Guest Article: Seven People You Don’t Want in Your Group, by Kit Perez

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Editor’s Introductory Note: This article first appeared in the American Partisan blog. It is re-posted with permission.

I get a lot of questions about recruiting. How to do it, when to do it, when not to. While the best way to answer those questions is in an actual class (and there are still a few spots open in the webinar class I’m teaching on it), there are some hard and fast rules about the type of people you want and don’t want in your group. In fact, there’s a list of automatic disqualifications that I tend to use and teach others. If someone is on the disqualification list, they’re an automatic no-go. It doesn’t mean they aren’t friends, or that I suddenly see them as not worth having in my life; I’m talking about purely an ally standpoint. The 0300 call for assistance. The people who I can count on no matter what. After all, what’s the purpose here? If your goal is just to go to rallies and be seen “doing patriot stuff,” then don’t even bother reading the rest of the article, because it’ll fly right over your head.

The rules tend to make people uncomfortable or even angry. “Well, my friend Jack might meet one of those automatic disqualifications but you don’t know him. I do. He’s solid.” Here’s the thing: your knowledge of him doesn’t trump your adversary’s knowledge of how to take a person like Jack and manipulate him into doing things he would not normally do. The bottom line is, are you willing to trust the rest of your life, to be spent in a prison cell, to every person in your group? If you have a “group” of 30, 50, or even 100 people, the answer to that is no; at least, it should be — especially in this age of social media “groups” where you haven’t even MET half the people in the group, let alone had an opportunity to observe them in a variety of situations. In fact, that’s one of the reasons we advocate for such small groups in Basics of Resistance. There’s nothing that says you can’t network with other groups for specific one-time purposes, with the proper compartmentalization.

One of the biggest complaints I hear is that everyone eventually breaks, and will inform on their group if they are threatened. The thing about leverage is that it requires a fulcrum. The point of this list is to remove the standard go-to things that are typically used as keys to infiltrate a group or leverage members into detrimental actions. In other words, make it harder for your adversary to find something to use. If they normally have a 10-item list of openings to choose from, take away 9 of them and hide the 10th. Even in a worst-case scenario, you’ve bought your group some time. Everyone will break, given enough pressure and time — which is why you should go to great lengths to avoid anyone in your group even put in that situation.

As we go through this list, hopefully you’ll see past what’s said, and focus on why it’s being said, and why each of these people are on the list to begin with. Also keep in mind that this isn’t the whole list — not by a long shot. It’s just a few of the top entries.

7 People You Don’t Want in Your Group

  • The Sloppy Online Guy
  • The Anger Problem Child
  • The Vice Lover or Addict
  • The “Let’s Get it Started” Guy
  • The Guy Who Can’t Stand Up to His Wife
  • The Unteachable Guy
  • The Welfare Recipient Guy

Let’s break these down a bit more.

The Sloppy Online Guy

People who are sloppy online will be sloppy elsewhere.

This works on both a group and individual level. If you are approached by a group who tells you they get on Zello every night to do a “roll call,” run away. If a group is all over Facebook posting their “training videos,” inviting the public to their training, or generally talking about group activities anywhere online, they should be an automatic no-go. Instead, look for people who, if they have social media at all, manage it appropriately and keep their “worlds” separate. In fact, ideally you should not be able to tell from their online presence they’re in a group at all. What? There’s no way your group members would ever sit for that? See the previous articles on core motivators.

The Anger Problem Child

People who cannot or will not control their temper are easily leveraged and will get you into trouble.

If you can’t control your emotions in normal, everyday situations, then you can be manipulated quite easily by someone who knows how to drive you with your anger. People with tempers often talk a lot of trash, and you’ll see their group members making excuses for him or trying to pull him aside to ask him to tone down the rhetoric, but you usually won’t see them just kicking him to the curb — and they should. Without question. Instead, look for people who are capable of keeping their cool across a variety of situations.

The Vice Lover or Addict

If someone has a secret (or not-so-secret) vice, you can rest assured it’ll be used against them.

