Another MSM article on preppingIts funny to watch them struggle to cover it. Intelligent people, with degrees, trying to figure out how to be more self-sufficient and unplug from the culture - not for its consumerism, but because it no longer promotes their values, and in fact denigrates them as individuals for working hard and doing well.
So rather than cover that, we talk about how the "gun culture" and "gun show crowd" don't want to learn ( yo, dumbass, its the SAME crowd at this show - its just at a gun show they are less tolerant of your hippie dippie back to the earth crap. )
Still, it was impossible to completely ignore the presence of an element many would consider reactionary. Political and social initiatives represented at the show included the Polk County Libertarians and the admirable entrepreneurship mentoring program Patriot Mission, Inc. -- but also the marginal, conspiracy-minded John Birch Society. After a relatively measured primer on the threats of inflation, featured economist Dr. Kirk Elliot encouraged me to look into how the Rothschild and Rockefeller families continue to own the Federal Reserve -- a common canard among New World Order conspiracists of the Alex Jones stripe.
Finally, at the end of my conversation with John Egger about the rise of "suburban homesteading," a man with a white shock of hair interjected himself into the conversation. "You know what chemtrails are?" he asked, referring to another conspiracist trope that sees chemical tampering in jetstream vapor trails. "They're changing the weather, then selling drought tolerant seeds. George Soros and Bill Gates are behind it." Egger nodded politely and smiled, tolerant of a potential customer's eccentricities.
Translation: I am paying lip service to the idea its normal, but everyone at this show is a gun-nut, conspiracy loon
