To me, it has felt that a vague apocalyptic feeling, or at least a millenarian one, has seemed to be everywhere, not just among the super-rich.
It has right- and left- variants. Mostly it leans right. The climate versions lean "left", though honestly I think the interest comes from more center-left/Davos places than from far-left/purple-haired places. Which means that, as a grassroots thing, it's more "right-wing".
(There's some interesting crossover in the vaguely hippy / Peak Oil / Stewart Brand / permie space, though this skews older.)
Prior to COVID, "prepping" peaked in 2017, before seeing renewed interest, spiking in 2020, though we're now back down to 2015 levels in the psychologically-"post-COVID" era.
"Climate change" is apparently a somewhat passe topic (who knew?), peaking in 2007 (that actually isn't great; it means people got tired of it before anything was done):
It has right- and left- variants. Mostly it leans right. The climate versions lean "left", though honestly I think the interest comes from more center-left/Davos places than from far-left/purple-haired places. Which means that, as a grassroots thing, it's more "right-wing".
(There's some interesting crossover in the vaguely hippy / Peak Oil / Stewart Brand / permie space, though this skews older.)
But is this feeling growing or shrinking?
"SHTF" peaked in 2012:
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=S...
Prior to COVID, "prepping" peaked in 2017, before seeing renewed interest, spiking in 2020, though we're now back down to 2015 levels in the psychologically-"post-COVID" era.
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=p...
"Peak oil" has been going down since 2005:
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=p...
"Doomer" peaked in 2020 and is trending down:
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=d...
"Recession" is tricky. It's actually down, though trending up with the rate increases:
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=r...
The "firearms" topic is pretty flat:
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=%...
"Bunker" spiked in 2020. That spike is now over, though the baseline has been trending up:
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=%...
"Climate change" is apparently a somewhat passe topic (who knew?), peaking in 2007 (that actually isn't great; it means people got tired of it before anything was done):
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=%...
Weirdly, "inflation" only started to really see interest last year:
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=%...
So the general population might not actually be as worried as particular corners of the internet are...