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Should survivalists trust preppers?

26K views 205 replies 128 participants last post by  ashhoe 
#1 ·
Kurt Saxon coined the term survivalist about thirty-five years ago. Everyone knew what it meant as soon as they heard it. Survivalists were the people who spent the time and money to insure that they survived. There may have been some who didn't like guns; but I never met one. There may have been some who were liberal; but I never met one. The people I did meet were planning to survive, and were willing to see the elephant if push came to shove.

Of course, the media hated us. We were all White, predominantly male, and much worse for them, informed and intelligent. They've tried to smear us since the Carter years; but we're still here, older, but generally richer and even better informed.

Now we hear about preppers. They buy extra food, start a garden, and worry about the world. They seem to either not buy weapons, or to be a bit apologetic about it. All they really seem to wish is to make survivalists appear to be psychotics.

I first read the term prepper in a liberal news article. This article and many others that followed were mildly approving of preppers, particularly in comparing them to survivalists. It's as if the media and their academic and government allies are tying to co-opt survivalism, replacing survivalists with pseudosurvivalists, thereby destroying the former.

It's not a conspiracy. It's simply liberal minds liking the same thing. It's also liberal minds disliking the same thing; and they really dislike a group noted for arms, a fair degree of wealth or the ambition to get it, and most of all, for not needing the government or believing the liberal media.

The survivalist should be very suspicious of the individual calling himself a prepper. If you ask him why he prefers that term, you won't like the answer, not if you're a survivalist planning to survive.
 
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#3 ·
Oh puhleeze.
This is a hostile diatribe the likes I've seen on the Mommy boards.

I want everyone to be a prepper.
If they can take care of themselves in a minor emergency situation, it eases the burden for EVERYONE and the need for the government to come stick their nose in the communities business!

It is that much better for every one in a national hardcore emergency also. Common sense!
 
#39 ·
This isn't a response to my post.

Kurt Saxon coined the term survivalist about thirty-five years ago. Everyone knew what it meant as soon as they heard it. Survivalists were the people who spent the time and money to insure that they survived. There may have been some who didn't like guns; but I never met one. There may have been some who were liberal; but I never met one. The people I did meet were planning to survive, and were willing to see the elephant if push came to shove.

Of course, the media hated us. We were all White, predominantly male, and much worse for them, informed and intelligent. They've tried to smear us since the Carter years; but we're still here, older, but generally richer and even better informed.

Now we hear about preppers. They buy extra food, start a garden, and worry about the world. They seem to either not buy weapons, or to be a bit apologetic about it. All they really seem to wish is to make survivalists appear to be psychotics.

I first read the term prepper in a liberal news article. This article and many others that followed were mildly approving of preppers, particularly in comparing them to survivalists. It's as if the media and their academic and government allies are tying to co-opt survivalism, replacing survivalists with pseudosurvivalists, thereby destroying the former.

It's not a conspiracy. It's simply liberal minds liking the same thing. It's also liberal minds disliking the same thing; and they really dislike a group noted for arms, a fair degree of wealth or the ambition to get it, and most of all, for not needing the government or believing the liberal media.

The survivalist should be very suspicious of the individual calling himself a prepper. If you ask him why he prefers that term, you won't like the answer, not if you're a survivalist planning to survive.


I'm a Survivalist, and was so before Kurt Saxon wrote "A Poor Mans James Bond" and other books. I also read alot by Ragnar Benson. I was raised doing it. I call myself a "Survivalist" I guess, if I have to label myself. I like guns and view them as a neccessary tool of the "Survivalist". I understand the mentality and realize what I need to do. I am a "prepper" too I guess, because I believe in preparation.

I would probably say I'm a "prepper" if I want to be "politically correct" around uninformed people who cling to MSNBC. But rarely call myself that, because when I'm around Liberals, I try not to talk about this stuff. Most of them have a phobia about it and don't want to understand my point of view on guns or anything else, anyway. I try not to talk about it at all in public, other than here, and with a select few friends and relatives. So if I get asked by some liberal people I know if I'm a "Prepper", I guess the answer would yes, but there are very few liberals I know and trust to do the right thing in a survival situation. Most of them will let their phobias, misconceptions and their childhood anger get in the way of real Survival when TSHTF. I know this from past experience of being in a real survival SHTF type situation in a foreign country. People were getting killed and some liberals in our group in hiding, decided they wanted to give the entire group up, to negotiate with a brutal regime of soldiers under a murderous dictator. Most of them just can't get it through their heads, that when the going gets rough and scary, they can't negotiate with murdering gangs, like you're at a debating team rally. Just be nice and they will be nice in return, doesn't work when AK's and machetes come out and the blood letting begins on the African continent.

