – you fall into the same trap? Had these morons at NatGeo produced a show that demonstrated what “the experts really say” or just what the boyscouts teach, instead of finding the most absurd examples of prepping and fears, they may have gotten through to some who were unprepared for a real disaster like, oh, I don’t know, HURRICANE SANDY, maybe. Who are their moron experts anyway. They never say, probably because they are not experts or they are experts enough to follow rule number one – don’t tell anyone you are prepping. Can someone explain to me how, if the New Madrid fault causes that much flooding, those poor people who are legitimately scared to death for their child, were planning to survive underground during the flooding by burying themselves underground in a shipping container. The “experts” at NatGeo did not say. Perhaps they should recommend a shipping container on pontoons, to just float out the disaster. Might be worth 20 points on their stupid scale.
Nobody will be fighting over the last Twinkie at the end…the unions already made sure of that!
I’ve encountered people like this back in the 1980s, when Reagan was in office and Carl Sagan was warning us about nuclear winter.
Preparing for disaster is a great idea, speaking as someone who lives in sight of Three Mile Island, but it doesn’t have to be taken this far.
Ron Paul ‘Open-Ended Fed Policy Isn’t Going to Work’ 9/13/12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvCwIOZIjg&feature=rellist&playnext=1&list=PL49A53B574F815628
Many preppers will die because they eat old food and use old medicine.
Many preppers will die because they underestimate others that need their resources.
Many preppers will die because the disaster that they predicted won’t happen and another disaster that happens or the disaster that they predicted will happen but not like they prepared for.
The irony is that preppers might not have better chances of surviving. If things are really bad, preppers will become targets. There’s a chance that preppers are being tracked down not just by the Government.
If you want to be safe, start pressuring the Government to create safety stocks that are renewed evey year for every 1000 people.