Rise In ‘doomsday Prepping’ Due To Mainstream American ‘culture Of Fear’

https://www.studyfinds.org/study-fi...g-due-to-mainstream-american-culture-of-fear/

Study Finds Rise In ‘Doomsday Prepping’ Due To Mainstream American ‘Culture Of Fear’

CANTERBURY, England — “Doomsday prepping” or stockpiling food, medicine, weapons and other supplies in case of an apocalyptic scenario has long been considered peculiar behavior only exhibited by conspiracy theorists and other extremists in the United States. However, such prepping has actually been steadily on the rise in the U.S. over the past decade. So, what’s causing this surge in stockpiled rice packets and underground bunkers? One group of researchers say it is an ever growing sense of impending doom in American culture.

Many have speculated that this surge in doomsday preppers over the last 10 years was linked to an extreme political reaction among many conservatives to Barack Obama’s initial election in 2008, but a new study out of the United Kingdom finds that neither the Obama presidency nor extreme right-wing conspiracy theories in general are the main cause of this growing phenomenon.

Researchers interviewed preppers from 18 U.S. states and asked about their motivations for stockpiling food and supplies. The results indicated that, although most did seem to be conservative and fear liberal policies, the main reason behind their motivations was the overall sense of fear currently dominating U.S. culture across a variety of media channels. Most Americans can’t seem to log online or turn on the television without being hit by a grim view of the future being reported or speculated on.

Potential occurrences commonly worried about by preppers include possible economic depressions, terrorist attacks, cyber-attacks, pandemics, or environmental disasters...

READ MORE HERE:
https://www.studyfinds.org/study-fi...g-due-to-mainstream-american-culture-of-fear/

 

So, I'm guessing that the most preppers are American? More by percentage of population or not?

 

I don't know, but I'd assume so -- perhaps because I'm an American and have lived most of my life in the US and this is the place with which I'm most familiar. And I agree that the election of Barack Obama was not a driver of today's prepophilic culture. I trace my roots as a prepper back to the mid-1970's, when I first came across the two publications which started me on it: The early issues of The Mother Earth News and Mel Tappan's Survival Guns. The first was (and is) considered a "leftist" publication; Tappan was just the opposite. Before that time, I suppose the spiritual grandaddy of today's preppers were the John Birchers of the 1950's with their belief of incipient Red Chinese invasion of the United States, leading to a "Red Dawn" scenario. Naïve as this may be, there are still people today who believe it.

But I think the roots of modern survivalism (at least here in the States) was the Y2K scare of 1998/1999. Many mainstream folks, especially those more computer-literate than the average, were swept up in it. So many people had invested emotionally (as well as financially) in it that, when it turned out to have been much overplayed, were unable to let go, and that is where the conspiracies began their ascendancy. Well, Y2K may not get us, but the government covering up The Truth about secret underground bases, "chem-trails", murdering us with fluoride and/or vaccines and/or genetically modified plants certainly will.

One might think that "once burned, twice shy" would obtain here, given that the Chi-Coms didn't conquer us by invading Texas and Arizona, and the "chem-trails" didn't turn us all into emphysema patients, but that wasn't the case. Americans (and maybe people in general) seem to have a knack for finding other scenarios to require prepping, and here we are today.

This isn't to denigrate prepping, of course; we all have our bêtes noires. My personal fears include an increasingly tyrannical power structure, MRSA, and an incipient climate crash leading to too many crises to count. And there isn't that strong of a correlation between political beliefs and prepping; as one of the token "liberals" in this forum, I am as much involved in prepping as anyone here and will likely always be.

 

I would give HUSSAN Obama 's eight years of tearing down America and trying to install Socialism / Communism part of the reason of the rise of prepping . Many could see a Venezuela type future for the U.S. if this anti America agenda continued . We are now in a eight year reprieve from Communist installing American destruction policies . But that is only part of the reason for the rise of prepping . Personal experiences contribute to this factor which also explains why our members tend to be of an older generation " they have done walked through hell " but know it can get worse . Think about it most all of our more serious members have a horror story to tell . Older folks are not as prone to fantasy but look at a problem in a realistic term ", then look for a solution" . Like some of the comments above I to can not say how many preppers are in other countries .

