I am a believer of having some of the basics on hand, food, water, guns, ammo, etc.  I've been trying to convince some if my friends that it is important to be better prepared.  They do not see the benefit in it, don't care, etc.  For those of you who have convinced others in the past for the importance of being prepared, what has worked?  They usually just respond "well if something bad happens, we'll just come to your place."

Thanks, Mike

Ain't gonna happen.  You're just making enemies who think you are a kook.  Remind them you are preparing for YOUR family, no one else.

This.

It seems when you try to explain what 'you' think is going on and to try to have a rational discussion about it, and ways to navigate thru and the importance of applying critical thinking skills, it just pisses off the folks who are mostly Sheeple anyhoo and only focused on immediate things and themselves -and whose critical thinking skills fall into last place behind pooping.

There have been a few folks I've known, that I can count on two hands, who listen and consider whatchersaying.

But very few. We can see this in this forum all the time.

My wife works with a bunch of lesbians at a government agency. One day a temporary crown fell off the tooth of one of the lesbians. My wife said "no problem, I have an emergency dental kit in my GHB." At first they laughed at her, but now we are throwing a preparedness party at our house and have 6 confirmed guests. My wife showed that preparedness doesn't have to be about a zombie apocalypse or major SHTF event. Going to tell them a little bit about the kinds of things they should be prepared for and help them put together starter kits. We'll see where it goes from there.

I try the subtle approach... last year for Christmas, I gave about a half dozen Feuerhand kerosene lanterns and Sawyer mini filters to neighbors and good friends... this generally started a conversation... this year I'm upping the ante to about 25, Fenix E01, Acme 636 whistle, and US P38 for keychain EDC items...

For us it was a matter of thinking of the people we would take care of regardless if they bought in to the prepping idea, children, grandchildren, and a cousin and family thats like a brother.

We started prepping for our "group". The kids would see what we were doing when they visited and question (our sanity?) why. Had long conversations about the state of the world with my cousin.

In time, they all started, in varying degrees, seeing a need to be preppared. Some in baby steps and some more enthusiasticly.

It's taken a couple years but everybody is embracing the whole idea now.

Tom

That statement is so frequently used that we all cringe when hearing it. I actually think we all expect to hear it now in fact. I myself told a rather arrogant neighbor once "Sure, I can use the target practice" when he said the same exact thing to me (we have never talked about emergency preparedness since). All the silly talk about "zombie" this," zombie" that, or the "Zombie Apocalypse", plus that horse shit "Doomsday Preppers" TV show has put all of us who are serious about prepping in to some sort of crazy or 'kook' category (I actually hate using the term prep or 'prepper' anymore just because of this). In short, anyone who dismisses their family's or their own safety/survival with such a flippant comment is not going to be swayed by even your best arguments. They are infected with The Ostrich Syndrome and are a liability to society. Leave them be.

I believe the best come back to this statement/mentality that I've ever heard was best described by another poster here in this forum quite some time ago to who someone had told him the same thing. The Arfcommer supposedly stated to the individual something to the effect of 'I prep for my family and we prep for those who don't --- although not in the manner you're thinking of'.

Your response: "That's why I'm also stocking up on guns!''

A lot of my friends, came to be more prepared for themselves after an "oh shit" moment, that caused them to re-evaluate their priorities.

Until they feel that for themselves, they just wont get it.

Take a pair of bolt cutters to the main power lead to their house.  See how long they last.

Take them for a ride out to the boonies.   Leave them there after dark.

You can't.  All you can to do is leave an echo and decide who gets a second chance.  Use leverage cautiously and appropriately.

Most have already stated it, but I will chime in as well; you can't.
The majority of people firmly believe that someone else will take care of them in the event of an emergency. Whether this is you, the government, or the Red Cross they don't care.
It is so much easier to go through life with your head in the sand. It leaves more time for TV shows and Facebook.

I too have heard people say "we will just come to your place" if anything happens. Well, that was my bad in the past for discussing my views and level of preparedness.
Since we moved last year no one in our neighborhood knows anything about us except we keep our gardens with new flowers, we mow our lawn, and mind our own business.
The few friends we have in the area maintain a decent level of preparedness and are able to take care of themselves.

TLDR version: I learned the hard way to keep my mouth shut about everything except football and the weather.

IME, you can't.

You can show an interested person the ropes, or guide him to good resources...but convincing someone who isn't the slightest bit interested has never worked for me.

The only thing that seems to work for SOME of those folks is localized, short-term adversities that pop up: Intense winter storms, power outages, etc...and seeing how well you weathered the challenge.

You can casually bring it up in conversation (power outage, storms) and talk about how this worked, this didn't work, and how nice it would be to have had that. Gauge their response. As always don't show your hand of your preps. I have discovered our mailman (younger guy my age) is HIGHLY interested in how we do a lot of things (hard to hide the chickens, etc when he comes up with packages). He doesn't know of the stockpile of supplies, but sees the mini farm lifestyle and is interested. He has caught me shooting a few times with the AR and pistol, so that brought up conversation as well. I'm just not sure how far past intrigued he is, though. He was talking to me about he was going to buy a dozen or so acres of farmland around his house so he can have some critters and garden, etc. He lives in our area, so a friendship may evolve of it. I imagine he will be checking out how I built the chicken coop, and garden advise.

Um, you won't last if you go to taking bolt cutters to power lines .  Might as well go ahead and give them your preps first!!

Seriously, nothing drives the point home like letting them go through a hurricane or ice storm miserable.  

Then they will make up their own mind.  If it is no, then so be it.

Doc

I tell that type that if they do come by, it will help to supplement my dog food.

Hell, nowadays cut there WIFI and you would think Armageddon has arrived

I fall into that category...    

I've tried similarly and was met with varying degrees of declines.  The one that gets me the worst is my brother-in-law...if things get tough, it's going to take a lot of restraint for me to not force feed him his words.

I was sort of successful once. There was a hurricane on the way, friends generator would not run. I offered to help him clean the carbeurator. When he got there I was spreading out my extension cords, test running my generator, and putting the window unit in place. He asked if I had fuel I said yes X cans full, it takes me one a day. I said I keep them full around hurricane season. He commented how he had to go sit in line at the gas station to fill his 3 cans, then off to the grocery store to hopefully get bottled water. Luckily the storm didn't hit us hard enough to need it.

After that he got more gas cans started keeping them full, bought a window unit and started keeping water around. He did ask my opinion on a few things.

I say sort of successful, because he never really thought it was a bad idea, he just wasn't doing it. And like someone above said an oh crap moment put the pieces together. Not like I talked him into anything, just demonstrated at the right time.

If someone doesn't think preparing for such a highly likely event is a good idea. They can't be talked into getting ready for what seems like a less likely event.