Skeletons get their power from their secret nature. If you have a group member who’s got a secret, it WILL come out, and it will be used for maximum effect. We’ve seen this over and over; someone’s having an affair, someone else has a past violent felony, another guy is involved with the production of meth in order to fund his “patriot” activities, still another guy is abusing his wife and kids. All of those are real situations that have happened, and they ended up having two main effects: 1) they degraded the public image of the group and the larger cause, and 2) they were used as leverage to push the person into something they would not have normally done. Now consider — had their respective groups and contacts shunned them immediately (or done their homework and blocked the person from joining to begin with), would they have been under the same amount of risk? The short answer is no.

Same with addicts, drunks, drug users, etc. They’re a liability. No one’s saying you can’t have a drink or whatever else you do. But if you can’t be trusted to have a clear head when it’s needed, you’re dead weight. If you’ve ever had to alter a plan because Jack can’t perform his function right now because he’s drunk — or you know that he WILL be — then Jack needs to go.

Let’s Get it Started Guy

Anyone who advocates for, or tries to get people to engage in violence while shaming others for being “soft” or “uncommitted” is either a coward or a fed — or both.

You’ll see these folks a lot on social media. They’re constantly making vague references that insinuate anyone who isn’t parked on the Capitol steps with a rifle is somehow a coward. No one’s stopping him from going all Rambo if he believes in it so much, but that’s the point. He doesn’t — or at least, he doesn’t have the balls to do anything, so he tries to get others to either do it for him or band with him so he can act within the safety of a group. Then there’s also the possibility that he’s simply working on an entrapment scheme. Either way, give this guy a wide berth.

The Guy Who Can’t Stand Up to His Wife

If a man cannot stand up to his wife, he is not only extremely exploitable but he will fold very quickly in a variety of situations.

This article isn’t the place for some discussion on feminism or household roles or whatever else. I’ll simply leave it at this — if the person you pledged your love and loyalty to scares you enough that you have to hide your activities or allow that person to control you, then it will take nothing at all for someone else to own you. The flip side of that is sometimes men who are henpecked or emasculated at home tend to try and gain that power back outside their home, and can end up being overly confrontational as their repressed anger boils over in other situations. That can also be leveraged without much effort. This also applies if you have a female member whose husband is not involved and may feel threatened. That husband is a liability — and that makes her one too.

Some people tell me that the reason they hide their activities isn’t out of fear, but out of love and a desire to “protect” their wife from unpleasantness. There’s just one problem — what happens when they can’t protect their spouse anymore? How will their wife handle an actually “unpleasant” situation? Chances are, that husband will be out of commission trying to help his wife deal with what’s going on.

The Unteachable Guy

If someone thinks he has nothing to learn, then he will not learn anything, even if that puts others in danger.

I know several people who are absolute experts in their field, and part of what makes them amazing is their humility. They’ll tell you plainly if they don’t know something, and they’re always open to recognizing when they aren’t the smartest person in the room on a given subject — and they’re always open to learn from anyone.

There’s always that guy, however, who doesn’t need to learn anything. He always has an excuse. There’s no point in learning OPSEC because “the government knows everything anyway.” He doesn’t care about comms because that’s “not his job.” He refuses to change, refuses to learn. Or he’s the expert that knows all about the subject you’re talking about — just ask him. Drop that guy, because he’s putting his own arrogance above the safety and training level of the group. If anyone in your group thinks they’ve “arrived,” they won’t go anywhere except where they’re at right now.

Welfare Recipients

If someone is dependent on government welfare to provide for themselves and their family, they have a massive conflict of interest and cannot be trusted.

This is pretty self-explanatory. If an adversary is feeding their family and paying their bills, when the rubber meets the road, they’re going to ensure that money keeps coming in. End of story.

There are many other types of people you should be avoiding as well, and we will go over them in a later article. This, however, will get you started either cleaning house or picking up rocks to stone me with. If these people are in your group, you’re at risk. If you’re on this list yourself, then fix it for the sake of your fellow group members.