If you are somewhat Liberal in your politics, that's one thing, but if you are liberal in your lifestyle, then you are dangerous to me, and I'm not a prepper or survivalist. I'm just someone who likes lots of beans, rice and bottled water. And someone you'd better leave the hell alone. That's the only way I know to put it.
You have certainly drawn the distinction, particularly when you said that when you wish to be politically corect, you call yourself a prepper. Your comment also defines the problem.

Words are important. Semantic distinctions are important. Condsider the difference between a conservative and a libertarian. They certainly share many beliefs; but no one would say that they are essentially the same.

I never dreamed that I'd get the outraged comments that I did. I expected to get responses from people with the same concerns that I have as well as plenty of comments on the motives of the liberal establishment for creating the new term.
 
#6 ·
The survivalist should be very suspicious of the individual calling himself a prepper. If you ask him why he prefers that term, you won't like the answer, not if you're a survivalist planning to survive.
Now to answer your question, I call myself prepper because I have not entered the ranks of survivalist.
I don't know how to do a lot of things that survivalists do. I have never even been camping except as a child and I don't remember it.

Storing food, learning about herbs, how to survive attacks, purify water, bake stuff solarly, defend ourselves as best as we can - that's what prepping is to me at this stage in my life.
 
#75 ·
To me both terms mean the same. A survivalist is just that someone who wants to survive a prepper is the same thing to Mother Earth said it she knows how to survive attacks. Even if people are just stocking away food and learning to grow food and cook primitively they are still learning these skills for the same outcome-to survive. I just don't understand the need to make them different when in reality they are the same.
 
#9 ·
I don't care what people "call" themselves. I'm a survivalist - but when I'm trying to talk to other home school moms, or soccer moms or a local church group about Preparedness Activities then I'll probably use the term "prepper" as a way to ease them in to thinking about the concept of being prepared without having to worry about what they are thinking if I use the term "survivalist". It's all a means to an end the way I see it - without getting lost in semantics.

I know when I approached our church about starting the first ever community garden to teach people gardening skills, I certainly didn't say it was good survivalist training, but did say that it was good for teaching "emergency preparedness skills" in today's society and economy - - - -

I know lots of people who call themselves preppers who are very well armed and find no need to apologize about it and are as hard core as many who call themselves survivalists.
 
#61 ·
I can attest that she is one 'well armed' prepper.

I've been to her classes and she has defined strong arm muscles :D:

she must use her big guns to carry all her big guns :thumb:
 
#10 ·
i answered this basically in another thread. i am a prepper not a survivalist. I wake up every day and survive. i survive 400 idiots on the road when i drive to the store. I survive if i replace a wall outlet in the house w/o electrocuting my self. I survive if i tell the wife her ass looks big in those jeans!! iits just day to day life. to me its a mindset that just is. im gonna survive or die trying what ever gets thrown at me but i dont think its neccasarily a concious thing. i was taught to make the best out of anything.
I prep for what may occur that isnt a day to day item. i.e earthquake, emp what ever
so i am a prepper.. hope that makes sense. if it dont then maybe i am crazy but im comfy with that:p
 
#11 ·
Yea I do have to say i think its important to do more than stock up... Its important to have extra food and supplies but you should go camping fishing hunting whatever even if for just a day or 2 so your able to practice and learn some skills as well as being comfortable enough to be out in the wild. you may have all the supplies in the world but it can be destroyed, stolen, and ect which will be very possible if the S does htf . and then your left with nothing. Personally i think bushcraft is a very important part of prepparing.
 
#138 ·
and then it really is not going to matter what term is applied to all of us... we either prep and survive easier or we just survive and exist...

let the losers do them selves away... saves people the trouble later on of removing dirt and fungus from the areas where people will make a life and start over...
 
#19 ·
I'm comfortable with either term. Especially since neither one have a formalized definition. I'm not a naturally trusting person anyway, so I will only trust someone based on that one person's characteristics. I'm just as likely to distrust a survivalist. Especially some of the "I'll do anything to survive, including killing you for your supplies" types that I've seen on these boards. Come to think of it, I'm probably more likely to trust preppers because of that single factor!
 
#20 ·
I never got all that excited as to wether or not someone regarded me as a prepper or survivalist....I prep for emergencys as best I'm able to.
My wife is considerably older than I am....And I'm 60...so there is NO bugging out for us...were staying right here in our home and on our property.
We're reasonably well prepared for a SHTF situation.Arms,munitions,beans,grub,water,barterable skills,supplies of all kinds....I dont know what else I can provide for us...except more of the same.

