{"id":363,"date":"2025-09-19T21:54:49","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T21:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/knifevoyager.com\/?p=363"},"modified":"2025-09-19T21:54:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T21:54:50","slug":"whos-prepping-these-days-and-why-epictactical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/knifevoyager.com\/?p=363","title":{"rendered":"Who\u2019s Prepping These Days, And WHY? \u2013 EpicTactical"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Fred Rowland \u2013 SOFREP<\/p>\n

Last month I was startled by someone\u2019s panic-induced rant, \u201cOh My GOD, There\u2019s a Hurricaaaaaaannnnnne\u201d.\u00a0 Erin was alive and churning out in the Atlantic, not anywhere near us in NW Florida mind you, but yes, there was a hurricane.<\/p>\n

With hurricane season now in it\u2019s more dangerous time, I\u2019m seeing more articles about prepping, some in relation to hurricanes, others just taking advantage of the press.\u00a0 Articles like, Why I am\/am not a Doomsday\/Apocalypse\/SHTF\/Hurricane Prepper, Why I Prep, Why I Don\u2019t Prep, Why You SHOULD Prep, etc etc etc.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Yes, the Most Common Reason to Prepare Here in FL.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Personally, I do prepare for emergencies, especially those generated by Mother Nature, because I live close to the Gulf of America and hurricanes are a way of life.\u00a0 Also, we had 9 inches of SNOW last January, which I\u2019m sorry to say I missed!\u00a0 But it\u2019s not just Mother Nature\u2019s wrath; everywhere around the globe, storms are intensifying, resources are shrinking, political climates are changing, and conflict is growing faster and becoming more intense than ever before.<\/p>\n

WHAT is a Prepper??\u00a0 My definition goes something like this:\u00a0 A Prepper is someone who takes steps to ensure their (them and their family\u2019s), resilience and survival during times of extreme circumstances and environments.\u00a0 That covers earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, looting, loss of civility etc and it doesn\u2019t limit anyone on HOW they prepare.<\/p>\n

Common Myths About Preppers<\/p>\n

They\u2019re crazy.<\/strong>\u00a0 That\u2019s an old and misguided assumption, especially these days.\u00a0 Being prepared is about planning, not paranoia, if anything, it\u2019s like a retirement account or stocking up on water, some extra food and snacks before a storm.\u00a0 Preppers believe in self-reliance and resilience, many are homesteaders who grow much of their own food or they are a close neighbor who helps a homesteader.\u00a0 They tend to be ordinary people who just want to live. Like everyone else.<\/p>\n

They want the world to end.<\/strong>\u00a0 WHAAAAAAT?\u00a0 Seriously???\u00a0 Is that why you buy car or life insurance, because you WANT to have to use it?\u00a0 There are very few people who want a world without Law Enforcement, Medicine, and a consistent food supply, and those people include Preppers.\u00a0 But like people buy insurance, \u201cjust in case\u201d, that\u2019s why people prep.<\/p>\n

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When it Comes to Being Prepared, Leave Them Up!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All Preppers think they will be King of the Wasteland Warriors.<\/strong>\u00a0 Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.\u00a0 Most Preppers are interested in keeping their food supply going, keeping a high state of situational awareness and understand what they have isn\u2019t conducive to any offensive maneuvers.\u00a0 Experienced survivalists avoid confrontation at all costs and only as a last resort do they use self defense.<\/p>\n

Preppers will save the unprepared.<\/strong>\u00a0 Buddy, I\u2019m going to be honest with you, if you aren\u2019t family you probably aren\u2019t coming with me.\u00a0 If you bring nothing to the camp, talent, food, medicines, etc, you are going to be pushed away.\u00a0 My family knows to bring items that are on a list and most preppers are like that too, they have limited resources centered around a certain number of people.\u00a0 So if you\u2019re not already prepared, see ya.<\/p>\n

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This is NOT The Place To Be, In Any Emergency Situation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Preppers are extremists.<\/strong>\u00a0 According to a 2025 report from Axios<\/a>, there\u2019s been a surge in urban prepping driven by inflation and food insecurity.\u00a0 Prepping is increasingly mainstream and preppers include Doctors, Lawyers, business owners and suburban families.\u00a0 All are quietly taking part in preparedness and many stay quiet because they want to avoid being judged \u2013 or targeted.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also seen articles that say why it\u2019s unrealistic to be prepared, or at least to be prepared for longer than 3 months at the very most before things got back to normal and we\u2019d all be doing our own thing.\u00a0 My first thought is, people in the Balkans would disagree with your time assessment.\u00a0 Also, there are more than a few studies that have shown that in a limited state, where only a country or region of the world is in a loss of civility, generally at the 18 month mark at the most is the time that law and order starts to assert itself again.<\/p>\n

For the people that say even if we lost 90% of the population we would be ok, their theory is that would harken us back to a time of approx 1780.\u00a0 Their theory also states that there were no \u201cWalking Dead\u201d around then so we would be able to tough it out and be back on our feet in no time.\u00a0 Even if 99% of the population were to be wiped out and we were forced back to a textbook \u201cstate of nature\u201d it wouldn\u2019t take long before we would be back doing our thing.<\/p>\n

While I understand that point of view, and agree with our limited population from the early 1700\u2019s thru the 1860\u2019s we had transatlantic trade, universities and such I\u2019m not sure those people take into account one very important thing that will drive many people.\u00a0 FEAR.\u00a0 Fear of not knowing how to live without electricity, fear of not having enough skills and food, or just to live period in a very unfamiliar environment.<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t present during those days of yesteryear but they would be if the world decided to end tomorrow.\u00a0 Fear makes people to irrational things they normally wouldn\u2019t consider doing.\u00a0 That\u2019s the real reason I prep, so that my family and I will be able to better control our fear.\u00a0 I hope.<\/p>\n

What about you?<\/p>\n

Garfield out.<\/p>\n

Fred \u201cGarfield\u201d Rowlands is a 21+ year Navy veteran who spent his career in strange and diverse places like Diego Garcia, Wintering Over in Antarctica, the Southern Border, and Burbank CA. Has spent over 30 years working in Military Physical Security, Law Enforcement, and Private Security, and has \u201cmore luck than a cat has lives\u201d supposedly. He now resides in NW Florida with his wife and a Great Dane named Layla.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Fred Rowland \u2013 SOFREP Last month I was startled by someone\u2019s panic-induced rant, \u201cOh My GOD, There\u2019s a Hurricaaaaaaannnnnne\u201d.\u00a0 Erin was alive and churning out in the Atlantic, not anywhere near us in NW Florida mind you, but yes, there was a hurricane. With hurricane season now in it\u2019s more dangerous time, I\u2019m seeing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-survival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/knifevoyager.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/knifevoyager.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/knifevoyager.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knifevoyager.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knifevoyager.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/knifevoyager.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":365,"href":"https:\/\/knifevoyager.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions\/365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knifevoyager.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/knifevoyager.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knifevoyager.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knifevoyager.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}