20 Million Americans Are Prepping Now. It's Not Going Very Well.

Everyone's an expert...

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There’s getting things wrong, and then there’s…

This:

A homesteader gives all of YouTube a tour of his rain catchment system. Unfortunately, it’s also a swimming pool for rats. Jerry-rigged pipes run into a water heater hemmed in by charred, torn mesh. “You have to be careful,” he said, talking about the time he almost burned down his house.

Meanwhile, a woman walks us through the deep pantry she’s been building for years. “I’m out of space,” she proudly announces while showing off the industrial freezer in her garage. She’s storing an entire cow.

She’s ready for the famine that’s coming…

Any day now…

Last but not least, a couple describes their new composting toilet on TikTok. It’s so easy. Just take out the bag, and then throw it in the trash. Of course. Why would you want to put compost in your compost pile?

Compost goes in the landfill.

Duh.

A hundred videos tell you how to make a dew catcher using techniques from ancient desert civilizations. All of them forget to mention this factoid: they were coastal deserts, with high humidity. These techniques won’t help you much anywhere else. And yet, countless experts tell me they’ll just throw up a mesh net in their yard and make water for free. They won’t. (I learned the hard way.)

Are you face-palming yet?

According to The Economist, nearly 20 million Americans are preparing for disasters now. That’s how they’re doing it. All this speaks to a new problem, one that seems distinctly American when you think about it.

Everyone is suddenly an armchair expert at prepping. There’s always money to be made by pretending to know how to do something and pretending to teach it to someone who only wants to pretend to learn anything.

How do you know what’s slop, and what’s real?

You have to try it.

If thousands of people actually tried to make a dew harvester in their yard, they would quickly find out why it doesn’t work that way.

Some advice:

When you see a video that says you can make a solar array out of cheap mirrors or harvest water from desert air, don’t just like it and then assume it works. Ask for details. Try to make it. See if it works. If it doesn’t, find out why. That’s what I’m doing. One idea at a time. It’s sad that millions of preppers are already liking slop videos promising them water from desert air.

That’s how 20 million Americans are prepping.

It won’t end well.