Doomsday Preppers: Are They Mentally Ill?

[Evo]

This is so sick. This show focuses on 4 families that believe in crackpot doomsday scenarios. The first family is preparing for a coronal mass ejection from the sun in 2012 that will destroy most of the earth.

They have two children, should they be allowed to expose children to such insane beliefs? He just announced at dinner with his two small children "a toast to the end of the world".

They have drills to make their children get into hazmat suits in under 6 minutes. The children live in constant fear.

Isn't this child abuse? Should mentally ill people be allowed to do this to children?

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/doomsday-preppers-6202/Overview

Another family -

Mother: We have no other purpose in life than to prepare for armageddon.

Her young son: "I don't know if I can't eat this at the end of world."

 

[rootX]

Just yesterday I was talking to my friend how Nat Geo is the only channel left that is not investing in stupid reality shows

 

[turbo]

Is it real? Is this not a TV farce? If yes and no, the children should be given new homes with actual human parents.

BTW, if the Sun is going to go "tantrum" on us and destroy the Earth why make children get into hazmat suits? Does that bonehead believe that less than a paper's depth of Tyvek is going to protect his family from a nova?

 

[Evo]

Just yesterday I was talking to my friend how Nat Geo is the only channel left that is not investing in stupid reality shows

The entire wesbsite has nothing but crackpot doomsday shows. Just look at it!

Ends of the earth

Forecast 2012 prophecies of the Maya and others

Earth out of whack? Pole shift cataclysm

Apocolypse How? Disasters that might strike anytime

Prophecy of destruction - discover Ancient Maya Text

 

[micromass]

Oh my god, that's so sad for the children

People who want to adopt children need to go through several tests and get checked very well. As it should be.

But for some reason, most loonies out here can have children without anybody checking whether they are good parents...

 

[Evo]

And Nat Geo is encouraging them, saying, our experts say these people have done well to prepare themselves for doomsday, and here are a few more insane things they should do!1111111

I'm in complete shock. Has the world gone mad? Is the pursuit of the almighty dollar, screw reality, all that matters anymore? What can we do to stop the insanity?

If they post the text of the show, I will post a link to it.

 

[micromass]

And Nat Geo is encouraging them, saying, our experts say these people have done well to prepare themselves for doomsday, and here are a few more insane things they should do!1111111

What? Who in Earth are these "experts"?? This is seriously sickening.

 

[Evo]

What? Who in Earth are these "experts"?? This is seriously sickening.

They don't say who the *experts* are.

Nat Geo had credibility and is why this is so frightening. They're telling people that doomsday scenarios are real and preparation should be started now. The experts' only criticism of the doomsday crackpots is that they haven't included their neighbors, so run a risk of being attacked when doomsday comes.

 

[Evo]

A person that is training his family to kill their neighbors because they think the economy will crash and food will disappear and their neighbors will come after their food.

The *experts: You might want to better hide your complex and increase your numbers, otherwise you have done a great job of preparing for survival.

Watching this I feel at some point they will announce that it's just a sick joke. But with only a few minutes left, I guess not.

The next family is preparing for a nuclear holocaust on Omaha, Nebraska by terrorists. If Omaha is hit by nukes, he has a backpack with what he needs for 72 hours to get to his bunker. ROFL!

In the event of a nuclear holocaust, it's nice to have a comfortable place to saty. We have ramen and mac n cheese.

He also has small children that are subjected to this insanity.

The expert says this is a great idea, you just need more water.

 

[Proton Soup]

is it any worse than the Duck and Cover nuclear holocaust campaign from the government years ago?

kids'll be ok. we got through y2k and we'll get through this, too.

 

[waht]

The yearning for things to be over and the end of the world will never stop.

 

[Evo]

is it any worse than the Duck and Cover nuclear holocaust campaign from the government years ago?

This is nothing like that.

kids'll be ok. we got through y2k and we'll get through this, too.

I don't see any way that the kids will be ok. They are told they are about to die and are forced into rigorous daily training to prepare to kill friends and neighbors.

 

[Willowz]

Guess they are really desperate for money.

 

[HeLiXe]

Guess they are really desperate for money.

Yeah it's different from any other programming ... a new twist.

 

[rootX]

A person that is training his family to kill their neighbors because they think the economy will crash and food will disappear and their neighbors will come after their food.

The *experts: You might want to better hide your complex and increase your numbers, otherwise you have done a great job of preparing for survival.

Watching this I feel at some point they will announce that it's just a sick joke. But with only a few minutes left, I guess not.

