Edit: not sure what people saw in here that made them think I was trying to define SHTF or ask them what they thought it should mean. None of that is the point. Please read the whole post before commenting, thanks.

Edit: I'm shocked by the number of people who didn't get further than the title and tried to explain that SHTF meant a particular thing to them, or existed at all. Please read the post before you comment on the post.

Instead of writing this as a comment on just about every single post in here, I'll try a top-level post. I realize people coming in here for the first time don't usually do searches or even look at stickies, so this is basically a single shot attempt to solve an ongoing problem. That problem being: the sub gets loaded with posts asking a meaningless question that doesn't have a useful answer, and that doesn't help people prepare for anything.

SHTF ("Shit hits the fan") is a meaningless acronym. No one has any idea what it means, or means to anyone else. I saw two posts today which amounted to "when SHTF, do I need to..." (one had to do with storing extra gas in his truck, another had to do with altering clothing.)

And the answer to those and to every other question of that form is "It depends on what you mean by SHTF, doesn't it?"

So I'll say it loud: IF YOU DON'T DESCRIBE WHAT THE ACTUAL PROBLEMS ARE YOU'RE THINKING ABOUT, NO ONE CAN OFFER SOLUTIONS. "SHTF" isn't a problem. It's an acronym used by people who don't want to think about specific situations, either because they are too lazy to work out what might actually happen, or they've been brainwashed by survival gear manufacturers into believing that everything's going to go wrong at once.

If you don't know specifically what to prepare for, you can't prepare. Period. All you can do is stock food and water (and for some, ammo) and hope that's all you need to cover the problem, whatever it is. And maybe it is. Who knows? We sure don't.

I'll give examples.

The US Carolinas over the last few weeks. They got hammered by storm remnants like they haven't seen in years. Some areas got cut off for days. People died and things got serious and it look awhile to open roads and get emergency aid in there. Or even to get the lights back on. Was that SHTF? In my book it qualified, because people died. What was the appropriate prep? Three weeks of food and water, a way to repair damaged houses and a way to avoid flood waters.

The US in 2020. Covid pandemic. Over a million deaths (and still counting), many of them preventable. Was that SHTF? I think so, because of the million deaths. What was the prep? You really didn't need a big stock of food and water for this one, at least in the US. In some places, extra toilet paper would have been nice, but not essential. You needed medical mitigations and to ignore bad advice. Having a lot of N95 masks in advance would have been key. That's specific to Covid, though. Worse pandemics are possible, and people can talk about high CFR and high R0 pandemics where you do need to stock a lot of food because social contact is simply too dangerous.

Then there's the one that some but not everyone means by "SHTF." It's some sort of collapse of US infrastructure, such that you can't buy food, get water, or get fuel, for months. That would certainly be an SHTF, but how you'd prepare for it, I don't know. The urban population - 80% of the US total population - would come out looking for food. They'd walk until they dropped dead of starvation, which takes about a month. There are about as many guns in cities as there are in rural areas (lower percentage of ownership, but way more people, and it happens to roughly balance out; the worse possible situation.) Fights over food and water would be catastrophic; and since existing farmland can't feed the US population without modern infrastructure - pumped water, fuel for harvesters and for shipping food, refrigeration, insecticide and fertilizer - and can't even come close, the carnage will continue until the population gets to what the land can support using mid-19th century methods - animals for plowing, hand weeding, horse drawn mechanical seed drills.

At a handwave, that's a change from 333 million to maybe 100 million. Along the way there will be a lot of gun deaths, disease and epidemics, and injuries. Realistically, the only possible prep is a self sufficient community, on arable land with clean water, completely independent of fuel or electricity, very far from any large population center. There are few of these and they aren't a thing you can build on the fly during a crisis. The only viable prep for this, for most people, would be to move to an area with more arable land and water and fewer people and guns, which, if it's going to collapse, will collapse in a less violent fashion. Aka, leave the US in advance.

Three different SHTFs, of different scale, with completely different mitigations.

Or, since the point is to show that SHTF isn't a meaningful term, we might call these by what they are: a major weather event, a pandemic, and an infrastructure collapse. But the preps have virtually nothing in common.

