U.S. ‘prepper’ culture diversifies amid fear of disaster and political unrest

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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.

yesman,

I don’t understand these people. If the bombs start falling, I hope the first one lands in my lap. If it’s a plague, I hope I die in the hospital before it’s widely known there is a problem. If it’s aliens, I want the death ray to turn me into dandruff before the crowd has a chance to panic.

Landsharkgun,

There’s absolutely a bunch of left-wing preppers out there whose version of ‘prepping’ is more like community disaster preparedness, escalating up to nearly independent communes. There’s a ‘redpreppers’ reddit sub, although it doesn’t seem terribly active. Those people probably gel with solarpunk ideals pretty well. There’s going to be some overlap in ideology there when it comes to things like community-owned gardens or farms, solar panels, creating community plans in case of disaster, etc. Do be warned, however, that they will inherently include self-defense, including firearms, in their plans, quite possibly for use against state oppression. Make peace with that or don’t interact.

MossMonger,

I think I’ve always had a kind of admiration for preppers, and have even had similar impulses myself, though I don’t really have the money to actually, ya know, prep. It probably has something to do with trauma and a lifelong love of apocalypse media and just growing up in a family that never really had much faith in Canadian institutions. I think the main problems are the individualism and ableism (especially with the former feeding into the latter), but the sheer amounts of skill, knowledge, and dedication that this subculture has I think kind of dovetails nicely with solarpunk and other subcultures/movements that emphasize decentralized societal structure and independence from capitalist systems including the state. I think anarchists, communists, solarpunks and the like can benefit from what preppers have to offer, and vice versa. From preppers, as I understand it, this would be a lot of specific skills and resources–growing and preserving food, weapon knowledge/skills, other means of ensuring ones own safety/survival. From solarpunks, anarchists, communists, concepts of mutual aid, governing by consensus, community building, and in general a sense of hope for a future we grow together.

electric_nan,

Instead of hoarding MREs and ammo, people should be building relationships and more self-sustainable communities. You really want to “survive” huffing your own farts in the basement, guarding your canned beans with a gun?

BruceTwarzen,

Prepping in america seems to be: i need 15 guns and 20000 rounds of ammunition because someone might wanna steal my guns and i can steal my neighbors water.

Cowbee,
@Cowbee@lemmy.ml avatar

It’s just murder fantasy.

stabby_cicada, (edited )

I will never be convinced by arguments claiming that, at a given level of social and economic collapse, it’s better to not prepare for it and just die.

Nobody actually rolls over and dies. That’s where you get looters and gangs, because when things get bad enough unprepared people compromise their morals for the sake of survival and start stealing from other people.

And frankly, when you look at recent events, the “MREs and ammo” crew have more of a point every day.

Community relationships, community-based preparation for disaster and economic hardship, sustainable communities of every sort, are all very good things.

But in March 2020 when everything locked down and people literally could not leave their houses to get food or toilet paper, having some MREs or a deep pantry or some other form of individual food prep helped a lot of people until we were allowed to leave our houses and get food deliveries and so on. And frankly, if the next pandemic is more lethal and more dangerous and a 100% quarantine becomes necessary, that kind of individual food prep will be even more vital.

Because as wonderful as community is, just a few years ago the world went through an event where community members could not help one another because everybody was quarantined. Individual and household prep was what helped there.

And if you were a Palestinian living in Gaza on October 7, 2023, having a sustainable community wouldn’t mean shit.

What would have protected you and your family was food, water, a plan to get to the border with Egypt, cash or gold to bribe your way through, and weapons to protect yourself and your family on the way there.

Which is exactly what the right wing “collapse of America” doomsday preppers are prepping for - a collapse so violent and so extensive that your community will not survive and your only hope is to flee far from the chaos and hole up in the hope things get better.

And I really can’t criticize anybody who plans for that anymore.

queermunist,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

And if you were a Palestinian living in Gaza on October 7, 2023, having a sustainable community wouldn’t mean shit.

You say that, but what about Hamas itself? If your community can dig tunnels too deep to be bombed, stockpile food and weapons and gear, and build goodwill with the community so people will hide you then you’ll survive a lot better than the people scrambling to escape.

stabby_cicada,

Committing atrocities and then using your neighbors as human shields isn’t exactly good prepper etiquette.

But that aside, Hamas is not a community. It’s an armed group. It is parasitic on the Palestinian people. Its tunnels and supplies can only support a tiny fraction of the community and are funded by extorting the community and making the community less safe. What Hamas does is neither individual prepping nor community prepping - in prepper terms, Hamas are quite literally the people who stockpile ammo in order to rob their neighbors after law and order collapses, and it has, and they are.

queermunist,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

Hamas is embedded in the community. As with all guerillas they move amongst the people like fish swim in the sea, as Mao would say. It’s an armed community resistance front, not a parasite, because they have the support of the community itself. Hamas is what community prepping actually looks like in practice because they prep for the survival of the community, rather than for any individual.

Not that Hamas are literally preppers, obviously, but they prove a good framework for preppers in terms of preparing for disaster. Dig tunnels that the government doesn’t know about, stockpile food and weapons and fuel in the tunnels, be prepared to fight and die as a collective, build good relations with the community above the tunnels, etc.

electric_nan,

Nah, I don’t think that’s the way. When the pandemic and lockdowns hit, I joined up with some other motivated individuals and got to work with mutual aid. There were (and are) a lot of our neighbors that don’t have the resources to “prep” even if they wanted to. We did all we could to bring them hot, nutritious meals, warm clothing, masks, hand sanitizer, condoms, etc. It’s not just that I don’t want to live in a depressing post-apocalyptic world, it’s that I think the real surrender is the atomization. We are stronger together.

walter_wiggles,

I don’t understand how preppers think they will be the ones to survive. If things go to shit the way they’re planning for anyone with resources will become an instant target.

potatopotato,

Depends on your model. If you believe in the movies, yeah, but that’s not how the end of the world works. We’ve seen it with COVID, countless revolutions and wars, you’ll probably still get up and go to work during the apocalypse, it will just suck more. Being able to help yourself and your community get through it will be extremely helpful.

Realistically you don’t need a years worth of bucket food and a million rounds of ammo, this isn’t Oregon trail. Having knowledge and experience is far more valuable. Learn how to properly clean and store water, how to live/travel day to day without a car (you have a bike right?), go backpacking and camping, potentially learn how to avoid surveillance if you think things are getting kinda judgemental.

Make friends with your neighbors, people don’t actually become psychotic marauders when the power goes out. There are countless stories from hurricane Katrina where the police just assumed everyone would murder each other and ultimately got in the way of people just trying to help each other survive and rebuild.

XTL,

Guns. Lots of guns.

BruceTwarzen,

Let them eat bullets

LibertyLizard,

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.

xilliah,

Maybe it’s just the simple fear of facing mortality.

LibertyLizard,

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.

xilliah,

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.

evasive_chimpanzee,

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.

LibertyLizard,

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.

some_guy,

I have enough water to survive a calamitous earthquake (California). I have a first aid kit. I have flashlights. Good enough, imo.

z3rOR0ne,
@z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml avatar

Agreed. Though personally I won’t need much to prepare for doomsday. One gun. One bullet. KISS.

Anticorp,

At least get a few bullets in case it misfires. Really though, I’d rather you stick around and help rebuild things.

z3rOR0ne,
@z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml avatar

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.

GlitterInfection,

I love the image displayed in the preview which shows one person of color in a crowd of white folks!

Anticorp,

They said there were Mexican families too. It’s good to see diversity, even if it’s not as mixed as we’d like.

Lath,

Gotta keep those food stock options open, ya know?

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