I try not to project a badaz image in the real world, it being counterproductive in many ways. Sometimes people will tell you things about themselves, if they feel dominate, that they wouldn’t otherwise.
When I built my house in the woods where I live now, I was talking to a neighbor that I didn’t know well. He was recovering from a bad accident on a job site, he being an industrial plumber, also a Vietnam era Navy veteran. The talk wandered around to being somewhat prepared for situations in which food could be in short supply, or nonexistent. I asked him if he was prepared to any degree to deal with that eventuality.
I was stunned by his reply. Now this was a seemingly decent person, a supervisor of many workers on large plumbing jobs, about 62 years old with grown children and grandchildren. He said he had no food stocks to speak of. He then said he would send his son to my door, for instance, to ask for food, while he hid in the woods with a firearm, and if the answer to his son’s entreaty was negative, well, he would get what he felt he needed by force.
I didn’t react badly even though it was very alarming, just chuckled as if I thought it a joke, and changed the subject, no need to be confrontational, let him think he could get away with such an idiotic plan, rather than cause him to think up a better, more effective one. I told my wife about it, and we will react as necessary if the time comes to do so. We will never trust the guy, or his children for that matter. To be honest, under shtf circumstances, no one will be trusted, as I know what people are capable of doing when they are desperate.
There was another one, years ago, a guy I had known since high school. He was a drug addict, used most anything available to get high, starting out with huffing gasoline out of a paper bag as a boy. His dad was a salesman for drug companies, and kept his overflow of pharmaceuticals on the closet floor about a foot deep. The guy said he would experiment with different things and his dad never knew.
Anyway this guy showed me a new .270 bolt action rifle with scope he had purchased. Now I knew this guy didn’t hunt, always kind of scared of the woods. So I asked him why he bought the firearm, as it was a good bit of cash. He said he was getting worried about things, shtf sorts of things, and that he was going to survive by sniping others and taking what he wanted.
This really angered me, but I didn’t react, I just found an excuse to go my way, and to avoid him ever after. I told my wife and son that in a real shtf situation, if this guy showed up where we live, to shoot him on sight, don’t even attempt to talk to him, that he was that dangerous. Fortunately the creep doesn’t know where we live now, but he could find out with a bit of diligent searching. Hopefully he will die of an overdose, or get run over before I have to deal with his schemes.
Most everyone has the potential to do horrific things if the pressures upon them are severe enough. I shake my head at those who say they will walk on water through the shtf lands, bringing kindness and love to all …… potential raiders, murderers, rapists, or dead people without a clue, living in fantasy land because thinking about such things is so repugnant.