The next family is preparing for a nuclear holocaust on Omaha, Nebraska by terrorists. If Omaha is hit by nukes, he has a backpack with what he needs for 72 hours to get to his bunker. ROFL!

He also has small children that are subjected to this insanity.

The expert says this is a great idea, you just need more water.

I think all these shows are a result of efforts in increasing science and technology awareness among the general public. As people see that science and technology are playing important role in their lives, they are forcing to learn them from their personal perspectives. (This is my best personal explanation for why there are so many reality shows on Discovery, Nat , ..)

 

[Pyrrhus]

I've seen this trend lately. I used to watch Discovery, and the History channel quite a bit during my high school years. Now, I just avoid them... It seems Reality TV Shows have become the favorite form of entertainment. Welcome to watered down "science" TV packaged for ratings

 

[Proton Soup]

ok, I've seen it. most of it, anyway. got a little bored. i most liked the guy growing cardboard-flavored fish in his aquachickenarium. he's a bubble off, but mostly not unharmless.

 

[Willowz]

I've seen this trend lately. I used to watch Discovery, and the History channel quite a bit during my high school years. Now, I just avoid them... It seems Reality TV Shows have become the favorite form of entertainment. Welcome to watered down "science" TV packaged for ratings

Yeah. They should soon just show pourn on every channel. Nah, but overall it's not that bad. You have discovery science. "How do they do it" is pretty sweet.

 

[ideasrule]

I've watched the trailers on the webpage, and it seems like an interesting show. Call me a nerd and/or a pedophile, but all I could focus on was the car that ran on wood gas, and the cute daughter. It's sad that she's being raised in this type of family.

That said, there's no shortage of stupid people in the world. At least this family seems mostly harmless--they're not promoting hatred or intolerance, which is more than can be said for much of the world's population.

 

[Andre]

IMO The issue is simple, though the solution is not so simple: given a world population where millions if not billions of people don't know much science but do know the story of Chicken Little, public opinion says Chicken Little should make all the big policy decisions.

Right

My two cents

Maybe because most mammals are herd animals by instinct, they need a common threat to unite against, like wildebeasts do when the lions approach. So in order to make friends you have to have a common threat or enemy, that requires scaremongering, if you don't have a threat, you just create one. Believing the scaremongering promotes the social bonds: we are all in this together, let's unite.

And since the program makers interact with public opinion, you just get a positive feedback loop between scaremongering and desire to be scared.

Just my two cents

 

[clancy688]

They have drills to make their children get into hazmat suits in under 6 minutes. The children live in constant fear.

I'm wondering, what's the purpose of those drills? I mean, according to their believes Earth is going to be destroyed by a giant sun hickup anyway.
So they'll die no matter whether they're sunbathing naked at the beach or sitting in deep-earth bunkers dressed in hazmat suits...

 

[Borek]

This world is coming to an end. Not exactly the way these people think.

 

[Hyperspace2]

This world is coming to an end. Not exactly the way these people think.

Every generation of human beings think that the world is coming to an end.

None of them were wright and I guarantee no one will be wright about that.

 

[Borek]

Every generation of human beings think that the world is coming to an end.

None of them were wright and I guarantee no one will be wright about that.

You missed the point. World already came to several ends - think Roman Empire, think Soviet Union and so on. It gets replaced by something else, some other version of the "world", but it is the end of the world as we know it.

There is a saying in Poland "the further you go up, the more noise you make when you fall". We have been never that high in the history, it is going to be a very painful landing. Not tomorrow, not in a 5 years, but Junior or Evo Child can already witness it.

In general I am an optimist, but stories like this one make me reevaluate my thinking about humanity future.

 

[Evo]

I'm wondering, what's the purpose of those drills? I mean, according to their believes Earth is going to be destroyed by a giant sun hickup anyway.
So they'll die no matter whether they're sunbathing naked at the beach or sitting in deep-earth bunkers dressed in hazmat suits...

I know, if the sun did send a huge coronal mass toward earth, these people would be fried before they'd know.

I wonder how many naive and/or mentally unstable people have been sent into a panic by this stupid show?

 

[BobG]

I know, if the sun did send a huge coronal mass toward earth, these people would be fried before they'd know.

I wonder how many naive and/or mentally unsdtable people have been sent into a panic by this stupid show?

I'm not sure what the purpose of the hazmat suits are, but they wouldn't be fried because the Earth's magnetic field protects us from most of the radiation that accompanies CMEs. It's only the radiation that moves at the speed of light - the same speed as the radio waves from our solar observing satellites that warn us, so it's true they wouldn't know about the radiation until it arrived even if the Earth's magnetic field didn't protect us from it.

