181 Prepper Groups - Say No & Create a MAG instead

Tonight, we’ll be talking about Prepper Groups… What they are.. What to look for in a Prepper Group… How to Find Them, Vett Them, and Join Them… How they operate… and How they differ from Homesteaders and Off-Gridders and MAGs.

We hear this all the time… How do I find like-minded people in my area…? How do I find a Prepper Group…?

Well, we decided to turn this topic into a series because of how much information there is to discuss and absorb. So tonight, Jeremy and I will start that discussion and peel away some of the layers of this complex topic. 

So, Let’s get to it…

Visit HoneyComb Holler on YouTube

TOPSBunker.com

Please Visit Our Affiliate Links to Find Great Preparedness Products:

• Prepper Community - A Group-Based Methodology Paperback
• Prepper Survival Retreats Paperback
• The Survival Group Handbook Paperback
• MAGS: The People Part of Prepping Paperback
• Broke, Busted, and Still Surviving Paperback
• Building a Mutual Assistance Group Paperback
• Prepper Mutual Assistance Groups Paperback
• Prepared Together MAGS Paperback
• BAOFENG UV-5R 8w HAM Radio Kit
• BAOFENG UV-5RM 10w HAM Radio Kit
• The BAOFENG Radio Bible Paperback

Transcript

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, sounds good Well tonight we're talking about groups prepper groups and Mags what is a mag as a mutual assistant group?

00:27:00.56
Keith
Yeah.

00:27:03.11
Keith
All right. So, uh, what do you want to, what are we talking about tonight?

00:27:15.66
Jeremy
um and We're talking about how to Find ah these groups how to join them how to vet people if you're wanting to start a group and all that kind of stuff I've never personally been part of a group unless you want to count the army because probably the the ah like the largest mutual assistance group there is.

00:27:35.92
Jeremy
Probably more like, ah for I don't know if I'd say it's a prepper group. I don't know.

00:27:39.43
Keith
Yeah, but you can't pick your neighbors in the army, though.

00:27:41.97
Jeremy
No, you can't. You can't pick your nose. and but can and I've actually seen people pick their buddy's noses and they were okay with it. so um but you know and Again, we always talk use the word prepper.

00:27:56.91
Jeremy
And I don't think that it's necessarily a bad word. I think that it created a, Oh, what's the word I'm looking for? A misnomer about who we are and what we do.

00:28:08.86
Jeremy
You know, this isn't necessarily a fad. It's a lifestyle kind of thing. And, um, you know, people hear prepper and they're like, Oh my God, you live in a bunker. I wish, you know, I do wish I lived in them.

00:28:20.01
Keith
Yeah, no shit.

00:28:20.81
Jeremy
Yeah, no kidding.

00:28:21.22
Keith
I wish I had a hundred grand to go build me a bunker. It'd be nice.

00:28:23.64
Jeremy
Sheesh. That's serious McDonald's money. like um But ah you know a prepper group, but depending on how you interpret that, and this is the way I interpret this, you know a prepper group is or A prepper and in our and individually or a collective group of individuals were like-minded in the areas of preparedness. you know We want to be separate. We don't live separately of government interference. And we do that through the collection of supplies and skills and the things that will allow us and our families and these groups to live independently

00:29:04.66
Jeremy
of government assistance in the event of a disaster. and That can be manmade, you know natural. and We depend on the proactive preparation and for emergency supplies. you know Some people call it hoarding you know if they want to be ugly about it. We call it stockpiling. We we call it preparing.

00:29:24.42
Jeremy
um you know stuff like

00:29:25.40
Keith
I like the word stockpiling. I got no problem with it.

00:29:28.14
Jeremy
Yeah. And I mean, what do we gather? Shelter, water, food, first aid, and then we add stuff on it. Like weapons for self-defense, but we also hunt. you know I mean, that's that's what we are. And that is actually common sense for today's living. And you know we potentially have the propensity to leave the location that we're at if we have to.

00:29:52.34
Jeremy
And, you know, there's this real thin veil between, you know, we use the word survivalist and when people, you know, hear, they hear that word and are like, oh, these are those militia dudes up in the hills and you know, these guys are just itching for war and all that, you know, can be.

00:30:07.29
Keith
Can be, can be, can be, but that's not what it is.

00:30:11.20
Jeremy
I mean, it could be, I'm from South Texas. I've seen some stuff, but, um, a survivalist much like a prepper wants to be, have the ability to separate themselves from not only like government interference, but modern society if need be, and they're prepared to do so. Um, probably I would say almost more than a, what we'll refer to as a prepper.

00:30:41.65
Jeremy
Um, because they really do focus more on skills on actual, this skill needed to survive outside of government interference or interjection. And they, they pride themselves on skills over gear. You know, they, they have gear, they have stuff. Um, but they don't necessarily really depend, depend on a lot of stuff because they know what they're doing.

00:31:08.96
Jeremy
um And a lot of those individuals a lot of those individuals live that way. um And you know they also have survivalist groups that is just the same thing as a prepper group. It's a it's a collection of like-minded individuals who have the desire to live how they want to live. you know that's That's really what it is.

00:31:30.72
Jeremy
And then you go into a mag or a mutual assistance group. And this was actually kind of a new, new thing, uh, for me ah just up until I think, you know, a few years ago. And when I looked at the definition of it, and you can find different, you know, sources for this, but this is how I kind of jotted this down. A mutual assistance group is a community of like-minded individuals who have pledged their support to each other in an emergency.

00:31:58.64
Jeremy
just like a prepper group, just like a survivalist group. Um, this assistance may be through providing living space, but as more common, you know, the more common things, what do we, what do we share in food, water tools, the same things that a prepper group does and a survivalist group does. But,

00:32:17.76
Jeremy
the One of the other big differences is that mags often have meetings, which I thought was actually pretty interesting. um and then you know Typically, the kind of they tend to be groups of neighbors, family, friends. When I really thought about that, I was like, well, that means I'm already in a mag if you never really just never really put a definition. you know The majority of the people that ah me and Missy hang around, 99% of them are all military.

00:32:47.84
Jeremy
And about 80% of those individuals actually live within just a few miles of us. So without having any a organization to it, I think we're actually technically already part of a mag. And then I really got into it and into the weeds a little bit further. And if you think about it, me, you, Missy, Rhonda, buddy, we're kind of part of a mag as well. You know, we've been doing this now together for what? I guess.

00:33:16.70
Jeremy
Not quite a year, but, you know, but several months.

00:33:20.03
Keith
Yeah, no doubt, but the only thing we would have to work on as far as a MAG is communications in the event of a systems down.

00:33:26.83
Jeremy
Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, when you're, when you look into the, into the eaches of it, yes, there's always, you know, if you really wanted to put it, you know, develop a mag, it's actually, I think it'd be kind of easy.

00:33:41.12
Jeremy
Because I can just go, one of my buddies across the road who's a retired um you know army dude, 20 plus years, he's military police. I can go be like, hey man, in case something happens, we're going to go here, bring your guns, bring your food. Okay, cool. All right. you know that's just That's how simple it would be for us, but we have an unwritten and unwritten thing amongst us because we're really you know close with all these individuals.

00:34:04.60
Jeremy
Um, but so there's no standard, you know, for these groups, there's no real or size standard, I should say. And it really depends on how many people you want part of that inner circle. And you have to have people who are interested in the same things that you are preparing for the future, you know, and but the skills that they bring to us.

00:34:29.17
Jeremy
Um, so those are, those are kind of your three main groups. When we, we start talking about this, this prepper lifestyle, you know, survival, survivalists and, and all these different things. That's kind of how I interpreted that. Um, but I've never, again, been part of a group. I know you have, so maybe you could kind of shed a little bit more, you know, light on how that worked out for you.

00:34:54.74
Keith
Well, groups are are a finicky thing. Um, I would not join another private group. It's just not, I wouldn't do it. I've already been in one, you know, solid and a couple of others that I joined and quit and a couple of of the others that I tried, I looked at and said, hell no. Um, they're very finicky and it, you know, a lot like on some of the TV shows and things you'll see out there where people get together, you know, in communities after ah a shit, it's a fan situation or apocalyptic type of a show type of thing.

00:35:24.91
Keith
Not everybody gets along and it it is really the truth about it and I equate that always have I'm a musician and way back when not anymore But way back when my I wanted to be a rock star. I wanted to be on stage. I played in bands We did all that the biggest problem with bands. They never stay together They just it's it's a group of people And they just have problems.

00:35:47.35
Keith
They have disagreements. They have different paths that they want to go on. They have different goals and trying to keep that together, unless you are like a family unit is really tough to do. So don't quit your, don't, don't kid yourself on this joining or being in a prepper group that you don't know.

00:36:04.74
Keith
You know, like not your family, not your friends, not your, your, your, your military buddies, whatever it is, people that you don't know, just joining it. It's way harder than you think it is.

00:36:11.46
Jeremy
I never thought to equate that to being at a band, you know?

