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Obamageddon: Fear, the Far Right, and the Rise of “Doomsday” Prepping in Obama's America.

Doug_Nightmare

Active member
Joined
Nov 21, 2018
Messages
717
Location
Washington Island, WISCONSIN. Out in Lake Michigan
Abstract
This article examines the politics of American “doomsday” prepping during Barack Obama's presidency. It challenges claims that growing interest in prepping post-2008 arose exclusively from extreme apocalyptic, white supremacist, and anti-government reactions to Obama's electoral successes – claims that suggest prepping to be politically congruent with previous waves of extreme right-wing American “survivalism.” Drawing on ethnography, this paper argues that, while fears of Obama have been central to many preppers’ activities, much of their prepping under his presidency centred on fears that sit outside survivalist politics. Building on this, the article illuminates connections between prepping and America's twenty-first-century electoral mainstream. Engaging with discussions about the “remaking” of American conservatism during Obama's presidency, it particularly frames prepping's growth as being engaged with, and shaped by, currents of mainstream anti-Obama fear that similarly undergirded the Tea Party's rise within popular Republicanism at this time.
Sorry, haven’t cracked the paywall yet...working
 

OC for ME

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2010
Messages
12,452
Location
White Oak Plantation
...a Brit institution regurgitates liberal perspectives on American "characters"...who wudda thunk-it...then again, what I know about "surviving" and the level of my survivalist skills, would, to the Brits, place me in the same scatergory as the American characters they deride...

Note the references...Nate Silver?
 
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