The mass in coronal mass ejection moves significantly slower, meaning they'd actually have a few hours to get to their shelter to protect against that part.

You have some high energy particles that make it directly through the Earth's atmosphere, but most of those high energy particles follow the Earth's magnetic field toward the poles and give us spectacular auroras that can extend much further south than usual.

Most of the particles from a CME deflect around the Earth and follow the night time side of the Earth's magnetic field (which is warped from the Sun's ejections), and then come back to the Earth on the night time side (kind of like the backflow of water around a rock in the rapids).

In other words, they have plenty of time.

They're correct that CMEs have the potential to disrupt the power grid, causing massive blackouts, and so on. What they ignore is that power companies also realize this potential and try to mitigate the risk as best as possible. It's not impossible for a CME to cause massive blackouts, but it's unlikely - and even more unlikely that it would cause a massive collapse of the power grid that would result in the breakdown of civilization in the US and Canada (Europe would be less vulnerable, since their power lines tend to be shorter than those in the US - it's long, long power lines that create the biggest vulnerability).

And they at least put the highest risk at a reasonable time (tail end of solar max) and the upcoming solar max is predicted to be the most severe since we achieved such a high dependence on our electrical power grids.

In other words, they've taken a little bit of legitimate knowledge and worry and exaggerated it to absurd levels.

 

[turbo]

It's scary how bad cable channels have gotten, even if there is a smidgen of truth behind the exaggerations. Scaring people about the possibility of a geo-magnetic pole "flip" is a good example, since it takes thousands of years on average for a field reversal to take place. Hardly a "flip".

 

[Viktor_Reznov]

This is so sick. This show focuses on 4 families that believe in crackpot doomsday scenarios. The first family is preparing for a coronal mass ejection from the sun in 2012 that will destroy most of the earth.

They have two children, should they be allowed to expose children to such insane beliefs? He just announced at dinner with his two small children "a toast to the end of the world".

They have drills to make their children get into hazmat suits in under 6 minutes. The children live in constant fear.

Isn't this child abuse? Should mentally ill people be allowed to do this to children?

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/doomsday-preppers-6202/Overview

Another family -

Mother: We have no other purpose in life than to prepare for armageddon.

Her young son: "I don't know if I can't eat this at the end of world."

Hi, I found this forum post looking for a way to watch the show on the internet and I found your point of view interesting.

I am nowhere near as prepared as the folks in the show but I understand where their ideas come from and where yours might.

My quick take on the show is that they sensationalized it to get better ratings, yet kept it somewhat informative and grounded in something.

They have two children, should they be allowed to expose children to such insane beliefs? He just announced at dinner with his two small children "a toast to the end of the world".

People expose their children to much wilder beliefs on a daily basis IMHO. A solar flare knocking out the grid is a remote possibility but it makes good television.

One thing you have to consider is how they are exposing their children to practical biology by having their own ecosystem in the backyard. It's not for everyone but it teaches valuable lessons...

Personally I don't see the point of MOPP suits, if someone is using a gas based weapon that requires them most of the detection equipment is scarce if not impossible to obtain. Gas masks alone are not a bad idea, chemical spills from trains, trucks and various industries can be dangerous and a mask will allow someone to get out of the area.



The whole point of preparing is to be better off if I lost my job, there is a power outage, a snow storm, a hurricane, water being cut or any other annoyance. When I say it like that does it sound as outlandish as in the show?

Questions welcome ;)

 

[micromass]

Hi, I found this forum post looking for a way to watch the show on the internet and I found your point of view interesting.

I am nowhere near as prepared as the folks in the show but I understand where their ideas come from and where yours might.

My quick take on the show is that they sensationalized it to get better ratings, yet kept it somewhat informative and grounded in something.

I didn't think it was informative and grounded, it was fear mongering at best. How is it informative that people teach their kids to kill their neighbours because they might be a threat??

People expose their children to much wilder beliefs on a daily basis IMHO. A solar flare knocking out the grid is a remote possibility but it makes good television.

One thing you have to consider is how they are exposing their children to practical biology by having their own ecosystem in the backyard. It's not for everyone but it teaches valuable lessons...

I can teach my kids practical biology without scaring them or telling them that they will die soon. It's not because there might be positive consequences that the entire thing becomes reasonable. You might as well say that Charles Manson was a good person because he teached people how to cooperate and how to live in groups.

Personally I don't see the point of MOPP suits, if someone is using a gas based weapon that requires them most of the detection equipment is scarce if not impossible to obtain. Gas masks alone are not a bad idea, chemical spills from trains, trucks and various industries can be dangerous and a mask will allow someone to get out of the area.