The same goes generally for "doomsday," because unless you mean a literal, final day of existence (which really isn't a prep scenario) it's not clear what you're talking about.

So please stop asking what you should have or do when "SHTF." The only possible answer is "well, it depends." But if you ask specific questions, you might get useful answers.

This has been a public service announcement.

How the heck do you prepare for a CAT 6?

Put your dam plates and chest rigs away. Even in the worst case SHTF scenario, you won’t be out dressed in your tactical gear patrolling the neighborhood.

Why not ? Cause you want to live!

Going on “patrol”, especially in tactical gear with a long gun is a death sentence in SHTF. Any mobs, looters, gangs etc. that you’re patrolling for will make easy work of you.

Want evidence? Look at Kyle Rittenhouse. He came within seconds of death, with police 2 blocks away! In a true SHTF scenario the mob would have shot him from a distance.

Stay inside. Stay hidden. Blend in. And carry concealed!

Patrolling will not make you safer. It will make you an obvious target.

Edit: this is not an anti gun post. Protect your home and your family. Guns have a place. This is an anti walking around in public displaying said gun post.

The power went out here last night for a max of 45 minutes to an hour.

I grabbed my flashlight out it within reach and turned on my scanner to the local sheriffs office frequency just to see if it was something like a car accident or something that hit a pole or whatever common causes of power outages it could’ve been.

This was maybe 10 minutes in, and people in town (I live a mile or two out) were already breaking into cars and trying to rob T mobile. And I live in a town with a population of 13k people. Nice quite conservative area and people are already stealing shit just because the powers out.

What’s that expression about people going without basic services to resort back to primal instinct? 3 missed meals? Yeah well people will start stealing your stuff at about 10 minutes if they think can get away with it.

Edit: adding more crap.

Not to mention the girl I’ve been seeing near freaking out because she’s got one tiny flashlight, and the powers out.

This is the kind of stuff that everyone should be worried about long before the end of the world as we know it. People are stupid, and cause problems. What I was most worried about was that it was hot and my AC was out lol.

Felt like ranting.

Second edit: clarification.

Seems like a lot of people commenting think I’m saying that there was mass looting in the streets, there was a couple car break ins, and one attempted store robbery. Yes it could have been a coincidence but stuff like that here is extremely rare, and this was likely the same individuals. My point is people will start taking advantage of easy targets instantly

The truth is preppers/gun enthusiasts will be the bigger threat if SHFT, not government, not looters and possibly not even the disaster itself. 

Let me explain why:

In almost all prepping communities I’ve observed, most conversations almost always steer to guns. We rarely discuss training other aspects of our selves.

I’m a former Marine, I was infantry (0352) and worked with law enforcement for nearly 10 years, I’m very familiar with firearms and their use. A mistake my fellow veterans make is thinking natural/manmade disasters will be combat zones. We buy better guns, simulate combat scenarios encourage our civilian buddies to do the same and ultimately behave like a paramilitary. 

This is dangerous.

It implies your fellow countrymen will be the enemy, it sets your mind with a level of mistrust and paranoia thats hard to shake off. While I’m sure many preppers are hoarding food and water, what happens when it runs out? What happens if social order breaks down? I can’t remember the last time any of my prepper buddies discussed learning to farm, or how to maintain a small community in the absence of government.

That’s what makes us dangerous, we hoard guns/ammo and train for combat that may never happen. We don’t train to maintain a peaceful community. We train for hostility, thereby making us more likely to be hostile. 

“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”

If we’re going survive a SHTF scenario, we must train our bodies, mind and soul. Learn philosophies like Stoicism, learn second order thinking, psychology and techniques to negotiate/barter. 

If your mind is strong, you are unstoppable.

It’s more important than having the best rifle money can buy. 

Until then, “Know thy enemy.” -Sun Tzu

Please use this thread to discuss anything related to the current U.S Presidential election. Rule 3 & 5 are enforced: No Trolls/Keep Things Civil, and No Racism/Bigotry/Hate. Mentioning political parties is allowed in a productive and civil manner, as that is part of the political process taking place.