Sanity will be the order of the day first and foremost...then the stuff we've accumulated will be of use accordingly.
 
#21 ·
Ok now I am having an identity crisis. I am prepping to survive. Soooo....... Am I a prepper or a survivalist????

I was raised that you should always have at least a years worth of food and guns and ammo and extra fuel and be able to provide for yourself. My grandpa even told me when I started driving that I should have a BOB in my car, but he didn't call it that. I didn't consider my grandparents as survivalist or preppers.

I wouldn't trust anyone no matter what they called themselves unless they proved themselves as trustworthy.
 
#25 ·
here is my personal take on this subect ..i am not a Survivalists or a Prepper ..to me iam trying to make a safe habor for me and my family and a few good friends along the way with a little something put away for the rough time ahead in our life.


for i have one simple basic rules in life for i try to pratice these set of rules for a lot of years now ..but they are really basic rules for me to live by .. ..

you can mess with me alot before i get mad enough to do something to you ..but mess with my family and there is no place on the earth i will not hunt you down and kill you ..it simple as that with me ..for i do not care if like or do not care for me ..leave me and my family alone and we have no problems with each other ..

ask me for something and i give it to ..steal from me and i cut your hand off and feed it to you ..

i use this Big Duke Quote ..i will not be wronged ..i will not be insulated ..i wont be laid a hand on ..i do not do this thing to other people and i expect the same from them

that pretty much how i live my life for i do not ask to be treated diff from other people ..

i have been in socalled survival game since the 1982 era and i learn that everyone goals are not mine ..i just want to be able to survival a rough stetch and do it basic comfort level in which i can enjoy my life for as long as the good lord see fit to allow me to live it after the event ...
 
#27 ·
Semantics. Both are the same. What the mainstream "Liberal" media choose to call someone is their business. I do understand that the word "Survivalist" does have a kind of radical connotation, and "Prepper" sounds more tame. I personally have never heard the term "Prepper" used to describe someone on its own... it would typically be part of something more... it is an incomplete description. If it's the media you're getting bent about, then don't allow them to separate two well-paired sides of the same coin. I call myself a Survivalist, because that's what I am... I prep to account for the fact that I will likely have to help others.
 
#30 ·
I agree. I get tired of us letting the media twist our terminology around and us just accepting it. It happened with "assault weapons" which was originally our term and didn't have the negative connotations that it does today. We've let it happen with many of our terms. Heck, we've even enforced our own version of it on ourselves in many cases.
 
#37 ·
That's yet another term that has been manipulated and twisted. There have been homesteaders since well before the liberals became such a hated and dangerous group. They were originally called "pioneers".

Back at the turn of the century and the time of the Great Depression, most people who didn't live in cities were also homesteaders, and at the time, more people lived out of the cities, than lived in them. So essentially we were always a nation of homesteaders, preppers and survivalists.

The word may bring connotations of liberalism since the damned hippies and their back to nature movement, but that had little to do with real world homesteading in my opinion. For example, traditionally homesteaders have had guns, and to this day, many still do. This blurs what little distinction there is between survivalist, prepper and homesteader even more.
 
#29 ·
well food for thought.
here is survivalist found on merrium webster

1. Would You
"Complisult"
A Frenemy?
2.
3.

Main Entry: sur·viv·al·ist
Pronunciation: \-və-list\
Function: noun
Date: 1970

: a person who advocates or practices survivalism; especially : one who has prepared to survive in the anarchy of an anticipated breakdown of society

— survivalist adjective
 
#31 ·
No, you shouldn't trust us as we're out to get you or give you a bad name. You also shouldn't trust anyone who isn't even a prepper. You should only trust other that are exactly like yourself with regard to survival-ism. You should probably not trust people of other races or cultures either as they are "different"

I don't consider myself a survivalist simply because I don't have all the required skills, however...I'm white, male, middle aged, educated and informed. I have assets that I hesitate to call wealth but that's the term you used. I own many weapons and ammo. I make no apologies for them.

Survivalist to me seem to plan on a complete collapse of society. Be it for economic, government influence or some catastrophe. I plan for disruptions, but believe that general order will eventually be restored. One or both of us will be proven wrong one day.

If you think I'm a threat then so be it. I actually find prejudicial people like yourself to be threatening. You're exactly the type of "survivalist" that give the others a bad rap with the media and general population.

Label me what you want, but you're the one who should be feared.
 
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