SHTF, COVID-19 Style, and how being PROPERLY prepared makes a major difference

Of course, I had to eventually make a post about the whole, novel coronavirus situation. 

Be warned; 
I have abandoned a fair degree of tact for this post, because I feel it is warranted. 
If your little fee fees are easily triggered, offended, or otherwise fragile, you should probably close this tab right now and go back to your armchair social justice warrioring or playing Farmville. 
 
At a time when cool heads, reasonable and rational thought, and thinking through cause and effect in a logical manner is more important than ever, people are, in human fashion, and to put not too fine a point on it, losing their fucking minds!

We already know the grocery store supply situation, and the inexplicable toilet paper idiocy, so I'm not going to rehash it here, but some of the excuses and bullshit I am seeing just piss me off.

Even in "prepper" groups, I am seeing people self congratulating and patting themselves on the back for being able to do their "panic buying" before everyone else and/or in defiance of local government's please to avoid such things. 

Here's the thing. 
If you had to do ANY "panic buying", you were/are not prepared, and have become part of the problem.

Here are just a couple of the things people are saying, along with my responses to anyone who thinks that way...

I was smart enough not to pay attention to the government/media advice. They told people "don't panic buy... we have enough"

No, that is not smart. It is acting like a stupid, entitled asshole. 

Lucky for me I was 50% prepared before my panic buy.

If you had been truly prepared - had thought farther ahead and lived as though this sort of thing might come at any moment and with little to no warning (because it does) - then you would not have had to do a "panic buy" at all. That is the entire point of preparedness!

The government blames people like me because old people can't get food and toilet paper.

Yes. That is because you are to blame. 
It is the panic buying and hoarding en masse that disrupts the supply chain and causes the shortages. If you were ALREADY prepared, you would not be part of the problem.

Patting yourself on the back for not listening to officials telling you not to actively deprive everyone else of even the minimum they need to get by, just because you were not adequately prepared and now want to be greedy in a time of crisis is not something to be applauded.
 
Those of us who were already prepared have no reason to feel guilty, or to blithely announce that we don't feel guilty "because me me me", because we have in no way contributed to the shortages.
Because we have built our stores, over time, without unduly stressing the supply chain.
In fact, many of us are now in a position to help some of our neighbours who may have been genuinely unable to prepare for themselves. You know, like those "old people". 

Systematically stocking up, without exhausting supplies for others, and continually rotating stock over time, before there is a crisis is prepping. 
"Prepping" at the last minute when the shit is already hitting the fan is not prepping. It's the opposite of prepping, and exactly what causes situations to be far worse than they need to be.

This may seem like a harsh response, but it really is made with best wishes for everyone's future well being and usefulness to others, which, by the way, also becomes valuable currency in a SHTF situation.
 
I honestly hope this situation helps more people to learn these things for the future, so they can avoid being part of the problem.