A lot of people think this is pretty draconian. “How are we supposed to make a group now?” Others will complain that “no one’s perfect,” and they’re right. Everyone has a weakness; whether it’s booze or money or a deep-seated need to feel like they’re someone. The point of all of this isn’t to sit down, cut everyone in your group, and revel in the knowledge that you were the only one without a problem. But here’s the thing: If you have 30+ attack surfaces and potential “ins” to your group, don’t you think it’s in your best interest to at least try and cut that number down? Maybe make it a bit harder for your adversary to get in?

Note: This article originally appeared in the highly recommended American Partisan. The author, Kit Perez, is the co-author of Basics of Resistance: The Practical Freedomista, Book I, a primer on resistance methods. (It was co-authored by Claire Wolfe.) Perez is also a counterintelligence and statement analyst, as well as a longtime political writer on national security, intelligence and privacy/tech topics. She holds a BA in Counterintelligence and a Masters in Intelligence Studies. She specializes in deception detection, HUMINT, and digital surveillance issues.


66 Comments

  1. Very good, some are even afraid to mention these topics, but it’s the truth. I have a couple that might make it to my farm….I will have to feed them to my pigs. Lol.

    2. There is no one that I trust to that level. Maybe close family, but they come with a whole set of issues themselves. Many of those included in the article. When DHR comes and takes folks children, I dare say there aren’t many that wouldn’t do what big gov wants…when they what it.

  3. The I can’t/won’t prepare now but I’ll come to your place, after all you’ll need more hands right? Guy

    And..
    The ever famous I’ll buy lots of stuff and never train on any of it guy.

  4. A few thoughts:

    We have never arrived and are fully ready for whatever the situation might be. We each need to keep growing and learning and maturing.
    We need to be humble.
    None of us is perfect.
    None of us will be fully ready whenever that situation strikes.
    We are not strong enough in our strength. We must trust in God and His grace to make up for our weaknesses.

    We always need to be learning new things. And there isn’t a set curriculum to learn how to survive, just as there shouldn’t be a set curriculum in k-12. We should learn from life, taking the learning opportunities as they come to us and explore them and store them away in our knowledge base to build on later and draw from when we need an understanding of something. We should never assume we’ve closed a certain category of learning. Sure, maybe we will get so familiar with a certain category from repetition that we take it for granted, but there is always something new to learn. The new morsel is like a bright pink flower is a field of gray, and when you find it, it makes your whole day brighter. I love it when I learn something new. And I never know when that new knowledge will come.

      1. @Big John,

        “God helps those who help themselves.”

        I must have missed that Scripture verse in Sunday School… or maybe my Bible doesn’t have the book of “Benjamin Franklin” in it.

  5. You forgot the “passive-aggressive” guy. He’s that guy who pretends he doesn’t want to be in charge, but is constantly playing “survivor” by breaking into small conversation with side-groups to push his own agenda. If he talks about people behind-their-back now, how much worse will it be in WROL?

    1. Hi Pat. I appreciate the addition, and you’re right–the gossip/passive-aggressive guy is a problem. I’ve actually included him in the follow-up to this article. Thanks again for the addition.

  8. Forgot one, the emotionless guy, the last person you want in a group is one with no empathy. You have to be able to put your self in another mans shoes, if you have any hope of understanding them.

  9. Welfare… never been on public assistance, but I have been collecting my well earned social security since age 65. While that government check is the majority of my monthly income, my debt-free life style and a basement full of preps insure my independance.

  10. Seek the LORD before any covenant of men is founded.

    Religion, Money, Inlaws, Children; These are the four things that must be agreed upon for a productive marriage. Draw your own inferences.

    Watch out for those who refuse self-examination in any aspect of their being.

    Also, the pre war checklist: Get right with God, Get right with family, Get right with medical including dental, get ready physically.

    “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

    “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”

    1. “Seek the LORD before any covenant of men is founded.”

      Luke 14:33, “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.” kinda wonder how preppers fit this into their lifestyle ….

      1. You should get a King James Holy Bible. The interpretive opinion version you cite is from one of those 1960’s abominations that isn’t even an actual translation. And secondly, you should get on your knees before a Holy resurrected Christ and ask Him to explain the entire passage to you. Perhaps some of these preppers did give up all that they have for the LORD.

