I can be of so many minds when it comes to this kind of information
One of the ways that I have been able to convince people it would be in their best interest to plan for "a worst case scenario" is to have them look up what their locations (town, village, county, etc) emergency plan is. In most places this is public information.
For example - We live in a pretty "off the beaten path" location. There is only one road to get here and the terrain would be a challenge to walk if the road was unpassable. The Red Cross and state plan says prepare for 2-3 days of survival. Our county says plan for
2-3 weeks. And this is for a local disaster. Trust me - if there was a state or national disaster - we would be off the radar. And we also know that those plans aren't exactly known to be accurate - how many homes are still uninhabitable in the Gulf post-Katrina.
We also live on the Pacific Ring of Fire - so most people understand that disasters do happen here. You can see the gears turning as folks realize they will have to rely on each other and not the "authorities". In the latest round of budget cuts the county just laid off the Emergency Manager and 2.5 emergency responders... big news in this part of the woods.
I can bring all this up to people who would never listen or be open to the kind of things that we talk about here.
Seems like if they can see "the official government version" they'll believe it.
It's a start ( and honestly they should be prepared living in this part of the world). It's not fear mongering (unless you let it be) to want people to be prepared to be self-sufficient if the need arises.
Take heart though - the right people
will be in the right place at the right time
El