00:36:16.66
Keith
Oh, ah millions of bands start and break up every year.

00:36:19.77
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:36:20.25
Keith
it's you know that that That guy looked at my girlfriend wrong.

00:36:21.02
Jeremy
But I mean,

00:36:23.15
Keith
That that girl, you know she and she did she did this or that happened or here or you know ah somebody farts too much on the bus. I mean, just so many things that you know take place. It's very, very difficult. you know

00:36:33.06
Jeremy
Well, I mean, I mean, if you think about Queen, for instance, they broke up and got back together probably half a dozen or more times because Freddie, Freddie Mercury was had an absolutely terrible attitude and he was lazy.

00:36:48.72
Jeremy
Um, but when I, you know, that's a great way of looking at it.

00:36:52.19
Keith
Lots of people do.

00:36:52.34
Jeremy
Cause I was about to say Metallica.

00:36:53.55
Keith
That's what, that's how it happens. You know, Metallica is a big, um, you can look at Metallica. Yeah. And James Hetfield, he is, he is like, um, he's like a drill sergeant for that group.

00:37:04.86
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:37:05.55
Keith
He keeps everybody in line in check, not drunk all the time. He keeps some, it keeps schedules going.

00:37:10.20
Jeremy
night

00:37:12.24
Keith
He's like a ah master management guy. He's really good, really good at what he does.

00:37:14.92
Jeremy
yeah they're They're probably a pretty good testament. Corn is another good testament to that. They've been together, what, probably 40, going on 40 years now.

00:37:26.52
Keith
But it's the same thing.

00:37:26.64
Jeremy
They're 30-ish, yeah.

00:37:27.36
Keith
That's, it's, it's the same thing. That's, that's exactly how it is. Um, you know, a, a, a group or a band, like a, you know, a musical group or a band, there's people that band together.

00:37:38.64
Keith
That's why it's called a band, you know, and, uh, just, you just think about like you being in the military. I'm sure you have been around people in the military that you said, man, I wish I did not have to work around this person.

00:37:48.81
Keith
I just can't take them in re in real life. We would not be friends.

00:37:52.70
Jeremy
Dude, I know that's, that's literally 25 years of my life.

00:37:55.20
Keith
Right.

00:37:58.90
Jeremy
Literally.

00:37:59.23
Keith
Well, well, that's what happens when you join a prepper group because you join with them and you join them with all their family.

00:38:04.75
Jeremy
oh Okay.

00:38:06.37
Keith
And it's rough.

00:38:06.68
Jeremy
Okay.

00:38:07.01
Keith
It is rough.

00:38:08.68
Jeremy
Hmm.

00:38:09.02
Keith
So the group that I, uh, I had joined in, it actually was in for, I guess about a year or so.

00:38:17.29
Keith
um I've told a story and on podcast four, so I won't tell the whole story, but it um everybody was like-minded. Everybody had a you know had their there views of the world. Everybody was pretty much on target. And we all met ah through Meetup, the Meetup app or whatever that is. I'm not even sure if it's still going these days. I think Meetup's still going.

00:38:36.41
Keith
But we met up through that. We actually rented out a a room inside of a hotel, big you know convention room type of thing, and ended up being like 28 of us or something like that in there. And just too many personalities, too many people wanting too many different things. We had an ex-husband and wife in the group. I mean, how was that going to work?

00:38:58.63
Jeremy
That is a terrible idea.

00:39:00.30
Keith
Right? But, you know, they were friends. So they had, and they caused all kinds of fights. And, you know, we had black and we had white and we had Asian, we had all kinds of different people in there. It was a very big mixture of people. Okay. And some had no idea about guns and some loved guns. We had military, we had two Marines and their ex, you know, actual combat experience Marines in there. They couldn't even get along with each other.

00:39:22.64
Keith
We had a, we had a Navy guy in there who was like a top, you know, really, you know, went up really far in the Navy and had a great job and everything. He couldn't even get along with some of the military people in there. It was, um you know, everybody was nice to each other for a while. and And you go camping and you go out there and you have meetings and everybody's polite, you know, and cordial and it's all happy and fun. But when you actually start,

00:39:47.54
Keith
like really getting into working together, that's where the problems start. You know, we went to a person, one one of the people in our group had a big property, 40 something acres, and she wanted work done um the on the property. So we would go out there, we would camp, and we'd practice all of our our skills, our survival skills, and work at the same time.

00:40:08.28
Keith
we could not work together. Everybody wanted to do something. There was way too many chiefs, not enough Indians. Does that make sense?

00:40:14.96
Jeremy
ah Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:40:15.16
Keith
So yeah, it was that kind of a situation.

00:40:19.04
Jeremy
Yep.

00:40:19.63
Keith
And ah you know, things just fall apart. That's just the way it there is a prepper group. So I would never join another prepper group ever. What I would do is I would join a mag because that's that's definitely something that you can look into.

00:40:33.71
Keith
And I would look for homesteaders. I would go to homesteader conventions, prepper conventions, and meet people, listen to people, look around, talk to people.

00:40:36.86
Jeremy
Mmhmm.

00:40:42.06
Keith
But I would not join, and I do air quotes, a prepper group. it's If they would have to be exceptional across the board.

00:40:50.30
Jeremy
Well, and you know that that actually kind of leads into you know the next part that that I had, because I had to think about this. you know um Because when you're military, it's it's kind of easy. you You know who your bosses are and you know that they have bosses and bosses and bosses and bosses. um But in a group of civilians you know that are just kind of you know coming together, ah you have to kind of figure out like, who's in charge?

00:41:25.17
Jeremy
Like, how, like, how do you figure out, you know, who's in charge?

00:41:28.14
Keith
that is actually that that is the problem that is the problem right there and the the the leader of this group you know does didn't necessarily possess the skills to be a leader but because he actually started it went out and found all the people and you know got everybody together and all that because that happened he wanted to be the leader he was the leader of the group and when you when somebody just started

00:41:49.42
Jeremy
yeah

00:41:53.09
Keith
ah shine away on their own little, you know, path. This is, this is how I am. This is what I do. He wanted to try and rein people back in and man, that just doesn't work. It might work in the military because you have to do what you're told, you know, orders and all that, but out there in the real world, ain't nobody telling me what to do. And you're not going to tell me what to do with my preps or with my information or where I live or who I'm going to allow to live with me. That's not, that's not going to happen.

00:42:16.40
Jeremy
Yeah, and that does make sense you know um because I could see how like if a person did start a group you know and was successful in sourcing and finding these individuals,

00:42:29.15
Jeremy
going through the vetting process and all that, um which vetting is a whole other conversation, but I could see how that individual would kind of like have the oneness of it and feel like they should be.

00:42:42.45
Jeremy
And charge like you know and the and i like I said, again, in the military, it's kind of easy. and you know in a typical you know Let's just take the army because I was in the army. We have a breakdown within a unit of different organizations within that structure that do certain things. We call them S-shops or G-shops, which is just your staff.

00:43:03.14
Jeremy
right so like We have personnel, intelligence, operations, supply logistics, you know communications, and all those things. and They take their specialties and they apply it to a problem set, feed that back to the commander. The commander makes the best decision he can or she can based off of the information provided. that's kind of When you really think about it, it's easy.

00:43:28.25
Jeremy
um Being in the army isn't necessarily physically easy all the time, but it's actually kind of easy because if you only do a few things, which includes doing what you're told, you could be successful one day. um But in the you know the rest of the world, you know that's I think you have to understand what leadership really is in regards to ah trying to find that individual because just because a person started a group, I don't think I necessarily agree that that person should be in charge of that group. They should be willing to humble themselves to somebody who may have you know more experience in a particular field.

00:44:11.02
Jeremy
um and but i think that Rather than just everybody kind of like saying, hey, this is this is what I do and this is what I bring, do with it what you will, somebody's got to be able to make decisions.

00:44:26.37
Jeremy
and you know again Defining leadership. how do you How do you find that with that what leadership is? you know Because I know what I think leadership is.

00:44:38.23
Jeremy
um If you look at the military, it's the process of and influencing people by providing purpose, direction, motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the organization.

00:44:48.20
Keith
That's textbook.

00:44:49.11
Jeremy
That's textbook, like literally from a book.

00:44:50.15
Keith
Right.

00:44:53.08
Jeremy
Um, but then you go into the more of the civilian side, you know, this, uh, the center of creator creative leadership. Um, they define it as a social process that enables individuals to work together to achieve results that they could never achieve working alone. I like that because we have, you know, talked about multiple, multiple times about, you know, as in this preparedness life, if something were to really happen, how far are you going to get on your own? You're not going to get far.

00:45:22.99
Jeremy
um And even if you had all the supplies in the world and you're just lone wolf in it, at one point in time, you're going to start hearing voices and they're not from another person because you're going to go stark, raven, damn mad because you haven't...

00:45:35.34
Keith
you can You can go crazy. Yeah.