        Do you want to weed out the unbelievers from your group? Start here: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”

        Shall I go to the Old Testament?

        Don’t throw another man’s easy believe-ism at me.

        1. Luke 14:33 King James Version (KJV) “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.”

          not sure this is any less all-encompassing ….

          “ask Him to explain the entire passage to you.”

          yeah, well, when I do that I just hear the passage over again ….

          “Don’t throw another man’s easy believe-ism at me”

          “easy”!!??

          2. “you should read proverbs 18:2”

            Proverbs 18:2 “A fool does not delight in understanding,
            But only in revealing his own [a]mind.”

            non sequitur.

            “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.” kinda wonder how preppers fit this into their lifestyle ….

        2. Fred said: ” You should get a King James Holy Bible. The interpretive opinion version you cite is from one of those 1960s abominations that isn’t even an actual translation.” Fred that is a laughable layman statement. You seem to be ignorant of how the King James version came about from 1607 published in 1611. Its not a translation of the original languages of Hebrew-Chaldee and Greek. Its largely influenced and borrowed from earlier editions of the Douai, Geneva, Bishops, and Tyndales versions. It ( the King James revision) was a revision prepared by a conference of English divines known as the Hampton Court. The conference appointed 50 revisers who were split up into six groups at Oxford, Cambridge, and Westminster. It was never the ” Official Authorized”. It was designed to be read in the churches because the common peoples of the 1500s couldn’t for the most part read or write for themselves. Originally it contained the Apocrypha. Do you read the Apocrypha? It is removed from the modern copies. It is interesting to note that you or anyone on this blog speaks in the 1500-1600s era Olde English. Why would one want to read it daily? Fred, you really should get the 1960s translations from the original Hebrew and Greek languages. They are translated into our current modern idiom of speech, such as the New American Standard And the English Standard Versions. Or if your hung up on the King Jimmy at least get the New King James Version. Many Ancient Manuscripts have been unearthed and discovered since 1611 and inroads of understanding have been made in the ancient Hebrew and Greek idioms and tenses of languages. At least your read an old Bible Revision Fred, even if it is in a dead idiom of English language.

  11. “ideally you should not be able to tell from their online presence they’re in a group at all.”

    well … you’re in a group, yes?

    “If someone has a secret” …

    … how would you check for this?

  12. I have read Kit and Claire Wolfe’s books for years and love them. Here in south Alabama very hard to put a dedicated group together. Too many on welfare, too many obese men, liberals and religious nut cases who will not defend themselves and few real prepers

  14. Best article on SB for quite some time. Great reality check.

    I banter quite a bit with those, “It’s Civil War time!” dudes on Facebook. Author is spot on, they are hypocrites.

  15. So because I am retired and receive Social Security and I use a little marijuana on occasion (I do not drink) then I am unreliable? Oh well. Not sayin’ I’m a survivalist expert, but I’m a former active duty Marine and truck driver with an Amateur license. Gotta pick and choose I guess.

    2. Got to say, I don’t GAFF anyway. At my age, in my circumstance, I plan to be dead anyway. The only question is how I die and if I can take any hostiles with me.

  16. Something to remember in terms of what motivates people, and how they can be vulnerable: the acronym MICE. M=money, I=ideology, C=compromise/coercion, E=ego.

  17. I don’t see you responding to any of the folks that mention receiving Social Security, and I’d also throw in government/military pensions as well (but maybe anybody retired and not supported by private income). Is that what you’re saying? If not, please explain.

    1. I’m not ignoring the comments at all; I simply don’t have the time to be here responding to all of them. Hopefully this will cover all needed responses (admins, my sincere apologies for the wall of text).

      If you receive Social Security or military pension or whatever else and you cannot survive without it, then technically you are a risk, yes, because if something happens that causes that money to be in jeopardy, then you will a) be a drain on those around you, or b) be easily leveraged in order to make that income up.

      There are plenty of people who receive pensions, medical retirement money from the VA, Social Security, etc., and yet are not wholly dependent upon it. If that faucet shut off, they would still survive, whether it be because they have preps, they homestead, they have savings, or a job elsewhere that they’re continuing with. If someone, however, is not working, and their sustenance or provisions for their family come from food stamps, TANF, etc., then there’s a risk involved with that.

