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

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

LONGMONT, Colo. — Brook Morgan surveyed booths at the “Survival & Prepper Show” in Colorado that were stocked with boxes of ammunition, mounds of trauma medical kits, and every type of knife imaginable.

A self-described “30-year-old lesbian from Indiana,” Morgan is one of a new breed of Americans getting ready to survive political upheaval and natural catastrophes, a pursuit that until recently was largely associated with far-right movements such as white nationalists since the 1980s.

Much of that growth is from minorities and people considered left-of-center politically, whose sense of insecurity was heightened by Donald Trump’s 2016 election, the pandemic, more frequent extreme weather and the 2020 racial justice protests following the murder of George Floyd.

Chris Ellis is a colonel in the U.S. Army who works on disaster preparedness and recovery and is a leading researcher into the prepper movement who has tracked its growth to 20 million people based on household resiliency data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

For John Ramey, a former innovation adviser to the Obama administration and creator of the prepper website The Prepared, the community has grown to reflect American society at large in terms of political beliefs and demographic categories.

Back at the prepper show at the Boulder County fairgrounds, Jennifer Council strummed her thumb against the edge of an ax, balanced it in her hand and said it was perfect for both cutting down small trees and doing the delicate shaving work needed to create tinder.

The original article contains 804 words, the summary contains 245 words. Saved 70%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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.

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.