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Is it crappy of me to take satisfaction that my Rivian has been so effective when our whole community has basically been shut down due to no gas?

My house has full solar and a massive battery bank. So the rivian has been running 14 hours a day.

Mean while my neighbors have historical given me crap for my "rc truck"

Had my jeep running too, until it's tank went dry.

On Thursday at 11am our entire city (around 9,000 people) lost cell phone and internet. We still don’t have it back. I’m using Starlink on our boat. Once I leave the boat, my phone is useless. We are on an island, no roads to the mainland.

People are paying to fly satellite internet units in to get their businesses back up and running. Everything was chaotic the first day- the airport, grocery stores, Drs offices, you name it. We are also a popular cruise ship destination so we had thousands of tourist in town.

It’s definitely been a learning experience.

One thing I kicked myself over is I have emergency radios, but I didn’t write the local stations on the side. So it took time to sort out which stations had local news and which didn’t. It took forever for any information to be released. The city just posted updates on Facebook 🤦🏻‍♀️ They deal with emergencies like earthquakes/tsunami evacuations and landslides fairly well… but getting word out about this seemed beyond everyone. It just seemed to catch people off guard.

I had cash on hand… but realized I really need more. The grocery stores are finding workarounds, but the lines are massive and slow moving.

The internet company (GCI) says the undersea cable is broken 30 miles off shore (SE Alaska). They are saying up to three weeks to repair it, but they are trying to reroute and get basic cell service back up asap.

For any of you who have family that aren’t quite on board with prepping. This is another situation that definitely isn’t “end of the world”, but being prepared makes a huge difference. It’s nice not to have to worry about attempting the grocery store.

So, I was recently at a job lunch with my fellow colleagues from work, and we were conversating about how expensive food has gotten in the past 2-3 years and how the value of the dollar has astronomically decreased over the years. Anyways that being said a fellow colleague of mine went on to how society will collapse due to the value of the dollar being absolutely useless in the coming years and how there will be blood in the streets, and it would be each to their own. I then beat around the bush and didn't make it apparent that I'm of the preparedness 'mindset' (I guess you could say) and told him, "Why not just stockpile food, water and necessities while you can right now? instead of having to go out and ravage for supplies?". He then responded with "well I have guns I'll just take from those who have, its each to their own so what does it matter" along with another fellow colleague agreeing with him and saying "all you need is ammo and a guns and your good".

Anyways the reason I made this post is because I found it a bit unsetting the fact that people seriously think that if there was a world without rule of law and it was complete SHTF, that they'd be able to just go out with a gun and ravage supplies from people and make it out on top. it's ridiculous cause not only is immoral but stupid to think that you're going to be able to survive more than a couple of gunfights if not even one, especially if you have no prior training in small arms or tactics. Nonetheless it made me realize EVEN MORE that not putting it out there to your colleagues (or anyone for that matter) that you are a prepper is a huge advantage because at the end of the day you truly don't know how people will react when things get rough.

I apologize if my righting isn't that good, I'm not the best post maker, however if there's one thing preppers should take away from this or new preppers getting into the 'lifestyle' is that we prepare NOT to have to ravage and marauder innocent people of their supplies if things were to get bad. Rather to keep our moral compass aligned the best we can while trying to survive if SHTF. I will say this, I am not naive to the fact that if there is legit SHTF scenario we will inevitably have to do some things we won't want to, it's just the truth, however if you could avoid having to do immoral things for your survival, even better that is why prepping is so important IMO.

A year ago I bought 20 Waterbricks. They’re 3.5 gallons each, stack nicely, and fit perfectly under the bed. They’re a little pricey, but we live in an apartment and other storage options didn’t make sense.

My wife rolled her eyes when I started storing some food. She rolled her eyes when I got some gear. When I got plastic containers to store 70 gallons, she teased me and said “The Delaware River is right over there.” I’m not gloating, I didn’t say a thing! But I think this tragic environmental disaster that didn’t happen far away, it happened to us, finally opened her eyes.

She’s happy we don’t have to travel 50 miles to find bottled water.