      It doesn’t need to be a SHTF event that threatens that money either. All it takes is a “well-meaning” government official deciding to “audit” your case. Are all your papers in order? Is there a chance you falsified your unemployment claim and said you looked for work when you didn’t? Is there anything they can get you on? Maybe they suspend your benefits in the meantime while they “investigate.” All of these things are leverage. I’m sure they would reinstate your benefits if you’d be willing to just do this one little thing.

      It’s not a question of “anyone who gets X benefits is a bad person.” It’s simply a question of removing as many open doors as possible. Dependencies = open doors. Even someone like me, who makes their living as a writer and analyst, cannot work without an internet connection. In order to remove that as a personal vulnerability, I need to find 1) alternate ways to get internet if my own connection is somehow removed or inoperative for any reason, and 2) alternate means of sustenance/income if #1 fails. It’s basic preparedness, isn’t it, to have a PACE plan for everything? Why wouldn’t you have one for your finances as well?

      The people I was actually referring to with that article, however, are the ones who simultaneously preach smaller government while wholly dependent on the monthly handout of welfare programs. They don’t have jobs, they sit at home on the internet or they play soldier in the woods. If you or your group choose to take that on, that’s entirely your prerogative; we all make our own choices. The ideal, however, is to not take on personnel in a group who are dependent on the very entity they claim to oppose or want to decrease.

      As for the comment regarding the use of marijuana, the same principle applies. If something happens, I personally want to know that the people that I trust with my life will be clear-headed and able to act at all times. In return I offer them that same promise. They will never call upon me only to find that I am incapable of performing my function because I am drunk, high, or otherwise mentally incapacitated, even temporarily. That’s a choice I personally make.

      Each of us can read this list and think of people who maybe fit this that we choose to ally with anyway. We all make those choices for ourselves. The bottom line, however, is that every choice comes with risk. Some low, some higher, some extreme. By making the choice, we assume the risk. If you are willing to take on X amount of risk because you have a mitigation plan for it, then more power to you. If you are not willing to assume additional risk besides that which we all live under anyway, that’s good. If you are willing to assume the risk by default because you think I’m being mean and ruthless, that’s also your choice. We all make them. I wish you the best with yours.

        1. Anyone with a job is as vulnerable to economic coercion as someone on welfare or other government benefit, if not more so. I know people who have lost their jobs because of their activism.

          I say more so, because, believe it or not, people receiving welfare or government benefits cannot be arbitrarily cut off. They have a right to a hearing on appeal. The Supreme Court established this in the 1970 case Goldberg v Kelly. How many people in private sector jobs have this right?

          The only people with no such vulnerabilities are the independently wealthy. But even they are subject to IRS audits, state and local income tax audits, etc.

          1. “people receiving welfare or government benefits cannot be arbitrarily cut off. They have a right to a hearing on appeal.”

            as the political conflict heats up, you should not expect this sort of “right” to continue.

      2. You forget that if tshtf money won’t matter anyway. If you’ve got seeds saved, plenty of ammo, livestock, a roof over your head, and God in your life the dollar won’t matter. We barter.

        1. Yes indeed, and most of what I consider my net worth is in tangibles. Even more basic, I have firm faith in God for his faithfulness. I have Social Security income and a state pension which provides a comfortable if modest living. I would argue that in 2009 and 2010 when people were getting laid off from their jobs left and right, Social Security and pension checks were still going out every month like clockwork. I wasn’t receiving either at that time but I did notice that it was a less risky source of income than a job at a bank or car dealership. In case of economic Armageddon, I have a year+ of food, metals of the precious and brass kind, seeds galore and the knowledge of how to grow and what to grow, great kind prepper neighbors with medical background, and best of all, I already LIVE at my BOL. So I would take the “welfare” thing with a grain of salt. I did love the article, though, as hard choices should be faced and dealt with FIRST.

