The American Preppers is a non-profit corporation and part of a growing international movement of people who call themselves preppers. The social network is organized by state and regional blogs and forums. The members are volunteer contributors who are dedicated to providing free information on survival skills, preparedness, self-sufficiency and sustainability. The network of blogs is based on the concept originally created by Riverwalker of Stealth Survival who founded the first Preppers Network, Texas Preppers Network. The social network is composed of a variety of media that include chatrooms, forums, social networking pages, and a preparedness directory; Prepper.org.
The organization has also formed alliances with independent affiliates such as Pioneer Living Survival Magazine, a homesteading and survival skills website which provides a range of advice for those who just want to store extra food in case of a power cut, to those who want to embrace the “off the grid” lifestyle of America’s western pioneers and the Prepper Podcast, a blog that showcases survival and preparedness blogs across the web. In addition to the affiliates, the group also supports several independent homesteading, survival and preparedness sites such as Ready Nutrition and The Survival Mom. The individuals involved in the prepper network prefer to be called preppers instead of survivalists because they are regular people with normal lifestyles and jobs who prepare for a variety of reasons whether natural or man-made. A unique difference that sets the network of preppers apart from their survivalist counterparts is the growing number of women involved in the movement.
A prepper is anyone who is concerned about not being a helpless victim in case of an emergency. They are primarily concerned about natural disasters, power failure, economic collapse, hyperinflation and job loss. Preppers have a lot in common with the people that lived through the 1930’s in the Great Depression, in that they save, conserve, re-use and try to be prepared for anything. They maintain a long term food supply and can make do at least a few months on the food that they’ve stockpiled. Preppers are the resourceful people in your neighborhoods. Preppers are the kind of people you want to have around if something goes wrong. Not many who call themselves “preppers” would want to be termed “survivalists” however. Many preppers go out of their way to avoid the stereotypes that comes with the “survivalist” label. Prepping is just a new word for a very old way of life.
A survivalist takes being prepared as seriously as the prepper does. Then it’s brought up to another level, with a focus on the complete collapse of civilization. In addition to food and equipment, the survivalist will stock up on guns and ammunition and have a plan for a retreat from populated areas when society collapses. Survivalists believe that there will come a time when they will definitely have to defend themselves, families, food and supplies. The average prepper does have guns and devotes time and energy to self-defense, generally not on the level of the survivalist. Survivalists will be more likely to concentrate their efforts on having a safe stockpiled place where they can retreat to if there are widespread riots and civil unrest.