The few other people shopping had a glassy stare in their eyes, like they were dazed or shell-shocked. For me and those I know that prep, it was just another day; for those that hadn't prepped it was a nightmare of uncertainty.

In Montana we didn't pay much heed to the lockdowns after the first month.  In three months everything was basically back to normal except for the mask mandates which most people ignored. With more data available on the virus it was clear that the chance of death was greatly exaggerated. What scared us far more was the pervasive talk of vaccine passports in 2021. The proposed state and federal restrictions on people that refused to take the jab were familiar – This was the beginning of full blown tyranny unless we stood firm.

In the meantime there was a public rush to buy up as many necessities as they could afford. And of course, the covid stimulus measures helped to trigger a stagflationary crisis that had already been building in the US for many years.

In the face of so many potential threats preppers were still well protected. If vaccine passports became the norm and access to public places was blocked then we had food storage to get us through for a long time to come. If the buying panic and inflation led to a supply chain disaster then we were ready, along with the guns and ammo and training needed to keep what we had. If a fight was coming then we had the means to defend ourselves.

I have long been convinced that it was the prepper factor that caused the government to rethink their strategy of perpetual medical lockdowns and give up on vaccine passports. Recent surveys show that over 30% of the adult population of the US is involved in prepping.  We're an unknown element, something they can't predict, a possible monkey-wrench in the gears of the machine.

With our own supplies we are not dependent on the system to keep us alive, and the harder they push the more we are compelled to organize into an even greater obstacle. Just as NATO sanctions have pushed Russia, China and the BRICS closer together, openly authoritarian policies in the west during covid have pushed liberty movement people together. The establishment backed away because they had to.

That's why I have to laugh whenever I see some idiot online say: "What's the point of prepping when nothing ever happens?"

These people must have been living under a rock since 2020.  We just dodged one of the biggest Orwellian bullets in our nation's history with the defeat of the pandemic mandates. Or, maybe they don't realize that the pandemic was just the beginning.