      3. Kit,
        You do not have to explain yourself. There are those that hear the truth and understand and that is all that matters. There are those out there that are listening and they are not very loud. Iron sharpening iron. Your effective and encouraging for those that choose to stand and have chosen rightly. Those same people only hand responsibility to those that can handle it without failing. All with respect, grace, love and forgiveness. Business is business and friends is friends. Ministry is ministry. Some of us can balance the relationships they invest in. This is not condemnation. This is wisdom and opportunity for picking your battles and using discernment in an uncertain world. Prepping.

    1. “what type of chaos”

      no chaos, really. just a bunch of old people yelling until they die.

      now cut off general welfare, food stamps, afdc, and ebt – THAT would be kinetically interesting ….

  20. I too am retired and on Social Security and two private retirements. Social Security is not welfare. If and when TSHTF you won’t be getting that anyway. Incomes won’t be there for anyone from any line of work. Now while we are relatively free SS is just income, earned before you retired. You worked long and hard for that money. We aren’t a problem if we use that income wisely. As old as we are, and as long as we worked to get where we are, we bring knowledge to the family or the group that younger folks likely don’t have.

    The point about welfare recipients is that they are not engaged in productive work. SS recipients generally engaged in productive work to get where they are. The welfare recipient is generally a non productive person while at a young enough age so they should be productive. I would call it “willfully dependent”. As an SS recipient, are you willfully dependent? For most of us the answer has to be NO. As for me, I knew it was time for me to leave my job and move on to something new and make the most of whatever life I have left to live.

    I would not presume to answer for Kit Perez, but my guess is that she would likely agree with me.

    1. @Charles

      I’m not so sure about the numbers there. I don’t dispute that those pulling SS now were generally productive members of society, but SS is clearly a ponzi scheme. Those pulling SS now will pull out far more than they put in (including interest) and the system requires constant input. That’s even before you count in the drawer full of IOUs in the SS pot of money that the current generation has put there.
      I’d have to look it up, but I hear that the retirement age was actually set right around the average age of death. People are living longer now so the system is lopsided. Add to that the fact that a bureaucracy runs it and $1 in does not equal $1 out. Bureaucracies have a tendency to have ridiculous overhead costs.

      1. HJL, my husband was self employed for many years and not only contributed his portion of social security but the employers portion too. Somewhere in this conversation some of us are feeling like we’re low life’s just because we’re on social security which we never even voted for by the way.

        1. Patti,

          We the people pay all taxes, period. Your husband paid both halves of SS as he was self-employed. Those of us who worked for others still paid both halves of SS, ours was just a hidden tax funneled through our employers. The same goes for Medicare. If I live long enough HJL is correct, I will likely receive more than I paid in, even including interest which should indeed be considered. That being said, we worked, and had a Federal gun pointed at our heads, with a two word command, “YOU WILL”! As for being a Ponzi scheme, I agree wholeheartedly. Like we had a choice in the matter. Worse than any criminal organization, their Ponzi scheme has the force of law behind it.

          For HJL, the point of the welfare recipient was clearly that if they are so lame as to be dependent on those welfare payments for their livelihoods at younger ages, they would be useless and a burden on any group. That would be especially in the case of a SHTF scenario, they bring nothing to the group but their neediness. As for those of us who are retired, we bring skills, knowledge, and experience that the welfare recipient will never have. We would not be, as Lenin proclaimed, “useless
          eaters”.

          As for the FedGov allowing folks on SS who never paid into the system, we the retired working class have absolutely ZERO control over what they do. The folks on SSI are a major drain on the SS system. That the self-same FedGov allows folks of retirement age from foreign lands to be paid by SS is again out of our control. Shame on both of the Trotskyist political parties that have run America, for far too long, for their blatant theft from the SS system to buy votes.

          No, Patti, we who worked are not the problem. We are certainly not the same as the lowlifes on actual welfare.

  21. My wife and I travel a lot, and people we know often say “We’d love to go with you next time”. My response, under my breath, is along the lines of when hell freezes over. While I know there is strength in numbers, there are very few people I would want to try to survive with. Most people in society don’t have a chance of surviving, Darwin’s theory comes to mind.