00:45:36.91
Jeremy
Yeah, you're going to go bonkers because you haven't been around another human and you know however long.

00:45:37.98
Keith
Yep.

00:45:42.53
Jeremy
So I really do like that one, but I think one of the best ones was from the IMD Business School. And they define leadership as the ability to influence and guide a group of people towards achieving a common goal. It encompasses a range of skills and behaviors that empower individuals to provide direction, motivate team members, make decisions, but foster collaboration and promote growth. I really do like that. And they included Leadership isn't limited to a formal position of authority and individuals at all organizational levels can exhibit it. Leadership plays a pivotal role in driving success, whether it's inspiring a team to reach new heights, facilitating effective communication or leveraging creative knowledge and expertise.

00:46:31.36
Keith
The whole bunch of words.

00:46:32.88
Jeremy
It is, but I think the best part of that actually is to promote growth and to move towards a collective goal. You know what I mean? And the fact that it says the leadership is not limited to a formal position of authority, because I think that you're right. A lot of people on the outside who have never been military.

00:46:55.03
Jeremy
You know, if I had never been military and somebody's like, Hey, I need you to clean these weapons. I'd be like, you can squarely kiss both halves of my ass. Like it's, you know, like, but having been in the military and having kind of, you know, cause I was brought up military as well.

00:47:05.29
Keith
Yeah.

00:47:12.97
Jeremy
I understand the structure of there's leaders and not necessarily good leaders, but leaders by merit. If that, if that sounds right, by rank, you know,

00:47:25.15
Jeremy
um And then there are individuals who will actually motivate another group of individuals to like achieve great success. And you know I think that there's a lot of people who are labeled as leaders of the military who not in a million years should have ever been labeled as that.

00:47:48.71
Jeremy
And they were labeled that based strictly off of their rank and they were pushed into that position. And honestly, it's probably not something that they should have been doing.

00:48:00.52
Jeremy
And those are the individuals that go out in the real world and think, well, I, I was this rank in the military and I did X, Y, and Z. So I should be, you know, considered as this, this, and this shut up, you know, get.

00:48:13.56
Keith
I've done a lot of hiring in my, in my time, a lot of hiring and all the positions that I've had, especially in the, in the last job I had.

00:48:16.61
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

00:48:19.52
Keith
And there's, there are military people that come in that think because exactly what you just said, they come in thinking that they're already above the other people that have been there for a year, two, five years.

00:48:30.45
Keith
And you know, that they know what's going on and maybe they do know what's going on. Maybe they do have more skills, but they come in with that attitude and it does not go well.

00:48:37.64
Jeremy
It doesn't. And i like Missy can tell you firsthand, she gets a lot of candidates um that are applying for these positions post military. And a lot of them, you know they were high ranking individuals in the military.

00:48:52.33
Jeremy
And they go out into the civilian world and they're like, yeah, this is what I was making in the army. I expect to be making that. Sorry, Jack. That ain't that ain't happening.

00:49:05.06
Jeremy
you know and when you get it as Especially when you get into the contracting world. you were you You were this in the military, and this was your base pay, and these are your benefits. You go into the regular world, here's your pay.

00:49:17.85
Jeremy
Make make it work. Thanks. it had And that's it.

00:49:20.57
Keith
Yeah.

00:49:22.48
Jeremy
But you know I like to think of that a leader it really is it's and somebody who can take a situation, sometimes that sucks, and make a decision.

00:49:34.95
Jeremy
But to make the decision with the best information that the entire group provides, you know, cause I know like if you were to ever interview some of my former soldiers, especially after I became admin. And I think part of it was because one, I always felt like I wasn't doing the job well. So I actually relied heavily on a lot of my subordinates because in reality they had been doing that particular job.

00:50:03.44
Jeremy
a lot longer than I had. So, you know, I made sure that if, you know, some guy said, Hey, I, I think we should do this. I'm going to take a look at it. I'm going to see how it smells and if it makes sense. Okay, cool. We're doing that. You know, it doesn't, some things just don't have to be in stone. But I think one of the biggest things is making a decision, you know, make the decision because stagnation literally kills and If you've got a group of people who are just, you know, trying to do the best they can with each other, sometimes the best choice is just slinging one out there, full sending based off of the information that you have.

00:50:44.51
Jeremy
And if we all make the same decision and we're all wrong, at least we're all wrong together, you know, I mean, hit the music and the it's like, yeah, I mean, cause hit the music in the background, you know, pick up your guns and we're going to lay it down until these things over, overrun us.

00:50:51.25
Keith
Yeah, that's that's that's a way to go about it, yeah.

00:51:02.57
Jeremy
But damn it, we made a decision and we made it together. That's ah that's the other, you know that's the thing. Making that decision together really, I think is important, especially in this this kind of you know stuff.

00:51:15.24
Keith
With my experience with Prepper groups is Most of the time they immediately, we, and I say we, because I was there too. We want to immediately form a leadership group, a leadership inside the group that sort of handles everything. You know, ah as, as a democratic way, you vote for things, that sort of thing. You even vote. The group actually votes for the leadership team, whether it be three people, if you have 25 or 10 people, if you have 50, whatever the size might be. And that does work. That can work, but it only works when the leader.

00:51:50.95
Keith
or leaders are people who can't who have this ability to get other people to follow them and trust them and and and work with them. but you A leader isn't somebody who just barks out orders. You have to be able to inspire people you know to to want to to follow you.

00:52:09.02
Keith
When you do that, then you're golden. Everything is great. And you can make mistakes and you can actually talk with the people that you lead and they can give you ah information and and help you decide on the next course of action. And that's how it should be. You know, I would imagine in a in a military format or even the combat format, leaders aren't just barking out orders left and right, when they're in some kind of ah ah of a shit at the fan situation, they're probably looking at everything they're seeing how what other people, what other other guys and gals are saying, what's happening, they're they're taking in all this information, they're, they're trying to lead a group of people the best way that they can, without just saying, you're gonna fucking do it my way or no way.

00:52:39.46
Jeremy
Mm hmm.

00:52:50.23
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:52:50.32
Keith
Because that does not work. It definitely doesn't work with me, man. You're not gonna take that attitude with me. It's not gonna happen.

00:52:54.32
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah. And you know, it's interesting and your basic, the, the bare bones, basic infantry structure. Um, you know, you've got a, a platoon of let's say 32 people and you have four squads and within those squads, you have team leaders and squad leaders. There's not a whole lot of.

00:53:19.28
Jeremy
um, you know, positions within the military that actually contain the word leader. Um, and you know, many will argue, right?

00:53:29.78
Keith
But that doesn't mean that somebody's not leader. That doesn't mean that somebody's not capable ah of leading.

00:53:33.21
Jeremy
No, yeah.

00:53:36.17
Jeremy
Right.

00:53:36.21
Keith
you know

00:53:36.75
Jeremy
But, you know, there's a, there's a theory out there that, The hardest job in the United States Army is being a rifle team leader. And the second hardest job is being a squad leader. And the reason being is as an infantry team leader, it's just you and potentially three to four other dudes, and you are physically maneuvering that element. And then the next one up is your squad leader.

00:54:05.17
Jeremy
who is maneuvering two of those elements. And that's that's how that works. They're technically very, very difficult. They're physically very, very demanding. Best damn job I ever had in my entire life was being a team leader and being a squad leader. Everything about above that is beans, bullets, and admin. Kind of sucks. But, you know, it's...

00:54:31.97
Jeremy
When I really got to think about you know translating that into the civilian world and a group of individuals who are coming together to survive. I mean, i can I can spot a person who thinks that they're a leader based off of what they did in the past and how much weight you know they can lift or whatever. I can spot those dudes from a mile away and here's how I do it. Like for instance, when me and my buddy went back up to Western North Carolina to deliver supplies and do search and recovery, there was this guy, um the the owner of the hotel had called him in to help you know organize all these volunteers and all this other stuff.

00:55:11.77
Jeremy
Soon as we showed up, he kind of spotted us. We spotted him and he had his arms crossed. And when he crossed his arms, he was pulling up his sleeves. And I looked at my buddy and I was like, this dude is one of the biggest douchebag that we've met today. And that's pretty big. And, um, he was ultimately asked to leave the entire scene. Also stole two of my coolers, but he was actually like he, they, the owners told him, Hey, thanks for coming out, dude. but I don't think you actually know what you're doing. Can you leave, please? Then we quickly realized it when we went to go find bodies. Well, come to find out, you know he knows how to go do a thing, but he had never actually done the thing because I started asking simple questions. I was like, hey, do you have pictures of these people? No. So we went up and talked to the family and got pictures of them.

00:56:06.42
Jeremy
Um, I was like, have you ever encountered a body that's been sitting in stormwater for like two weeks? And he's like, Oh no. I was like, Oh man, we should probably talk about this. Those, those are the kind of individuals that probably have good intent, but for the wrong reasons, like they think that they can do these things, but when they're really confronted or ask questions by someone who does have a lot of experience.

