In Trump era, doomsday prep attracts new interest — including from the left

Chicago Tribune (IL)

March 24--The business of selling survival equipment -- to make it through wars, natural disasters, economic collapse or other apocalyptic events -- has slowed down a bit since the presidential election, vendors say. But there has been a subtle shift in the audience.

Previously, hard-core conservatives who make up the base of the survivalist economy feared catastrophe would occur under President Barack Obama. For some, that changed with the election of Donald Trump.

"Now, everyone on the left thinks the world's going to end," vendor Michael Baisch, of Preparedness Essentials, said with a smile. "It's just a little transition in the customer base."

That change appeared in small ways at the Chicagoland Survival and Preparedness Expo at the Lake County Fairgrounds this past weekend. Yes, there were plenty of older white men with beards and camouflage jackets, but there were also younger people of various ethnicities, couples and families with strollers. Many said they were just curious to see what was at the show, regardless of politics.

What they found was all over the map. Blowguns and knives. Water filters and generators. Five-gallon buckets of dried food for $225. Backpacks filled with supplies to "bug out on a budget."

The show featured seminars on global mind control, electromagnetic pulses from nuclear weapons and society-ending events.

Show manager Ryan Peyton conceded that some of those attending may be "out in left field" waiting for the end of the world. Though the movement is known as doomsday prepping, Peyton said many expogoers simply want to become more self-reliant in case of common disruptions like snowstorms, flooding and power outages.

One frequently cited motivation for survivalists is Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast in 2005, leaving more than 1,800 people dead and many more stranded, while it took days for officials to rescue and supply refugees.

"It's being prepared, to make sure I survive with my family and neighbors in case of some kind of disaster," Peyton said. "I've seen a growing concern about that. Gun shows don't pull 'liberals,' but these shows do. It's everyone."

This expo was touted as the first of its kind in the Chicago area by its sponsor, RK Prepper Shows, which has run such events across the country for the past three years.

The industry is promoted on conservative websites and radio shows, as well as on mainstream TV shows, and there's even a survivalist dating site. Google Trends shows that while searches for "prepping" in the United States have fallen slightly this year from their peak when Obama was re-elected in 2012, interest worldwide has spiked to record levels.

Investing in prepping has spread even to the super-rich, according to a recent article in The New Yorker. It described tech executives and hedge fund managers buying underground bunkers with air filtration systems and armed guards, hoarding gold coins or keeping bags packed and helicopters ready to fly to remote islands.

To appeal to a broader audience, survival shows have been rebranded as "preparedness" or "prepper" shows, in which people are prepared for large and smaller disasters, and in which even tree-hugger conservationists, gardeners and hikers learn to grow and can food and purify water.

Among the speakers at the show in Grayslake were Dr. Joseph Alton -- better known by his trade name, Dr. Bones -- and his wife, known as Nurse Amy, who operate doomandbloom.net. He demonstrated how to suture wounds, with students using pigs' feet for practice.

Alton and his wife are retired from medical practice but travel the country demonstrating basic medical techniques, like how to stop bleeding. He says he wants to build a population of medics who can help the public in times and places when doctors and nurses are in short supply.

He sells suture kits, tourniquets and clotting gauze and "military-grade" backpacks that sell for up to $749 to treat burns and stab and gunshot wounds. The kits include supplies one hopes never to use, like anti-radiation pills, breathing tubes, splints, tourniquets and four sterile scalpels.

"I want to train a population of medics to help out in times of trouble," Alton said. While survivalists may be known for being isolationists, he said, "Any turning inward instead of helping the community in times of trouble is a terrible disservice. We need to help each other."

Katy and Rob Daniel, of Gurnee, went to the show hoping to get more educated about survival techniques, for something as minor as getting snowed in. They were also researching gas masks in case of something more serious, like hazardous materials or communicable disease.

"It's better to have something and not need it, than need it and not have it," Katy Daniel said. "We're a little nervous with the political climate. We have three kids -- it's our job to protect them."

The splashiest exhibit belonged to a Chicago-area company, Northern Illinois Military Surplus, of McHenry. Veteran John Deblock and his son Mike use their metal fabricating skills to make customized military vehicles and trailers, like recreational vehicles for a doomsday vacation.

The trailers feature solid aluminum walls that can stop small arms fire, with tricked-out, heated interiors featuring bunks, stoves, sinks and cabinets to store a year's supply of food, numerous rifles and 20,000 rounds of ammunition -- with room to spare for satellite TV, in case that's still working.

The 6-foot camper, barely big enough to turn around in, runs for $6,500 and can be pulled by a large pickup truck. The larger trailer, priced at $16,000 and weighing about 10,000 pounds, requires a military-grade vehicle to pull it.

"I've been prepping ever since I was in the military," John Deblock said. "A lot of people are worried about a lot of stuff, and nobody trusts the government. Thirty days after we lose power, the place will be up for grabs."

His son Mike was less concerned, pointing out that many doomsayers thought the end was coming in 2012.

Many in the movement make it a point never to share private information or use social media like Facebook or Twitter, so as not to give away private information. But preppers are not without a sense of humor. One of the biggest vendors sold T-shirts for the "Zombie Apocalypse Response Team."

Bob Gaskin, self-published author of "Society Ending Events," who spoke at the expo, anticipates earthwide cataclysms, but when it comes to conspiracy theories, he said, "I don't have time for all the crazies."

Because many city-dwellers no longer know how to hunt, trap, fish or grow food, he said, "My biggest fear is not the disaster, it's dealing with people after."

Preppers emphasize a responsibility to protect one's own family, anticipating that there won't be enough resources to go around.

Gaskin argued that in the end, survivors have a moral and practical obligation to help others. He says most people won't be so cold-hearted to turn others away, and can use their help. For $100, he says, he can buy enough oats, rice, beans and pasta to feed 200 people for a day, so most essentials are cheap enough to share.

"You have to take care of other people," he said. "It's a breath of fresh air among all the fear-mongering that goes on in our community."

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