There are two kinds of preppers in the world.
The first is the type who take their craft seriously. These are the people who read or learn about new skills, and then actually practice those skills.
If they read about a new food storage method, for instance, they actually try to store food using that method.
If they learn a simple survival skill such as how to get a fire going with a magnesium flint striker, they’ll buy a magnesium flint striker and head out into the woods and (safely) practice getting a fire going.
The second type are the type who read or learn about new skills… and then do nothing about it.
These are the people who read a lot of disaster preparedness and survival books, follow a lot of forums and social media pages related to the topic, and may even be ardently passionate about the subject of preparing for disaster.
But at the end of the day, they still do little to nothing to practice their skills.
And truth be told, there are more of the second type of preppers than the first type.
What Is a Real Prepper?
Here’s another way to put it. Prepping is all about learning and then taking action. The second type of preppers as described above will learn, but they won’t take much action. And that’s a big problem.
The reality is that many people who call themselves preppers, primarily those who fall under the second category as described above, get excited about the concept of prepping. These people are not real preppers.
Related: How To Start a Prepper Group in Your Community
They may rightfully believe that there is good reason to prepare for an upcoming potential disaster based on ongoing conflicts and events going on around the world.
Then they read books that teach you how to stock up on food and water and make it last over the long term, how to store ammunition, how to fortify and defend their homes against marauders, and how to select a bug out location and then bug out of town to get to that location.
But those same people won’t actually stock up on much food and water. They won’t actually make any real fortifications to make their homes more defensible. They won’t really grow or preserve their own food.
They’ll keep reading books and articles and watching videos on how to do the above, but they’ll do so largely out of entertainment rather than any substantial desire to actually put what they learn into practice.
This is exactly what happened during the covid pandemic. People were unprepared and they panicked.
They went to grocery stores and supermarkets and in a matter of days, basic necessities like soap and toilet paper, among many other items, were stripped from the shelves completely.