00:56:33.34
Jeremy
you will see just how lack of an experience and confidence that they really do have. And it's not necessarily to say that they're not good people.

00:56:44.21
Jeremy
It's just that sometimes confidence and experience sometimes don't line up properly, you know? um Yeah.

00:56:51.51
Keith
Yeah, and in any any ah ah civilian kind of a environment, a prepper group, let's say, and you're, let's say you're not in an SHGF situation. Let's say you're just going camping, which is a great way to practice survivalist skills. Okay. You're out there in the elements. It's a great way to practice. You're, you're gearing your little this and that's and everything else.

00:57:11.21
Keith
um But it's also a really great place and a great way to um to ah look at and sort of, i want I don't want to say the word judge, but you know, just kind of keep an eye on the folks around you and how they interact with each other and all that. And I can tell you from experience that when you start getting into situations like that,

00:57:30.67
Keith
Everybody wants to be the boss man. Everybody wants to be the leader and you have these tasks. Let's say you're going to cut down a couple of trees. Okay. And that's your task. And you over here, you got set up a set up camp or over here, you got, um, get everything out of the trucks and organize it. That sort of thing. What I would do is I knew I wasn't going to be able to order people around because, because of how everybody was a hothead or everybody wanted to be the leader. I stayed out of it. I just went and looked for the job that nobody else was doing. And I went and did it.

00:57:59.65
Keith
That's it. I made an example of myself by going and doing another, another job. And if you want to come join me, come and join me. That's fine. I'm over here. I'm over here doing the shit job. You guys can go over there and do the the big man job and get it all wrong. So that, you know, that's hard. That's how I do. That's how I kind of lead by example.

00:58:15.00
Jeremy
Yeah. And, you know, I use when I'm on contract to test my gear, but at the same time after and why do i word this I was put into a position of authority within the this this camp model. So we are in a camp and there is a commander and I am the certain major. And um I was not put into that position until I had been on this contract for Oh gosh, I think I'd been on this contract for probably two or so years before I was considered for that position. And it was because I did show up, I did put in the work and I did, you know, the things that needed to be done. Um, but it also had to do with my experience in the military because I know how to run a team and I do know how to run a camp like that.

00:59:07.91
Jeremy
And a camp, you know what we're talking about, like we're what I do versus like a civilian camp, they can interact. they they you you know They have a lot of the same principles. We call it the the principles of a patrol base. you know Security is it near a near source of water, you know that kind of thing.

00:59:26.87
Jeremy
um But there's a lot of people that will show up on these contracts and they think that they're just going to get it by the disposition because of what they did in you know on the on the in the military side. And I'm like, no, Jack, get in line. you know i've I've done my time. I have been here. I have been the one who literally was you know burning shit tanks. I've done the work. um And it's not that I put myself above any others because they're getting to have fun doing the stuff that I actually like to do. Now I'm managing them, you know, creating guard schedules and doing all the admin stuff that quite frankly, I don't want to do, but they needed somebody to fill that position and they asked me to do it and I'm i'm not going to turn them down. You know, I mean, it's, it's, it's kind of a loyalty, you know, kind of thing. Um,

01:00:24.31
Jeremy
But the other person that we do have to address at some point within these groups, and it's the unfortunate one is the mooch, you know, and I have the same thing with, Oh man, I have the same people that same this, this person I work with.

01:00:33.72
Keith
ah the lazy person.

01:00:39.75
Jeremy
And it's more than one, but every, every contract that I have been on, every job that I've ever had, there are these individuals and. They're, you know, the the freeloader. They are the mooch. They are the person who shows up knowing exactly what they're getting into, but they didn't bring enough stuff. They're the ones who have a lot of ideas and want to say do X, Y, and Z, but they don't do the thing and they expect to benefit from it. I can't stand those people. I can't stand them.

01:01:15.81
Jeremy
They just, just, it makes me so angry because I know my work ethic and I know what I'm willing to do to make sure that a group is successful.

01:01:26.98
Jeremy
And when I see these people, it makes me want to lash out at them and their parents for raising such a shitty kid. It really, man, it angers me and they, yeah, I mean, it,

01:01:38.10
Keith
or the lack a lack thereof, phrasing.

01:01:43.65
Jeremy
I believe that everyone in the group needs to be able to work hard. If you don't work hard, guess what? You don't get to eat. If you don't do the the tasks that are set out for the day and you expect to benefit from other people's work, no, sorry, you don't get to eat. If there are these conditions are not met, if If everybody agreed to the condition set and you individually or you and your group didn't meet that mission set, I'm sorry, but you do not get to benefit from everybody else's hard work.

01:02:20.49
Keith
But that sounds to me like a group that is forced together because a group that is trying to, uh, become a group or, or, you know, to coagulate is probably not going to have somebody like that in the group. Do you think?

01:02:34.52
Jeremy
Well, I mean, it would

01:02:35.92
Keith
I'm thinking about a survivalist situation where let's say we, we, we all get together in the shit of the fan and we all get into one place and we start working it, right? Well, one of the people in the group has the, uh, the brother-in-law that they've got to bring in because they can't just leave mountain, the cold.

01:02:43.20
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:02:49.50
Keith
Well, the brother-in-law is a piece of shit and doesn't want to work.

01:02:51.13
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:02:51.72
Keith
It doesn't want to do anything. You're forced into that situation now.

01:02:56.70
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:02:57.16
Keith
You see what I'm saying?

01:02:58.44
Jeremy
And I, and again, I don't know how to. I mean, again, having not been a civilian for very long. um I don't kind of I don't really know how to how to address it yet.

01:03:16.03
Jeremy
I'll say yet. I'm, you know, kind of still learning this life. But I mean, I think it would.

01:03:22.90
Keith
Yeah, because you you can't run a prepper group but i can like the military. I'm telling you, you can't do it.

01:03:27.29
Jeremy
I don't think so.

01:03:28.33
Keith
It's not possible because those people most people don't understand, and including me. We don't understand that whole sort of chain of command mentality. um and We just don't. And as soon as you just get under somebody's skin just a little bit, they're done with you.

01:03:42.61
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah.

01:03:43.19
Keith
They're done with you. That's it. And I don't care how many orders you bark at me. I'm done with you. That's it. I'm going to do my own thing.

01:03:48.50
Jeremy
Yeah. And I, I do think though, I think it might be possible to have a group of people who are all military and all have known each other and their style.

01:04:03.76
Keith
Definitely. I agree with that 100%.

01:04:04.57
Jeremy
i I think that those people probably you know, could get together. Cause like, for instance, if I went to, I have this, this group of friends, we call ourselves the black sheep. Um, I, I, one of them used to be an MP, you know, and if I said, Hey, um, would you be willing to come in and we could use your expertise on security, uh, the perimeter, that kind of thing. Um, I have another buddy who still does it t stuff and he did it t stuff in the army. Be like, Hey, can you help us with communications?

01:04:38.42
Jeremy
I have another buddy who was in aviation and about halfway through his aviation career he actually switched over to uav's huge asset. You know hey can we get your help but also to supplement the security and then working together with communications.

01:04:57.32
Jeremy
And both me and Missy know how to do ah operations, and I know tactical. So right there, if we could all kind of mutually you know kind of come together and coalesce, I think that would be you know fairly easy.

01:05:16.05
Jeremy
um but

01:05:17.90
Keith
what what you just described is a mutual assistant group. It is a group of people of like minded. That's why we always say like minded. You have to say that because i I've been in the situation where I've been in the group and not everybody's like-minded.

01:05:34.33
Keith
Now, well yes, we might be preparing for something for preppers.

01:05:36.78
Jeremy
Mm-hmm Yeah

01:05:37.57
Keith
We never doing that. In that sense, we're like-minded, but politics might not be the same. Families structure might not be the same. Diet might not be the same. Work ethic definitely won't be the same.

01:05:48.71
Keith
I can guarantee you that, you know, it's just all these things are different. So that's why I say that I would never again go join a prepper group. i would much rather join, let's say a mutual assistance group or, or really just kind of get around other homesteaders like at a convention, a con, like either a homesteading con or a prepper con and just kind of look for homesteaders and people that are, you know, maybe a farmer or somebody who's a a bricklayer or somebody who's a doctor, just get to just get know people and sort of sort of network yourself into it.

01:06:16.82
Jeremy
Yeah. Well, that's, you know, that's another big thing for me and and Missy is building relationships. Relationship building is really, really big with us. um You know, if if you can establish a relationship with a person and let's just say you don't talk for some time, right?

01:06:43.65
Jeremy
If you're, if your relationship with that person is well established and you know, you're, what you're talking about now is just beyond, you know, you're, you're actually thinking beyond friendship.

01:06:54.46
Jeremy
You're thinking more like this person was a buddy of mine, but I really do consider him family. You could, yeah, it's, but yeah, but like, for instance, our,

01:07:00.63
Keith
Yeah. And I had, I had my mic off family. That's you're talking about family. Yeah. Cause we treat family differently than we do associates.