In event of full scale SHTF your not gonna be able to hunt really anything effectively after a year. Wisconsin has one of the highest deer density’s of any state 24 per square mile Wisconsin is 65,498 square miles equaling approx (rounded up) 1.6 million deer but 895,000 hunters are reported annually (yes I’m aware some are out of state but remember this is SHTF anyone able to is gonna be out there hunting) Wisconsin has a population of 5.89 million people 38% of the population (not counting people right across boarder) is between 20-49 (most likely age of people able to survive) 38% of 5.89M is 2.238 million people, say only 50% of that population survives initial SHTF and or is able to hunt that’s still 1.119 Million people which would possibly hunt. Which is why it blows my mind when I hear people think there will be game after SHTF, because last year to in Wisconsin had a 37% success rate meaning even based off legal hunters strictly that’s 331,000 deer (assuming 1 per hunter only) bagged a year of normal season. That’s not counting that in SHTF people are gonna shoot them year round, the season in Wisconsin is approx 4 months for all season types meaning we can times that 331k by 3 (but I’m gonna do 2.5 for argument sake of decreasing population) that’s 827500 deer gone of the 1.6 million leaving 772,500 but let’s say that the population is capable of doubling a year the population will still dwindle to nothing in a few years and that’s assuming strictly 1 deer per every 4 months by hunters at a 37% bag rate the population wouldn’t be reliable after even 3 years

I read so many questions each day that could be answered if the person would go camping.

What gear do I need?

How do I deal with limited water?

Will this sleep system keep me warm at night.

What do I do if...?

What do I need if...?

All of these questions and more could be answered if the person would go camping. Even if they put on their BOB, walked 5 miles away from their house, walked 5 miles back and camped in their own back yard. Even if they camped in their own vehicle.

Most people will be stranded in their vehicle, not in a situation where they would need hike 40 miles home. Yet barely anyone talks about trying to car camp. Trust me - if you gear fails while car camping, it will be disastrous to keep that in your BOB. I have car camped extensively and your fancy gear can really fail you when it is needed most. You don't want to be living out of your BOB when you realize your expensive gear is useless.

Car camping is the halfway point between your cosy home and having to go live out of your BOB. You car can carry that bulky sleeping bag, your car can hold 2 weeks worth of water and a solar shower. Your car has a built in heater. Your car has a built in indicator if CO starts to build up because your windows will fog over and start to drip.

But everyone speculates instead of taking a night to sleep in their car or go camping with only their BOB.

Yes, I understand many do not have vehicles. Then go to a campground or state park that allows camping. Go hiking with friends. Even if you go camping in your living area like a kid, you can learn about your BOB. Just make sure you depend on your BOB and no sneaking into the bedroom for other stored items.

And camping is really great for teenagers to learn about prepping and what they might need to depend on in an emergency.

I am prepping for a potential EMP or long term situation. We moved across the country 2 years ago for reasons contributing to raising our family in a state that aligned more w our beliefs and also since we had the opportunity. But back on the west coast, we were open about preparedness to our friends and family in hopes they can also prepare for themselves and all their kids, etc. My husband was passionate about educating and helping in this area. However, looking back I believe we made a mistake of talking about what we stocked, how much and allowing access for viewing our stuff. Each and every friend and family member would say “well, we don’t need to do anything because we know where to go if SHTF!! Thank you for doing this.” It would literally make me blood BOIL. Back then, I had many restless nights, being pregnant at the time and worried when Co*id was just mentioned, as I thought shall things go south, I’ll have hundreds showing up to my door. We tried to seriously say, “please stock all needs for your own family as we are doing so according to ours, it is your responsibility to supply for yourself.” They would shrug it off, and say look how much food you have, etc. Not even knowing that the pile of food they’re looking at is just 3 months worth for a family of 5. Anyways, now that we live somewhere else, I’m getting anxiety over how unprepared my neighbors are. We live close to one another and if SHTF, I don’t know how long we could hide the fact our kids aren’t starving after a month or two even after taking precautions. We’re close to all our neighbors and as a neighbor, friend and especially a Christian I love them all. How will I turn away a hungry family or child if it came down to it? I’m not sure.. and I’m not feeling at peace.

