While I suspect a certain level of sarcasm was intended, a valid point for discussion does exist within your comment - The idea that preparing is merely forwarding supplies to your local warlord. This basically assumes a TEOTWAWKI scenario, which should be very far down the list of any preparation. It is always recommended in preparation circles to get to know your neighbors and integrate yourself into your local community. Under any reasonable set of circumstances, a well functioning local community should be able to stand up to any war lord types and would be the atoms from which a new society is formed.

The classic advice goes something like this - in a survival situation you will be killed by the first critical problem you can't solve yourself. Communities form for a reason and knowing the geography of your operational area includes the social geography.

I find it funny that the 'lone wolf' survivor is the archetype of a prepper. It doesn't matter how much food, water, guns or ammo you have. Isolation makes you vulnerable. You cannot hope to have a proper 'watch', even with a small family. I'd expect 'tribe' size groups to be much more successful.

There are a lot of people, some that I know in person, who live in a fantasy of surviving on their own. I've tried, through casual conversation, to get them to understand that you want to build a community around you for mutual benefit. From what I've seen it comes down to a few different things.

1. Some people have trust issues, possibly to a clinical level. They don't trust their neighbors to not be zombies etc knocking at the door to take their stuff. Ironically, when you spread awareness of preparatory issues through community building, you reduce the chance of that happening.

2. Some people are overly focused on one or two particular scenarios and 'optimize' their and preparations on those scenarios. E.g. A real-life neighbor has CBRN gear, firearms, and food but doesn't have a chainsaw or basic hand tools.

Like most stereotypes, the lone preppper has some truth associated with it. It really comes down to definitions. I'm not prepared for TEOTWAWKI by any means, but if I lose my job, or we get hit with a hurricane, or my car dies, or my house burns down, I've got reasonable contingency plans for those. Am I a prepper?

You forgot: 3. America has built this idea that you only have value if you are a rugged individual and doing anything for someone else or having someone else do anything for you makes you a devil worshiper who should be ignored and cast aside. Communities are worthless and only built so your lazy neighbor can profit from your "hard work" and you are the best person to understand your problems and needs

Well, obviously, the answer is a large family. I have 12 kids. Keeping watch should be easy.

Dogs can help. There is a trade-off to be had. Larger dogs can actively participate in defense, but they require lots of food. Geese might be a better option; they seem to be happy eating grass.

Yes. I think this proverb applies. "Want to go fast go alone, want to go far go together"

If that would be the case prepare to defend your stash or at least take some of the bandits with you like many preppers do.

Don't be an easy target.

Attackers have the element of surprise. Unless you are part of a group yourself, you cannot hope to have enough people to keep a sufficient watch. The isolated 'living off the land' types with big stockpiles of supplies would be easy targets.

How are you going to be surprised sitting in your home in case of emergency with not much other to do?

Gun guys aren't liked here but if somebody is going to get a nasty surprise it would be the bad guys.

If you are a hard target bandits will most likely choose another one.

You have to sleep. You have to get water and maintain certain other things outside your home from time to time. You may get sick and need additional rest. Or to go and get firewood etc.

If 10 people really really want your food and supplies, they will burn you out or crash a vehicle into your home, or drop a tree on it. Alone you are nothing, you are much more in a community.

Think minute men vs a lone wolf. It is no contest.

Build a better home, learning from the story Three Little Pigs. Don't build from straw or sticks.

See https://www.monolithic.org/ for the right way to build. Crashing a vehicle does nothing. One of those homes, at the bottom of a hill, withstood a run-away 18-wheeler with only cosmetic damage. Fire could damage a layer of insulation, but only if the dome isn't covered in stucco or better. Get the impact-resistant windows plus shutters, and get the tornado-resistant door.

Robbers will choose the easyiest route. They just want stuff and not assasinate specifically someone, they will rob somebody other if they find a hard target. Probably somebody like you. It works the same with muggings. 2 people is enough to get some sleep and run errands.

The thing is, bad guys have guns too. You can't really defend against many thugs if they take you by surprise. Somebody could just wait somewhere near you house and snipe you, it's impossible to detect everything all the time if you leave your house or go near windows even once. And bad guys can use even explosives to break into your house.

Don't get me wrong though, since guns are extremely useful for defense and most of the bad guys aren't very tough. Surviving without a community in a serious scenario is just impossible.

How often are those preppers actually trained to take on several armed attackers?

It's not often. Having ten firearms and a million bullets doesn't help you much if you're a semi-crazed loner who vastly overestimates your abilities and usefullness

How often are those attackers actually trained to take on a heavily armed semi-crazed target in his own home and surroundings?

> In the event of a real emergency, preppers will be a convenient source of resources and supplies to be exploited by whatever roving bands are marauding the landscape. If you nerd out on preparedness, you're just increasing the chance that the local Blood King will turn your skull into a goblet when he comes looking for the stash of canned goods you bragged about online in the Before Times.

That's why meatspace social networking is part of prepping for some people: they recognize that, if there is a collapse, the way to survive isn't just to have stuff for yourself, its to have a well-prepared tribe. To be (well, hopefully kinder and gentler than the title sounds, for most preppers who take this strategy) the Blood King, rather than worry about him.

In real emergencies people tend to be solidaric and help each other out.

Yeah, usually. It's a common trope, but also a pretty tired one.

We have a pretty long history of plague, famine, war, and other "apocalyptic" scenarios, and in almost all accounts, people tend to help each other, and most would die of hunger rather than steal from an innocent person.

The main problem is that what we are very good at is building narratives that portray some class of "others" as not-so-innocent, and therefore, deserving all the pillage, rape, and murder we can muster. That's variously the neighboring nation, some minority ethnic group, political opponents, the rich, the clergy... you name them, there's some brutal revolution or war targeting 'em.

So, basically, the worst-case scenario is ending up on the wrong side of the pitchfork if / when the revolution comes. Something that, quite frankly, the Silicon Valley should be mindful of.