01:07:10.13
Jeremy
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. you know I mean, we have friends of ours who will literally roll up into our house without letting us know that they're coming over and dive into our fridge. I mean, it's it, but that right there for us is like, you know, Hey, you could have texted. I didn't have pants on, but cool. You know, but like, those are the kind of individuals that we have surrounded ourselves with for many, many years. And it really actually wouldn't take much of anything for us to say, Hey, we're going here. Grab your guns, grab your stuff. Y'all come on.

01:07:49.40
Jeremy
And I think with these individuals, that would, the the roles of what everybody would normally do within, because we are all a military, within the military, would just sort of naturally, kind of like a me and Buddy have said, you default to your your your last training, your your lowest level of training, you're going to default back to that.

01:08:13.52
Jeremy
So we would probably most likely default back to factory settings of the last thing that we were doing within the military structure. And I think that it's probably, and I don't know if I would say that it's easier for us, but you know, if you took a ah bunch of people from random career fields out there in the civilian world and you start bringing them together into these groups, man, I can't.

01:08:24.14
Keith
Hmm.

01:08:42.28
Jeremy
It, you know, I, I try to relate and I try to understand it, but it's very difficult for me to do so because I've never really been a civilian. Um.

01:08:50.34
Keith
No, I'm going to say straight out there. i'm going I'm going to put it right out there. if If I was to go join a prepper group, my intention, my goal, my, the way that I'm made up my entire ah structure of life, I would go in there to take over.

01:09:04.19
Keith
That's just who I am.

01:09:04.52
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah.

01:09:06.09
Keith
I can't, I can't sit by and see stupid stuff happen and stupid decisions made. If I'm going to go into a prepper group, it's it's, I'm going to be the problem. I'm going to be the one who's a problem because I'm going to have to be somewhat in charge.

01:09:19.69
Jeremy
Yeah, I get that too.

01:09:20.83
Keith
Because i don't I don't know these people. I don't know who they are. I don't know what's going on. They're not family. you know I don't trust them yet.

01:09:27.08
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:09:27.98
Keith
you know

01:09:28.69
Jeremy
Yeah. And then I think probably from my last point or question really is, you know let's just say you've established a group and I know we have discussed you know possibly doing a whole so series on this but you know let's just say you have gotten yourself into a group you guys are established you starting to learn and then that one turd does finally start showing up and you realize just how unpolished that turd is Now they have information and a visual and, you know, you know, stuff that can be used against that group.

01:10:05.81
Jeremy
And now you're telling that person, Hey, you're not really working out with us. So we're going to probably need you to leave. How do you re secure yourselves after that fact?

01:10:19.00
Jeremy
You know, cause I like, you watch the walking dead. They're like, Hey man, you've seen too much.

01:10:22.17
Keith
so I'm going to stop you. I'm going to stop you right there. so some Someone has to be designated.

01:10:30.64
Keith
I'm going to say this politely. Someone has to be designated to eliminate the threat to the group.

01:10:32.06
Jeremy
and Yeah. Yeah.

01:10:38.59
Keith
I'm sorry, but that's, we're not talking about, uh, you know, hypothetical situations here. We're talking about real life grid down country. It was gone to shit. And you're in your own little community of 50, a hundred, 25, 200, whatever, how many people it is.

01:10:53.38
Keith
And you got somebody who's going to threaten that, that the the security of that, of that pod, it has to be eliminated.

01:10:59.39
Jeremy
Mm hmm.

01:11:02.46
Keith
And I'm sorry, but in that world, that's acceptable.

01:11:02.60
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:11:06.64
Jeremy
Oh, yeah. i And I totally agree. And i I actually probably would be that guy. I'm not going to lie. I would i'm I'm kind of like you where I go in and I will assess. And when I start to see things that, you know, aren't going well, I will try to interject. And I it's just part of my nature. um But I could also very seriously see myself as being the one be like, hey, man, I'm sorry, but You and your shitty brother-in-law know too much.

01:11:38.16
Jeremy
You really do. And I hate to do it to you, but you know, I cannot risk the 99 over the one. I can't do it. You know, it's, it's.

01:11:49.16
Keith
you know, in a, in a, in a post-apocalyptic world. And that's what we're talking about here.

01:11:52.38
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:11:53.66
Keith
A world where life and death is happens every minute of every day. Cause that's what it would be like.

01:11:58.18
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:11:59.28
Keith
No, but no prepper survivalists wants the end of the world.

01:12:02.73
Jeremy
yeah

01:12:02.84
Keith
None of us want that. If that happens where it's a whole different world and things are different and and rules are different and people can't be the same as they were once before.

01:12:07.47
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:12:14.53
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:12:14.77
Keith
And that's just the way it is.

01:12:16.66
Jeremy
Yeah. And you know, yeah you gotta do a soundboard in a world, in a world where a guy shows up and he's a turd.

01:12:23.42
Keith
Who's, who says I haven't.

01:12:28.60
Jeremy
Yeah. Um, but yeah, I mean,

01:12:32.21
Keith
I would like to make this a series because there's way too much to talk about ah but and you're onto a whole nother part of this prepper group thing.

01:12:38.72
Jeremy
Yeah, I know.

01:12:38.98
Keith
There's so many aspects of it. And this one little part is a, is a, is a really big deal.

01:12:44.46
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:12:44.47
Keith
You know, it, it, it goes right in there with what happens if people show up at your door, a family with kids and this and that they're all these things.

01:12:50.77
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:12:52.96
Keith
Now they are a threat because they know you're there.

01:12:54.84
Jeremy
yeah and I remember that episode that you guys did and I, gosh, was it probably, I wouldn't say it was probably a year to a year and a half ah ago.

01:13:05.01
Keith
Oh, I remember it too.

01:13:05.47
Jeremy
You did that episode and you and Rhonda were talking and you're like, yeah, um, you know, the people showed up.

01:13:06.07
Keith
Yeah.

01:13:11.79
Jeremy
I'm sorry, but no. And, and I think you guys had talked about possibly, you know, it, what if you had made pre-packaged, like care packages, like here, take your care package, you get to stepping, you know, that kind of thing.

01:13:25.20
Jeremy
But then, you know, who are they going to go talk to?

01:13:25.65
Keith
Yeah.

01:13:28.35
Jeremy
Be like, Hey man, they got beef jerky and Copenhagen down the street.

01:13:31.35
Keith
ah ah set a send them down the road kit is what ah we called it.

01:13:33.68
Jeremy
Yeah. Send them down the road.

01:13:35.14
Keith
But see, that that episode was was strange because I don't think, see, first of all, Rhonda doesn't feel the same way.

01:13:42.00
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

01:13:42.67
Keith
At least she didn't at the time. And she didn't understand that, she when she was thinking about prepper groups and this and that and that specific episode about people coming to your group and letting them in or not letting them in, her heart says, no, you let everybody in.

01:13:54.02
Jeremy
Mhm.

01:13:57.25
Keith
It's the world meet we need to let the people in. but she doesn't understand it. I don't understand because I'm not, we've never lived that world, but it, but I can, uh, I can't imagine a world, you know, a post-apocalyptic or a shit at the fan world.

01:14:11.93
Keith
I can imagine that world being different and the rules have changed.

01:14:14.58
Jeremy
Mhm. Mhm.

01:14:16.56
Keith
And I think I threw her off a little bit in that, you know, in that, because I told her, so we're going to do an episode say that it's going to be not so nice.

01:14:24.31
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I've actually seen that world. You know, it may not technically have been shit hit the fan for us, but I have been deployed to areas where um there used to be stuff.

01:14:40.50
Jeremy
And then when you showed up there, you know, there's old women and, you know, blown up children crying. And I don't.

01:14:48.30
Keith
Terrible. Yeah, it's terrible.

01:14:49.55
Jeremy
I think that the, the, this lifestyle and the things that we do are ah sometimes a little too romanticized to people who are getting into it and they haven't really thought about like, Oh my gosh, what really, what really does happen? Like what happens if we're out here living on the East coast and a bomb goes off on the West coast, what's going to really be the trickle down effect?

01:15:14.23
Jeremy
And I think that a lot of people believe like, well, I'm going to go, I'm going to go here and I'm going to do this. And this is going to be great. And it's going to be XYZ. Fuck. No, it's not. It's not. It's going to suck. The whole world is.

01:15:36.72
Keith
What did you do to your microphone?

01:15:44.97
Keith
Oh, you just went, you just went totally dead.

01:15:47.21
Jeremy
Dude, did I just meet myself?

01:15:48.02
Keith
There. No, I think you just meet yourself. Yeah. Cause you would like the whole world click.

01:15:53.43
Jeremy
Son of a- You know-

01:15:55.32
Keith
You're on a roll too. I was really wanting to hear what you're going to say, man.

