U.S. ‘prepper’ culture diversifies amid fear of disaster and political unrest
U.S. ‘prepper’ culture diversifies amid fear of disaster and political unrest
The number of preppers has doubled to about 20 million since 2017 due to more people of color and progressives joining the community, experts say.
getting independent.
so, I have been thinking: preppers often learn how to live independent of industrial production. Maybe the solarpunk movement can learn something from them?
The diversification of prepping was clear last weekend at the Survival & Prepper show at the fairgrounds in Boulder County, a liberal district which President Joe Biden won in 2020 by nearly 57 percentage points over Trump. Over 2,700 people paid $10 each to attend the show, organizers said, and attendees were varied.
Bearded white men with closely cropped hair and heavily tattooed arms were there. But so were hippy moms carrying babies in rainbow colored slings and chatting about canning methods, Latino families looking over greenhouses and water filtration systems, and members of the local Mountain View Fire Rescue team, who in 2021 battled a devastating fire in the region, giving CPR demonstrations and encouraging citizens to be more prepared for extreme events.
“People want to regain their agency, their sense of control, and do something to match their fears to their actions,” said Ellis, who underscored that he did not speak on behalf of the Department of Defense.
People motivated by climate change, Ellis said, tend to be homesteaders who grow their own food and move to more “climate proof” locations, such as the mild summer haven of Duluth, Minnesota.
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I think we can learn from these movements but only if we are sure to have the proper skepticism. I don’t personally think that the evidence we are facing some kind of imminent societal collapse is very robust. We face tremendous problems but people who think everyone who hasn’t acquired land and skills to feed themselves and guns to defend themselves overestimate the likelihood and severity of many of these catastrophic events. And they misunderstand the nature of these crises—If humans are going to survive difficult times ahead, it will be by working together peacefully, not retreating into some Hobbesian fantasy.
Doomsday ideation has been a feature of human society for as long as we have written records—there seems to be something very psychologically appealing about these sorts of ideas. Given the severity of some possible catastrophes, and the fragility of our current economic system, it’s not a bad idea to give some thought and preparation to unlikely but very dangerous events.
But we shouldn’t mistake this psychological appeal for truth. Making prepping the focus of your entire life and identity is not rational or useful. It’s more important to focus on how we can build a more sustainable, abundant future than to directly emulate preppers. Take what is useful but leave the rest.
Yeah, "preppers" are often people with lone wolf fantasies dreaming about unrealistic scenarios where they are the target of a Mad Max heist/seige. At least that's how they are often portrayed (thanks, Doomsday Preppers).
We need people to keep food, water, and first aid supplies (and knowledge for use), not guns stashed in buried crates.
Yeah I mean to the extent that people are engaging in a fun hobby, learning useful skills, and preparing a realistic plan for emergencies that’s great. But I worry about the elements that lean hard into fear, isolationism, and violence.
I have enough water to survive a calamitous earthquake (California). I have a first aid kit. I have flashlights. Good enough, imo.
Maybe it's just the simple fear of facing mortality.
I think part of it is definitely that taking action can help people better manage their fears, although I personally think there might be more useful actions to take. But I think also apocalyptic thinking often has an element of divine justice embedded in it. The nonbelievers will all die and the chosen people will rebuild a new paradise. Seems to be a common belief in these types of groups. Personally I don’t see much benefit in that kind of thinking though I certainly understand why people gravitate towards it. It is interesting to me that you see such similar beliefs in these diverse groups though. Extremist Christians, boogaloo boys, some schools of leftism and even just climate doomers kind of have the same vision of the future at the end of the day.
First of all let me say that those boogaloo boys are quite fashionable. If you're gonna overthrow the world at least do it in style.
I think it's an outward projection of the fear of death. It's easier. And I guess they see themselves as heros.
I honestly think a lot of maladaptive behavior we see is actually a copying mechanism to deal with mortality.
Agreed. Though personally I won't need much to prepare for doomsday. One gun. One bullet. KISS.
At least get a few bullets in case it misfires. Really though, I'd rather you stick around and help rebuild things.
Good advice, and I appreciate the sentiment. Weighing the pros and cons is hard on that one. Requires a lot of faith to keep going through a civil war, a warming planet, and a potential WW3, but hey, if you've got faith for days, I admire that.