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.
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.