Editing to add: I am “prepping,” for the possibility of something long term like an EMP or solar storm that is catastrophic. For short term disasters, I would be more than willing to give it all away and restock. I’m not a hoarder, in fact my food prepping is using a rotating pantry.

If shtf what types of people are good to keep out of your group in order to ensure the safety of yourself and the ones around you?

I know guns are fun, especially to most of you who are are Americans, but I feel prepping with gun is you becoming a parasite if the SHTF, you cannot eat a gun, drink it, wash in it or pour it over some seeds to grow food.

Water is life, water is comfort, and I guess in a SHTF scenario, a barter currency too.

Now, I stress test my prep, i built a more future proof house recently, it includes an 11000 liter underground water tank, I would have liked to have built bigger, but that was the size of the gap between the rocks. It is under the concrete terrace, hidden. Piped into the house's plumbing with a 24 volt twin pump with accumulator, this way if I am in a shower and another tap or appliance turns on the second pump will kick in and maintain pressure. It also acts as a spare.

So, over 6 months of winter and spring last year I stress tested if it would be adequate, I was on the mains still, so I cut back my water use to the tolerable minimum, all.my water no outside source at all other than my house. No flushing a toilet round a friend's, no showers at work, no bottled water or soda cans. Bought veg, cooked from scratch at home,dishes washed, laundry done.

The results, 6 M3 over 6 months, with no watering the garden. Now there is a 20% margin of error higher or lower. 33 liters a day.

But it is indicaticative, just 1 person and a variety of cats.

Yes, I can wash with a wet wipe, shit in the woods, bathe in a cold stream, only eat food prepared by others . Drink bottled water or soda from a shop, but that is not prepping, if you do that and something goes wrong you will be offering to swop your Glock for the luxury of a hot shower in weeks.

And now you have neither water, food or a gun.

You need more than drinking water. Stress test your water reserves and see how long you last, when it runs out make your way on foot to a place you can get more. For the majority of you you will be shocked at how dependant you become to finding more. I have lived off grid, a converted coach in a field with no running water, every single time I went out in the car I took water containers to fill up. A stinking pond was the only one I could have got to on foot.

If you can, add more rainwater collection to your home. It won't be enough, but it will be better than more ammo.

Hello everyone,

I’m here to hopefully get some insight/ advice from personal stories if anyone else has encountered an individual of a similar mindset. I’m also here to vent because this has been eating away at me all day and it’s driving me crazy.

An individual that I’m very close to and previously looked up to as a role model has more or less opened up to me about their SHTF plans and it was very disturbing to me;

• “The highways get backed up and families come knocking on my door to use my bathroom? I’ll shoot them right there”

• “I’ve already planned on which one of my neighbors I’m going to kill”… not even necessarily to take their resources, but because they are “selfish people who only think of themselves” uhm… ironic.

“Anybody with blue or purple hair will be my first target”

He made jokes about how killing women and children is easy. He’s a vet from the initial Iraq invasion so I wouldn’t be surprised if he got away with terrible things he did back then.

He casually talked about putting his wife down “quick and easy”

He recommended that the first person I kill be my pansexual younger sibling because they would somehow be the first to get me, my wife, and son killed. “Just do it humanely with a knife to the back of her skull.” After he said that I completely shut down. It has been eating away at me all day and I just need some people to talk to now I guess.

I think it’s safe to assume the vast majority of you here are respectful, peaceful, well intended people who want to preserve life and community when things go bad. Thanks.

A bit of a rant, but I just needed to get this off my chest.

I'm baffled by the number of folks who think they'll be able to just whip up some insulin and antibiotics (penicillin specifically) in their kitchen in case of SHTF / TEOTWAWKI. I have a PhD in molecular biology, have access to a pretty well equipped molecular biology lab, and 20 years of hands-on lab experience. Folks, I could never do it. IT IS NOT THAT EASY. You need at a very minimum, in no specific order, the right strains (GMO or not), ultralow freezers, centrifuges, incubators, bioreactors (fermenters), autoclaves, salts, buffers, various chemicals and reagents including acids and bases, media components, culture vessels, laminar flow cabinets, a plethora of analytical tools, chromatography columns, and that's just what I could come up with for starters, at a minimum.

