I like that. Maybe that should become the ETS slogan.

Unfortunately, that is very true. Among many, many examples, it's a sad day when a potential employer must have access to your Facebook account before offering you a job...

"Were they real world survivalists or folks from Government ABC agencies looking to discover if you own a match case?"

Match cases! I have lots and lots of match cases, none of them registered. When match cases are outlawed, only outlaws will have match cases.....

The very rational goal of prepping does combine at times with a fairly anti-social attitude. I suppose it depends upon individual perceptions of potential emergencies.

Personally, I have experienced many more situations where G'vment helped greatly in emergencies than otherwise.

Ditto for me.

The government, like any large organization will often be cumbersome in responding to fast breaking events, just by virtue of its size. People mistake that cumbersomeness for deliberate evilness, which is not generally the case, in my opinion.

Meh, I just stay true to myself. At some point, I draw a line and not worry about what the masses may think about me. Otherwise, I'll eventually find myself pinned in a corner with my mouth shut.

I agree with Monanero and hikermor. There are some serious whackjobs who call themselves "survivalists" and "preppers". Even though only a tiny percentage of them move from harmless talk to actual antisocial actions, that is enough to to tar all of us with the same brush.

One reason is that the whackjobs make the best stories, so are most reported on by the media. However, it isn't just due to lazy reporting on the part of the media. Any reporter who surveys various "survivalist" web sites and forums will find on many of them a near total emphasis on guns, military equipment, conspiracy theories, and various rather unlikely TEOTWAWKI social collapse scenarios. It isn't surprising that the press tends to write stories about this.

Don't misunderstand me. Firearms can be a very useful survival tool. I own more than a few. Some military gear can be useful in civilian type survival situations. And social collapse can occur in some (fortunately rather rare) cases. However, the vast majority of emergency and survival situations don't involve guns, body armor, and zombies.

What drew me to ETS in the first place, and what keeps me here is that most participants here tend to focus on more likely situations and more practical everyday solutions. Storms, wildfires, earthquakes, and getting lost in the woods happen all the time. Zombie apocalypses not so much.

Problem is, when the government starts falsely labeling you as anti-government, it's somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophesy. You may start hating the government for intentionally mislabeling and trying to demonize you for no valid reason. Example: I'd never given a thought to paying my taxes, until the government labeled me and other upper-middle-class folks as "not paying my fair share", despite well over half of my income going to taxes. So now I look for every possible avenue to legally pay less taxes. All because the government put forth, falsely, that I was the cause of the problem.

these days its all computer algorithms.

does the algorithm that scans ETS and tracks all the people who come here ... really know the difference between a "survival expert" and a "survivalist"? I doubt it :-)

Pete

Good point. Saying you're "not a survivalist" means the computer puts you on the same list as a survivalist. Take note of this thread. We're all on a computer's list somewhere.

That brings up another concept. I'm a proponent for having a bunch of useless data noise related to websites on which I participate. Thus, for my protection, I submit the following noise:

survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist survivalist

Such admissions might get you noticed. Time to report yourself to the Government and explain that you know match cases are for matches..

http://homelandsecurity.ohio.gov/doc/CAT%20Military%20Surplus%20Stores.pdf