 

Good morning Last Outlaw and Duncan,

John Anderson's doomsday article is clear enough re "growing sense of impending doom". The public adjusts abstractions to fit their preconceived thoughts and moods but the mechanical events jelled the sense of doom. Think of the large urban riots of the 1960s, the oil embargoes and gasoline rationing, sleepy National Guard armories converting from picnic areas and beer-busts to augmented military facilities for expeditionary forces ready for something, somewhere, ...

Dr Mill's research is on to something; government responses would not be adequate. Experience a hurricane and the emptied store shelves, the civil aircraft skyjackings, labor strikes,..Al Shanker and his teachers' union comes to mind.

SIDEBAR; Duncan, fond memories (actually not "fond"; just an earlier time on my time-line) activated by reading the name "Mother Earth News". My stuff is lost along with my lost Ramparts Magazine first issue. I do have Hefner's magazine with the Malcolm X interview.

I trace today's preppers' origins to the atomic bomb scares and the Civil Defense programs of the 1950s and onward up to the mobilization for the Vietnam War. To this add the mechanical, tangible examples the Joe SixPak and Jill CandyWine could see, feel and identity as something beyond Madison Avenue and Hollywood abstractions. America's garrison state environment had citizens knowing the basics of events like Skull Canyon, Utah experiments, JANET Airlines, loss of the submarine Thresher,

The mentioned "tyrannical power structure" got magnified into reality with events such as Martha Stewart's experience of this structure. Was it about insider trading on Wall Street or mildew on a vinyl shower curtain ? The public framed the matter to their mindset.

I am not a "conservative".

 

I have never thought of prepping having a political side, although JMHO most forums seem to lean to the right. I would partially agree with the culture of fear, but again, JMHO, isn't that fear justified when those things, terrorist attacks, cyber-attacks, environmental disasters etc. all happen? Certainly not every day, but often enough that they are a concern.

I agree with Duncan's assessment although I would add a couple of contributing factors. Duncan, maybe you were in the area when we had the 1990 Iben Browning scare. He had predicted the New Madrid fault was going to blow, and we would all be wiped out. That got some people started. Then along came Y2K. Computers were going to fail, and planes were going to fall out of the sky. Fast forward a few years, and now we were all worried about the Mayan apocalypse of 2012. Wasn't it December 21, 2012 when the world was going to end. That had everybody pretty wound up. That created the frenzy, and it became "cool" to be a prepper. We could probably go back a lot farther to the Great Depression. Nobody expected that, and a lot of people got caught with their pants down. After that people saved everything because " You never know". My parents certainly were that way. They were children during the Great Depression, but that is how they were raised. Maybe Lonewolf said it a little better; WW2 parents. It was common sense.

I would like to think that we are carrying that torch forward. What was common sense back then is still common sense today. It was a lifestyle for them, as it is for many of us. As it should be. Not a craze or a passing fad, but something we practice every day.

 

I think it is the same here. There is also another group if you want to call it that: the " It will never happen to me" group. Until it does. Then they are like ex-smokers. You have never seen such an ardent group.

 

I think that every generation thinks that it is the first to come up with a lot of things. When they tell us old farts about their discoveries we just smile and let them go on about their "new" way of doing things.

I was raised as a "prepper" long before it was even a word. The people of my Fathers generation actually LIVED through a lot of what people today are prepping for and a lot of them never forgot it. The famines of the past taught our forefathers not to take for granted that food would always be easy to find. The depression threw a lot of people out into the streets and into poverty that is unimaginable in today's America.

Back then there was no welfare, food stamps or aid. You either got out and scratched for a meal or you starved. My Dad never forgot what it was like to be hungry and he made SURE that I knew how to grow, hunt and find food and how to preserve it. When you throw in the rationing, shortages and such that came along with WW2 when most of the men went off to war it permanently impressed on people of his generation the need to save some money and to have enough food to hold you over if bad things happened.

He called this being self-sufficient. My generation became survivalists and the current run at the same thing is called prepping. None of it is new. People just tend to forget about it when times are easy and good but then return to it when things become less certain.

