I feel a lot of people want to prep, but there's a social stigma around preppers as they're usually associated with conspiracy followers (the crazy type) and therefore use zombies as a way to lighten the tone and make it more socially acceptable. You're now prepping for a cool zombie fighting apocalypse instead of some scenario such as martial law or natural disaster, which people tend to think you mean some Day After Tomorrow event rather than realistic event like flodoing/earthquake that could lead to mass power outages and spread of resource thievery/violence/gangs.
I think most people are totally fine with prepping if it's explained in terms of risk management and basic disaster preparedness.
In my eyes it's a fine line based on risk management. It makes total sense to protect against probable disasters, accidents, and threats (power outages, burglaries, weather events, medical emergencies etc). Everyone can easily be convinced of this.
It makes some sense to put some resources toward protecting against outlier events (100 year storms, riots / widespread violence, great depression level financial instability etc). People can be convinced of this when it's explained in terms of opportunity cost.
It makes no sense to use resources towards protecting against incredibly improbable events. People that have fallback compounds, bunkers in their backyards, multiple years worth of food, and thousands of rounds of ammunition are literally throwing away money.
I agree on your risk management, but even when I mention something such as power outages, flooding, or riots/violence(due to the previous), and that it's better to be prepared and not need it than need it and be prepared, I'm still taken as crazy even though I mention a valid scenario(flooding has been increasing here and power outages more common). Then again, all my friends are a little more on the blind eye/ignorant side.
It doesn't even have to be zombies. If you live in an area of the country with foreseeable natural disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes even), it makes sense to have at least some shelf-stable food and bottled water in the house. Enough to get you through a couple of weeks.
Extra credit for installing off-grid solar, and a water reclamation system that can be used for showers and toilet flushing. Both of which also have benefits during everyday life.
Story time: After Hurricane Fran came through Raleigh, I was driving on I-440 and was passing a long line of cars driving really slowly. When I get to the head of it, it turns out they were all following a Triangle Ice truck to it's next stop, so they could load up their coolers and preserve the contents of their refrigerators (the power still being out in parts of the city).
A lot of people have a more ignorant outlook. In the winter I always keep some water, body warmers, salt, blanket, and some other basic supplies(utility knife, lighter, whistle, flashlight, etc) in the trunk of my car because a group of friend and I tend to go hiking in the back country a lot with little to no cell service and sometimes it can snow out of nowhere. This is some basic covering your own ass stuff, but I'm look at like I'm crazy. If the car gets breaks down or it starts snowing when we're a few hours out and come back to a snowed in car or icy steep roads, I'd rather have everything I need to either hang in the car and wait it out until the next day or make a few mile hike to a house we saw down the mountain or access road.