  23. Gman ““what type of chaos”

    “no chaos, really. just a bunch of old people yelling until they die.”

    Oh yes, millions of Americans going to go silently into the night yelling or are they going use their 2nd Amendment Rights.

    If the US government stopped all social security and public and private pensions means the money has been confiscated by them. Stocks would crash never to recover.
    You know confiscation of gold & silver would be done too.

    And one thinks they will find work online, yeah right.

    1. “Oh yes, millions of Americans going to go silently into the night yelling or are they going use their 2nd Amendment Rights.”

      well, so far they’ve been watching their country be flushed away, I’ll bet they continue to do nothing.

  24. I love the comments on government dependency, I always thought the government pensions social, military, police, firefighter, teacher ect. was a genius move by big GOV. whether its comfortable to admit or not it guarantees that all of your action types and educated have a vested interest on maintaining the status quo. people are not fools they know who butters there toast. it takes a very dedicated person to throw away a lifetimes work towards retirement for non kinfolk.

    I would recommend forging the hero. by John Mosby heck I recommend all of his books. it touches on forming a group in depth.

    1. A military retiree does risk having his pension taken away from him for Wrongthink and Wrongspeak. The military will stop issuing retired pay to a retiree while that retiree is in jail, so all the leftists need to do is drag the retiree into court for something. If a retiree really angers the leftists, I’d expect them to agitate for the military to recall that retiree to active duty for the sole purpose of conducting a general court-martial and giving him a dishonorable or bad conduct discharge (for a felony he supposedly committed 20 or 30 or 40 years ago) and stopping his retired pay. So I agree with the author that if you rely on a military pension for survival, the feds own you.

  25. Yes Secret Sins are problems, but other things may raise concerns.
    I will share I receive Soc sec an small private pensions also 81 with some preps and
    a lot of life-experience, With strong Faith.
    I can Stand a shorter guard shift and would lean toward consensus and not challenge leadership

    Do you think I would fit in??

  26. I think the biggest problem is the Liar. The Liar covers most of the categories you listed and then some.

    They lie to their spouse (the can’t stand up to his wife guy
    They lie to themselves (unteachable guy and the vice/addict guy)
    They lie to the group by not being trustworthy (the sloppy internet guy)
    They lie to society (the welfare guy)
    They lie to themselves and society (get it started guy)
    They lie to God (the anger guy)

    And they will lie to you and everyone else to achieve their goals or get what they want from you and the group. The first test for me for any new person in any situation in the preSHTF or post SHTF world is are they truthful and trustworthy!

  27. Instead of a group, It seems better to just get to know your neighbors and have an understanding of sorts. Maybe through this, you will discover people with skills to offer.

  30. I am going to second the above recommendation to add passive/aggressive to the kinds of people to keep out of your group. As a manager and executive in an extremely demanding job field over the last 20+ years I’ve seen first hand the kind of damage these kinds of people can do. That’s why I always insist on full authority to hire my own people and am very tough on people I “inherit” that are displaying these tendencies. It’s not hard to get snowed – folks who have practiced their ability to turn their passive/aggressive behaviors on and off do a really good job of hiding it during the interview process and then it comes to light over the next several months. Ask men and women who’ve married partners like this and they can attest to how well people can hide undesirable character traits. I’ve also found these people the be very narcissistic as well. Eventually most will dig their own graves but the really smart ones know how to work the corporate system and the long term damage they can do to morale and trust is extensive regardless of their technical expertise or skill sets. Trust me when I say these are the people who will eventually sell you out to get what they want.

    A group would do well to have a probationary period where new members are evaluated for the first 6-12 months and only given limited information about the group. You won’t weed out all the bad people this way but you’ll certainly have time to identify the worst candidates who need to be cut out of the organization before they can do major harm.

  31. Great article. Not the rosey dosey Bravo Sierra “let’s build community in the subdivision” NON SENSE that so many new “preppers” have fallen victim to believing in during the last decade.

    Kit is obviously someone who has actually been involved in groups, the lessons shine through and across time and land to any that have been actively involved in groups over the years. 32 years here and I can tell you to heed these lessons, she is trying to save you a boatload of time and hardship.

