LOL and they even have a National Geographic special on them

[Panther Al]

I look at it like this:

There is being prepared, and then there is... well, what you see on those shows.

Having a stash of food, water, and so on is a good thing. Having a plan. Prepping for likely scenarios. All good, all important - something everyone should at least have put some thought into.

From what I saw on those shows is what I call the lunatic fringe of the whole concept. They take a good idea, and let their paranoid fantasies run wild - to some degree or another.

Take one I saw while flipping through the channels.

Guy, in a reasonably decent-ish ghillie suit, doing an OP looking to see if baddies are approaching.

OK, good idea.

Done nuts: On a commercially available radio, on an open freq using a call sign (Really bad in my opinion) of Crows Nest. OK, I'm the baddie. I hear this, and hrm.... why, I think he might be a tree. Oh wait: There is one: no cover to it, and a huge lump hanging off of the side. I wonder what that can be....

And, Lets cross this river, so everyone in bright boat, cover up in ghillie suits, and paddle *slowly* across it. Hrm, can't see what might go wrong with that...

Its that level of paranoid fantasy EOTW wet dreams that they show that makes me just want to pound my head onto my desk.