The COVID-AM blog is a partnership between the UMI 3157 iGLOBES and the Institut des Amériques, coordinated by François-Michel Le Tourneau, Deputy Director and Marion Magnan, researcher at the Institute. About the blog.

by Cédric Levêque, Post-doc in Anthropology and member of the EXTINCT project team (University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès). He is currently doing research on the survivalist mouvement, and by Joshua Kelly, Sociologist working on conservative politiques in Europe and in the United States, in partnership with iGLOBES

Their profile is relatively homogeneous: Preppers are generally white, male, and from the middle and working classes. Most are Republican or libertarian, Christian, armed, and proud to live in the heart of the “red states:” those that progressive elites ostensibly disdain as they “fly over” between New York and California. Certainly, there are progressive survivalists in the United States – the so-called “liberal preppers.” But those are the only ones to which an adjective need be added; the phrase “conservative preppers” is essentially redundant. It goes without saying that one adheres to “traditional” values when one claims to prepare. For “true” survivalists, preparedness is also an expression of the Americanness they cherish, a way to reconnect with the masculine, religious and military values that serve as the foundations for the greatness of God’s Chosen Nation.

Some preppers, however, seem almost a little disappointed about the way in which the pandemic is playing out. While it took them years to get ready for doomsday, not much (or not enough) appears to be happening: The virus seems distant, abstract; it appears, so far, to be limited to urban areas. The more politicized preppers do not hesitate to post their doubts about the danger of the Covid virus on community forums and message boards. For many, a “Chinese virus,” one that has strongly affected Iran, arouses suspicion. It certainly suggests political mechanisms aimed at weakening an America whose heart is already gangrenous with leftism and political correctness, and which has gone astray enough to elect twice a black president. 

They are waiting for the other shoe to drop. The situation is likely to get even worse, given the already devastating effects of the containment and social distancing measures on the economy. Still, they have time. They are ready. For those new to the cause, online courses and training will continue. It is never too late to learn and to understand. There is always something to do anyway; the sense of danger is an inexhaustible resource that they have turned into a way of life.

Above all, they are vigilant. This obscure virus is less of a threat to individuals than it is to the ideal of America. They claim prophylactic measures imposed by some states violate their constitutional rights. They are prohibited from demonstrating for the “reopening” of North Carolina or Tennessee (against the First Amendment) [2]; their right to travel is restricted even as “this is not China, here, and America will never be" [3]; soon, they fear, the Second Amendment will be violated, removing their guarantee to the right to arm themselves and to form militias... By definition, any government action contains the seeds of a freedom-destroying threat requiring the greatest attention. And most of them unfailingly support initiatives of “resistance” in the face of the “authoritarian” and “anti-American” actions of “leftist” governors, leading to – for example – the demonstrations held last Thursday in Lansing, MI against the containment measure defended by the Democrat Gretchen Whitmer [4].

Thus, by observing the prepper sphere in the United States, despite the distance and the distorting lens of social networks, we understand to what extent this pandemic is a social and political phenomenon, like all those that preceded it – far from the scientific visions that strategically restrict it to neutralized expertise. Many newspapers in the United States (and elsewhere) have already carried headlines about the “next world” and the need for innovation in “post-corona” life. We will have to invent and adapt, of course; but to think that we will wipe the slate clean of the past is naivety at best, a danger at worst. The prepper world illustrates with a disturbing acuity that many people are ready already. They advocate for a project that did not wait for the virus to appear. They are not calling for revolution or novelty; to the contrary, they rather evoke the past, traditions, identity or authenticity in order to impose a violent, sexist, racist, Christian, unequal and homophobic vision of society. Their words remind us that we, too, would benefit from vigilance. Of course, the pandemic is an event of an unknown magnitude. Still, it is also, for many, a perfect opportunity to undermine the liberal foundations of our societies.