 

Good morning TexDanm,

In my experience, the word "prepper" inherently evolved from the terms "home economics" and "civil defense".

Home economics meant the stockpiling and the used peanut butter jars washed and used for other purposes. "Civil Defense" was the first aid kit and the old T-shirts for material to wrap splints around broken bones.

 

Sorry last outlaw...but I don't buy into the premise of the Article....particularly from a British Source.

Remember ..the British governmental philosophy is that Government will take care of you....

You do not need to worry...or be independent..but conform to the "Herd."


Someone is working very hard to spread this disease here to America....with cradle to grave breast feeding by "Entitlement."

Just like many nations as the UK and on the Continent...Government knows best.....so why would you want to think differently when we have spent so much time as a government to provide people with a television and or movie education...in emotional entitlement.????

What's wrong with you people?????!!!



And our media here is putting out just such a Pimping/whorish narrative.....
I am surmising much of it from the same handlers as from UK and Continental news sources....and for the same purposes..."Herding."


There has been, to me, a silent and subversive trend going on here in America....but also followed in other nations.


That people who are independent and or loners......are very very suspect.....

Those who do not want to follow the Herd....who want to go their own way and are not particularly social butterflies....

Those who do not necessarily follow the ever changing fashion trends and or try to keep onto that kind of treadmill...who will think and act for themselves....and for their own reasons...not caring much for group think...or drama...or runaway emotions to rule them every day. Very very feminine....

Governments tend to love the feminine...security...or at least..."The Appearance of Security."

Gives people the warm fuzzies and they tend to stop thinking for themselves...but join the herd.

I realized this about the UK when the hot item became "Man Spreading." I busted out laughing at their stupidity.

Herding!!!!



This to me is what much of the pattern is in our media today....drama drama drama...and I am not in favor of it.

I've spent too many years living and working to some kind of a discipline standard...in the military as well as in civilian life to want or be impressed with a whorish media...preying or trying to prey on my emotions....
Discipline means thinking and developing certain instincts as a discipline....not letting emotions run away with your thinking...and therefore your actions...

I do not change my thinking or beliefs because I put my hardhat in my locker at the end of the day or sit in my lazy boy and pick up a remote controller.


Having put my safety on the line for my monies ...many many many times...I am not interested in Drama Queens...in the media or in politics...or even around my person...

I am choosey about the person working with me and or watching my back...particularly on tasks for which one instinctively knows can be dicey....


Why would I think any different about the news so obviously shilling for a body politic who also is preying on my emotions.

All too often the media and politics are one and the same....

So why should I trust them...???


And Preppers who can think for themselves have ferreted out this pattern in "Herding" a people and nation for political capital...ie.....political whoredom.....and thus choose not to trust much of what tries to pass for leadership in this country.....predators...on your unguarded emotions...and by association ..also not trust the media.


This is why preppers have become a warning flag to political leadership and the phony media shilling and pimping for a deceptive body politic....preferring a dumbed down public. Particularly leftist leadership....



The most telling pattern to observe....in the media and politics...is the knowledge of what law these preppers are breaking...???

Once you know to ask that question....you suddenly realize the nature of the "Gas lighting" going on...by a media in bed with the body politic.

For they are breaking no law. Preppers are spending their time and monies ...not someone else's

Yet there is a silent implication that there may be something wrong with preppers.....socially....

They are not following the "Herd."


That is your key index or tell tale of the very nature of the gas lighting going on out here....trying to manufacture a bad guy.....even silently in peoples minds.

Be warned of this pattern going on out here in the whorish news media and or whorish body politic...both.

Ishmaelites run amok.


My non Ishmaelite .02,
Watcherchris


Post Script...


This prepping trend is not peculiar to the USA...

I am aware that there are a number of dedicated Preppers as well as prepping sites in the UK....and other countries.

Granted ..they have different laws than that for which we take for granted here in America..but they still try to prep..and for good reasons in my opinion...

My hat is off to them for not wanting to be so "Herded" and think and or plan for themselves and their families.

This has always been historically the smart thing to do...not wait around for government to make up the difference..

If for no other reason..than Mother Nature herself.
Mother Nature herself....has historically demonstrated that she can be a very very harsh taskmaster...
And Preppers know this.