Prepper v. survivalist? Are these two categories often too interchangeable?

My own personal thoughts:



What is a prepper?



What is a survivalist?



I often hear these terms being used interchangeably and or mesh together to describe someone's activities, perceptions, belief system etc;



I often wonder myself if the boundary between the two is not defined enough to where some people miss the grand scheme of things of the whole concept.



Are we talking about evolving from stage to stage meaning one can be a prepper first then survivalist or a survivalist first then a prepper like some sort of PREREQUISITE? Or are they just two equals side by side to feed off each other for optimal preparation?



Now for the most important consideration and hopefully one of my intended themes of this thread: Is it dangerous to be a prepper and not a survivalist?



I can elaborate more, but let me just get to the point and put it like this: Why even waste your time, energy, money, resources, and brain power if you are just going to pack your garage, basement, or whatever bug in location with supplies, water, medicine, and food if that is as far as you are willing to go? I think you are just creating a cache for others to take in a severe SHTF situation. This is why self defense training, refining your hunting/fishing skills, learning outdoor survival skills, primitive technology and gathering skills, gun smithing skills, natural healing, basic first aid, physical training, etc (I can go on and on) are far more important than hoarding a bunch of "Stuff" in your home. That is the difference to me anyways. A prepper alone is a hoarder and a survivalist is a skill set that is actually applied to find some sort of perfection or proficiency.



So just to stream line the discussion based on the criteria that I presented. Do we have too many preppers and not enough survivalists in this movement or on this forum? Or are we just repeating what we read from the few who are actually putting these learned skills into application? Its all a work in progress I know, but as overwhelming as it maybe with the usual day to day responsibilities what is more of a priority when one is newbie? I would say 1 month of supplies first and then proceed with learning one important skill at a time to achieve mastery or some sort of proficiency as my advice or approach anyways, but here I really do not see too many threads focusing on details of actual survivalist skills. Yes, I know they are out there (alot of hunting threads, self defense, etc), but you have to filter through all the politics, opinions columns, racing baiting thoughts, Obama hatred, the ever popular this firearm is better "because" op eds, and of course my favorite "The world is coming to end because of Ebola, Obamacare, or economic collapse" etc;



So, for the sake of newbies, novices, or just interested parties like myself: Where are the real survivalists and what is your specialty so we know what threads to follow? (2nd theme)



Also, any thoughts on survivalist v. prepper discussion or if there is even any validity to it? (3rd theme)

Prepper v. survivalist? Are these two categories often too interchangeable?