01:15:57.46
Jeremy
Well, the the whole world, you know, when it's turning upside down, I think that there are especially now, you know, say 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago, this may not have been the case, but there are not enough people in the world today, especially in our country who have been subjected to extremely horrible stuff that they are really prepared to actually experience the sights, the smells, the the the sensations, the horror of it all. you know there're They think because they've seen this in a movie, okay, cool, I saw Civil War. It's not a bad movie. um They really do think that they're prepared for that, but what they're not prepared for is what happened actually like during the s Civil War. We're literal brothers.

01:16:46.23
Jeremy
on opposing sides, killing each other, you know, fathers and sons, literally facing each other.

01:16:51.51
Keith
Right, yeah.

01:16:53.09
Jeremy
That's what the the song taps.

01:16:54.06
Keith
Wow.

01:16:54.66
Jeremy
The song taps actually came from that. And I don't think that people are really prepared for that fact.

01:16:58.01
Keith
Wow.

01:17:02.49
Jeremy
And when you form in these groups, I think, you know, kind of like in the, was it the Walking Dead when he asked, you know, how many walkers have you killed? How many people have you killed? I think those are kind of valid questions, you know,

01:17:14.38
Keith
Very valid questions, yes, definitely.

01:17:16.30
Jeremy
yeah You know, it's like, it's, I don't know. It's, and and I, I really do try to translate it to civilian side, but it's very difficult for me to do so.

01:17:28.12
Keith
Well, the United States EMP commission, and yes, we do have one. We have an EMP commission. They they are a United States agency that is set up to ah handle what would happen and recourse for an EMP situation.

01:17:36.44
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:17:41.30
Keith
So they say.

01:17:42.03
Jeremy
newt gingrich Newt Gingrich wrote the ah the foreword for, yeah, for um one second after and while he was on while he was on the EMP commission.

01:17:45.74
Keith
Did he really?

01:17:50.10
Keith
Oh.

01:17:53.59
Keith
Well, they they in their, you know, in their writings, their, their bottom line is 90% of the United States will die within the first year, 90%.

01:18:02.37
Jeremy
Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah.

01:18:05.34
Keith
I mean, it's nine out of 10 people, man.

01:18:08.89
Jeremy
Yeah, and I think that um

01:18:10.23
Keith
That's a lot of bodies lying around.

01:18:12.35
Jeremy
Oh, imagine the smell.

01:18:14.32
Keith
Imagine the Walking Dead where you got these hordes of of ah zombies coming after you, after your after your camp.

01:18:18.34
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:18:19.90
Keith
Imagine them being live people, not zombies, because that's what they're going to be.

01:18:22.60
Jeremy
um I can tell you.

01:18:24.74
Keith
They're going to turn into raving lunatics coming after you and your stuff.

01:18:28.18
Jeremy
Dude.

01:18:29.14
Keith
Some of them are going to watch your food, some are going to watch your water, some are going to watch your kids, some are going to watch your women.

01:18:33.14
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:18:34.37
Keith
It's going to be horribly bad. And that's what they mean by, that's part of what they mean by 90% of the United States would be dead within the first year.

01:18:43.90
Jeremy
Just yeah, go back to the pictures that I posted from when me and my mom were up in the mountains during the hurricane.

01:18:44.07
Keith
They would kill each other off.

01:18:51.54
Jeremy
And there's two pictures that I posted looking into the fog with a line of cars. And that was just because cell phone towers were down. There were miles of cars parked along the side of the road. And there was these people wandering. And it was I was like, oh, man, this is how this is how it happens. This is how we go. They were wandering with their their cell phone in their hand, walking up the hill through the mist. And I'm like, I looked at my mom, I was like, this is this is an episode of The Walking Dead. These are fucking zombies.

01:19:25.60
Jeremy
And they were literally stammering one because they had been up all night cold in their car because they didn't think to get out.

01:19:25.69
Keith
Right.

01:19:34.05
Jeremy
Uh, or they couldn't get out, but they're literally wandering in the streets, looking for cell phone signal. And that's the first thing that came to my mind. I was like, I got to get a picture of this because these people are literal walking zombies.

01:19:47.52
Jeremy
That's what they are.

01:19:48.85
Keith
You're going to have hundreds of millions of people. And this is like not one of those ah kind of events where it might this and that. No, it can absolutely happen. And EMP is being is is being thought of and and created right now somewhere with one of our enemies that that's one of their of their attack plans so as an EMP.

01:20:07.62
Jeremy
Mm hmm.

01:20:08.58
Keith
It's going to happen at some point somewhere.

01:20:11.62
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:20:11.85
Keith
And when it does, if it happens in the United States, we're talking about hundreds of millions of people fighting for every single bite of food, for everything. And it's going to be way worse than a zombie horde.

01:20:20.80
Jeremy
is

01:20:23.14
Keith
Way, way worse. These are going to be rabid people that are hungry.

01:20:25.40
Jeremy
Yep.

01:20:26.28
Keith
Their kids are hungry. And I'm telling you right now, when you got kids, you're going to kill to feed your kids.

01:20:31.01
Jeremy
yep Yeah, I, uh, and I absolutely agree with that, but I also, I know that, well, this is what I think, I think, and I don't want it to happen, but, and I hope it doesn't happen, but I do believe that there's a possibility that in our lifetime, um, that is going to happen because.

01:20:48.40
Keith
It's my, worst it's my worst nightmare, man, because it's basically the same thing as a nuclear, a nuclear war, it basically the same thing.

01:20:52.29
Jeremy
ah Yeah. Well, there are, I was listening to something today and it was, uh, it was from, it was a lady, gosh, who was she talking to? It wasn't Joe Rogan. Maybe it was Sean Smith. I can't remember. But so she's on the EMP commission and she's talking about a warhead that China has developed that is magnitude wise. It doesn't have the nuclear effects, but it has the EMP effect. And if you were to detonate this thing, basically center line of the United States,

01:21:27.12
Jeremy
We the entire country basically just went backwards 200 years overnight, like so instantaneously. And there's not enough hardening of our infrastructure to protect us against it.

01:21:40.66
Jeremy
It's just it's not going to happen.

01:21:42.88
Keith
Yeah, they say it's anywhere between 100 and 200 miles above Carroll, Kansas is the actual town.

01:21:48.26
Jeremy
Mm hmm.

01:21:50.09
Keith
the It's the geographical center of the United States.

01:21:52.79
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:21:52.97
Keith
And if they set off an EMP there, and this is, I'm not giving anything away. and they The enemies know this.

01:21:58.52
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:21:58.88
Keith
If they set off an EMP there, the entire United States shuts down. uh in the speed of light because the waves move basically in the speed of light it happens almost instantly everything turns off shuts down that's it no more electric no more cars no more no more pretty much anything that has any kind of electronics in it done you get sent back into the stone age and if you really want to you know know about this you can actually look at the well with not the carrington it was a carrington event

01:22:05.80
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:22:18.66
Jeremy
yeah

01:22:26.37
Jeremy
Carrington event.

01:22:26.69
Keith
Yeah.

01:22:26.81
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:22:27.01
Keith
The current gentleman. Look at that. You know, and that happened from a CME, the coronal mass ejection, not an EMP, but basically the same thing. It doesn't move the speed of light moves a little slower, but it's still basically the same thing.

01:22:38.46
Jeremy
Yeah. And that was like way back in the day and it, and it caused horrible, horrible problems.

01:22:41.54
Keith
Way back in the day. Yeah. Oh yeah.

01:22:46.20
Jeremy
You know, you're talking, you know, this is back when, you know, send a Morse code over the telegram was like new and exciting. And then they had this and those, those wires went up into flames, whole towns.

01:22:59.89
Keith
All of the transmission lines for the for that system was gone.

01:23:03.04
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:23:03.57
Keith
It basically lit on fire in front of everybody.

01:23:03.66
Jeremy
Yeah. and burned down holds towns and cities. And that's just that's from the sun.

01:23:09.87
Keith
so That's, I know we got off on a total tangent here, but that's where these are some of the things you're going to face if you're in a pre in a prepper group or if you have a mag or if you have a ah family, like extended family of people.

01:23:24.35
Keith
And I mean, family people, you know, when you're in a group and you're doing this thing together, these are the things you're going to have to deal with.

01:23:28.27
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:23:30.71
Keith
These are the things that you're preparing for. You don't hope they happen, but these are the things you're preparing for.

01:23:35.03
Jeremy
Yeah, yeah, and you know from the soldier Yeah, yeah, yeah and um

01:23:37.68
Keith
and preparing and preparing your kids from your, your kids for two, because it might not happen in your lifetime, but it might, it's going to happen sometime in the history of the world. Every single great superpower has fallen at some point except the United States.

01:23:53.55
Jeremy
you know We're getting ready to come up on 250 years. and you know There's an old saying, and I can't remember who said it, but if there's trouble, let it be in my lifetime so my children and again grandchildren don't have to suffer.

01:24:08.28
Keith
Right.

