Can doomsday prepping be considered a hobby?

I think for most preppers, it’s not really a hobby but an intentional preparation for future catastrophes to help their families survive. Nothing wrong with it, if you have the extra money and time, and limit the paranoia.

If so, I can’t see it as being particularly rewarding.

@elbanditoroso Its like playing house. It’s rewarding. It also teaches me to budget and other domestic skills while looking cool. Preparing for tough times limits the sting of going hungry. It is a fun game to play to pass the time.

It’s mostly a hobby for these people.

It is more of a symptom of paranoid personality disorder.

@ragingloli Have you ever gone without food for even a short lenght of time? I’m almost always hungry except when I budget for more food. I would like to know how to budget better for emergencies so that minor things don’t cause me to starve. One day in the future I hope ro have enough skill so I don’t go hungry and don’t need to ration my limited resources.

@RedDeerGuy1
Doomsday prepping and storing resources to have reserves, are completely different things.
A squirrel that hoards nuts, does it to have resources for the winter, not because it believes that armageddon is imminent.
Doomsday preppers are not just hoarding food, they are hoarding weapons and ammo, are building bunkers and fortifications, because they are convinced that a complete societal collapse is imminent. Some even have fantasies of murdering their neighbours to steal their food, when the apocalypse finally comes.
They are not reasonably precautionary, they are mentally ill.

@ragingloli Ok thanks. I will change from doomsday prepping to storing reserves. Do you have any tips? Or websites or books to read?

I still think it is a good hobby to start off with.

@RedDeerGuy1 haha, good reply!!! There’s nothing wrong with being prepared for the worst. Better than being utterly dependent on the grid and internet, those people are screwed if even the electricity goes off….lol

@RedDeerGuy1
Plant a garden, rear some chicken, build a cystern.

@ragingloli Thanks. I will look into getting some space to start a community garden. Or even in my communal back yard space. Just one rarely used parking lot.

I think it is. If the worst happens, it won’t do a single bit of good.

No, it should be considered as another example of how americans are living in abject fear…get a fucking grip.

Sure. I beats waiting for the sky to fall…

Remember after the 911 attack, advice given for possible chemical attack? Go to a small room with no widows or a small one, likely the bathroom. Cover all cracks such as around the door with plastic and duct tape. Have a kit of food and water ready so you can take it in with you quickly.

Loli, you believe movies too much.
For someone who claims to hate our country, you show quite a bit of interest.
I actually know people who have bunkers.
They are not lunatics, nor do they believe an attack is imminent. For most, it is intended not only for possible attack, but other possibilities, like weather.
Ive never been offered a spot in one should the need ever arise, but I’m OK with that.

Yeah, it can be a hobby. It serves quite a few purposes. It teaches you how to plan for the future, it teaches you ways to organize, it teaches you discipline and it teaches you how to prioritize. Despite the belief of our buddy @ragingloli, not all preppers are hording guns and ammo. Most have some means of protecting themselves or being able to hunt small game, but many are preparing for things like disruption of basic services due to something like a hurricane. If you lose power, how will you cook, how will you entertain yourself, how will you provide water for you and your family if the city water plant is impacted, how will you flush the toilet….all these are things that many preppers consider. I know during the last hurricane, we lost power for several days.

I think the biggest advantage is doomsday preppers could survive in the wilderness longer than the average modern homo sapien.

I am actually working on a fiction piece now where my characters are stuck in wilderness with no hope of rescue. They have no tools whatsoever, for cooking, hunting or first aid. They are roughing it to the highest extreme, and not one of them has any survival skills.
If this project sells, it might inspire a few people to make a hobby of learning a few aspects of survival.
I think it is a very clever idea, to learn some skills which could one day save your life.
You should check out Cody Lundin. You may already know him from his survival show. He doesn’t do it anymore, but they still show reruns. He has a Facebook page.
He is kind of weird, but he really knows how to use what you have to stay alive. He never wears shoes, not in the desert, or rain forests, or two feet of snow!
He lives in Arizona, I think in a tent. He teaches classes. You could learn anything you want to know about survival from that guy.

@Dutchess_III Ha, ha, ha…They might be able to survive out in the wilderness longer than anyone else but how they gonna get all of that stuff out there?? They can’t store it out in the wilderness beforehand because someone will find and steal it. They can’t have it all at their house because when the time comes to move out to the wilderness, the roads will be jam-packed with everyone else who’s trying to get out to the wilderness.

Some people don’t have to go far for their wilderness.
I lived in Omaha where I had plenty of wilderness around well within the city. I could have worked nights building a sizeable underground structure without ever being seen. I was not far from two locations to fish, and I had deer, turkey, and squirrels in my yard every day. I could have killed an animal a day, cooked and/or frozen the meat.
There are many city and rural dwellings where there is reasonable access to wilderness.

In time of dire emergency, zoo animals are in season.

So I live in hurricane land. When a big storm hits, it can take out power and water for days. Knowing how to create fire, cook food on an open fire, filter water, etc are all valuable skills to own. Suddenly suburbia looks like the wilderness.