This is how some of the media are painting people who talk about survival, and why we must be so careful in what we discuss and how we discuss it.
Christian Science Monitor Article

Disaster and emergency preparedness should not equate to anti-government or racism in anyone's mind, but it often does. As a person who has been through many natural disasters, some manmade ones, and as a father and Scoutmaster, I teach disaster and emergency preparedness. I have received comments about it drawing a similarity to characters in movies and on TV. I have never ventured out into the outdoors when I was not responsible for the safety of others. This should not call up visions of an anti-government extremist.

We need to not only take care, but we can help to change attitudes about people who are reasonable and prepare for the inevitable, but occasional, disaster. Even the government preaches emergency preparedness.

I have recently taken to lurking on some genuine “survivalist” sites and it has been an eye opening experience. There are some very disturbing world views out there. It is for good reason that Doug Ritter labels ETS as a “non-survivalist” site.

I come to ETS from an extensive background in volunteer SAR and public service, so I model the response to a disaster as generally positive. This is based on my first hand experience. The survivalist model seems to be that society will descend into utter chaos as soon as the grocery stores exhaust their supply of Twinkies.

The “Govment” response to bad situations will be generally helpful, but not instantaneous. Many survivalists think otherwise....

I think the distinction Doug Ritter makes is very important:

The focus of Equipped To Survive™ is survival preparedness, preparing to get through a short-term emergency to return to civilization, either via rescue or by normalization of the situation as the emergency conditions cease ... Bottom line, on Equipped To Survive™ we focus on survival preparedness, not survivalism.
- from the What Do You Mean, "Not A 'Survivalist' Site?" article

Realistically, I think the boat has sailed on terms like survivalist and prepper; you can't really escape the negative baggage they have so, to me anyway, it makes sense to me to simply steer clear of them.

That's why I love and value ETS so much. It's survival without the -ism. Many of the other sites are filled with real nutjobs.

Might as well get used to it. I've been tarred and feathered by the media for years, along with millions of others, because I own firearms. More than one even! And I have "an arsenal" of ammo (one brick of 500 .22LR equates to an arsenal for them). And I store my personal info in encrypted files on my computer. Lord help me if they find out I participate here on ETS as well ! Geez, and I carry a pocket knife too...

Even more than the article, the books referenced made a direct correlation between preparing and anti-government attitudes, even with being a public threat.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the news has a few reports of emergency situations, such as the hurricane in Baja California, an emergency landing of an airplane, flooding in the Southwest, and the fires in California. All emergency situations where a little preparation can dramatically mitigate the harmful results.

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

Living in an unprecedented level of electronic government surveillance of communications combined with ridiculous levels of 'Political Correctness' and Government authorities tagging or pigeon holing of individuals, we would appear to be in an age of now self restriction / self editing of self expression.

Now that really is the slippery slope in my opinion. Being a compliant Politically Correct individual may well get your self killed in a survival situation. The ability to adapt and overcome cannot be underestimated.

I have even seen classic Black White Newspeak from authoritarian Governments being expressed.

...and that's what preparedness in the context of this forum is about. I'm in CA so earthquakes and wildfires are not to be taken lightly. We get them all the time and it's easy to get complacent, but true preparedness doesn't do complacent. Preparing for those natural disasters should be mandatory, but it's only recommended.

I can't do anything about the anti-gov survivalist thing. Seems those guys were born a century or three late. That train has left the station.

I think the whole population prepares for what they can, as far as they are able.

The difficulty is in how far you go. Insurance against common happenings is one thing, spending hundreds of thousands on a full nuclear shelter and twenty years of supplies is another.

It is difficult to explain ones level of preparation to someone who does not agree, either way, with your perception.

Religions have been founded on less.

The media is, among other things, big business (obviously.) Since fear is one of the few things to sell better than sex, the media paints those of us who like to be more independent, competent, and self-reliant together with the other less savory characters. It gives them more material to draw from, so it doesn't matter to them, apparently, that we, who practice disaster preparedness, could be counted among the more rational and balanced members of modern society.