I wouldn't fight it that way. I'd make a point that there's no negative to being a little prepared. If you cycle your food you will eventually eat the food whether something happens or not and even if it's not for any society breakdown, natural disasters happen.

Whilst I think everybody should have some little bits of preparation for emergencies, why the connection to comet Ison?

"my definition of a "zombie" is a hungry desperate person who will kill you for your food/stuff" That is very interesting, because my husband and I call the creepy, drugged out homeless/weirdos that wander around town at night "zombies"! Sometimes we have to go out at odd hours and see these.. weird, aimless people walking around, shiftless types who look like they'd stab you for a cigarette. I also noticed a LOT of creeps in those mobility scooters about. We had gone through a Del Taco drive thru around 12:45 am, we were just exiting through their circuitous exit driveway and some shirtless bum in a scooter was RIGHT THERE as we left, before we could pick up speed. He was WAITING for us to exit so he could beg for spare change or whatever. These guys (and some gals) have seriously started us fantasizing about creating a type of "zombie eradicator": a "zap gun" of sorts- aim it at the actor and he/she mysteriously and instantly vaporizes.

On topic, I wonder if these zombie movies are in a way preparing us FOR a "zombie invasion": all of these people on assistance, and the dregs of society suddenly finding themselves without state support- say, if the $$ money pot they live off of should dry up instantly- a REAL shit hits the fan possibility! Imagine everyone who lives off of welfare, SSI, SSDI, and food stamps finds their gravy train ran out of coal. The news comes on with a Special Report: USA is broke! Sorry, all your checks will bounce, each man for himself. Wow- my husband actually believes this is going to happen in real life, and SOON. He thinks all of these zombie invasion movies are actually a kind of secret hint as to what's to come. Thoughts?

No, don't assume it will just be bums that will be dangerous in the event of a massive emergency. Everyone will run out of food and water in a week or two without The National Guard bringing it in and it's possible in massive devastation that won't happen.

• If you do stock food, never tell a soul unless they live in the house and they will not talk about it to anyone.

If you broadcast the fact you have a large stock of food to the neighbours, you will be the source of the food whether you want to share it or not. And people will kill you for it if it means their family gets to eat when they are starving to death.

It's a lot easier to feed them than shoot them. My door's open, come on in, lets start building a community together. It could work that way as well, all depends where you are.

I'm with you 100% on what you've said, and it's the first time I've ever seen someone else who identifies that "Zombies" as such are those that are desperate and want what you have (sheeple remnants).

The only way to deal with people (my wife is same) is to not deal with it, pre-pair all you want but just keep it to yourself, to be honest this is the best advice because if something did happen in the future the less people that know about how "prepared" you are the better.

/r/collapse and /r/postcollapse

Dunno what to tell you in regards to family communication. Least you could do, though, is read through those subs and remember the three B's: Beans, Bullets, and Bandaids

Tell them it's in case you loose your job.

I would also recommend ceramic water filters. "Rain water is free, it just isn't clean." When they ask.

Have you tried showing them how a simple windy storm brought NY to it's knees?

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Apparently people in the south are natural "peppers". Hurricane Hugo was just two weeks of camping and cutting firewood for our neighborhood.

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My Parent's stopped doing it for some reason; said "it's weird now to do that." I followed up with, your parents did it, NY didn't and look at how that turned out. We never had issues with food when we didn't have power for weeks growing up, and now it's weird?"

That just got them thinking about it and how it became weird to "prepare". They have started to get back into the habit of it since then.

Yeah I feel your pain. My wife use to think I was nuts how many canned goods I had. I let her get rid of a lot of them (donated them to schools or something), then she experienced her first Ice Storm.

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That was enough to change her mind on just about everything.

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When I was talking to my Parents about this, it was very creepy from both sides. Once they started thinking about it they couldn't figure out why they didn't feel that way anymore. They still live in the "country", they still have ice storms, they couldn't figure it out.

You must do your work secretly and silently.

I say it's crazy NOT to have some necessary ingredients on hand in case things go bad for whatever reason and the family has to feed itself, protect itself and /or rough it for a while.

Nature could easily take out power indefinitely... a pandemic could keep people sealed inside.... panic could cause unprepared neighbors to act irrationally... I've seen how fast bread, milk and beer disappear from the shelves anytime our weatherman predicts a rare snow here....

We have insurance for a house fire that rarely happens, why not a stock of food, water, lights and heat for dire circumstances? It's stupid not to.

Hide your preps elsewhere and never speak of them again. If SHTF, tell your family that you are going to the neighbor's house to ask for food and never come back.

That's my plan ever since my wife called me paranoid. The dog is coming with me though! He can have my wife's rations.

Did people learn anything from Hurricanes Katrina or Sandy? I imagine the people in those areas that were prepared "paranoid" were laughing pretty hard when SHTF.

Its hard enough to prepare for yourself, don't let those walking dead type shows fool you, a team of 20 people without their own supplies doesnt make things that much easier, go camping and see how fun it is when everyone's asking for some of your beans and water.

No, don't assume it will just be bums that will be dangerous in the event of a massive emergency. Everyone will run out of food and water in a week or two without The National Guard bringing it in and it's possible in massive devastation that won't happen.

• If you do stock food, never tell a soul unless they live in the house and they will not talk about it to anyone.

If you broadcast the fact you have a large stock of food to the neighbours, you will be the source of the food whether you want to share it or not. And people will kill you for it if it means their family gets to eat when they are starving to death.