Doomsday preppers go mainstream as America is gripped by ‘culture of fear’

A culture of fear in the United States is fueling a rise in ‘doomsday prepping’ where citizens stockpile food, medicine, and weapons in anticipation of apocalyptic disaster, a new study has found.

British researchers say that over the past decade, ‘doomsday prepping’ has shifted from the fringes and is increasingly going mainstream.

Initially, it was believed that the election of Barack Obama in 2008 was the catalyst for the rise in doomsday prepping.

But researchers write in the Journal of American Studies that the issue can’t simply be blamed on ‘Obamageddon.’

While most preppers do hold right-of-center political views, they are more motivated by an overall sense of fear that has characterized the public discourse in the United States, the study found.

A new study has found that a greater number of Americans have become ‘doomsday preppers’ who stockpile food, medicine, and arms in anticipation of disaster. The above image is a stock photo

The phenomenon is being driven by negative headlines being circulated in news reports and on social media warning of economic and environmental disasters, according to the study.

The prospect of cyber attacks, terrorist attacks, and pandemics has also stoked anxiety among a growing number of Americans.

Traditionally, most doomsday preppers were far-rightists who feared a liberal takeover of the U.S. government.

There is also a sense in right-wing circles that a Democrat-led administration would make America more vulnerable to financial ruin or terrorism.

A sharp spike was reported in the number of doomsday preppers after the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008. Obama is seen during his election night rally in Chicago on November 4, 2008

A sharp spike was reported in the number of doomsday preppers after the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008. Obama is seen during his election night rally in Chicago on November 4, 2008

But the study found that while conservative doomsday preppers do fear a Democrat re-taking the White House, it is considered just one of many other possible events that need to be prepared for.

‘Fear is now deeply entrenched in modern American culture and is the principal reason that so many citizens are engaging in “prepping”,’ Dr. Michael Mills, the lead author of the study, said in a news release issued by the University of Kent.

The image above shows barrels of water and crates of food stored for emergency in a cave in Arizona

The image above shows barrels of water and crates of food stored for emergency in a cave in Arizona

Atomic scientists say climate change, nuclear proliferation, and political instability have put humankind at the same risk level as that which existed at the height of the Cold War. The image above shows an underground storage bunker

Atomic scientists say climate change, nuclear proliferation, and political instability have put humankind at the same risk level as that which existed at the height of the Cold War. The image above shows an underground storage bunker

Earlier this year, a group of atomic scientists said that a renewed nuclear arms race, rising greenhouse gas emissions, and the emergence of state-sponsored disinformation campaigns have left the modern world as close to annihilation as it was at the height of the Cold War.

The Doomsday Clock, created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists as an indicator of the world’s susceptibility to apocalypse, has been at two minutes to midnight for a second year running in what the scientists called a dangerous ‘new abnormal.’

‘Though unchanged from 2018, this setting should be taken not as a sign of stability but as a stark warning to leaders and citizens around the world,’ the Chicago-based group said in a statement.

Humanity’s two simultaneous existential threats of nuclear war and climate change were exacerbated during the past year by the ‘increased use of information warfare to undermine democracy around the world,’ the group said.

‘In many forums, including particularly social media, nationalist leaders and their surrogates lied shamelessly, insisting that their lies were truth, and the truth “fake news”,’ it said.

Since the election of President Trump in 2016, the clock has closed in on midnight in successive 30-second moves in 2017 and 2018, in part because of escalating tensions with North Korea over its nuclear program.

The last time the clock was as close to midnight as it has been in the past two years was in 1953, when the U.S.-Soviet arms race escalated as Moscow tested a hydrogen bomb in August after the detonation of an American H-bomb the previous November.

Despite a softening of barbed rhetoric between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over the past year, the group saw rising threats in nuclear-armed nations’ programs of ‘”nuclear modernization” that are all but indistinguishable from a worldwide arms race.’

On climate, the group said carbon dioxide emissions resumed an upward climb in the past two years.

To turn back the clock, it recommended steps including fortifying and extending U.S.-Russian nuclear treaties with limits on modernization programs, adopting safeguards to prevent peacetime military incidents along NATO countries’ borders, citizen demands for action on climate change and multilateral talks to discourage the misuse of information technology.

The bulletin was founded by scientists who helped develop the United States’ first atomic weapons.

When the clock was created in 1947, it was set at seven minutes to midnight. 

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