I don’t want to spoil the whole article for you, but I recently read a post at OffGridSurvival.com about how Every “Ultimate Survival Kit” List Was Written by Someone Who Never Used the Gear, and I completely agree.
The survival and preparedness niche has become saturated by people who don’t actually believe in the concept. I’ve been seeing this trend over the past few years with book publishing, and it’s only getting worse with AI making writing and publishing easier than ever.
The problem, however, is that people like you get sold items that bad or subpar and, worse, could possible put your life at risk. I’ve been duped more than once, but experience has taught me how to discern what’s what most of the time.
I did want to point out a few things that I believe are important from the article, things you might not have fully realized.
- Customer reviews are often fake. Amen to that! I can’t tell you how bad this has become, especially on Amazon. Well, they’re either fake or poor because a customer hasn’t actually used the item for more than a few minutes, if at all. All you see is a bunch of 5-star reviews and assume it’s a good item. Not at all. And it’s true of almost everything I see online these days … my books excluded, of course.
- Cheap items are cheap for a reason. Yes. I’ve experienced this too, though most my experiences are for non-survival-related purchases. I’m beginning to hate buying things from Amazon these days because it’s cheap garbage made in China. But, it’s often priced right, so I persist. Still, you can’t make this mistake with survival gear. If the price is too good to be reasonable, look elsewhere.
- There’s no “one size fits all” kit. It amazes me how often people think my advice, for instance, should somehow be generic enough that it works for everyone yet specific enough that it’s written for their situation or needs. Yet, for the life of me, I cannot make these two expectations mesh. The truth is simple: your kit, whether that be an EDC, vehicle kit, or bug out bag needs to be YOURS. Take my advice or whoever you prefer, and adjust until it meets your needs, wants, and desires. Buying something off the shelf and expecting it to be right for you is unlikely to produce good results.
Now, there’s one more aspect of this that I don’t feel was covered in the article: you have to know and trust the people you’re getting your recommendations and advice from. Again, this is becoming a real problem in the survival community. Like he said, the people who write these “ultimate survival” articles are just in it for the internet rankings and to make a quick buck. They don’t use this equipment and don’t really care if their advice helps or hurts you when it counts, so long as they’ve made the sale. That’s bad business.
In fact, years ago I used do a lot more reaching out to other bloggers and influencers. To my surprise, some of these people that I’d assumed were “real” or who they said they were, weren’t! They used fake names, probably fake photos, and even though they may have offered solid advice much of the time, there was something that struck me as disingenuous when I found out. If you’re going to put your name on it, and your recommendation behind it, be truthful. Show who you are.
I understand folks wanting to keep some anonymity, something I’ve failed at many years ago, but I think you should be upfront about that desire. My beef is that people like you, those who have stuck around for years and those who just got here, should be able to trust the person behind the message. It’s why I detest the fancy marketers who peddle their “doom and gloom” videos and sales pitches that, for whatever reason, people continue to fall for. The successful marketers make millions each time, you’re poorer for it, and if you’re lucky, you learned something useful. But I doubt it.
Anyway, I’ll get off my high horse for now. There’s plenty more discussed in the article, including about fake water filters, batteries, not doing real-world testing of your own, and more. It’s worth the read so you’re at least aware of the problems you might encounter.