The whole point of preparing is to be better off if I lost my job, there is a power outage, a snow storm, a hurricane, water being cut or any other annoyance. When I say it like that does it sound as outlandish as in the show?

Yes, it sounds outlandish to save food and water for two years in advance because you're scared of a power outage or a hurricane. Those people are preparing themselves for the end of society and they are scaring their children and they are preparing them to kill their neighbours. If that isn't outlandish, then I don't know what is...

 

[Viktor_Reznov]

I didn't think it was informative and grounded, it was fear mongering at best. How is it informative that people teach their kids to kill their neighbours because they might be a threat??

Do you remember the LA Riots? How did the Korean shop owners survive the mob?

It's also a good practice to train your children when you have deadly tools in the house.

I can teach my kids practical biology without scaring them or telling them that they will die soon. It's not because there might be positive consequences that the entire thing becomes reasonable. You might as well say that Charles Manson was a good person because he teached people how to cooperate and how to live in groups.

The whole point of preparing is that so your children and yourself do not assume room temperature in case of a problem. If you are ready why should you be scared?

Those people have built a nearly self-sustaining ecosystem in their back yards, not murdered human beings.

Yes, it sounds outlandish to save food and water for two years in advance because you're scared of a power outage or a hurricane. Those people are preparing themselves for the end of society and they are scaring their children and they are preparing them to kill their neighbours. If that isn't outlandish, then I don't know what is...

Once again, TV show dramatic examples of people preparing for nearly impossible scenarios, I don't have 2 years of food! When I buy cans of something I eat I buy two instead of one, so if it's not on special next week I don't have to buy it and just buy when it's cheap!

 

[micromass]

Do you remember the LA Riots? How did the Korean shop owners survive the mob?

No idea, I don't live in america. We don't seem to have much riots here.

It's also a good practice to train your children when you have deadly tools in the house.

It's better practise not to have deadly tools in the house. What's the point? Have deadly tools in the house only increases the chance that something goes wrong to you! (I just know I'm going to get much reaction on this, but I stand by what I say)

The whole point of preparing is that so your children and yourself do not assume room temperature in case of a problem. If you are ready why should you be scared?

Ask them. They are scared and they are scaring their children that everybody will die soon. Let children be children, don't start training them for things that might happen. Let them be naive and innocent.

Those people have built a nearly self-sustaining ecosystem in their back yards, not murdered human beings.

I have nothing against a self-sustaining ecosystem. I have something against the people scaring their children to dead and preparing them to kill their neighbours.
If you want a self-sustaining ecosystem to get better and fresh food, or because you want to teach children to live "in harmony with nature", then that's find. But don't go scaring them to dead.

Once again, TV show dramatic examples of people preparing for nearly impossible scenarios, I don't have 2 years of food! When I buy cans of something I eat I buy two instead of one, so if it's not on special next week I don't have to buy it and just buy when it's cheap!

Fine, I have nothing against this. But I don't want national geographic to show us all these dramatic examples. And I certainly don't want "experts" that encourage them. They should tell them that they're abusing their children.

 

[Evo]

Viktor, I appreciate you speaking with us. You sound more rational than the families on tv. What is your opinion on these *preppers* stockpiling guns and teaching their family to shoot to kill humans, (and they were usung tagets with human outlines for practice), not surprised that Nat Geo has hidden that segment from their website.

Do you, or do you plan to build an underground complex, do you expect you will need to kill off people in your community if a doomsday scenario happened? What to you would be a doomsday scenario?

 

[Proton Soup]

Viktor, I appreciate you speaking with us. You sound more rational than the families on tv. What is your opinion on these *preppers* stockpiling guns and teaching their family to shoot to kill humans, (and they were usung tagets with human outlines for practice), not surprised that Nat Geo has hidden that segment from their website.

Do you, or do you plan to build an underground complex, do you expect you will need to kill off people in your community if a doomsday scenario happened? What to you would be a doomsday scenario?

there's nothing wrong with learning to defend yourself from other humans.

 

[Willowz]

What about Tom Cruise and his $10 million bunker under his house. Built for the same 'reason' this family is. I saw a program showing how some bunker manufacturer is getting tons of orders after the Fukushima disaster. Everyone is so insecure and atomized. Might as well hide in a bunker for the rest of your life. Not

 

[Evo]

there's nothing wrong with learning to defend yourself from other humans.

There is when you are expecting hoards of people attacking you in your underground bunker because of some imaginary doomsday event.

That's irrational.