01:24:08.92
Jeremy
and I think that really, for all of us who do want to be prepared um you know and live that life, I think that's really the biggest thing is you're not just,

01:24:21.99
Jeremy
gathering a bunch of stuff together so you can you know run off in the woods like ah you know a lunatic and live on your own.

01:24:27.03
Keith
It's not about guns and ammo.

01:24:28.57
Jeremy
No, it's not. Those are great. Don't get me wrong.

01:24:31.62
Keith
Don't get me wrong.

01:24:31.81
Jeremy
But um it's it's about taking those skills that you have learned along with the stuff that you've gathered and teaching your kids and grandkids, hey, we're not going to be around for forever.

01:24:44.51
Jeremy
And if something bad happens after we're gone, these are the steps that you need to take. And here is the stuff that we have brought to you.

01:24:57.55
Jeremy
And if we're gone, at least, you know, at least at the minimum, they know how to do those things that they need to do in order to survive. And for me.

01:25:08.16
Keith
Yep. You know, and you you you don't have to be homesteaders to be teaching your children this because my family were not homesteaders and my fam, my family ate together every night.

01:25:11.93
Jeremy
No.

01:25:17.20
Keith
We cooked our own food every night. We were, we were self sufficient for the most part.

01:25:22.38
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:25:22.41
Keith
You know, you don't have to be like hardcore homesteaders or prepper survivalists or in this, this sort of thing off-griders, you know, but preparedness and self ah sufficiency.

01:25:32.84
Keith
That's, that is where it's at. That's where you're going to, you're going to find your survivors right there.

01:25:34.55
Jeremy
Yeah. And I think that not just surviving, but thriving and doing it free of interference, doing it the way you want to do it. Good, bad or indifferent?

01:25:52.78
Jeremy
But doing it the way you want to do it is the real freedom that living this prepared lifestyle provides.

01:25:59.62
Keith
That's why you make, create, join a prepper group. That's why you find a mag. That's why you find a group of like-minded people. This is the whole reason why. So that you have that, you can't do it alone. You know that for sure. And you have that sense of control over your life. You know, in the past four to eight years, we really haven't had much control of our lives because of politics. Let's be completely honest.

01:26:27.85
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:26:28.29
Keith
And right now we're in a, we're in a four year stretch where things are looking good. And yeah it could happen in in four years. I would say that we are in a way better situation right now, but get, but look at it this way.

01:26:41.53
Keith
You now have four years to get it right.

01:26:43.97
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah. And yeah.

01:26:45.96
Keith
And four years goes really quick, man. Four years goes really quick.

01:26:49.10
Jeremy
especially as you get older, man.

01:26:50.84
Keith
Oh yeah.

01:26:50.93
Jeremy
um I mean, I was actually listening to another podcast just recently, and they were like, you know, I know, right?

01:26:56.82
Keith
How dare you.

01:27:00.60
Jeremy
Where do you think I get all my source material? No. Sorry. ah No, I. But I was listening to another, and they were kind of off on a tangent like we are. But at the same time, they were talking about Trump's first term. And they were like, you know a lot of people when Trump got elected the first time ah took their hand from the plow. And then when Trump all of a sudden was not president like they expected him to be again.

01:27:28.71
Jeremy
And it was like, oh my gosh. And then the pandemic and everybody wanted to be a prepper during the damn pan stupid pandemic. But they were one of the things that they were saying was um Trump was not a good preparedness stuff salesman because a lot of people thought Trump's in office. I'm good. um When things are good.

01:27:54.44
Jeremy
is when you need to be even more vigilant and prepare more. Bad times create strong men. Strong men create good times.

01:28:05.98
Jeremy
Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times. If you look if you look at that cycle and where we're at in our country and what's happening right now,

01:28:12.84
Keith
Nice, I like that.

01:28:22.13
Jeremy
we just went through weak men create hard times. We're still in hard times. And if you keep yourself in between hard times and strong men, like what does the what is what does hard times create?

01:28:41.24
Jeremy
This is now the time to double down, get more stuff, learn more things, be prepared because

01:28:48.96
Keith
And that's, that's a, that's a great outlook, man. i I'm so glad you brought this up. I never thought of it this way.

01:28:53.72
Jeremy
i mean

01:28:54.06
Keith
I mean, instead of taking the time right now to relax, it's not the time to relax.

01:28:56.70
Jeremy
oh Absolutely not. Absolutely not. And I'm just going to tell you, the people in the shadows who were watching those of us like us, and they're watching what we're doing, we are now going to be, when the when this four years is up, depending on whatever happens next, then they're really going to start digging in and they're really going to start putting the screws to people like us, just like they did over the last four years.

01:29:24.37
Jeremy
And I think now when there's a little bit more freedom of movement to do the, get the things that we want to get, this is the time to get those things, especially if we do end up a little more money in our pockets, which would be great. But now really, I mean, this is such an important time. We have this amount of time with a little bit of freedom of movement to really get hardcore on this thing. So.

01:29:53.58
Keith
Yeah, when when Trump's term comes to an end, the powers that be are going to do everything possible to get rid of MAGA. And matt MAGA is not Trump. MAGA is us.

01:30:04.82
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:30:05.16
Keith
MAGA is make it great make America great again. They're going to want that mentality gone because it it destroyed all of their plans.

01:30:12.58
Jeremy
yeah Yeah, it really did. And, you know, again, I don't want to get biblical, but, you know, even when you look at powers and principalities, who's ruling and how do they rule? um This past four years, we really realized and learned

01:30:32.63
Jeremy
just how much of a mouthpiece the media is. And like there are no more reporters. There's no more journalists. There's just people who talk politics on one side or the other. That's all there is. There's no more reporting of the news. And the left, and you know there's there's a lot of people on the right who do it too, but the left really specializes in using the media to influence.

01:30:59.78
Jeremy
And they created hatred for people like us who love our country, who love our freedoms. We do not want to be beholden to anyone. We want to do what we want to do because the damn constitution says that I can. As long as I follow the law, don't tell me what I can or can't do. And that's really all we want. We want our freedom to do what we want.

01:31:30.46
Jeremy
and they created absolute detestable hatred for people like us. And when this four years is over, depending on how what happens next, again, like you said, they are going to double down on silencing people like us.

01:31:47.91
Jeremy
It's gonna happen.

01:31:49.34
Keith
Scary thought really is what else do you got on the way of a prepper?

01:31:50.11
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

01:31:53.78
Keith
Uh, Oh, you know what I was going to say? Um, you said that, um, hard times creates strong men. Is that what you said?

01:32:01.22
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah.

01:32:02.12
Keith
Hard times also created great voters, strong, strong voters.

01:32:02.19
Jeremy
And yeah, that's true. That is true.

01:32:07.71
Keith
Hard times is is the reason why Trump won.

01:32:10.68
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah. um The left and everything that they tried to do to him and conservatives like us, ah the country had had enough.

01:32:22.86
Jeremy
And if you if you really think about how many people on the left turn their back on the left this time around. Switched like Tulsi Gabbard is a, is a great example. Tulsi Gabbard was a Democrat.

01:32:34.20
Jeremy
And not only has she now been an appointee of Trump, but she switched from being a Democrat to a Republican because of what they were doing to her. And she actually kind of reminds me distance wide, like, you know, not exactly, but JFK of course was a Democrat.

01:32:53.91
Jeremy
You know, he had a lot, a lot of left leaning ideals.

01:32:55.04
Keith
Yep. Yep. He still is kind of a Democrat.

01:32:59.43
Jeremy
But JFK,

01:33:01.16
Keith
You're talking about the actual JFK or you're talking about junior.

01:33:02.91
Jeremy
yeah yeah yeah jfk um he did have a lot of liberal ideals, but he was very much, I guess what you could call a conservative Democrat.

01:33:04.47
Keith
Okay.

01:33:17.01
Jeremy
He had many, many, many conservative ideals. um

01:33:22.91
Keith
He loved the United States, man.

01:33:24.34
Jeremy
Absolutely.

01:33:25.47
Keith
You know.

01:33:25.64
Jeremy
Absolutely. And he, he fit the bill to me personally, what I think every president should be required to have a military background. I think every, every single president should have served in the military.

01:33:35.66
Jeremy
But, um, you know, now that we know a lot more about what happened, Um, he was not the flavor of Democrat that the Democrats wanted. He was not their saving grace. He was actually a linchpin within their own plans. That's why, uh, uh, um, it was a Johnson. Yeah. Lended me Johnson. That's why he had them killed. And now they're showing the other side of those videotapes of when he was killed. The driver turned around and put a.

01:34:12.62
Jeremy
put a compressed air bolt directly into his head.

01:34:15.81
Keith
I saw that. Yeah. You think that's real? That the video cause he, cause I, I have never, I've seen, I have been to the grassy knoll.

01:34:17.83
Jeremy
ab I absolutely do. that that

01:34:23.72
Keith
I have never seen that video until just now.

