Most prepping is basically LARP. They aren’t preparing for survival in an actual emergency, they’re preparing for Walking Dead or Red Dawn. If you pay attention to the stuff they emphasize, it’s weapons, hardware, solar panels for long term power loss, and tons of survival food. It’s probably more a masterbation to the image of themself as a tough, manly survivalist who can take care of his family alone and can absolutely shoot someone in the face.

The problem with the pandemic is that it’s was a feminine disaster. The solutions did not feel masculine. It wasn’t “go shoot something”, it wasn’t go out to the woods and hunt. It wasn’t man craft kinds of stuff using tools and high tech gear. The power didn’t even go out. It was basically boring. And the stuff you had to do outside of the mask were normal things. Stay home, wash your hands, and so on. And the mask didn’t feel manly. So they decided the real threat was something more like the movies — the big bad government doing a psyop. Now they could be brave and defiantly demand their rights. Now it looks like 1776.

I think real prepping (and you can find sensible ideas on ready.gov or any site that gives advice on getting ready for natural disasters) has some usefulness. You don’t want to be down to your last can of beans when a disaster strikes.