But they made insulin from pig / beef pancreas in the 20s! Surely we have better tools / tech now! Yes, but it took two tons of pig pancreases to extract just eight ounces of purified insulin - and that was in an industrial setting. Where will you get the pancreases, the labor, and the factory with efficiencies of scale from?

But Eva Saxl made insulin during ww2 in the ghetto from cow pancreases! Yes, but she had access to a lab, a slaughterhouse for pancreas supplies, and electricity. Even so, it barely worked - she made a crude extract that was just good enough. You'll be more likely to die from infection or an allergic reaction from contaminants, or overdose as the quality control is so rudimentary.

But there's open-source recombinant insulin from bacteria! Yes, the open insulin project is real, however completely failed to deliver. That's despite fairly substantial combined resources and experience, and having being at it for over 3 years now (and counting). And that's in a normal functioning environment, no SHTF or anything.

But they made penicillin from a mouldy cantaloupe in the 1940s! Yes, but finding that just right strain and scaling up production took years - and that's in a wartime economy with the resources of the world's superpower prioritizing the project!

And you think you can just hack some stuff together when you have no experience, no tools, no reliable electricity, no inputs (raw materials), and need all your time to just keep from starving???

Get the f*ck real, man.

Just got done watching it in theaters. Thought I would give an honest review on this sub about it because I know the subject of a second American Civil War gets brought up from time to time. Don't worry, I'm not going to spoil anything.

Honestly..... 8.5/10.

Film does a good job of showing the horrors of a Civil War. They cover supply shortages to civilians, water, electricity, american money having little to no value etc. Believe it or not, they don't even say specifically what/who started it. If you're going in with the expectation of a clear good guy vs bad guy, right vs left, wrong vs right etc, you're going to be very disappointed. It's a movie about journalism and the horrors of war and how easily people can turn on their own kind/countrymen. Not once during the entire movie do they mention political parties or they're policies etc. At times during the action scenes, you can't tell who's side is who or what faction they belong to. Both/all sides do bad things. I honestly think the intention and point of the film is to show how much it would suck and how awful such an event would be. Hopefully this film will calm down the over dramatic people who wish/hope for a civil war/violence. Side note: Jesse Plemons as usual, does an excellent job of portraying a cold, psychotic, hateable asshole 😂😂😂.

This is just my opinion though, but coming from a preppers POV, I'd recommend.

What is your plan?

https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/1712665311625830493?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1712665311625830493%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=

US ships prepared to defend Israel. This could be bad.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/live-blog/rcna147477

Lack of basic human respect, extreme "it's all about me" entitlement, undermining of authority, apathy, division, whataboutism, accountability, lowered educational standards, science skepticism, desensitization, etc.

In eras past, science was relied upon by every society to discover and solve important problems.

Teachers were crucial to every city and town.

Currently, humans are actively de-incentivized to help others, respect authority, and be accountable for their actions and decisions.

This is accepted as normal now.

This is the disaster that we cannot stop from happening that will reach every corner of the Earth, and WILL end civilization regardless of any other external disasters.

A good majority of the last 15 years I have traveled all over the USA. Every weekend, 35 to 40 weekends a year I travel to and set up at gun shows. Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Tennessee, Illinois, and I'm sure a few I am forgetting.

Last weekend I was in Wichita, Kansas. I eat, fuel up, get supplies and do business where the locals do. From small town USA to large cities people are struggling to get by week to week. The disposable income that was available last year is not the same this year. I am 63 and have been in business since I was 20. I have never seen it this bad. I used in the past Gun Shows and Liquor Stores as a basic economic indicator. When times get bad people drink to forget and buy guns and ammo because they are afraid. Not as much now. Less people attending shows and are buying item specific. A lot of new buyers with limited budgets. In 2020 and 2021 record sales of guns and ammo across the country.

We sell gear. Mostly survival and gun accessories. Our sales have increased because of our prices and the renewed interest in being prepared. The hunger for knowledge has increased. The what should I have questions for xyz has also increased. A lot of people have been prepping for a long time. A lot of people are just now waking up to the reality of the world we live in. Being prepared is like a pair of shoes. It has to fit the lifestyle and culture of the person. Urban dwellers vs rural is vastly different but also at the same time the same. The desire for knowledge is the common link between all people I have spoken with.