01:34:26.42
Jeremy
yeah and you know

01:34:29.35
Keith
I mean, crystal clear. He turns around, puts it, puts this thing right past the shoulder and shoots him in the head.

01:34:34.30
Jeremy
Yeah, it was a compressed air a weapon that was created for the CIA. um And it's the same kind of thing that they actually use in slaughterhouses to ah to c clean to clean kill cattle.

01:34:44.45
Keith
Right. Right.

01:34:46.68
Jeremy
Kind of like in that movie, um ah No Country for Old Men, that that tank that he had.

01:34:46.67
Keith
Yep. Yeah. That thing was awesome.

01:34:53.43
Jeremy
But you know you think about his ideals and what ended up happening with him. And then you see the way they treat Tulsi Gabbard. who was a Democrat and she did run for president, but she was the wrong flavor of Democrat. She had too many strong ideals that lean to the right because they just can't handle someone who actually loves their country and they are globalists. We are country. It's and that's why I do strongly believe in the in the concept of God, family, country.

01:35:31.43
Jeremy
Whatever happens on the outside world, I'm sorry. It's not that I don't care because it does have a lot to do with us, but this is home. And I don't care about what happens on the outside.

01:35:43.45
Jeremy
I care about what happens on the inside.

01:35:43.83
Keith
You know, the, the rest of the world definitely cares because there is a trickle down effect that happens with the United States. We are the world's superpower and the things that happen here influences everything that happens out there.

01:35:50.44
Jeremy
Oh, yeah.

01:35:55.08
Jeremy
Yeah, but but also because we are the last island. we are We are it. If we fall to the communist ideal like so many other places have, and they can call it socialism, they can call it communism, they can call it Australia and whatever they've become. If we fall to that, that's it. That is it. We are the last, and I want to say Reagan said, bastion of hope.

01:36:24.40
Jeremy
if if this country falls to that ideal everything else falls because that's what globalists want they want one world government i don't know but um i'm kind of man i felt like i needed to get that one off my chest but uh anyway

01:36:35.43
Keith
How in the hell does all this have to, anything to do with prep groups?

01:36:43.10
Keith
Uh, you did, you gotta, and I won't cut it out. I'm gonna leave it all.

01:36:48.05
Jeremy
um

01:36:48.76
Keith
I'm gonna leave it all in there.

01:36:50.03
Jeremy
But um the one thing and I think that we probably need to do next within this series is vetting. Like how do you figure out who you want in these groups? How do you source them? How do you find them? How do you determine who's the best fit you know for your jigsaw puzzle that you know you're either trying to create or trying to join? Like where do you figure out either what your piece is or how you're trying to fit those pieces into your group?

01:37:19.88
Keith
Well, we're going to need to move vetting into another part, uh, part two or a part three, or whatever it is. Uh, vetting is very, very difficult thing when it comes to prepper groups, because the, uh, the normal way of vetting, you just can't do, you know, you, you just can't do background checks on people that aren't going to allow you to do background checks on them.

01:37:31.20
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:37:36.46
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah.

01:37:37.55
Keith
You know, the basic ones, yeah, but not deep throat, not deep dives.

01:37:40.95
Jeremy
yeah

01:37:41.97
Keith
So yeah, let's ah let's do that next time. So on this one here, we talked about ah basically how to find prepper groups. Like did we talk about how to really find them?

01:37:53.24
Jeremy
Well, you had brought up the app. um Now I know that going through the socials is really probably what most people do today. You know, social media is a huge thing and.

01:38:08.43
Jeremy
you know I think that now that some of the ah the the loosening of the reins has happened a little bit more in Facebook, Instagram, X, of course, and a lot of those social media platforms, I would imagine that if somebody just kind of started doing keyword searches, they're going to be able to find you know groups within their areas.

01:38:32.01
Jeremy
um you know and

01:38:33.41
Keith
Yeah, I look while we were talking, I, I went and applied for the Missouri mag mutual assistant groups.

01:38:39.62
Jeremy
Mm hmm.

01:38:40.13
Keith
yeah Now that it's a private group, they don't have very many people, but I wanted to see how easy the process was. I, you know, I'll check it out. I'll see. And I'll, I'll report back and see how it turns out.

01:38:48.48
Jeremy
Yeah, I mean, there's there's gotta be, you know, a million different ways like prepper net. I know that's one Facebook, of course, you're gonna be able to find different groups. I mean, even if you went into Gosh, I would imagine if you just did, let's just do it right now. ah Let's go into Google and do prepper groups.

01:39:16.18
Jeremy
And we'll just use Fayetteville since I don't live there. Fayetteville, North Carolina. And it came up with like 500 million. um think But the very first one, of course, is Facebook.

01:39:31.61
Jeremy
Uh, next one is true prepper, how to find preppers in your area. Uh, survival Sullivan.

01:39:36.56
Keith
Yeah, it's funny because Facebook was the second one on my my list. Reddit was the first one.

01:39:40.63
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:39:40.82
Keith
I didn't put in that. I put in ah mag groups near me, is what I put.

01:39:44.75
Jeremy
Hmm.

01:39:45.43
Keith
And ah Facebook was the second one that popped up.

01:39:45.65
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah. And here's one right here. Survivalist forum, prepper groups in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Um, and it's a, it's a forum and then you can go in literally and there's multiple, multiple answers to this one thread.

01:40:02.92
Jeremy
So if you really want to find one, I would imagine one of the easiest places to start is social media. Start going through different websites, different social media platforms.

01:40:13.39
Keith
Yeah.

01:40:17.43
Jeremy
And it's too easy if you like, I'm on a lot of different groups on Facebook. and they have a message capability. I can go in there and message and be like, hey, is anyone out there? And just start asking simple questions and kind of see where that conversation goes. And we actually teach this, you know, where, where, i'm where I work. And, you know, they, we have to have a, what we call a cover for story, cover for background, you know, different things like that.

01:40:44.42
Jeremy
And part of one of my part of my story within this this basically this this storyline that we give to students is I was dropping my grandkids off at school.

01:40:59.00
Jeremy
And I was really angry about something, but I heard another angry parent talking about how they got pulled over at a checkpoint and something happened within this checkpoint. And I just struck up a conversation and then they said, Hey, if you want to know more, go to this bar and there's going to be this guy and you guys can have a conversation. Take it from there.

01:41:19.09
Jeremy
And you know through through these different steps of vetting and personal background searches, of course, within the scenario, I ended up with this group, this this group of of people fighting together. um I imagine, in the real world, using social media, it's kind of the same thing.

01:41:42.70
Jeremy
um but i

01:41:43.81
Keith
Yeah, as long as you're just careful of what information you put out there, you know.

01:41:46.74
Jeremy
Yeah, and but I would also think that in order to protect these groups or other individuals, that eventually you're going to have to go from social media that can be you know followed by the authorities and a face to face eventually would be something that would be required. Because how do you get the true measure of a person through messaging? You can't. um I know a lot of people that I can have a normal conversation with.

01:42:16.06
Jeremy
You know, face to face, but when it comes to texting, you instantly think that they have a shitty attitude with you because of how they, how they communicate through text.

01:42:25.74
Keith
Texting is the worst way of communicating.

01:42:26.47
Jeremy
That's, oh man, it's all, I mean, I love it, but I hate it. It's.

01:42:30.45
Keith
Relationships and marriages end because of texting.

01:42:32.01
Jeremy
Yes. Yeah. Like just a simple response. Okay. Oh my gosh. She's so angry. You know, like i I have to imagine that, you know, when you find these groups, eventually you're going to have to have some kind of, you know, face to face talk, um you know, just ah to figure out the measure of the individual.

01:42:56.03
Keith
Yeah, or or the group.

01:42:57.48
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:42:58.22
Keith
And we'll do that on the the next one.

01:43:00.81
Jeremy
Awesome, man.

01:43:02.94
Keith
What do you think? That good for tonight?

01:43:04.84
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:43:05.70
Keith
All right. You don't have anything else on your your line, right? you're Your way.

01:43:09.00
Jeremy
Uh, no, no, that's it.

01:43:10.97
Keith
Okay.

01:43:11.35
Jeremy
I think.

01:43:11.56
Keith
Cause I had a bunch of stuff on, on like how to, uh, like different ways of looking for groups or, or that sort of thing, but we've touched on all of them.

01:43:11.71
Jeremy
yeah

01:43:19.04
Keith
We didn't say anything about church, but that's kind of a given. Uh, and I've got the whole list of of things of ways to vet without actually vetting. So we'll talk about that in the next one. It's way too much for this episode.

01:43:29.07
Jeremy
Yeah. Well, do you want to do finding? Uh, like a little bit more, uh, on the next one and and then go into vetting.

01:43:38.70
Keith
Yeah, absolutely. We could start, we could start that way.

01:43:40.79
Jeremy
Okay. Yeah.

01:43:41.64
Keith
Yeah. oh What do you want to let me stop this so we can get the.