(Don’t) Be the Gray man

post by Patrick Steadman
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The Gray Man Directive

According to SurvivialThinkTank.com, a “gray man” is “an individual who possesses the skills, ability and intent to blend into any situation or surrounding without standing out, concealing his or her true skills, ability, and intent from others.” The term “gray man” is currently used by survivalists who believe that dressing and acting “gray” will improve their chances if shit hits the fan (SHTF).
Promoters of gray man style believe that overt tactical gear is a “shoot-me-first” signal, and instead prefer multi-modal dress that will help them avoid attention until it’s time to use force. For example, a gray man wouldn’t carry one of the “bug out bags” recommended in this recent NYT Style article, because the recommended bags include obvious military features like MOLLE panels, hydration bladders, and camouflage.
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Survivalist Hate

Survival bloggers developed the gray man concept in reaction to a perceived threat of “survivalist hate.” The survivalist blogger Selco, of SHTF School, uses his experiences during the Balkan War to motivate his gray man theory.
Selco writes that he saw some of his more prepared neighbors give away supplies during the first few weeks of the conflict. Just weeks later, many of these generous individuals were robbed or even murdered. Selco says that thieves often justified their actions with the charge that the well-prepared individuals were somehow guilty of anticipating or catalyzing the chaos. A reviewer of Selco’s survival course urges readers to think back to high school, where “those who were prepared for the test were hated and called nerds”.
Selco explicitly calls for his readers to practice being gray, and emphasizes that being gray is a lifestyle that begins before shit hits the fan. He goes so far as to recommend that parents keep supplies and weapons hidden from their children, so that the children don’t discuss it with their neighborhood friends.
The idea of gray man as a lifestyle seems to have originated with the term itself.
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Gray as Profession, Gray as Fantasy

In more recent articles about gray man, mostly found on survivalist content farms, gray man is presented as situational strategy for use in a fantasy urban survival scenario. For many younger survivalists, survivalism is less of a political identity and more of a hobby.
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In the Skin of a Sheep

Articles about gray man style usually make the assumption that the reader is innately capable of being a gray man. The two factors often discussed as obstacles to being gray are: 1) being unusually short or tall, and 2) being a woman who attracts sexual attention.
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Ways to Be Gray

I’ve touched on three different ways to be the gray man.
The first is tactical use of gray man, useful for someone who wants to stalk Chelsea Manning, forage for food post-SHTF, or fit in at school.
The second way is grayness as conscious part of one’s identity, useful for survivalists who want to hoard without facing the social consequences of their hoarding.
The third way is grayness as an unconscious part of one’s identity, especially one’s political identity.
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Full text - (Don’t) Be the Gray man

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(Не) будь серым человеком