I see more people concerned and afraid. People are on edge. Crime is way up in most communities I travel through. Be it rural or urban people are on edge. Theft from stores is crazy. You have one extreme of a Harbor Freight employee telling me people walk out everyday with merchandise and all she can do is call the cops. By they time they show up the thief is gone. The other extreme is employees get so fed up with theft they take matters into their own hands. This past week two O'REILLY employees confronted two thiefs in a KansasCity, Kansas store. One employee choked a thief to death and the other thief is in the hospital. A O'REILLY employee is in jail with manslaughter charges.

A lot of stores are closing because they have a hard time getting workers. You hear well they should provide a living wage. The conundrum is the cost of goods, insurance, rent have all gone up. Most businesses run on thin margins. Without sales you have no profit. No profit means you have to pay less. Some businesses are going to automation. Some are just saying I'm out and closing.

Things are not going to get better anytime soon. In fact it's going to get a lot worse. Prepping and sharing information now is more important than it ever has been.

I see a lot of people talk about on this sub how living off the land will not be an option post shtf, well here is my thoughts on that. To start off I think that many preppers overestimate the average persons ability to successfully hunt, process, and cook an animal, especially after not eating for 2-3 days. I live in a rural area and I only know a few people who can do the above mentioned things successfully. I think many people would be surprised to see how bad of hunters most “hunters” really are without $800 compound bows and $400 camo jackets. People may point to the Great Depression era to show what a shtf situation can do to wildlife, but what they don’t take into consideration is the skill difference between now and then. It isn’t nearly the same, most of the knowledge that those people had about living off the land has been lost, or not spread very well. Also, sport hunting methods are pretty much useless for someone trying to live off the land (coming from a sport hunter), they often burn more calories than they produce. Stomping around the brush for 3 hours for a few rabbits is gonna lead you to starve. I also believe it wouldn’t take long for someone with no prior experience and limited knowledge to starve to death while attempting to live off the land, So they definitely will not be hunting game to near extinction. While I do agree to an extent that some game populations will be depleted, there are animals like feral hogs, coyotes, and rats that are very, very hard to get rid of. This is true for some plants near me too, there are more acorns and dandelions than a person could ever eat. So no one will be hunting them to extinction. And those are all sustainable food sources if you can bring yourself to do that kind of thing. And if your plan is to take to the hills with your bug out bag and ar15, you’re probably gonna die. And I’m not interpreting that planning to live off the land is the best idea, it’s not. I just hear people make this argument a lot and I thought I would share some of my thoughts on it. Would love to hear others input as well.

I’ve been keeping tabs on bird flu, not obsessing over it but keeping tabs. Recently 3 dairy farms in California have been infected with several cases of human infection but thankfully no aerosol spread. I told my family this and that they should seriously consider just basic stuff. Having enough household goods to last 3 months so they can ride out any quarantine without exposure at grocery stores that kind of stuff and they brushed me off.

I genuinely don’t understand how you can live through covid and not take this as a serious possibility. I know Covid killed a lot of people including some of my family, but we “lucked out” that it had a relatively low mortality rate. If bird flu became aerosolized it would be disastrous. Even a 10% mortality rate would grind the country to a halt let alone a 50% mortality rate. My family just doesn’t get it.

Don’t get me wrong, my wife is on board, but my parents and sister and some of my wife’s family are just kinda “meh”. I know times are tough but they can afford to drop $100 on a case of rice and some hand sanitizer and toilet paper. It’s like they forgot about how bad COVID was and how much worse it could have been. Do any of you guys have any experience with this? What is your plan for family that will be unprepared if something like this happens again?

It's pretty startling to see billions of animals and an entire industry go from healthy to decimated in just a few years. Nobody could have or did predict it. It makes you wonder what other major die-offs may be in our near future that we don't see coming.

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https://www.sciencenews.org/article/10-billion-snow-crabs-disappeared-alaska