Misery loves company.

When the campaign to demonize preppers gets into high gear, non-preppers will not lift a finger or say a word to counter it. In their subconcious minds, they know they'll be up the creek without a paddle in an emergency, and they won't want anyone else to be better off than they will be. It's the ant and the grasshopper except that now the grasshopper has government to level the playing field so that both grasshoppers and ants will be dependent when the time comes.