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Which describes you best?

  • Prepper

    Votes: 373 54.9%
  • Survivalist

    Votes: 308 45.3%

Prepper or Survivalist

102K views 157 replies 120 participants last post by  bounder 
#1 ·
Most of us are probably a combination of the two but for the sake of this poll please choose which one describes you best.

For me it's definitely Prepper. I first got involved by being prepared for hurricanes and it grew from there.
 
#38 ·
I chose Prepper

in no small part to my feeling that "survivalist" had become a demonized word thanks to the Lame Stream Media. It paints a picture of some anti-government, anti-social outcast and that is not who I am or who my like minded associates are.

I honestly don't mean to offend anyone who chose the word survivalist, merely offering up an explanation on why I picked what I did.
 
#40 ·
Praetorian you are quite right.
The word "survivalist" had become a demonized by the Media anti-government, anti-social gun nut to frighten the sheeple from even considering preparing themselves and some how becoming one of those ”bad people”.

I further expect that they will vilify the word “prepper” like they did “survivalist” soon enough. Tact they will likely take is to link it with “hording”. As food prices continue to rise and quantizes available is reduced, everyone storing food will be blamed. Prepping will be made to look selfish, anti-Christian, and unpatriotic. When we reach the point of rationing, anti-hording laws will be pasted. People will be encouraged to report preppers for the good of the country like they do drug labs now.
 
#41 ·
Hey guys. long time no see. :)

Most definitely a survivalist for me.
Due to my upbringing, I learn't to survive situations long before I even heard of prepping.
 
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#42 ·
I'm a prepper. To me "survivalist" indicates someone who has finished heir "preparations". I constantly save, store, train, learn, practice, and even have some real-life hands-on experience. But I don't forsee anytime that I will consider myself "fully prepared".
 
#48 ·
Definitely a prepper. My idea of roughing it is the Motel 6 (horrible beds!). No way could I survive sleeping out under the stars and feeding my family on roots, pine nuts and the ocassional squirrel. It wouldn't be the food or elements that drive me insane, it would be living with my wife and three teenaged girls without electricity!

Hence, my BOL has solar.:)
 
#51 ·
Retreater, survivalist, prepper it is all semantics. Either due to popularity or perceived extremism the terminology has changed through the years. My guess is that it will continue to change. As a survivalist, I consider myself to be prepared to survive and see the prepper term as an attempt to be more PC due to the perceived extremism of some “survivalists” by whatever name they call themselves. Personally, I never know what kind of person I am dealing with until I know them better.

I say take your pick it is all the same to me.
 
#52 ·
Rarely do I use either term, Survivalist or prepper except on the boards. It is a non issue, until you mention to some one that you are prepared/preparing to survive hard times or disaster. At that point, who ever you tell will make up their own mind as to whether or not what your doing makes sense.

As a kid I spent a lot of time with grandparents that lived through the great depression. I was taught the ins and outs of thrift, being frugal and that waste was was akin to sin. It was a true homestead lifestyle, and I loved it. If you'd called them survivalists or preppers they'd probably just chuckle.

Thing is there are folks in this day and age who would label that kind of lifestyle as being a prepper or survivalist. When in actuality it is just old school taking care of yourself.
 
#55 ·
I'm a prepper. We just want to protect & provide for our family during unexpected calamities, of however long duration. Seems like most survivalists envision pitched battles with some evil government forces, foreign or domestic. I admire their resolution, but I don't see much hope for the guy in a pickup truck with a shotgun facing off against an Abrams tank.
 
#56 ·
Slingshot, you have bought the decades of negative spin and hype used to taint the meaning of survivalist. I have been a survivalist since the late 1970s, I know many other through the years and our goal has not changed; protect & provide for our family during any host of emergences and disasters. Originally the greatest treat was all out nuclear war with the Soviets (a treat that is not out of the pail yet today). Fighting “pitched battles” is counter survival and to be avoided if at all possible. Battles with some evil government forces are more in the prevue of the militia movement. As a prepper, protecting your family from those that would rob and leave your family to starve (or worse); whether it is the starving “horde”, an organized gang or a jumped up local war lord, it does not matter. Anyone not willing to protect his preps is only saving them for the first knuckle dragger with a baseball bat but to seek out avoidable combat is completely putting your family at risk and counter survival.

by knuckle dragger you mean violent fringe rambo elite uber mall ninja gun heavy wanna be survivalist.
Peter, I mean the low life predator who lives by the motto “if you can’t defend it, you don’t deserve to keep it” from the psudo-survivalist thug right down to the alley mugger or your next door neighbor.
 
#57 ·
230gr.
That was sarcasm on my part.
Quite by accident I met a guy face to face who said he was a survivalists, he fit the thug description to a tee. I was horrified by his description of how he and his "group" were going to survive. It involved taking from others by force. Thank god I didn't let on that I was putting away supplies for a rainy day and working towards producing my own food supply or I'd probably been on his SHTF short list of places to visit.
 
#58 ·
They are out there, Peter. They are no more survivalists than Black Beard was, IMO. They are the new barbarians who can’t wait to pillage and rape the helpless sheeple. May they die by the sword and quickly.
Guard information on putting away supplies with your life or it will cost you dearly some day.
 
#60 ·
I hate to throw water on the fire, but I think being a prepper is the same as being a survivalist, its kind of a symbiotic relationship. I cannot see how you can be one without being the other, eg. How will you survive without prepping? (raiding others will surely lead to a reduced life span) and you preparing for suvival, so I see them as one in the same thing (although prepper may be more PC).

"Failure to plan is planning to fail."
 
#61 ·
I hate to throw water on the fire, but I think being a prepper is the same as being a survivalist, its kind of a symbiotic relationship. I cannot see how you can be one without being the other, eg. How will you survive without prepping? (raiding others will surely lead to a reduced life span) and you preparing for suvival, so I see them as one in the same thing (although prepper may be more PC).

"Failure to plan is planning to fail."
 
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