    #1. Get out of the wanna be “savior” mentality- you can’t save or help everyone and while it’s often quite fun for a newer person to find a “survival friend”, it’s important to be SELECTIVE. Your going to waste a LOT of your time and resources if you can’t do this, and most importantly, you are going to suffer a boatload of heartache…

    #2. TAKE YOUR TIME. See above, people new to groups tend to get amped when they meet potential survival friends. Here comes the bragging “Oh man, we train once a month at John’s place….” Negative, don’t do it. It’s the potential new person’s job to impress you, NOT the other way around. If your group is real (not a bunch of internet nerds chatting online) that is actively DOING stuff, you don’t need to brag about it. Slow down, talk less say more… Most people will give you the keys to the candy store if you just shut up and listen. The guy with a crappy home situation and a Jezebel wife and out of control kids WILL complain about them enough in a casual conversation if you just shut up and listen. Thereby allowing you to avoid that albatross without exposing yourself. The guy that is constantly setting dates (for SHTF) but isn’t actually ACTING on his claimed belief in said dates, WILL tell you that if you shut up and listen long enough and learn to read between the lines. The “I make lists and lists of lists but I don’t do anything” types will out themselves with their “research” knowledge of various things but you will have to read between the lines to see they have never DONE any of those things. They will have “zip drives” and “files” of knowledge but no EXPERIENCE- huge difference folks.

    If they’ve been on their own for a while, they should be somewhat prepared already. If they have been supposedly waiting for a group SO they could start preparing, run Will Robinson!!! A lot of people do LESS when they get in a group, not MORE. If they are not doing anything on their own, don’t expect that to change in a group setting.

    If they lack the self motivation for self preservation… then they are worthless to you.
    Robert Henry

  32. I was in the 75th ranger bn for 4 years and the 10th special forces group for 10 years I have 6 years experience in combat I was an E7. To this day I can’t pick out who will fight and who will run let alone some soldier want to be. by the way i’m on disability for a brain injury.

  33. In reading all the comments it’s Academic since the world does end the way people think.

    The ones mentioning faith in Jesus Christ should know He brings about mankind’s end.

    And by Scripture it’s clear that people are buying and selling and getting married and when it’s stated peace and security than comes sudden destruction.

    And the idea of one gets income from the government they are a slave is not true. I have unbelieveable freedom in the United States. I have travel internationally and this nation by far is the best that has ever been.

  34. A good list and I would add anyone using medication for mental health issues. They might be functioning now, but what happens when they run out of “their” medications.

    Good article as it steps on the toes, that need to be stepped on! After years of delusions of grandeur! I grew up! Me and mine may do better than most, but we are still too damn old to fight many battles and rebuild the world.

    Those that survive will be like those in JWR’s books! They will be young, healthy, skilled, and not toting a lot of baggage. What you were is not the issue, what you are is!

  35. I would agree with some of the above that believe with the concept that with those 7 reasons you don’t want in your group you’ve virtually eliminated the whole United States. I would add a couple of reasons for elimination. 1) Anyone under 50, because they have to many reasons to live and be “safe” and are to entangled in the struggles of life. 2) People who live “off the grid” remote, extreme rural, There is no such thing in the US anymore and it leads to self delusion and false sense of security. If you think that you are remotely safe from the “Golden Horde” your seriously deluded. More people than you can imagine know a) where you live b) what you have c) know of your supposed defenses d) will be extremely motivated by hunger and thirst e) will burn you out, you can’t have a big enough fire break. etc, etc.

  36. I’ll add the guy who won’t get out of his comfort zone. Who won’t train cause it’s too hot/cold or raining. He can’t be counted on to pull guard duty or go on patrol unless it’s a nice day. The guy who never walked farther then his couch to his car and will drive even to go to the end of the block.
    We had one of those guys in our group always showed up with the latest wiz bang gear and always had an excuse why he couldn’t do something.
    He even told us he couldn’t get his $75 pair of tactical pants dirty.
    after that we told him we didn’t need him because we would expend blood and sweat to keep him comfortable.

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